Sung to the tune of "Only words"

2am and the rain is falling
Here I am, at the office once again
You're telling me it's part of life
I can't make up my mind
Is this meant to be
I'm asking me

It's official. I fucking hate myself.

My hair is overgrowing like weeds.

My sandals are falling to tatters and I need a new pair but haven't got time to go and buy.

I'm on a plane to vietnam tomorrow and I haven't packed.

Where am I?

I am in the fucking office while the whole world is out celebrating.

Ho Ho Ho

What's not to like about Christmas? 2 holidays back to back, on the receiving end of christmas presents etc etc.

We, i.e. my teammate and I, didn't get a Christmas present from the big boss 'cos the big boss was rather busy. Instead we got a wad of cash. And I'm talking a WAD. The angpow was practically bursting. It's even bigger than the CNY angpow.

I need to spend some of that on myself frivolously. What can I buy me to wish me a merry christmas?

Ho Ho Ho!!!

The house is not ready. URGH. I WANT TO MOVE IN. I think I shall just pay the designer that exorbitant fee.

I was fine not doing it until I peeked into my neighbour's house. It was NICE. And then I felt grumpy.

Completely ass-raped by clients today. Put up some resistance at the beginning but er that didn't sit too well so I got ass-raped somemore. After a while I felt like my old hamster in heat. You know, how they just lie there.

Bah. I need to learn to deal better with ass-raping clients.

Les miserables

I went to watch VJ Choir's attempt at Les Miserables today. For a cast so young, they did a remarkable job and I thoroughly enjoyed myself - it brought back many memories of London, hence the change in the blog music.

The star of the show was obviously Eponine - not only was her singing excellent, but she managed to bring out a depth of emotion so unexpected of someone her age; of being forlorn and truly lovesick. It was truly a performance in every sense of the word.

Jean Valjean had the most excellent voice and I was kinda feeling down that I could probably never sing like that. His low notes had a wonderful baritone richness and his high notes the appealing tenor ring, and overall powerful enough to deliver across the hall. I was looking very much to his rendition of "Bring Him Home" which is my favourite song in the entire series - the singing was good, but I think the role demands a certain weariness in the voice nearer the end of the show which perhaps he was too young / inexperienced to deliver. Aiyah but he cheated lah the key seems to have been lower.

Javert gave a decent performance but I felt he couldn't deliver the strong and stately kind of voice expected of an enforcement officer.

Marius was not bad, but unfortunately looked a little weak and stoned beside Eponine's excellent performance in "A little fall of rain" and his singing was at times a little weak.

Enjorlas and Gavorche should be given some mention for their great stage presence and voices.

What a treat of an evening!

The big minus points: the piano was too loud and overpowering, and the miking was terrible as the left mike was way louder than the rest, while the other two were too soft, and there was a lot of feedback - this could have been tested and sorted out during the test run.

I haven't laughed this hard in a while or enjoyed myself this much in a while. I think I needed this.

Went for Chorale. Attendance was dismal as was Hainan. Perhaps I should practice the solo line hurhuruhr. Dinner was mediocre. All these Hong Kong cafes I'm sure are a passing fad. The food is no better than the Zi Char places, but priced at least 2x - 2.5x as much. I was full, but not satisfied. I bought bakkwa next door, which tasted abysmal compared to what I usually get in M'sia. Fricking hell for $4 for two slices it may as well have been made from gold.

DESSERT was another story. Check what my friend successfully flirted us into getting - this is ONE scoop, and we had 4 to share between the 7 of us. Needless to say, we almost passed out in chocolate delight.


After the chocolate delight, we went to Settlers, where I laughed so hard my braces almost fell out. And it's a miracle. I woke up today with the two painful ulcers at the top of my mouth completely cured. It's true - laughter is the best medicine.

We played Cranium (which I completely suck at) and Taboo. I had so much fun playing Taboo that I started playing for both sides just to double my fun.

Weekend's been exhausting. So many things not done. Sigh.

The alarm started blaring at 7.45, but it did not register in my brain. I dreamt in my mind that I was somewhere (in Greece?) and there was this persistent NOISE that I couldn't get rid of. It's not as if I slept late - I went to bed slightly past midnight the night before - this must be the after effects of jet lag. By the time I opened my eyes, it was 9.30. I thought I must have mysteriously changed the time on the clock, but no, my handphone said 9.30 as well. F***, I'm late.

We all know I'm not a morning person, and 9.30 am here is 3.30 am in Greece where my brain must still lie. I crawled out of bed, took a shower, played with the bawling kid who gave me a goodbye hug before I left for work. Awwwwww when I get a hug I forgive all his bawling and screaming sins. Talk about emotional blackmail. Kids. Bah.

By the time I got to work, I was all bleary eyed, as my brain registered uhm, 4.45 am...

The rest of the day went by slowwwwly, except when my boss called to ask whether x, y and z were done, to which I got a wee bit annoyed and said "I only have 2 hands...".

I have a meeting tomorrow at 9.30 am. That's 3.30 am greek time. I am so going to be braindead. I should buy coffee for clients and claim it on the file.

This weekend is gonna be another long and busy weekend. I can't wait for 2007.

Oh, I'm going to Vietnam on 22nd. weeeee

That should be round about the time the bonus (i.e. interest payable to me in return for the mortgage of my youth) is credited into my bank account. Hrm. Wee.

I just received my tax assessment. Gah. It's like an entire month's salary to the taxman. The best part was the little statement at the bottom of the assessment going: "Thank you for your contribution to nation building!", to which the water in my water almost got spurted out through my nose.

Also in the mail: first month statement from BigBank on the mortgage. Of the entire payment, 18% goes towards repaying principal, and the other 72% is just pure interest to the bank. Oh man this is depressing.

Everyone should read anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com. It's completely fictional (has now been published as a book which I fully intend / hope to buy / borrow / sponge). It's hilariously funny, but I don't know whether I should feel alarmed that I should find it funny because I can relate to it.

I can't wait to move. Maybe I'll just forgo the "renovations" and just move in as is and do the "renovations" slowly. Another round of defect inspections this weekend.

12.41 am. Wish me luck, in particular, in waking up.

The last few days have been absolutely amazing - I mean, it'd be wonderful if my job entailed more travelling. What's there not to like about travelling as a young swinging single? Accoms paid for, meals paid for, laundry done by the hotel, grab what you want from the mini bar, fly business class. Being entertained by the clients at very high end restaurants (the Greek food that was served was mouth watering).

I'm going to miss Athens - the Acropolis is simply awesome - as you walk up, a flight of pure marble steps lead you to the Temple of Athena. As you go further, the splendid sight of the Parthenon greets you against the background of a clear blue sky.

The weather was perfect - unusually warm for November - I didn't have to wear that crappy Coldwear jacket even once. Word of advice - Coldwear makes really crappy quality and expensive stuff. I saw a jacket here that looked twice as nice, quality twice as good (fleece interior - not crappy plastic), and which cost the same.

There's loads of shopping to do here, and prices are entirely reasonable by European standards - I had a meal at the cafe with beer, and it cost a grand total of 8 euros. Good coffee goes for between 2 - 3 euros. A bus ride is 50 cents. A metro ride is 1 euro. A one day unlimited ticket for metro, tram and bus is 3 euros. Ice cream - 1.80 euros. Entrance to the Acropolis - 12 euros, Sundays free.

Same story at the shops - there's this pretty good local brand called Sprider, and their stuff is so much better than the shit you get at Robinsons, and at half the price. An EGYPTIAN cotton work shirt with french cuffs only cost 21 euros whereas in Singapore that would easily go for at LEAST S$100. An off the rack suit, 79 euros. Shoes, 39 euros. Nice Tshirts - 10 euros. I didn't buy anything though - wasn't in the mood. I think if Kiat came he'd think he had died and gone to heaven.

It seems the Greeks have very weird eating times - lunch starts at 3 pm, and dinner starts at *10 pm*. Just yesterday I was waiting at the lobby. There was a wedding dinner going on, and guests were streaming in at 10.15. The bride arrived at 10.20 pm...and I'm guessing the wedding dinner started around 10.45 pm or 11 pm...

