Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Old Colleagues, New Faces

Went to meet up ex-colleagues. It was Miss Ng's idea I think. She said her mission was to introduce the "new" people to us "old" people. LOL. New people means Wayne and Bernice, old means Jiahao and me. Hahaha! Kong Cheow, Wing Kin, Yew Hwee and Tat Yeong were present too. And since it was Miss Ng who organized this gathering, the restaurant to go to was none other than VivoCity's Sushi Tei! I think we've been to that place umpteen times. Hahaha boring...

Kinda interesting to meet up with them again, although I've been meeting up with WK, YH and TY recently. Then it was ice-cream at Häagen-Dazs. Hardly ever eat ice-cream there and I think I won't go there again. The ice-cream wasn't very fantastic and the price is soooo steep. Craps.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Yes! Positivity Is Good!

Before I forget to post this, here's an interesting article that I think everyone should read.

4 more days to the year 2009. What can we expect from the New Year?

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Many Many Updates

Today is another freaking tiring day. Therefore this post shall be as short as possible. Wahaha! I went to Pulau Ubin with Wing Kin, Tat Yeong and Yew Hwee. It was WK's suggestion, and no organizer, according to WK. What the crap. Anyway we had nasi lemak at Changi Village first. The stalls there very funny. Or rather the patrons. Once they saw a very long queue at a particular stall, they will queue up at that stall, then everyone else will follow. We din wanna waste our time queuing up for 15-20 minutes just for a plate of nasi lemak, therefore we ordered from the stall which doesn't have a queue. More or less the same loh. ZZZzzz...

We then took the bumboat to Pulau Ubin. Now costs $2.50 per trip liao. Last time only $2 or even lesser. We then rented bikes at $7/day and cycled around the island, taking lots of pix. Eventually we ended up at Chek Jawa. I even met Blk 22 Steven. He's now working at National Youth Council and is on a course with some aged 15-20+ youngsters. Cool stuff. Then we went back to Changi Village for food again. This time we ordered our individual food, plus Sambal Kangkong and BBQ Stingray. Yumz I'm still full now but I'm salivating again from the mention of these delicacies. I ordered Mee Soto for myself. Not really very nice. Still the best Mee Soto I ate is at the kopitiam opposite Bugis Junction. *drools*
24th December 2008, Wednesday, Christmas Eve

Cycled down to ECP to meet up MKG for BBQ. Was raining quite a bit but I managed to reach ECP a lil' wet only. Then we went to occupy a pavilion for our BBQ. It was just next to the E2 carpark, the Family Corner bikeshop, and the hawker centre, therefore quite a nice location. Despite the rain and occasional winds, we managed to light up our BBQ pit and start BBQing. Before long the rest of the people arrived. We had about 11 MKGers but since the more the merrier, I invited Jiahao, Edwin, Wing Kin, Jacelyn, who also asked her friend, Jennifer, along. Therefore there were about 16 people. Heyu's gf, Jiaxiu, joined us for the second time, after so many years! And we haven't seen Ah-ma for quite some time too. Quite a fun gathering-cum-BBQ session. We managed to finish up most of the food, in fact all of the BBQ-able stuff, except for the bee hoon and rice. I bought sparklers and fake snow to play wahhaha. Haven't been playing with such stuff for a long time.

After the BBQ, we still had time to spare before 12 midnight. Therefore we went to play bowling. We had to wait for a waiting list of about 4 groups of people, therefore we went to Mac to sit down and relak for a while. Then I tried mass-SMSing 50+ people on my iPhone. Woo it took several minutes to finish sending everyone. Then I found out that Charles is at Beach Cabana! So I went over to look for him. Just as I walked out of Mac, I saw old friend Chuanwei. Chatted for a while and then went to find Charles, who was with his friend, Jamie. The two of them were drinking there already. So the moment I went up to them, I was dragged to finish up two mugs of Tiger beer before Jamie was satisfied. -__- But it was all in the name of fun. So after drinking up I rushed back to the bowling alley, cos they had already got the lanes.

