What A Hectic ICT

Not really the ICT but all the other bits and pieces of everything in between. First it's my Japanese exams at JCS. I'm glad it's all over. But the next most important thing is the JLPT3 coming up on the 6th of December. One more week to go. Dieeeeeeeeeee~!

Today spent the whole afternoon watching the whole of America's Best Dance Crew Season 1 on my newly installed mioTV. Woohoo shiokz! No need to download liao. The Singtel guy came down to install yesterday, just before I had to leave to go back to camp. And so today I was free and decided to surf around and see what's available for viewing.

Anyway been busy doing duty and studying for JLPT. Here's a recap of what happened for the last few days.

26th November 2009, Thursday

Right after booking out, I went to meet Li Teng for lunch at HarbourFront. And yes! Finally I got my hands on a DSLR. Been waiting to get one years ago. And it's all thanks to LT for helping me get the camera. After that I went to get the accessories from Cathay Photo situated at Peninsula Plaza as suggested by LT. Got the LCD screen protector and Hoya UV filter, as well as a normal Lowepro bag for my camera. What a big expenditure for myself. An early and expensive Christmas present lol. Gotta eat grass everyday until the end of the year liao wahaha.

27th November 2009, Friday

Went to Superbowl at Hougang with Li Teng and Nic. First time went there for bowling I think. The bowling alley is super old but maintained very well, as compared to the one at East Coast. The three of us played four games each. Wow haven't played so many games on a single day for so long. And we had great fun shooting down the pins and shooting with our DSLRs too. Everyone around us must be thinking "those guys are here to take pictures or play bowling?" wahhaha! We were virtually shooting with our cameras at every opportunity. Pretty fun way to take some interesting shots. And I got a Four Bagger! I think the last Four Bagger was when I got my highscore of 204. This time round the game had a score of 197. Damn I just need another spare or something to break my record! But it's really quite an astonishing achievement for me considering that I last played frequently almost 10 years ago.

Wahahah! My 2nd Four Bagger ever, after 10 years!
We're Charlie's Devils. Ahahah!

After the games I suggested we go over to the Punggol Nasi Lemak stall just across the road since I will be meeting Aaron they all there for dinner too. The queue is forever so long and we waited around 15 mins before we could order our food. My combi costs $6.20! 杀人放火! Can only go there to eat once in a while. Isn't really VERY fantastic anyway lol.

And after that the Citi people slowly arrived. Nic and LT then left. When everyone gathered, we proceeded to Jus' house which is very near the nasi lemak place. There we started playing Saboteur and Werewolves. Very fun gathering I would say. Charles was busy playing with my Canon EOS 500D most of the time. Even I myself didn't use it for so long since I purchased it.

Oh and here are the shots from Jus' house while we were playing bored games.

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Power-packed Sunday

After booking out from camp early in the morning, I went home to sleep until 11+am. Then studied a bit for my 会話試験. Reached JCS at 2:10pm. Supposed to start at 2pm but doesn't matter because everyone only gets one random topic which consists of four questions, thus only taking one or two minutes, depending on how much answer you give. I kena the not so simple one. Walau totally blank out and forgot the answers that I memorized. In the end there was silence for around 10 seconds before I uttered just some simple sentence. The other few questions were also answered with a simple one-sentence answer. Holy shyt! Sure score very little points. Oh well as least it's all over! 終わりだ! But then again, here comes the real challenge. JLPT3!! 2 weeks to go. How well I do depends on how I can make use of my time in ICT to study. Maybe this ICT came at the right time. It gave me the time to study my Japanese in camp. And so after the massacre in JCS, Jiahao and I then proceeded to lunch, but I had a drink only since I ate at home already. Then he left for Sim Lim while I went to Suntec to join Nic at AFA.