Greek food is what you'd expect from a meditteranean country - seafood, lots of olive oil, lemon etc. They don't really have much of a sweet tooth - their vanilla ice cream isn't sweet, which is a good thing. A lot of Turkish / middle eastern influence - they were under Turkish rule for some 400 years and there's a lot of influence on their cuisine in terms of the spices and flavours they use for their food. Cinnamon features quite often. Aniseed in the Ouzo (a type of alcohol - quite gross and it seems about 90% alcoholic content).

So I think I've basically everything there is to do in Athens, except maybe visit the sex shops to keep things in perspective - a compulsory activity in all European cities. I wonder what weird shit they show here. I hope it's none of that tie-me-up-please-and-burn-my-chest-hair-while-I-moan crap which I saw in Bremen. What can I say, Germans are slightly eccentric....

I'd probably like to come back again, visiting the islands next time. Europe is a place where you need lots of money to have fun (like be on a business trip). So I guess it'll be when I'm older. Meanwhile, I need to visit all those weird shitty undeveloped places without the comforts of life before I grow out of them.

Next stop - Laos and Vietnam in December.

Life is Good

Arrived this morning at 6+ am in Athens. It was bloody freezing I think 5 degrees. I got conned by the taxi driver but it's fine 'cos I have a receipt and I'm just going to claim it.

Hotel gave me a puny room which sucked, so I asked for a change and now I have a double bed all to myself. There's errr a mirror right in front of the bed...I wonder what it's for....

Lunch was good I er clocked up 30 euros worth of room charges...

I have all day internet, all day on demand movies (which includes er all day porn).

I've been hard at work, haven't stepped out of the hotel AT ALL...

It doesn't help that the hotel is in the middle of NOWHERE....

Nice guys come last

In a scene smack out of Devil Wears Prada (think that scene where that bald speccy guy who expected to be appointed head of some other company), my secondment to London has been deferred without my asking, because I'm much needed here.

Since I don't want to go in the middle of winter, I've asked for a further deferment. Now the deferment becomes "my" idea...

I am really quite disappointed as I was looking forward to the time away and had already planned what I was gonna do for the six months while I was there, but what can I do but nod my head in assent? And then when my team mate quits next year, the cycle repeats. And so I am stuck here forever.

I can't complain 'cos complaining would mean I'm not a team player which means the longer term prospects of partnership, i.e. the bigger carrot, may be jeopardised. I can't approach any other partner either, 'cos that would mean I'm going behind the boss' back, which may have begrudging effects. And if I insist on going this March, it means that I'm not a team player.

I really should not have raised the shortage of manpower issue. I should've just kept my big mouth shut. It's true, nice guys come last.

Outplayed and outmanoeuvred.

Bah. It's not a good week.

On the bright side, I'm looking forward to the trip to Athens next week, however short it may be. And the powers that be have intimated to me that my bonus will be very good. I wonder what that means.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm mortgaging / have mortgaged my youth away. When I'm 60 I'm sure I won't be limping around wishing I had done another transaction at 25.

Unfortunately, not everyone is born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I need a job, and this is as good a job as any.

Stuck in a rut. Plodding along. Plod, plod, plod.

It seems that I am going to Athens after all. My first ever business trip! This should be uhm...fun? I dunno. Scary at the same time. I'd be stuck at the meeting all by myself without supervisory support.

Athens is gonna be cold!

I've always wanted to go to Greece. This should be fun!

ROFL

Here's an admission I never thought I'd ever hear:

"I have recently taken to rubbing his stomach frequently (something that he hates because he feels it’s something you do to a baby) and I like that it feels kind of round, solid and comforting, like potatoes and apple crumble with vanilla ice-cream on a PMS-sy day."

I nearly collapsed on the floor and died laughing...it's so cute! So all the Chorale girls have tubby boyfriends.

Ok i think I misread the sentence - it's not tt the tummy feels ike potatoes and apple crumble with vanilla icecream....which is what made my collapse on the floor...

There's hope for me and the tubbies all over the world!!!!

You know you're ignorant

when the extent of ignorance is so bad that you don't even know what you're ignorant about.

Today was the appointment with the ID guy. Fortunately my colleague went along (the one who bought the unit upstairs), so I let them go first to tell the designer what they wanted.

(Side track: the ID guy smelled like a chimney and I almost passed out during the first five mins. His mouth was like an exhaust pipe emitting nauseous cigarette fumes (smelled worse than actual cigarette smoke) even though he had finished his smoke. No wonder all these smokers always carry mints. He was chewing one, but it just made his breath smell like a menthol chimney. And this is why women shouldn't smoke. How disgusting is it to make out with a chimney????)

As I heard my colleague + boyfriend describe what they wanted, I got increasingly depressed at my level of ignorance.

"Ok, I don't want the American walk-in wardrobe system" - wtf is the American walk-in wardrobe system

"I'd like to make this part here flush with the rest of the wall" - me thinking flush simi flush got water meh

"Here I'd like a feature" - simi feature

"day-bed", "dv(??) box" etc etc

I'm like huh.

Then it came to my turn and i went "er, ok this is my first house and I don't know what I want. I just want it to look decent. Like got mirrors here and there.

"what kind of mirrors?"
"er, what kind of mirrors are there?"
"there's the normal type and the tinted kind which is in fashion now. the tinted one will make your place look bigger in the day but at night it's the same"
"ok, uhm, I'll just have whatever she's having (pointing to colleague)"
"ok and where do you want to put your mirrors?"
"uhm, i dunno, here and there? just sprinkle it around? I also need some storage spaces"
"ok where would you like these storage spaces?"
"uhm, i dunno, anywhere where you can stuff them?"

WAHLAU. it was horrific. my colleague sniggered. bah.

What I need is for someone to tell me what I want.

After the episode I was so embarrassed, I went back to the apartment and took photographs of everything, and took measurements of everything.

It was exhausting. And I'm starved. All I've eaten the whole day is a couple of slices of bread, a cup of milo, a cup of coffee and a char kway teow. No time to eat.

I'm going to be as skinny as those emasculated / emanciated / emancipated (??? can't remember how to spell it) models soon.

Just drove the 1.6 Getz manual from Bedok all the way to Tampines, street and highway driving. It is seriously fucking shiok. The clutch gets a bit of getting used to, but the engine is very responsive and it's fun to drive. I didn't die on the road either phew...

Recording was quite fun but was rather tiring although. It's marvellous how technology can er iron out all the kinks...and get rid of all the horrible parts.

After dinner I took a couple of the youngbies to go check out my new place in er the dark. On second looks it's not as small as what it seemed like the first time I saw it, and it's starting to grow on me. I can see lots of possibilities. It just needs a bit of planning. Going to see the interior designer tomorrow. That bath tub is most probably going to get demolished.

London is probably more than a mere possibility now, I just have to discuss and finalise a few more details before I commit. Too bad I'd have to leave my bachelor pad for 6 months.

So many adult responsibilities!!!!

Decisions

It seems everything is changing so fast. Today I've been offered secondment in London for 6 months beginning March next year, with a 14 month bond thereafter. If I take this up, I'm bonded until Oct 2009, by which time i'll be 30.5 years old. I'm so old I can't even think about it.

I think I'd want to go, which basically puts all my current plans in the spin drier and I'm all confused and disoriented. The car shall have to be put on hold for the moment. What do I do with the house for 6 months? I will need new more formal working clothes. I need to get rid of my braces before I'm known throughout the world financial centre as Metal Mouth.

BMW

My friend very nicely let me drive her BMW 318i from her house to my house. Whoa. I lurrrrrve the car. It's not called the Ultimate Driving Machine for nothing. The engine is very responsive and I love the roaaaaarrrrr under my feet. All them horses being whipped in shape.

I shall aspire to a BMW.

iOwner

I couldn't wait till this weekend so I snuck off work after lunch yesterday and went to collect the keys to my new apartment and went to see it. Boy it's small. Reality hits. I'm a homeowner!!! With it comes a barrage of bills bills and more bills. It's absolutely frightening this obligation I have just undertaken.

I art have decided to stick with a Toyota.