Diao it was already 12:0x a.m.! But then nobody was really shouting and screaming "Merry Christmas" anyway. I proceeded to bowl. Then realized that Jacelyn had fell and hurt her knee and ankle. *faint* Poor Jacelyn. She had to forfeit her game. We finished up one game of bowling before calling it a day. Then I cycled back to Beach Cabana to say goodbye to Charles and Jamie before I cycled back home. The ride home was awesome cos it was icy cool weather and cycling fast means lotsa cool wind brushing against you. Shiokz!

25th December 2008, Thursday, Christmas Day!

It's Christmas at my house again! All the relatives came over. Even cousin Xiao Tao was here with her bf. Then all the kids starting coming too. Wilson brought his 7-month old Sixuan here for the first time. Vivian brought her Reina and Xavier. Koufu brought his three princes. Plenty of kids running around, climbing around. Had to keep an eye on them sia. We had a feast of pizzas, all sorts of meat, spaghetti, curry chicken, cakes, desserts etc. HUNGRY! Eric even brought a big sack like a Santa Claus. He then organized a gift exchange session too. I played Stephen Chow's 1992 comedy, 家有喜事, and entertained everyone with it. Stephen Chow still the best! Then everyone left by about 8pm+. Another wonderful and joyous Christmas gathering! Always usual, eat until puke. LOL!
26th December 2008, Friday, Boxing Day!

Went to Barry's church wedding at some church in Paya Lebar. I thought the ceremony would start a bit later than the stated 11am. But the moment I was 10m away from the entrance, I heard the churchbells chiming. Oops! I approached the entrance and saw Barry's wife, Isabella, holding her father's arms, ready to walk down the aisle. I then joined several others who were late. LOL. At least I saw them walking down the aisle. So then I joined the others in the church for the ceremonial rituals. There wasn't any of our JC classmates in sight! I was the only one there. Therefore after everything was over, I went to take a picture with the newlyweds. Barry, the once mischievous class representative, now has gotten married! Grats to the both of them. I enjoyed the lunch catering before I left the place. Nobody to talk to anyway.

I went back home to take a nap before going out for the wedding dinner at Fullerton. There were only 8 of us from our class present. Wenhan, Wenqiang, Hongming, Hongsheng, Hongwei, Esther, Shiqi and me. It was my first time going for a wedding dinner at Fullerton, therefore it should be quite an eye-opener. The ballroom was indeed very grand and class. The VIP table was VERY big, with lots of candles in the middle. Very good service from the staff too.

Then it was plenty of photo-taking as usual. Although there were only 8 of us, which was much lesser than the 10+ of us at Yongkang and Hwee Suan's wedding, we still had lotsa fun taking pix. Just like back in JC days when we had our prom night.
After the dinner, EVERYONE wants to go home, or meet their friends. I thought it was quite a waste of a Friday night, therefore I thought of watching a movie. Luckily Jacelyn was near the area, so we went to catch YES MAN. Woo nice movie. Haven't seen a good Jim Carrey movie for years. Definitely worth watching. Teaches us a good lesson that we should not be afraid to try out everything. Cos you never know what you might get! YES YES YES! (The part where Jim Carrey meets the speaker of the YES programme is rather lame though. Wahahah!)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

It's The Final Countdown! 4 Days to Christmas! 10 Days to 2009!

Looking forward to a better year ahead! This year had been quite a bad year. So things could only get better. And it definitely will.

Went to catch Twilight with a bunch of ex-colleagues. The movie was draggy and kinda sux. A vampire movie? The only action only lasted for a mere 5 minutes or less. The rest of the almost two hours was building up of the main characters, and the love between them. Really not worth watching unless you have extra cash to spend on a boring weekend.