It was a massive crowd at the usual level 3 area with throngs of cosplayers and photographers. I got the ticket from Nic that he helped to buy earlier. It is $15 this year. Don't remember it being so expensive last year. But anyways Nic continued to shoot the cosplayers while I went to the AFA exhibition hall. Lotsa Gundam, as usual, as well as tonnes of other figurines from all sorts of animes. There is the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe as seen from the website. Can't miss it since it's specially made for AFA. Therefore after walking around the exhibition hall, I then got Nic to go up and together we went for dinner at the maid cafe. No photography allowed. ZZZzzz... But then I just snapped other things instead of the maids stealthily with my iPhone lol. And as expected the maids will say some cute lines followed by "goshujin-sama", meaning "Master". There weren't much set meals left on the menu, so Nic chose the chicken burger set while I chose the beef burger set, at $25 each. Very costly but it's just for the experience. There was a burger, with fries, soup and tea, and of course little maids in kawaii maid uniforms serving you and addressing you as "Master", so $25 is justifiable lol.
We were given just one hour to stay within the maid cafe. At least they give us a photo taken with their own camera and then print out for us, but we had to wait at least an hour for it cos they only had one printer. So the tea was served and we were asked if we wanted milk or sugar. We both wanted milk and so the maid serving us, Miyake, then opened the little cup of milk and poured into our tea. We effectively don't need to do anything. And then our main dish arrived. One of the maids then made special smiley faces on our burgers and decorated the rest of the plate with other cute drawings using chili sauce. LOL. Just like what I saw on those shows that show maid cafes in Japan. Then a few maids gathered around our table to do their magic. They did some hand signs, waved around and chanted a "Moe Moe Kyun Pa-wa Uppu!" (meaning Moe Moe Kyun Power Up) spell to power up our dinner. We saw them teaching other tables to follow their gestures but for our table they didn't tell us to do the funny gestures. Haha luckily, cos otherwise we'll be quite paiseh to do so. We see guys from other tables quite stunned and can't really follow what the maids were doing. But it's all kinda fun and interesting wahahah. We then took a picture with Miyake. KNS the male staff said can only give us one maid to take photo with. Previously Hitomi said can take pic with her and Miyake. In the end we only took one with Miyake.
And so one hours passed by quickly and we were shown the door. T_T And as we left, we saw another group of people, around 6 of them, taking a picture with 4 maids! KNS! Tio cheated. Why other tables can have so many maids! ZZZzzz... And so Nic went to the concert area while I went down to level 3 again to take pictures of the cosplayers. There were much more variety compare to last year's. Plenty of interesting and new costumes.
After scanning through the cosplayers, I then went back up to join in the concert. Nic got the actual concert tickets for two days which cost $188. And he got the front row seats, which was very up-close to the performing artists. The entrance ticket to AFA also ensured viewing of the concert, but at a much further distance away from the stage and the seated ticket-holders. But still I was able to see quite clearly of the performers of the day, namely Yoshiki Fukuyama and MAY'N. It was a pretty atmospheric concert hall with bright lights and some pyrotechnics. They also threw tonnes of lightsticks throughout the show to ensure that the crowd hyped up the atmosphere. Totally awesome. I was busy taking pictures and videos although the authorities kept announcing that video or photo capture was not allowed lol. Plenty of others were also taking pix and videos of the wonderful performances.
After the concert was over, I went to collect my photo at the maid cafe and also went to get the Gundam figurine that Tat Yeong wanted me to help him buy. And then Nic got the opportunity to go onto the stage and have an autograph of MAY'N and even take a photo with her! Nice! That is a very nice picture, as I saw it on Nic's DSLR. That picture is priceless for sure for Nic. And then that's all for the day. I stood there for almost two hours for the concert. Damn tiring. Even more tiring than doing guard duty wahaha.

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Nafi Fantasy - The RPG

Nafi Fantasy: Chapter 1

Prologue: Life is full of choices (and shit). No matter how much effort you put into deciding which path to take, shit happens. So whichever path you choose, just accept the outcome with no regrets.

1. Start Game
2. Quit Game

~~~ Scene 1: To Bring Or Not To Bring ~~~

Wake up, change into Number 4, breakfast.
Pondered the whole night whether to bring my Jap notes or just bring myself.

1. Me, myself and I.
2. Just bring the notes along.