Now to decide which model.

The other highlight of the day was visiting my friends' place to get ideas on what to do with my place. The place has been paid up as of Friday 20 Oct, bank loan disbursed etc (i.e. astronomical interest has started to accrue).

I shall collect keys this week or the week after, and have a look at the place to decide what I want to do with it.

Got some pretty good ideas, and a rough idea of the budget. They passed me their collection of home magazines, and now it's homework time.

Bah. It's a lot of work.

Road Test Part III

Couple of my friends wanted to go test drive the Honda FIT at Eunos, so I went along. Turns out they haven't converted their license so they couldn't try anything. We tried the Honda Jazz again (I drove) with 4 passengers (it was ok not bad). Went up a steep slope and it was ok.

We also tried the Toyota Vios (this time 1.5 manual). OH MY I LIKE.

They had a special offer today on the Corolla Altis and I was sorely tempted. But $35k is still $35k and money doesn't grow on trees.

The highlight of the day however, must have been the CHERY QQ 0.8 AMT (YES THEY COME IN AUTO VERSIONS), selling for a "bargain" price of S$34k. I HAVE FINALLY FULFILLED MY DREAM OF TESTING THIS CAR!!!!

Ok, and I have to say, this is seriously the shittiest car I've ever driven. Let me count the ways...

1. on the exterior, there were such large spaces between the panelling that I asked the salesperson if it would leak water.

2. on the plus side the doors don't slam like a milo tin (unlike Protons). However, i tried to open the engine cover, and accidentally pressed the panelling abit, and er it was thinner than a milo tin.

3. the light meters are in the strangest places and I accidentally turned the lights on and couldn't turn them off 'cos i didn't know where the light switch was.

4. the engine is seriously shit - noisy, loud, rough and underpowered. Kinda like a diesel engine. And underpowered (but that's to be expected of a 0.8litre car) - I floored it and it chugged along like a beached whale.

5. the brakes don't work very well even though I stepped quite hard on the brake pedal and there were times I wondered whether I could stop at the traffic light. I mean seriously, I think emergency braking is probably non existent.

6. the signal stick squeaked like a spoilt joystick, and er after I turned the corner, the signal wouldn't stop blinking and the signal stick didn't return to the proper place. The salesgirl said the spring was probably spoilt but assured me that the shipped models would be fine. I had my doubts.

Otherwise, the car works, although I would be concerned for my safety (ref: milo tin like materials).

Price? S$33,500 or so for the manual.

If I haven't already mentioned it, this car is seriously shitty - I think the Perodua Kancil is better, and the car makes the Kia Picanto look / feel like a Mercedes Benz. If you thought your car was bad, you should try this to put things in perspective.

The salesgirl offered to sit down with us to do the numbers, but er we said it was ok and left.

Went for VJ Choir's Les Miserables practice today and was thoroughly impressed. They have so many guys with such warm and strong voices that I felt utterly ashamed and disgusted with myself, and I'm at least 10 years their senior. You can't beat talent, and I haven't got any.

So we withdrew from "helping" them (we're more of a liability) and will just buy tickets to watch instead.

I shall now mope in the office and do my annual self-evaluation.

Wahlau. Not one, but TWO car salespersons called me today. One got my voicemail. The other lucky one got through and offered me a "SPECIAL OFFER" on "LIMITED STOCKS" on the Corolla Altis, which now goes for S$51,988, while the Vios now goes for S$47,276.

Surprise surprise, this is S$1,500 less than the price just quoted to me last weekend, which happens to coincide with the recent CoE price drop in an amount of...S$1,500!!!!

Oklah at least they called me. Hyundai didn't bother. Nor did Mitsubishi.

It's a sign. Hmmmmmmm. This weekend I'm testing the Honda FIT.

I saw the sign
and I opened up my mind and
I am happy on living without you
I've left you oh-oh-oh-oh.

Wahlau. This song was on number one on the charts for like 53 weeks. I remember when we used to set up sound systems in sec. school this song would be like the ultimate favourite.

God I'm old.

Methinks me need to be more explicit if mewants to hit on fellow colleague.

Me Tarzan. You Jane. Roaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Where is my Holy Club of Might +5 that I can bonk Jane on the head with so that I can drag Jane back to the cave.

Test Drive Galore Round 2

Right. I'm exhausted. All the excitement in the afternoon today has completely drained me.

Cars done today:

1. Mitsubishi Colt - not bad, but slightly on the pricey side. The engine's pretty powerful.

2. Hyundai Verna 1.4 Auto - terrible. Underpowered, engine noise is atrocious.

3. Hyundai Avante 1.6 Auto - slightly better than the Verna, but all those claims about the Korean cars finally matching up to Japanese cars - pfft. Still feels underpowered.

4. Honda Jazz - Not bad. Quite powerful for a 1.4 car. A bit pricey though.

5. Toyota Vios 1.5 Auto - Very good - best car I've test driven so far, except for the Altis. Very powerful. Gear change was excellent - very smooth.

6. Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6 Auto - Feels a lot less claustrophobic than the Vios 1.5.

Have decided that the Civic is out of my price range.

I couldn't find the Proton showroom. Dang. But that was just for fun anyway to see how bad it is.

So I've test driven all the cars I may potentially want to own, and all it boils down to now is to:

(a) decide how much I want to pay for a car;
(b) pick one.

Strong contenders:

(a) Kia Picanto 1.1M - basic car just to get around.
(b) Hyundai Getz 1.1M - as above, but looks slightly better
(c) Vios 1.5 Auto - very good car, but $10k more than above

Possibility: Mitsubishi Colt 1.5A or Colt Plus 1.5A - I could fit a bicycle at the back of this one, which is a big plus point.

I'm of two minds about the latest new Chorale schedule. On one hand, it's great that we can go out after practice, the shops still being open, have long leisurely dinner, walk around, go home, and it's only 10 pm.

On the other hand, I kinda miss the combined (cheap but tasteless) dinners at beer garden - our opportunity to bond. Members just leave after the practice. But as the new queen says, it's more like the opportunity to clique.

I'm of two minds.

Most of the old faces are gone. We are left with the new faces. Big change in environment. This is the second renewal phase since I joined. Will I be left obsolete in the sidelines? Only time shall tell. One thing's for sure, our time to, er, climax (shine?), has come and gone.

Side and irrelevant thought. One of the new staff (she) in the company's surname is Cuming. Uhm...

Toys for the boys

The saying goes, you can't take the toys away from the boy. Or was it you can't separate the boys from their toys. or something like that. aiyah ok i made it up. The point is as you get older, the toys just become more expensive. And I have *so* many toys to buy.

i remember when I was 8, and the bestest toy which I wanted more than anything in the whole wide world was this robot-like watch which could open and show the time inside. My classmate had one and I wanted to kill him so that I could steal it from him.

when i turned 10 or 11, I wanted a mountain bike with gears more than anything and I kept pestering my parents for one.

when i was 14, it was a PC.

At 17, a hi-fi set.

between 19 - 23, i lusted after every new handphone and PDA.

and when i started work, the possibilities became too endless to list. a swanky watch. check. super slim camera. check. Digital SLR. check. New lens for digital SLR. check. The list continues.

But right here right now, all i can think about is this - my object of lust and desire:

Sigh.

I swear I'd never lay my eyes on another car again, but i think it would be just a matter of time before mine unfaithful eyes begin to rove.

Sigh.

Decisions decisions.

What a terrible day. I overslept and woke up at 9.30 am. After work I decided to head town for choir practice for some performance. Thought I was late and took a cab. Turns out the journey was so jammed it would've been faster to take the MRT.

Practice was truly dreadful hearing all these lao-laos from a uni alumni society screech away. One of them screeched a high C. The basses were singing a different key. The women and the conductress sounded like Minnie Mouse. I felt like killing myself there and then and it was all I could do to stop myself from reaching into my briefcase to grab my pen to stab myself. I felt compelled to share my suicidal tendencies by SMS to all my friends there.

The only (semi) consolation was tao huay at Selegie after this session of pure torture. I can't say I found it very good it was quite tasteless. After that we tried to call a cab for 40 mins by which time I felt sticky, smelly and tired.