20th December 2008, Saturday

Met up with the GIP people for an early Christmas and gift exchange celebration-cum-gathering. We went to a Chinese restaurant at Novena called Zhou's Kitchen. It was dim sum buffet which costs around $22 per person after taxes. Nothing much to comment on the food. There were 9 of us present: Alan, Hock Seng, Eng Tat, Jiagen, Kim, Nana, Zhenhao, Kaiwei, Wenyao and me. We psychoed Wenyao to join us for this gathering since he was right at Novena Square, with his gf. So we had our gift exchange done by a picking of lots. Alan came up with this gift exchange gathering with a theme called "Heartwarming". Therefore everyone had to get gifts which fit the theme. There were all sorts of gifts. So we opened up each present one by one. Then we took a picture of the sender and the receiver.

1. Kaiwei -> Nana: Coffee Mug
2. Chun Cheng -> Eng Tat: Massage Stick with 3 x 3 Ferrero Rocher
3. Nana -> Jiagen: Pen
4. Hock Seng-> Zhenhao: Chocolates + Candystick
5. Eng Tat-> Hock Seng: Vouchers
6. Alan -> Kaiwei: Chocolates
7. Zhenhao -> Alan: Chocolates + Heart-shaped candles
8. Wenyao initially didn't wanna come.
9. Jiagen -> Kim: Snowflake-shaped salt crystal from Utah
10: Kim -> Chun Cheng: Container Multi-purpose bin in the shape of a monkey

After the meal, we sat around at TCC for some drinks and chatting around until 6+. Then we finally decided to go to Marina Barrage to enjoy the scenery and just chatting around also. It's my second time to Marina Barrage. And it's just a week apart hahaha! Too bad I didn't bring a tripod with me. It was so windy this time. Much windier than the previous week. I managed to take just a few pictures without a tripod.
We then walked around the place and chatting around. Alan and I went to catch the last shuttle bus and proceeded home while I think the rest of them went off to Keppel Bay, another nice place to hang around with friends or loved ones at night.

Save The Best For Last

Song No. 26: HeavenArtiste: DJ Sammy
Comments: Still one of the best dance tracks ever. Did you know that this song is a remake of an original song by Bryan Adams back in 1985? Seriously the first time I heard DJ Sammy's version, I wouldn't have thought that it was a remake of such a slow song. However the upbeat tune that it turned out to be was quite a smash hit. I'd choose to listen to DJ Sammy's version anytime.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Silly People Do Silly Things

Today went to play boomerang with Wing Kin at Tampines Sun Plaza Park. Tat Yeong was supposed to join us but he flew us aeroplane. (Yes TY that's why I told you to read this entry hahaha) Found a big area to throw our boomerangs. KNS the Aerobie Orbiter, which claims to be the "World's Best Boomerang" with a tagline "It really does come back!", didn't even come close to 5m of us. Ok maybe we needed practice. But after many failed attempts, we concluded that the boomerang's claim was bullshit. Then again maybe the wind was too strong. We have to try again some other time at some other place with less trees and less wind. Trees? Of course!

My boomerang got stuck in a tree at almost triple my height. Jialat loh. We tried to throw my sandal at the bmr, which was tucked just nice in between some twigs. Throw my sandal up a few times. WK even tried throwing a palm-sized rock. Then I struck jackpot and now both my bmr and my sandal were becoming Christmas decorations for the tree. Joy to the world! Then I found that the nearby cleaners' shed had many equipment inside with many brooms and stuff. I took one of the poles which was previously part of the broom to throw at my sandal. Tried several times until I think I don't have to join Boon Leong for gym sessions next week. Then WK tried and miraculously he managed to balance the pole amongst the branches on the tree. Happy new year! Now the tree looks more and more like a Christmas tree. I managed to at least get the pole off the branches after throwing some fallen branches from the tree itself. We had already caught the attention of two foreign workers who were working as cleaners at the park. One of them even offered to climb up the tree and use a long stick made up of two bamboo sticks to hook my sandal out from being also nicely hooked on a branch. Ok that's all they could do, because my bmr was really out of reach. So the guy came down from the tree and they then cycled home. WK and I were thinking of asking Tat Yeong to come and help us since he was staying around the area. But he didn't pick up our calls cos he was perhaps busy painting his house. Therefore we gave a last attempt to retrieve my precious brand new bmr from the Christmas tree. I was thinking of using the long stick which the cleaners' had used to try to get my bmr down. I went behind the shed and found an even longer stick. It was made up of two bamboo sticks plus an additional half a metre of metal rod with a hook on it. I was thinking why the cleaners didn't use that stick to get my sandal down instead. Weird... So I then stretched my arms as much as I could to use the stick to reach my bmr. However it was so straining to my neck because I had to keep looking up that WK and I took turns. Damn tiring loh cos the stick was quite heavy and we had to keep tilting our heads up. We managed to hook one of the top branches and tried to shake the branch to attempt to shake off my bmr. We only managed to get more branches and leaves off the tree instead. It seemed that my bmr was neatly hooked right between some twigs, therefore the only way to get it down was to lift my bmr up and over the twigs to get it out. However we were still short of 40 to 50cm of height to be able to do that. Then I found one of those stools with the top ripped off, therefore only left with the metal legs, at the cleaners' shed. Then I balanced myself on the chair and steadily stretched the stick to finally unhook it from the twigs and down fell my bmr! ZZZzzz...