~~~ Scene 2: The Journey ~~~

Dashed off to catch the bus.
Time now is 7:35am. Bus just left. Drizzling.

1. Wait for the next bus.
2. Raining sia, lazy to walk and dun wanna be late, even though being late doesn't matter. Take a cab.

~~~ Scene 3: The First Day of ICT ~~~

Reached PLAB within minutes. Not many reservists in sight. Changed pass. Saw familiar faces, YH and other "xinjiaos". YH and I were the only guys from our batch T_T. We went to the officer mess/canteen where most of them had their first pratas of the ICT. Then we went up the building for In-pro. Saw even more familiar faces such as those xinjiao specs. Then we took YH's car to Dragon's Lair for our day of lecture and briefing. We had many breaks in between, one of which we went to Air Force School for lunch and went to E-Mart where the guys purchased some necessities. I spent all of my credits last year for the new and lightweight Goretex boots, therefore none to spare for this year. It was boring lecture throughout the day. Luckily I brought my notes so that I can revise for the Listening + Kanji Exam later on in the evening. We ended at 5pm.

1. Go home and change.
2. It's raining and very troublesome to go home and come out again.

~~~ Scene 4: Choose An Ally ~~~

I saw my old secondary classmate Xiuying on bus 8. She didn't recognize me at all, even after re-introducing myself. WTF!? Totally no idea who I am. Don't even remember Weiming or Serina. WTFWTF!? Anyway failed to refresh her memory. She got off at her stop. I reached home, changed and was thinking whether I should borrow an iPod Touch from one of three people I know who owns one into camp the next day, since it'll be damn useful to use it for my Jap revision using the "Kotoba!" Japanese dictionary application.

1. Ask kireichan whether can borrow from her since her workplace is in Bugis and it's the best choice since I'm going down to Bugis later.
2. Ask cousin Eric cos borrowing from a relative would be better than borrowing from friends.
3. Ask Claire cos she's definitely working late and would be easier to get to her too.

~~~ Scene 5.1: Ask kireichan ~~~

I smsed her asking whether can borrow or not. But then told her that I shall try others first and if really need to, I'll look for her again.

~~~ Scene 5.2: Ask Eric ~~~

I called cousin Eric and asked him whether can borrow from him and it was a straightforward "yes". However thinking about the distance I have to travel to get from him, I decided to look for my third lifeline.

~~~ Scene 5.3: Ask Claire ~~~

I called Claire and she said she gave the iPod Touch away already.

~~~ Scene 6: Another Journey ~~~

As I was crossing the overhead bridge while busy talking to Claire, I didn't see bus 23 reaching the bus-stop. Usually I'll look far ahead and if the bus comes, I'll dash across the bridge, making sure I catch the bus. This time I was too busy on the phone, thus missing the bus. Time is 6:30pm. Bobianz had to wait for next bus. Luckily the next bus came at 6:35pm. However this would have a deep impact on what's to come. I was so tired that I caught a few winks on the bus. Reached the stop right outside Sim Lim. Time is 7:10+pm. It's raining still and exam starts sharply at 7:20pm. JCS is always 7 mins of walking distance away.

1. Walk faster.
2. Run!

~~~ Scene 7: The Exam ~~~

If I had not called Claire or Eric, I would have caught the earlier bus and would be earlier. If I decided to run from the bus-stop to JCS, I would have reached the lift earlier. Then suay suay of all times, someone in the lift had to go out at level 2. Usually 90% of the time, nobody goes out at level 2. In the end after I reached JCS, they had already started the listening comprehension. The staff quickly diverted me and the other late-comers to the nearest room, although I always have my lessons at the furthest room. Luckily, the voices on the CD player were going through the very first example question. Once I sat down, they started the real questions. Phew.

I didn't bother to switch off my phone. But of course set it to silent. And so the voices continued. WTH the CD player or the recording sucked so badly that all I can hear is muffled voices. Not clear at all. Can barely make out what they were trying to say. KNS how can they play such lousy quality audio clips for those questions!? First few sections sure die liao. Damn difficult.

Then my phone was vibrating. Unknown number.

1. Pick it up.
2. Crazy ah? You're in the middle of a listening comprehension exam!

Of course I ignored it. But I got distracted for a moment and lost concentration for that particular question. Then the same number called again. Holy cow! Ignored once again. And then an SMS. Totally didn't bother to look at my phone anymore. Totally couldn't catch what the voices were saying. Dame desu...

The Kanji section was the easiest. I probably will get 90% correct. But then is it enough to pull up my score? >_<

Tired. Hungry. Too lazy to go to Bukit Panjang.

1. Go to Eric's place at Bukit Panjang and get the iPod touch.
2. Go home lah!

So I walked all the way back to SLS to take 23 back home. I checked my phone and saw the sms. It was Faye. It's the COB thingy. Of all times had to call me during my paper lol. See? Shit happens.