On the way home the cab driver had this wheezing breath pattern that sounded like (i) he was going to have a heart attack; (ii) he was snoring while driving; or (iii) he was going to have an asthma fit. None of which are good. Everytime he breathed I felt as if it were me and after a while I felt belaboured.

His driving was appalling swerving left and right. Halfway through he took out his Vicks stick (I guess to clear his nasal passage), and DECIDED TO BLOODY LEAVE IT STICKING OUT OF HIS NOSE BOUNCING AROUND WHILE HE CONTINUED DRIVING. I was sitting in the front seat. I felt so nauseated I wanted to vomit in his cab.

Got home feeling like I wanted to puke. Had some alcohol which er made it worse.

And now all I feel like are some greasy, salty fries. Sigh.

I finally got around to adding up my China travelmates' various expenses to be divided. Then i calculated what I spent on my trip to China back in July / August.

AND OH SHIT I SPENT ABOUT S$2,700 ON A TWO WEEK TRIP TO CHINA

WAHLAU

D-Day

The day has come. TOP for my apartment has been issued today. This means:

1. My apartment is now fit for living
2. the other 90% of the purchase price (10% from me, 80% from the bank) is due within 14 days from today
3. I need to tell my landlord I'm moving out. I feel bad.
4. I need to go source for furniture and stuff. I have no idea where to go.
5. I need to collect my keys
6. I need to buy a car
7. I need to apply for PR like immediately
8. I need to go to the lawyers to sign my life away

It's too soon!!!! I'm not psychologically ready!!!! I wasn't expecting this day until at least January 2007.

Sigh. I couldn't work the entire day.

Help.

I haven't been in a state of panic like this for a long time. Hm. Let's see - equivalent panic levels in the past:

1. Age - 10 - fresh blanket of snow in the backyard. We build a snowman. I decide snowman needs to be melted. I drop my pants (in the open) and pee on ye snowman with glee, only to discover near the end of the deed that my neighbour was onlooking with horrified eyes. Panic. Suffice to say I avoided said neighbour for a long long time.

2. Age - 14 - deciding it was fun to have a joyride in my dad's car. Drove said car round PJ at 3 am, only to get it minorly stuck in the drain outside the house just before parking it. Malay passerby thought I was stealing the car, and tried to help. Noise. Dad came rushing out of the house with brick. Panic.

3. Age - 22 - stuck alone outside a locked train station in the middle of the night in Vienna with no accommodation and nowhere to go. Taxi drivers (east-european looking) peering / staring / glaring at me like sharks circling prey. Badly lit streets. Strange characters lurking around in the shadows. Thought I was going to get killed by beggars. Panic.

Boohoo I wanna be a kid again. Adult responsibilities suck.

iHapps

Talk about a busy Friday night. zoom zoom to Menotti for dinner with friends from JC I hadn't seen in a while from my JC hostel days. Talk about a high powered group of friends. 3 doctors, 1 dentist, 1 lawyer.

Dinner was pretty cool though doctor talk pretty much dominated a lot of the conversation. One of the doctors is taking a year out from work so that he can travel for a year. Hm. that's pretty cool.

I have to say Menotti rather sucks. I've eaten there twice and had dessert twice and it sucked all 4 times. Service was terrible 'cos this guy like dripped water on my friend's seat, had his elbows all over almost knocking into my other friend's face, and then wanted us to eat faster so that he could serve our mains. And then when we were done asked us if we wanted coffee TWICE. Who drinks coffee at 10 at night??? The second time we took it to be that they wanted us to leave.

At 10 I rushed off to Arab street to meet another group of friends to smoke Sheesha at this place called Samar. Service was again atrocious as a simple request like "can we have the menu please" was forgotten three times, our request for water was forgotten 4 times, and request for sheesha pipes took 45 mins and was forgotten once. The place wasn't even very busy. i felt like walking off and not paying. And the food was a bit gross.

Anyway, we spent an hour trying to figure out how to blow smoke from the sheesha pipes. One of my friends was so pro she looked like Puff the magic dragon. And so we nicknamed her Puff. I finally got the hang of it at about 1 am and puffed away till I got woozy. and now I feel like i want to puke. something not to be done again.

Some time has to be spent working this weekend, but I shall continue in my test drives.

I think I may not actually get a car till next year and will sign up for car sharing program for the moment. Apparently my insurance premiums drop next year when I'm 28 and deemed to be a lower risk category - $800 difference a year. Which is quite a bit. Plus i'm cashless now anyway.

To a big fat bonus. 2 months and 20 days. I can't wait.

And when i see writeups like these on the Net I can't help but wonder if they are blind.

QUOTE

Synopsis:
A sumptuous epic of courtly intrigue, royal usurpers and star-crossed love, Feng Xiaogang’s The Banquet is a beguiling, scintillating experience. Featuring the singularly steely frostiness of the stunning Ziyi Zhang, far and away one of the most dynamic actors of her generation, this lavish production recalls recent martial arts masterworks such as Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but simultaneously evokes fiery historical dramas on the scale of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Feng is China’s most successful commercial director and he has assembled an incomparable team for this ambitious film.

UNQUOTE

(emphasis added)

The Banquet

Caught this show over the weekend and was somewhat disappointed. The costumes and sets were very beautiful, and cinematography quite nice as well. I liked the stylistic performances and the old music. There was a scene which looked like it came straight out of Lord of the Rings - the black riders get sent to kill Prince Wu Luan (aka Frodo), and the imperial palace looked like the tower of Sauron.

The characters were pretty flat though. The whole show is supposed to be a tragedy, but uhm, well, I think the actors and actresses weren't good enough. Zhang Ziyi totally sucked 'cos all her facial expressions looked like a cut and paste from Memoirs of a Geisha. I didn't even know she was in a powerplay and was supposed to be scheming until i read the reviews on the net - I thought she was just a hapless victim waiting to be saved by the prince. There was a scene where she visits the apothecary to buy poison, and as payment, gives the apothecare some arsenic so that he could kill himself. I didn't even catch that she wanted him to kill himself until after the scene was over - her facial expressions and actions could well have been used just as well if she were rewarding him with gold. NOT ENOUGH DEPTH.

Zhou Xun was just irritating. The emperor wasn't evil enough, and the ministers weren't scheming enough. Daniel Wu was just mediocre although my friend kept salivating for reasons unknown to me.

SIGH. I need to watch a good chinese epic soon to nourish my soul.

Choices choices

Went on a test driving spree today boy I'm bushed.

List as at 24/9:

A. Done + maybe list
1. Kia Picanto 1.1 Manual - Car's bigger on the inside than I thought. Didn't seem overly underpowered. Drive feel is not too bad for a small car. But I can feel engine vibration through the throttle - sandy.

2. Kia Rio 1.4 manual hatchback - biting point of the clutch is questionable and vague, but overall feel is much better than the Kia Picanto. Less engine vibration through throttle and drive is quite smooth and quiet.

3. Mitsubishi Lancer 1.6 manual - I like the feel of the steering wheel - very solid. But car has an outdated feel and I feel like an ahpek / ahbeng inside. Not consistent with the OC cool college kid image that I want. Car feels heavy and engine perhaps a little underpowered. No vroom vroom. But the clutch is a lot more certain than the Rio. Car is quite big. Too big? Drive is quite smooth.

4. Hyundai Getz 1.1 manual - I like this car a lot more than the Kia Picanto. Clutch biting point is more certain, it's bigger and doesn't look like a toy car .i.e. it doesn't look like a car I would regret buying / driving around after 2 years when it's not so new anymore. Less engine vibration than the Picanto.

B. Done + Out list
1. Kia Picanto 1.1 Auto - woefully underpowered - if you rev the car and it downshifts, the engine noise is very loud and rough. Feels like is being pumped through the sole of my right foot.

2. Mitsubishi 1.6 Lancer CVT auto - this must be the most boring drive the entire day. There's no gear change as it works on a continuous transmission system. I was very bored after 20 seconds and didn't like the feel too much. The manual drives much better.