FYI: An Aerobie Orbiter is not the usual L-shaped boomerang, but it is like a triangle. Yes 3-sided boomerang.

Moral of the story: Never throw a boomerang near trees.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Weekend Update

12th December 2008, Friday

Went for a mini ex-colleagues gathering. Only Kong Cheow, Kah Wai, Wing Kin and Yew Hwee turned up. Others were busy. But nevertheless it's quite good to catch up with these guys. We had dinner at Cafe Cartel @ Marina Square. I had the Hawaiian Pork Chop. Eat until puke lol. Then we just walked around Suntec before going home. Had to sleep early and wake up early for Andrew's hike on the next day.

13th December 2008, Saturday

It's gonna be a long day. Initial plan was to go for the hike, then ice-skate, then finally Marina Barrage.

Somehow I couldn't fall asleep throughout the night. Therefore I stayed up until 5+am in the morning to get ready to go to Clementi MRT, where Andrew picked me and Yew Hwee up to MacRitchie Reservoir. Andrew brought Jojo along. And I was sitting at the back, with Jojo climbing all over me -_-. Super hyperactive doggy. We then met up with Andrew's ex-colleague, Saurav, and also Jiahao. Then we proceeded with our hike, starting from MacRitchie Reservoir, to finally end at Bukit Timah. It's been donkey years since I went to MacRitchie. As far as I remember, it could be back in JC or even secondary school days. Really can't remember.

We started at around 8am and ended at 11am. I think we hiked almost 12km. Jojo actually hiked more than us because she was always running around in circles and zig-zagging along the way. This dog is very fit sia lol. Very interesting trip, and definitely not for sissies, cos we bashed through the forest, feeding mosquitoes, muddified our shoes etc.
Finally we reached Bukit Timah hill, but Jojo was not allowed to gain access and Andrew was stopped by the people in charge there. Therefore we couldn't make our way up the hill.
Andrew's wife Alison then came to pick us up and drove us over to one of the restaurants opposite Beauty World centre for lunch. It was some chicken rice restaurant. Quite ok the chicken but the rice is not fragrant. They had a very crispy tofu which I highly recommend.

Next stop: Ice-skate? Olivia had invited almost everyone to her ice-skating session at Leisure Park Kallang. However I was too exhausted from the hike, therefore went home and bathed and even slept for one hour before going out again. Met up with Kah Wai, Wing Kin, Yew Hwee, Edwin, Hock Seng, Kaiwei and Jacelyn to go to Marina Barrage. I long wanted to organize a trip there and finally managed to do it. We took the free shuttle bus from Marina Bay MRT station. Saw Feihuang and his family and gf who just got off the bus we were taking. So zhunz. We then reached Marina Barrage and thus started our tour around the place. Was trigger-happy again and took lots of pictures. We split up and walked by ourselves and eventually left the place at 8+. I would have taken more pictures but the other guys had already finished taking pictures. Will definitely be back for more picture-taking hahaha. Haven't had enough. But the view there was really breath-taking. We could see the Singapore Flyer as well as the cityscape of CDB area. A great place for taking nice pictures.