~~~ Scene 9: And Here I Am ~~~

More decisions to make. More adventures to explore.

1. Bring the all-important thing into camp.
2. Borrow from kireichan and get it from her tomorrow morning.
3. Borrow from kireichan and ask her to pass to Junfei tomorrow morning, then I get from Junfei.
3. Borrow from Eric and get from Junfei tomorrow morning.

Stayed tuned for Nafi Fantasy: Chapter 2

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Arkarna - So Little Time

"So little time, so much to do..." Part of the lyrics from the song "So Little Time" by Arkarna. Indeed, I got so many things I wanna do but simply no time. Aaahhh!!! Therefore here're short updates, before I go for reservist and also spend my time studying for Thursday's Listening Comprehension and Sunday's Oral. ZZZzz... And anyway later 5am will have Leonids Meteor Shower!!! So suay it's a working day again. 5am some more! If 12 midnight as least can go see see. HaizzZzzz..

Friday the 13th November 2009

I took one day's leave to hug Buddha's leg at home. In the end nothing much went in. Went into the classroom, took the paper, and came out, feeling "this time die liao". Then went for dinner and then dessert at a new dessert shop called Dessert First, along Liang Seah Street. Walau the shaved ice "Chocolate Fantasy" was sooo sweet and heaty-looking, full of chocolate syrup and powder. In the end I finished about 90% of it. Luckily I didn't fall sick after that. Then Jiahao and I walked out of the shop and I heard someone calling my name. I looked around and couldn't see anyone. And then suddenly one of my Citi colleagues, Peiying, jumped out of nowhere and waved at me. She was having dinner with her friend. What coincidence. I went over to talk cock abit before I went home.

14th November 2009, Saturday

I was watching Evangelion 1.0 and studying my Jap for the whole afternoon. Then went to meet Nic and Li Teng at Cineleisure for the screening of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, with all the other Sg Anime Blogger people. Dun exactly know what they do but since Nic asked me to watch this thingy, I might as well try try. Woah not bad the guy really booked the entire theatre and there were 100+ screaming fans inside watching the show together. Really got atmosphere. And at every funny or brilliant moment, the fans will cheer and applause. LOL very fanatic people. I merely sit back and relax nia. Really cool animation and funny jokes, as well as sophisticated computer graphics and stunning action. Nic said he'll watch it at least another 2 or 3 times. LOL damn hardcore. If it's free I don't mind watching again either ahahhaa. Since it's almost like free-seating, Nic and Li Teng went to grab the front row seats, to ensure them an Evangelion 2.0 poster. I didn't want to sit so near for fear for having motion sickness, therefore I sat a few rows behind them. Didn't want the poster anyway.

After the movie, LT went home, while Nic and I roamed around Orchard Road for a while, for him to take pictures and for me to waste some time before meeting up with the Citi ATAs for bowling at ECP. I then travelled back to Tampines to get a ride from Justina. Finally met Ronnie, her bf, as he drove us all the way to the bowling alley at ECP. The other guys were there already. So we then played two rounds of bowling. Realized my skill was even better than last NYE's, cos I score quite a few Strikes and Spares. Even managed to get 160+ for the 2nd game. Cool sia, but the biggest thing that irks me is the condition of the lanes and balls. Well what do you expect of a bowling alley that's been there for like more than 15 years? I got flashbacks of playing there back in secondary school with my classmates. Those were the days man...