C. Yet to try / want to try
1. Toyota Vios
2. Hyundai Verna 1.4 manual + auto
3. Suzuki Swift 1.5 manual and auto
4. Proton Satria Neo 1.6 manual + auto
5. Proton Savvy 1.2 Manual + semi-auto
6. Kia Rio 1.6 manual + auto
7. Kia Rio 1.4 auto
8. Honda Jazz / FIT - I don't think I'll like this.

What an exciting series of weekends all lined up for me.

i art bored with blogging. how.

Went to goodwood park to stuff my face with 3 friends one of whom I used to have a minor crush on back in jc. Another one dresses like a complete ahem with a skirt that probably ends where the butt cheeks begin. Am I the only weird one who thinks that more (cloth) is less, and less (cloth) is gross? Also saw her travel pics in Europe for some conference (representing some esteemed stat board) and was completely surprised she didn't get propositioned. She did say some French guy proclaimed to her "I LOVE YOU" in bad english. But I can't for the life of me understand why.

Another friend is leaving the country to NZ to er live with her boyfriend. Her parents don't know she's quit her job - they think she got a transfer. Hah. When they find out they'll be hopping mad.

Another friend (came later) is getting married in Nov? Dec? And get this - going to Fiji islands for honeymoon. Kaoz it's f-ing ex - the hotel is about US$500 a night for like a BASIC hotel. It goes up to US$1500 a night for a swanky hotel. I want to start a hotel business too.

Last weekend I went home to see my brother and sister who were back from the UK and Australia. I think my brother's the ultimate cheapskate. He's lazy to cook and eating out in Australia is expensive. So what does he do - he gets a second job waitering in a restaurant, and gets fed dinner for free on work days, and a nominal sum on non-workdays. And then he takes a 12 hour bus to Sydney to fly back to M'sia to save A$300. Kaoz. This must run in the family somehow.

The week before I went to Bangkok on a firm trip and bought enough toiletries to last a lifetime. I must be a very dirty person or have some psychological problem against being dirty.

I can't wait for my trip to Hanoi although it's not really for leisure.

In October I may be flying to Greece for a meeting - it's kinda scary - what if I look like a complete twit at the meeting 'cos I don't know my stuff? But the thought of flying business class to europe and staying in swanky hotels with meals all paid for is absolutely irresistable...

And here I was calling my brother cheapskate. sigh.

I need to plan my next holiday. Vietnam and Laos anyone?

The Devil wears Prada

It appears that more than one person has made the observation that my boss is uncannily like Meryl Streep's character in said show haha:

(For the record my boss is a very nice person)

QUOTE
-----Original Message-----
From: Xxx, xxxxx [mailto:xxxxx.xxx@bigswankybank.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 9:26 PM
To: YYYYY; ZZZZZ; Xxx, xxxxx
Cc: AAAAA
Subject: RE: The Devil wears Prada


A) A mirror
B) DVD of "The Devil Wears Prada"
C) A mirror and a DVD of "The Devil Wears Prada"
D) Something from Prada and a DVD of "The Devil Wears Prada"
E) Rat poison

-----Original Message-----
From: YYYYY [mailto:YYYYY@biglawfirm.com]
Sent: 21 September 2006 21:23
To: ZZZZZ; xxxxx.xxx@bigswankybank.com
Cc: AAAAA
Subject: RE: The Devil wears Prada


What do you think I'm buying her for Christmas????

-----Original Message-----
From: ZZZZZ
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 9:21 PM
To: YYYYY
Subject: Fw: The Devil wears Prada

FYI

-----Original Message-----
From: Xxx, xxxxx
To: ZZZZZ
Sent: Thu Sep 21 21:08:17 2006
Subject: The Devil wears Prada

can you tell YYYYY that the resemblance with his boss is uncanny.

Liquidity Crunch

The dreaded day is here earlier than I thoughT!!!!

Just when I was deciding what goodies I should buy from COMEX, a letter comes after lunch from my lawyer, telling me that they've been informed that the developer is projecting to obtain TOP in October 2006, and therefore payment of the balance will be due.

This is a disaster because the money tt's supposed to pay this one is stuck in some FD maturing in JANUARY and MARCH.

After paying off the amount due, I will have a grand total of a few k left in my account. This means I will have a new house with no furniture for at least 3 months. Whoopee do. Oh, and if I get into any accident, then OOPS.

Plus I haven't got ANY bank loan as yet.

I spent the whole afternoon moping, and then went to COMEX but didn't buy a single thing because I am now a pauper.

It's been an exciting and eventful weekend - Friday we went to watch the Taipei Male Choir - the hall (Singapore Power Auditorium) simply did not do justice to their fantastic voices. Sigh. If only I could sing like the tenors there. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a bass masquerading among the tenors ahhahahaha

It's also heartening to know that they suffer from the same pronunciation problems we have - eg "Can you fieeeel the love tonight", but we could learn a thing or two from their sense of line and how clean their sound is.

We watched The Devil Wears Prada after the concert, and I highly recommend the show to everyone. It reminded me of my first six months at work.

Saturday was pretty much spent at the AGM where the new EXCO was elected - thank god it wasn't me. Spent the night being educated / exposed by YL to cheesy love lines from movies like "to me you're just perfect and my wasted heart will love you until you look like (a dead corpse)". hurhurhurhur. Yah, HOW cheesy.

Sunday I went to test drive many cars, except that without a license nobody let me test drive anything knn so now I have to go back. My 2 friends test drove and I just sat at the back and was an armchair critic. We test drove:

1. Toyota Prius auto - cool car but looks fugly and way too expensive

2. Toyota Vios manual - damn cool car I'm considering

3. Mitsubishi Lancer manual - quite cool also and good value

4. Kia Cerato manual - friend says it was a bit underpowered. seats felt very spongy.

5. Proton Savvy 1.2 AMT transmission - surprisingly powerful and spacious on the inside - friend said the engine was rough. Outside looks fugly.

Proton's QC has not improved - the doors still bloody open and close like a Milo tin can. Wahlau. Needs some serious thought. However, the ride was comfortable (suspension is tuned by Lotus).

6. Honda Civic 1.8 manual - nice car, but saleswoman was a complete bitch (damn condescending) and the car is way overpriced.

Cars I have ruled out:

(a) Kia Picanto: there's no back head rest, and the door handles on the inside look like they ran out of rubber / fabric inside, and recycled some metal material from the car door. Absolutely hideous.


Cars to try:

(a) Hyundai Getz 1.1 manual
(b) Suzuki Swift 1.5 manual / auto
(c) Toyota Vios 1.5 manual / auto
(d) Kia Rio 1.4 / 1.6 manual / auto
(e) Chery QQ!!!! (just for fun - won't buy it)
(f) Honda Jazz

Wah so many more cars to test. I need to get my license.

Weekends are supposed to be relaxing. I go back to work more tired on monday than on Friday.

and it's all because of that KID who screams on the dot at 8+ in the morning SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

I really want to strangle him.

I need to move out.

I've been a very bad boy...sniff.

Change is oh-so bittersweet.

I confirmed my suspicions today that a lot of the secretaries hate me / badmouth me behind my back. No biggie.

It started in the morning when a secretary sent round an ordering list for lunch. I'm aware of the list but have never been copied (it's fine - I ask the tea lady to buy my lunch). But since I was copied today I placed my order, a bit late. Then while the secretaries were making the calls to order, I suppose the one I e-mailed was a bit paiseh to not add my order, which annoyed the other secretary (extra work I suppose), and she went, quite loudly: "WHOSE IS THIS????". I couldn't hear the rest, but I DISTINCTLY HEARD THE WORDS "there, the AH PUI's one" a few seconds later.

KNN IF I WERE MORE SENIOR I WOULD HAVE DRAGGED THEM TO HR AND GOT THEM FIRED.

wahlau. Talk about rude.

This is the one who kept playing Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" 7 times a day and almost drove me insane until I dropped her boss an e-mail (knowing she'd get a copy of it) gently suggesting that she should buy her secretary some new CDs for Christmas.

Never mind. The rest of the day I was sending about 3,000 pages of documents to the printer, jamming it up for more than an hour. I suppose this didn't really help boost my popularity, but I needed the documents and my secretary was away.