We then went to Crystal Jade @ Bugis Junction for dinner and then TCC for drinks. Kah Wai told us about a revolutionary boomerang which was very fascinating. He even searched many places for it but couldn't find it. Wing Kin then bought it on the next day at Jurong Point Royal Sporting House. We can look forward to our next outing - Playing Aerobie Orbiter!

So we were at TCC chatting and relaxing. Then we went home but since Jacelyn and I were taking bus we then eventually walked to Rochor Tow Huay for desserts! It's been so long since I had tow huay there. We always used to have supper over there after our pool sessions. Must ask Ronnie to organize our uni gathering soon. Haha!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Rainy Days

It's been raining quite often these days. Super cool weather and super nice to sleep wahhaha!

9th December 2008, Tuesday

Went for the JCS Japanese Language School's Advanced level qualifying test. Had to pay $15 just for the paper! WTH! Quite a number of people turned up for the test. Rough estimate is at least 70 I think. And girl to guy ratio is probably 2:1. Think the paper quite screwed. Wahhaha! Cos I think I haven't learnt many of the expressions being tested on. Although I borrowed the notes from Jiahao but I think I can't really absorb much within such a short time. Holy shyt! If I fail this test then I don't think I'll take up the intermediate course anyway. Waste of time. See how it goes.


Song No. 25: Amor Infinitus
Artiste: Imperio


Comments: They don't make such awesome tracks now eh? This was the anthems of discos back in the 90s. Techno rocks! Trance rocks more! Hehehe. This is the second last track of the Dance genre I'm recommending. Next one will be the last. What track could it be?

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Long Weekend Again... HUH? What Long Weekend?

So many long weekends this year. And they don't affect me at all. Hmm...

It's been a lazy Sunday. Everyone else is having CFA exams, JLPT, Standard Chartered marathon, etc... I stayed home to ZZZzzz... And had to study for my upcoming Japanese qualifying test at JCS. So far only touched one chapter. だめです.

5th December 2008, Friday

Went out for dinner with Sharon, Siying, Yaokun at some Tampines kopitiam's zichar. Happened to meet Ah Ben there. Got so zhun or not. He's working at Tampines Citibank woo. So after dinner we decided to head down to the Mac at Tampines Mart. Chose a nice spot for the four of us to start our bored game session. Everytime we meet up Sharon for bored games, she'll bring some new games to introduce us. I think she can start her very own bored games cafe soon lol. First we tried Chez Geek. Quite an interesting game, but somehow similar to Citadels or Magic Cards. We also played some "fishing game" which involves memory. One round of the game required much of our brainjuice already, therefore we went back to Chez again. Sharon din not manage to win any games, until the last one. There was a card which is a Person card - The Whiner whose line goes "This game sucks. I never win!" And Sharon was holding onto the card, but eventually managed to win the game. Hahaha.
6th December 2008, Saturday

At first the plan was to meet up with Edwin, Hock Seng, and one of their friends. However I was still trying to get more people to join us. Therefore managed to psycho Claire and Jacelyn lol. Met them at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station and then we went to Fort Canning. The stupid weather was freaking hot and humid. Therefore the moment we reached the Ben & Jerry's Chunk Fest area, we were quite put off by the crowd, weather and worst of all, the muddy terrain. Claire snapped some pictures of the event, and we quickly ran off.
I realized that Edwin was in the picture that Claire took. Hahaha!

Happened to see the National Museum of Singapore nearby, so we thought of going in for a look. It's a new extension building to the original NMS, with beautiful architecture and decor. There was one moment when the hanging chandeliers started swinging from left to right and back! Looks quite nice too. However it reminded me of some haunted house with swaying chandeliers.
We found a nice spot to rest for a while.
The chandeliers swayed like a snake.