And so we ended up having supper at Mac, before going home. It's another interesting outing with the guys in Citi. Awesome.

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Loads of Gatherings

It's Monday already. DIE! Wed and Fri got Jap exam! Jikan ga nai!

5th November 2009, Thursday

Diao, supposed to do some running but in the end ended up at Harry's at Millenia Walk again. This time it's Leo, Jus, Eil, Aar, Cha and me. There was a Chivas promotion. $160/bottle. Therefore we decided to get one. We then played silly games as usual, and then some gossiping.

7th November 2009, Saturday

It's Weiming and Serina's big day! Dammit! After the drinking session on Thursday, stomach felt crazy all the way even after the wedding dinner! Wasted most of my weekend. I really think I'm allergic to Chivas. Other types of alcohol ok leh. Well anyway I met up with Wenhan at Tampines and traveled to Raffles Hotel together. It's my first time attending a wedding banquet at Raffles Hotel, and I thought it would be quite an eye-opener. In the end there wasn't much to wow about. We met up with many of our old classmates, as expected of a wedding consisting of both the bride and groom from the same class. Very nostalgic feeling. Saw plenty of familiar faces, and even Serina's sister, grew up into quite a beauty, from a tomboy more than 10 years ago.

8th November 2009, Sunday

Kinda last minute but still we managed to get so many people to turn up. Yalah all thanks to Kim huh? Lol. I also managed to get Yiming to join us. It's like the first time YM joined us after we left Beijing I think. It was a plan to celebrate Kaiwei's birthday since it's on Monday, therefore Kim organized this outing. We ended up at a Japanese restaurant chosen by KW at Ion called Watami. Ok lah the food, variety still ok. After that we found a giant Christmas tree outside the Ion and took pictures around the place. We can even enter the Christmas tree itself. And THAT gave me an idea. I gathered them to take a picture using my special formation. Not many people get to do that with me ok. Ahhaha. After we took our picture I noticed an uncle also tried to copy our same shot wahahha.

We then walked all the way to Orchard Central. Surprisingly almost all these GIP people had never been to Ion nor Central. KW is indeed serving his term sia lol. The roof garden of OC is finally open but none of the restaurants were open. Quite a nice paktor place lol. We toured around OC before settling at TCC just across the road. Then we kena cheated by the TCC staff when we ordered a Devil's Chocolate Cake which cost $52.80. We told them to cut the cake for us into exactly 9 pieces but then it seems that we got short-changed. I'm pretty damn sure that they had some leftovers and actually used two out of the original four cherries and the leftovers to make a completely new slice to be sold to other customers! WTF! I just finished reconstructing the original cake based on the slice which I got. WTF!!! Now I'm damn sure they cheated us! Next time don't ask the staff to cut birthday cakes for you!
We then left the place and I continued the night with watching the match between Chelsea and Manchester United at our usual haunt, Mr. Bean, with Leo, Eil, Aar and Cha. Quite an exciting match but with a solitary goal from Terry. Good enough to set them and MUFC apart by 5 points hohoho.

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Father's 60th Birthday

Yup Papa is officially 60 years old omg. Wish him always healthy and happy. Papa and Mummy just came back from Malaysia after a two-day visit to grandparents' place. And they were back this afternoon.

I went to meet them after work and we went to Marina Country Club for the Sakura Charcoal Grilled Buffet restaurant. With DBS or POSB cards, you get roughly $4+ off for each person and get to have a $50 voucher for you to spend on live seafood, drinks and some top quality meat. The whole concept is just grilled BBQ and steamboat style, so you have to cook everything yourself. Then Mummy was complaining saying that it's so troublesome. Ahahah. Oh well try try once only. The variety was ok, with all the usual meat, yong tau hoo, veggies, seafood, udon, noodle etc, as well as desserts. The only troublesome part was you had to grill, cook, steamboat everything yourself. It cost roughly $27 per person. Ok I guess but it's too damn ulu a place to go again. Hahaha Huimin was saying wanna try there. Nono, please dun go there unless you're really damn free.