Finished work sort of early, and AHG3 aka the Vampire managed to squeeze a treat out of me and we went to Billy Bombers at Bugis for a milkshake + her dinner. Boy she can really eat.

We discussed the difference between being thrifty, being stingy and being miserly.

Thrifty = not spending much on yourself but relatively generous to others
Stingy = parsimonous towards others
Miserly = stingy to both others and yourself

What an educational dinner!

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I think this must be one of the most beautiful sacred pieces ever written for a choir. This one was performed at the Choir Olympics 2000. Gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it.

The constant banter between the 4 year old kid and the resident maid ranges from being annoying to somewhat amusing.

(irritating as it precedes my waking up) 7.30 - 8 am (ON THE DOT), everyday: "Mummy mummy.....mummmyyyy, MAHMEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

(amusing) 12 pm:
Maid in Indon accent: "Don be nawty" (singsong fashion)
Kid: "Kakak NAWTY. HMPH!" (and he actually makes that hmph sound!!!"

(now I want to strangle him) 12.04 pm: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

12.05 pm: heeeheeeheeeeeeee

Talk about crocodile tears. If he were my kid I'd either:

(a) lock him in a room to scream his heart's desire
(b) smack him
(c) scream back (hey, if you can't beat them, join them!)

He reminds me of me when I was young!

Soh exciting - I've been dutifully hitting the gym two days in a row. I expect this new bout of enthusiasm will last...all of one week hurhurhuhhrur

And in line with my bout of utter boredom, I've updated the music on my blog. There's a series of 3 songs by Rockapella - Gummy Bears Theme (I'm prone to sing this when I get drunk), Coca Cola TV ad and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. These are some of my favourites.

I've got youngbie voyeurs on my blog!!!!!

Utter Boredom

I find it ever so amusing that some of my younger friends have nicknames on MSN that go along the lines of "Choir Is mY LiFE".

It's amusing on several levels:

1. The enthusiasm for choir is refreshing.

2. The random capitalisation of sentences is a SKILL which I've often tried to emulate but fail miserably. My SentEncES look UNIformLY CapiTALIsed for somE ReAsOn anD iT TAkES me TwicE aS lOnG to TypE iT.

And then of course there are the youngbie forms of contractions which go like "rot at hm", "hm" being "home" I guess.

It's all very interesting.

The weekend started out pretty fun - Friday evening was the mini concert and we sounded really crappy during the rehearsal but marginally redeemed ourselves at the actual performance although Hainan was out of tune, again.

The rest of Friday was spent at Dawn's house where we watched Harold and Kumar and stuffed our faces on McDonald's and more Zhi Char. Yums. Harold and Kumar wasn't as funny the second time round.

We played some drinking games and, at 5 am, I decided to take a nap, thinking that when day broke we were all going to McDonald's for breakfast. Little did I know that when I woke up, EVERYONE had left. GAH. iOutKasted. The rest of Saturday was spent recuperating by sleeping from 1 - 5 pm. There was about 20 mins of pure indeciveness as I was too tired to go out to eat breakfast/lunch but too hungry to sleep. In the end sleep won precedence.

Saturday night was spent bored as hell - I went to the library and checked out travel books to Tibet and Mongolia and decided there and then that it was too adventurous for me. Too bad - the photo opportunities look really good. And the rest of the night was spent reading Amateur Photography, not learning very much.

And so weekend no. 1 without choir passes. Oh what shall I do from now till November???

I have not had a free Saturday for 8 months. And now I don't know what to do with it. I'm bored out of my tears. This is a national tragedy.

The OC

Have started watching my uhm, collection of DVDs from Shanghai, beginning with the OC. I really love to watch the OC. I don't really know why I like it so much. It's so trashy and brainless. Oops - res ipsa loquitur.

I think being an actor must be damn cool, and if I were uhm, starring in the OC, I'd want to be Ryan. He's so cool and all he does is make out with Marissa everyday. How cool is that??? And, regardless of what OTHER ppl say (that I have bad taste in women, as evidenced by the Shanghai roadside noodle seller), I STILL think she's hot so there. The fact that she turns lesbian for a while in Season 2 is

On top of that, the music's really cool. I like this sort of music. Sort of semi-sad and relaxing at the same time and really sets the whole brooding tone to the show. Ok, say it again, t-r-a-s-h-y.

So it's back to work today, and I've been slowly easing back to the flow of work after a long absence. The office looks kinda different as do the Raffles Place surroundings. Have I been away so long? I'm glad there aren't like 10 files piling on my desk calling for my attention, as result of which I went off at 8 pm for drinks before coming home. Must pay attention to work-life balance!!!

Hanging around lawyers can be somewhat toxic - a lot of them just bitch about work and pay all the time which kinda puts a damper on your mood, so I'm glad I have many non-lawyer friends and activities outside the field!!!! If not I'd probably feel suicidal.

Decided that it was time I started to rekindle old friendships and I went for dinner last night with one of them while the rest of the world was going ra-ra at the National Stadium - we're Malaysian so we can't be bothered. Dinner was a simple Katong laksa, followed by a somewhat long walk (we got lost) to see how my apartment is doing - the pool and my block is semi-done, but the wait seems forever!!! - and then a shorter walk back again (didn't get lost this time) to Katong for yoghurt ice dessert. Cheap, simple and unfancy dinner. Said friend is moving to New Zealand in October so it was kinda a catch up thing to see how everyone's doing and what's happening in our respective lives etc.

We kinda concluded that we're not very ambitious people haha. I mean, I don't need to make a million dollars a year to be happy. So er, I guess I'm not gonna be one of those high fliers quoted on various publications as "Brilliant", or "unsurpassed in his field" etc. I can be contented with little things and be a peon forever!!!

Eg: stay in 3-star hotel in China. I could probably afford better, but well, like Kiat says, anything more than 3-stars is just luxury, and I'm happy with it. Eg2 - take budget internal airline. Safety issues aside (I think the plane is damn old), I think it's not really a biggie.

Plus I still take er bus / second class train home to KL when I suppose I could fly back.

Some may call it stingy, or, to be kinder, frugal, but the way I see it, if it's fine with me and I don't need the extra, why bother?

So, there we are, I'm too easily contented and I shall be a peon forever.

Methinks it's time for another episode of the OC. Marissa Marissa Marissa Marissa Marissa. Summer's got big uhm, assets, but she's so bimbotic. Budden, who isn't bimbotic on that show????

Go trash! Trash rulez! (youngbie speak!)

Pics!

For the benefit of non choir members:

1. Xiamen Pics
2. Shanghai Pics

I'm sorry they aren't very good - kinda what I'd classify as "travel photos".

Have finally finished editing my pictures. Uploading will take approx 4 hours. Whoopee... =(

Why can't we have true broadband where the upload speed isn't limited to 15 k/sec? *grumble*

Editing photos is addictive. Thank goodness for Picasa.

I'm going blind. Photo 188 of 642. ARGH.

China

Just got back to Singapore. It's kinda surreal to be here - it seems like forever since we left for Xiamen 2 weeks ago. My mandarin has improved somewhat, I even managed to hold a conversation (with Skunk's help) on the plane with a Xiamen native. How impressive is that?

Going back to Xiamen was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride - we walked past the hotel we stayed at during the competition, went to Walmart, went for the blind massage etc, but it's all different without the group being there. I don't really know why I feel more emotionally connected with this trip than in Bremen - perhaps now that I am two years older, its the thought that there aren't that many of these trips remaining before I call it quits. I haven't decided as yet whether to stay on - it's been 5 years since I first joined Chorale, and I wonder whether it's time to move on to other things. That said, I cannot recall when I truly felt more happy or emotionally overwhelmed than when we won the championship on 26 July.

On the other hand, the composition of the people in the group have / will change quite significantly, and last night's outing reminded me of the 10-year age gap between myself and the new members which is somewhat difficult to bridge. We talk and do different things - for example, I fail to see what is so interesting about Polar Bear (it's a game the purpose of which is uhm, to find out the identity of the Polar Bear - substitute "Polar Bear" with flesh eating monster of your choice), or Saboteur, which I played with about half a brain - no offence meant to anyone of course. Whatever happened to Hero Quest, Space Marines, Monopoly, Cluedo, Game of Life, Risk etc which I recall were quite fun when I was younger. Perhaps my attention span has deteriorated somewhat.