Next up we decided to go to PS where the ladies got some drinks. Edwin and gang were still at the Chunk Fest, so we decided to meet up later. Claire had to go off for her class gathering dinner buffet at Orchard Shopping Centre, so she left earlier. So left Jacelyn and I to settle dinner ourselves. We went to ThaiExpress @ PS for dinner, before meeting up with Edwin.

We then made our way back to Fort Canning. The scene seemed as crowded as before. The ice-cream queue snaking all the way for like 200m. Bobianz lah so we just queued up. Took about 20 mins before we reached the counters. ICE-CREAM! Actually hor nothing special about those "US Flavours". We all ordered two flavours each. Mine was Triple Caramel Chunk, plus the staff-recommended Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl. The Peanut Butter was SUPER PEANUTY! It's almost like eating peanut butter. We hung around the Fort Canning Centre to enjoy our ice-cream. Then enjoyed the concert from the building itself, although had to stand all the way. Those bands played really good music, most of which are the more popular tunes heard on radio these days, as well as those classic rock songs. The Goodfellas were playing, as well as 53A. I also saw Boon Leong together with his family queueing up for ice-cream. Looks like everyone loves ice-cream. We chatted and enjoyed the music all the way until some DJ Rough came onto the stage. Jacelyn had to go off cos she had to invigilate for the next day's CFA, waking up at 5am!
The Ben & Jerry's Chunk Fest main entrance at dusk.
There was a wishing tree. We wrote our wishes and hung them on the tree. Pls grant me my wish!

So Edwin and I decided to check out Timbre @ The Substation after that. Super long queue as usual. Therefore we went to The Pump Room @ Clarke Quay instead. We haven't been there before and therefore decided to try out the place. Nothing much inside too. And the fat mama on stage really freaked the both of us out. Why the hell did they get her to be the backup singer? We merely hung around the bar counter having our beer, then quickly left for home. Boring...

Friday, December 05, 2008

Spot The Difference

Someone is very extra. Who can spot the difference? Prizes can be claimed from that person. Please approach him for a brand new 36" Plasma TV. First come first served!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Surprisingly Overwhelming Turn-out

Seems like it's better to jio people out on weekdays. We had a Blk 22 gathering at Marche @ VivoCity. Response was better than expected. In total we had about 20 or 21 people turned up. Totally awesome. Some of those seldom seen guys were present too. Even Gracie and Huizhen turned up! o_O Haven seen those two since uni days. Well anyway this gathering was supposed to be started by Adrian, but zhunzhun he couldn't make it cos of some company matters. Diao...

But anyway I was out the whole day. Met up with Jiahao at Taka for lunch, and got the Japanese notes from him so that I could study for the upcoming qualifying test. ZZZzzz... Must take a qualifying test to enter Advanced level course. So we had lunch at Taka foodcourt before I went to join Charles and Jiajun at Pacific Coffee Company @ VivoCity to STUDY. Wahaha! Charles was studying for his exams for his course, Jiajun was studying for his CFA level 1, and I'm studying for my qualifying test. I think we weren't so hardworking back in uni sia. Wahhaha! So we studied from 2:30pm to 6:30pm.

Then we went to queue up at Marche. Cos we needed half of our actual number to get a table of size 18, we waited for the rest to come. Somehow we only managed to get 8 people and so we just went ahead to get our tables. As soon as more people came, we got 4 tables all next to each other so that we all could sit next to each other to tok cok and makan at the same time. It's been so long since we had so many of us turn up for our gatherings. Just look at the pictures.
So as usual we were undecided as to where we should go after our dinner. 20 of us there. Therefore after checking out Harry's @ HarbourFront, 12 went home, while 8 of us went to Peppermint Park @ St. James. Huiwen had membership card which gave us 50% discount. Woo shiok. We hung around there until 1am or so before we left, cos some of us still had work on the next day.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Top Trance Track

Song No. 24: Beautiful Together
Artiste: Oceanlab


Comments: This was the top track of a now defunct radio station's track of the year. Where did all my dance tracks go? Sianzzz... But anyway this tune really has the grooves of a top trance track. Just listen to it.