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Health For Thought

Hmm recently hear so many things about this person being sick, that person spraining this and that, my grandmother lost so much weight due to an illness that she's become just skin and bones. Omg age definitely is the greatest enemy of all of us. Health is definitely more important than anything else in this world. Everyone please eat and live healthily >_<. Diao I'm so hungry now that I'm eating the McChicken that I got Cindy to buy for me on her way home ahahaha! Talk about eating healthily. So much junk food!!! -__-...

Just now while eating dinner at Bedok, saw Nicholas walked past and therefore called out to him. Therefore he joined me for a drink. He was going to see a 推拿 master. He sprained his neck muscles and therefore had to seek treatment. Therefore after my dinner I went to the Chinese clinic with him and witnessed the 推拿 master did his thing on Nic. First time I see 推拿 being done hehe. The whole session took about 20 mins or so. After the whole thing Nic felt so shiok lol. But the worst thing is yet to come. His whole 推拿 session and 3 packs of medicine cost $53.50. Wacauz damn ex.

Nic was mentioning about the Evangelion 2.0 screening happening soon, and therefore since I haven't watch 1.0 yet, we then walked over to his home where he passed me the DVD plus some other anime DVDs. Woohoo lotsa things to watch.

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2 More Months To A New Decade!

Yeah man so fast November liao. Kowaii desu ne.

31st October 2009, Saturday

It's Halloween's! But nobody interested in those special events at Night Safari or haunted mansion at Sentosa. Therefore in the end I went to catch Michael Jackson's This Is It movie/documentary with Naizhu and Claire at Iluma. I think if you're not a fan of MJ you won't appreciate the show. It's really awesome to see how they made the preparations for his final concerts. We also get to see the new videos for Thriller, as well as other clips like Smooth Criminal, The Earth Song etc. Pretty awesome. The sound system at Filmgarde, Iluma was explosive and really powderful. It's almost like being at the actual MJ concert. Definitely worth watching if you love MJ's moves, songs, MTVs. It's the King of Pop's final act, supposedly. It's really such a waste. R.I.P MJ.

We then proceeded to have tau huay. Then we met up with Edwin at Clarke Quay. Saw all the ghouls and ghosts roaming around Clarke Quay, most of them wearing the blinking devil's horns. There were many funny characters walking around, the most memorable ones being a Marge Simpson and an ang moh wearing a blown-up dinosaur suit such that the dinosaur's head and neck are in front of him, making it seem like he's riding on a dinosaur. Oh and there's one guy dressed up as a mummy with his balls all bandaged up too. Made us thinking how the hell he unwrap himself to relieve himself? Ahahaha. Ok I think the balls are probably fake. But it's so damn funny. Halloween's is becoming more of like Cosfest. Plenty of anime characters walking around. Superheroes etc. I saw the Muttons, Vernon and Justin, walking into the BK Bar where we were chilling out at. Later on even Daniel Ong also strode in. I didn't know there was this new BK Bar at Clarke Quay. It's another new concept by BK as they also serve chilled canned beers. There's only Tiger and Heineken though, but you can get to enjoy a BK burger meal plus beer instead of soft drinks, by just topping up with $5. Kinda cool. We had a bit of beer and some snacks and sat around chilling. Saw plenty of weirdos in all kinds of costumes walking in and out. I supposed Halloween's the only day that ugly people can come out to see daylight and moonlight without being thrown rotten eggs. Wakakaka.

Next we went to Mac at Liang Court for another round of snacks and drinks. The Mac outlet was showing Fulham vs Liverpool, and by the final whistle, Liverpool was down to 9 men with 2 red cards and having their butts kicked with a score of 3-1. LiverPOOOOOO! Totally CMI. We hung around and suddenly Gladys walked past to find seats. She was in a black outfit but wasn't dressed up as any weird characters for the night. So we then finished up our stuff and went home. There was Night Rider NR7 right outside Mac, so all of us could take our NRs home. So convenient! But the ride took me one hour or more. ZZZzzz...

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