Also, it is now Sunday - I am going back to work on Thursday, and I am wondering what I should be doing for the next 3 days and what I should be doing every weekend from now till December. It's terrible. All this free time and nothing to fill it with. Kill me now!

Shanghai was rather fun, and I'm glad we came out of the trip remaining as friends. The trip was rather smooth going, except for er a minor misunderstanding when er we bought double portions of food for dinner by accident, but we kinda just glossed over it and everything was fine after that. The trip basically consisted of shopping, eating and exploring many local eateries, and walking a LOT. I think the eating outstripped the walking, and uhm, a check on the scales this morning uhm, confirmed this. Time to hit the gym.

The people in China kinda sucked, public spitting, lack of social grace etc - I don't think I could live in Shanghai - having to deal with the Metro every morning to work would absolutely kill me. I suppose this will improve with time - as I was trying (very hard) to explain to the China native on the airplane, this is probably just a function of the economy - as the economy becomes more developed, social grace will improve. Right now the mentality of the people is still in the acquisition mode, stemming I suppose from a background where if you did not fight for yourself, you'd just be left behind / starve to death.

Anyways, I'm glad to be back in Singapore, although coming back to this rented room is somewhat a bummer. Had a dream about my (new) apartment last night and I think I can't wait for it to be completed. 6 months will pass in a flash.

Oh look, it has stopped raining - I think I shall go stuff my face now. Crap. I haven't showered or brushed my teeth and it's 12.30 pm. Die.

The results are out - we were Category Champions for the Sacred Music A Capella competition, and Gold award winners for Contemporary music.

I felt more emotional this time round than I did at Bremen, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I started to tear even before the results were announced. It's quite ridiculous.

Oh well, tonight we sing in the Champions'concert. What a wonderful feeling.

Tomorrow we fly to Shanghai for more sightseeing. We haven't planned what we want to do yet haha. Lots of rotting.

The day beckons. I get more nervous nearer the day.

I recall in the previous competition, I felt like puking everytime we were standing backstage waiting to go up and show the world our stuff.

That was my first ever competition.

Hopefully this one will be better.

iEmoNemo.

I'm such a delinquent associate. Instead of working like a good employee, I went to eat junk food and bought a pair of cool shoes hurhur

I have been completely unproductive the entire morning. My mind is only on two things:

1. Xiamen and praying all the European choirs get food poisoning / diarrhoea.
2. My new camera.

I was editing and cropping my photos all the way until 2.30 am last night while being an attention whore and sending pics to everyone who was still on MSN at that time. I APOLOGIZE if I kept anyone awake.

This morning i got up at 7 am (= crack of dawn and an hour earlier than usual) and the first thought on my mind is "Oh what a cool camera I have. Oh I can't wait for Friday"

And then I got to work and I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do. And then I went to see my pics again. And then YL msged me and I was on gChat. And then I downloaded the recordings and went "grosssssSSSSsssssss weSilver"

And I selected the most brainless of tasks outstanding - doing up a document list. I have no mood to work, and my concentration is about zero.

God help me and my transaction.

PICS!!!

(edited - oops forgot to include link)

K, there's apparently a button to focus lock. =). Glad I discovered it before I went to Xiamen.

Some pics. I'm sorry, some are a bit out of focus. Apparently I'm supposed to press a button to focus lock.

I am IRRITATED. I must have taken some 140 shots today, of which probably *25* as passable. A lot of the shots look OUT OF FOCUS. Like, got one pic, it focussed on someone's left collar instead of the face. Blardy hell. Tt one throw to the bin.

Either:

1. I have extremely poor technique
2. I need to learn how to focus lock - I thought it's just half press on target, then it will focus lock - this resulted in a lot of sharp and in-focus boobs (centre of picture), but OUT OF FOCUS FACES. wtf.
3. f1.8 not very suitable for a lot of shots - very poor depth of field. Help. I need lessons.

Friday

It's Friday. I'm in the office. Not because I have to. But because I got nothing better to do. Sad innit.

There's no one around except for this girl down the corridor and the night secretary. All the cats are away in Shanghai for a retreat, and the mice are out to play. Had a 2 hour lunch at Brewerkz today. They now offer 20% off food during lunch hours, and $3.50 pints of yummy beer, and that's BEFORE the 15% Amex discount. What a great deal! I had 2 pints and had to walk back to the office or I would've passed out.

I STILL haven't bought my lens. Gagggh. I must buy TOMORROW. Or mebbe Monday.

Bah

Just heard a recording of last Sunday's run. God, I got in a really foul mood after that. The recordings really suck. Wtf's wrong. The microphone never lies.

 

This is worse than Bremen 2004.

 

I went to check out my first ever rock concert on Monday. What an exciting experience!!! I'm a groupie!!!

It sits silently in front of me. The tasteful maroon ribbon and gold wrapper calls out to me to be undone, so that I may reach my tubby fingers into its inner sanctum wherein lies the forbidden pleasures waiting to be plucked. It whispers seductively to my tastebuds: "You know you want it.". It implores me to take it now. My tongue tingles and and my tastebuds salivate with excitement and anticipation.

How do I resist its guileful ways?

I hate it when my boss goes on holiday and comes back with a box of chocs. I just know I'm going to end up eating the whole box of chocs.

That plus the two pints of Ben and Jerry I bought over the weekend. I'm going to look like M0ses Lim soon. Maybe I too need Xando Platinum 2.

Once u have used a digital SLR, you never want to go back to a normal point and shoot cam - the pic quality really sucks - at ISO 200 it looks like a watercolour painting.

On the other hand, it is every geek's bane - it has so many upgrade options. Today two choir scumbags started telling me about lenses and stuff. And NOW I WANT TO BUY A NEW LENS. I've barely like shot 20 pics on the camera and I want a new lens. I WANT I WANT I WANT. I've been surfing Clubsnap for 1.5 hours doing nothing but looking at forums. Urgh.

I should be memorizing my scores.

Competition is in two weeks! And we have been forsaken by "God" again. Idiot. No sense of priority.

Some updates

Of late, I haven't had much time nor energy to blog. It's ironic that in the month of June during the GSS, my expenditure was paltry, since I didn't have time to eat lunch out, eat dinner out, buy anything of mention etc, save for the comfort purchases of a laptop and a new LCD screen.

This brings me to my latest announcement: I'm now the proud new owner of a swanky Nikon D50 SLR! The chak chak sound is really quite soothing and therapeutic. I mean, I took 10 pictures of my stupid water bottle...I was tempted to buy a lens, but, as NC says, you shouldn't buy everything at once otherwise you'd have nothing to look forward to to buy. How true.

In the course of purchase, I heard a really corny / effective (depending on how you look at it) sales line. This guy, obviously considering whether or not to buy a digital SLR with an upgraded lens or to stick to the stock lens, tried out the "upgraded lens" for at least 10 mins appearing undecisive. The salesman swooped in for the kill and said:

"Sir, you're obviously trying to tell yourself that the basic lens is enough for your use. I only have one thing to say - you've worked very hard to buy this camera. You only have one hobby, and you deserve to get the best your money can buy to support this hobby."

WAH! Super effective. That was our punchline of the day. Feel guilty for buying anything? nvm. I DESERVE it. I've worked hard. Haha, so off we skipped to Chorale feeling rather uhm, deserving, of our purchases. Never mind that it cost and arm and a leg and could feed a family of 4 for a month, or an entire village in the middle of Kelantan - I deserve it!

And thanks to OL who was nice enuff to come and join us to look around.

Apart from that, choir is coming along ok - some of the juniors are actually quite chatty. We welcomed a new entry into the Circle of Trust hurhur....it's not my fault - I'm not bitchy. I WAS GOADED. iGoaded.

Went to watch Superman on Friday - I'm a huge Superman fan - I needn't remind ye faithful blog readers that when I was younger I used to uhm, wrap myself with a blanket and jump off the ledge of a shelf onto a spring bed yelling "SUPERMANNNNNNNNNN", and thought that wearing underwear on the outside was the pinnacle of coolness. I'm glad I've outgrown the phase. So it was with great disappointment that I found that they've turned my favourite superhero to some sort of a SNAGgy wimp with personal issues - I'm not interested in another Batman!!!! There were no great feats of superheroism or supervillainism. It was all quite lame. The story focussed more on the feelings of regret between Lois and Superman. But if that was the focus, then the actors were pretty lousy - all that regret didn't come through. Sigh. Anyhow, I'm glad they kept the music the same - it brought back lots of childhood memories. The guy does the Christopher Reeve rendition of "G'nite Lois" pretty well. Bah, I want to be Superman. Which other superhero is as cool as Superman??? Apart from Magneto lah he's my favourite supervillain.

My colleagues remarked that I'm the most sarcastic guy they know. I OBJECT. I where got sarcastic. I'm like how nice. Bah.

Sigh. I can't wait for Saturday.

K it's been 4 days since I played with the EOS 30D. I still want one. This means it's not a passing phase like the Xbox360 which I can do without. I have to get my hands on one.

Am going to faithful Alan Photo this weekend to try out the D50, EOS 30D and EOS 350D. Maybe they have the older EOS 20D on offer.

Argh. iSpendthrift.

I have a new love

and thy name is Canon EOS 30D. One of the choir peeps brought it to choir practice today, and from the moment my tubby fingers grasped its body, I was in love, and when the shutter went "tchak tchak" when I pressed the shutter button, it sent shivers up my spine. Oooooohhhh...

And from there I completely did not pay any attention for the rest of the practice (BAD BOY!) and was too engrossed in taking pics.

Oh my, its been ages since I felt like that for any piece of toy. But I think, I need one. NOW. The only question is...which Digital SLR....What about the Pentax DiST which sells for only $999? I don't really think I need a $2500 camera...but it feels so good.

Choir this weekend has been pretty fruitful and exciting, albeit tiring. First up, God (Mr. NK) is back and it shows. Like fatkiat says, we have been touched by the hand of K!!!

Second, Fatkiat has found his voice after 10 years singing in a choir!!! What an amazing transformation.

Wanted to work, but screw work I say, my personal life comes first.

These past 2 weeks have been hell work wise. Everyday I wish I were run over (in a minor way) by a car so that I'd be in hospital and be on MC. like you know. pass out. can't do work sort.

maybe I should just like do a mild overdose of sleeping pills. Where can I get me some sleeping pills....

I shall find a new job at the end of the year.

I want to quit my job.

i'm so happy i have to report that my aircon has been FIXED!!!!! all i had to do was open my big mouth!

for the first time in months i will be able to sleep without a bucket under the aircon!!!! and without drip drip drip in the background!!!

oh blessed is me!!!

Who would've thought I had a vain streak? I certainly didn't. Yet this morning, as I put the handsfree telephone set on my head, I took it off 'cos I "didn't want to mess up my hair". Then I thought, how silly is that??

Met up with some peeps for lunch. One was late, one just woke up, and one's batt was flat so I had no idea where she was. Boy was I in a foul-ish mood. But managed to stuff my face, so that passed.

I wanted to watch soccer tonight, but was too tired. Germany v Costa Rica has started by now, but since I'm at home and the knn maid is sleeping in the hall, I can't jolly well barge outside and start watching TV. I can't wait for my house to be built. Maybe I'll pay it a visit this weekend and see how my baby is coming along. It's taking forever to be born. Gah.

I finally managed to blurt out to my landlord that the aircon's leaking, after like 4 months of living in a room with a permanent bucket under the aircon. Nowadays it leaks like a bucket of water every 3 days. I can flush a toilet with it. I feel like I'm living in squalor. Maybe tt's why I can't wake up. Lousy sleep. The bed sux too. I am gonna buy myself a $3,000 mattress I swear.

Great Singapore Sale

is on. i have no time to visit the shops. The only thing I have bought on sale so far is like underwear. This is dismal.

Speaking of shopping. I am constantly amazed at how women can get so excited over shopping. Yesterday, over some beer, a friend was reading cosmopolitan while erm, us intellectual laolaos were discussing global warming. WITHOUT WARNING, she suddenly spasm-ed, and drew in a sharp breath / hiss, like how an invalid would try to stop himself drooling.

Asked the reason: "Oh, so many different and pretty and colourful clothes in the magazine!!!!"

Bewildered. I don't think guys even spasm at porn.

It's incredibly amazing that I, a "Laolao", at a grand 27 years of age, can be so incredibly childish.

Witness typical conversation online (completely fictional)

Me: Oi. iSians. How.

X: wat sians? TSK. Wahlau.

Me: Simi Tsk? stop tsk-ing me. uTsk.

X: simi uTsk? tsk.

Me: I wanna go homeeeeeeee gah.

X: go lah.

Me: too much workkkkkk argh argh gah. Bah. iBah. iSians. iGRUMPY.

X: Tsk.

Me: STOP TSK-ING ME. and stop flirting with ZZZ!!!!

X: Flirt simi flirt??? weFriends.

Me: yah right. you finger him

X: KNN!!!! wtf?!??

Me: yah! uFinger!

and then it goes on.

iChildish.

Urgh. I want to go home.

Though it's completely cool to have a 19" monitor, I can't help thinking that er it's a tad too big....like my eyes are lost.

Not all things good come in big sizes...

What a busy weekend it has been!!!! I need another weekend to recover from this weekend!

Fri evening I went out for beer and drinks with colleagues until about midnight. Came back and did laundry and slept at 2 am.

My boss was flying off on Sunday, so she wanted to see some drafts. So. Sat schedule:

Sat:
9 am: crawl to work
11.20 am: go to weekly gym class
1 pm: lunch
2 pm: boss trots in and discuss
2.50 pm: rush to sectionals
3 - 9.30 pm: Choir
9.30 - 11+ pm: drink teh halia and bitch hurhurhur
12 midnight - 2 am: iron clothes

Sun:
9 am - 10.30 am: eat breakfast + read papers like ah pek at friendly neighbourhood kopitiam.
10.20 am: cut hair. Done in 15 mins. looks bad. silently curse and promise i'll go somewhere else in future.
10.40 am: go PC Fair. It's damn crowde
1.40 pm: rush to sectionals
2 - 6 pm: choir
6 pm - 10 pm: snack, movie, post-movie snack
10.30 pm: reach home.

I'm damn tired!

PC fair was horrible. I dunno wat came over me. I feel like a tech shopaholic. I bought:

1. laptop
2. 19" LCD screen
3. wireless mouse
4. 100 GB external harddisk - dunno why i need this
5. 2 thumbdrives

Damage: S$1800. Thanks to trusty UOB card.

I swear if I had another hand, I would've bought that Xbox360 as well!!!! PC Fair is evil.

I dunno wat came over me. Mebbe this is how women are at the Great Singapore Sale. "I don't know what came over me! I just HAD to have that shoe!"

Anyway, I manage to pawn off the harddisk to Nelson Chua. yayyy.

Choir's making lots of progress which makes the long sessions more enjoyable. Have been whipping the tenors into shape, taking cues from the Sop SL, although i haven't found a sarcastic line worthy of mention yet. Still, the sat and sun practices will be quite exhausting.

The movie we watched was pretty good: Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles. Zhang Yimou's work, but I thought some of his other works were better. A lot of very simple but effective scenes, and lots of beautiful scenery.

iBanana2

New words of the day:

chuan2 shou1 di3 ya1 - ship mortgage
dan1 bao3 - guarantee
dai4 kuan3 xie2 yi4 - facility agreement
guan3 rang4 - assignment
dong3 shi4 hui4 jue2 yi4 - board resolutions
gong1 shi1 mi4 shu1 - company secretary

this HARD.

iBanana

iSinoGenius!!!!

Hurhurhur. Took my first ever call from someone in the PRC today who er doesn't speak English. Me, the banana. I didn't expect the call, in fact I told them I don't speak Mandarin. But anyway this chap calls me up and started blabbering in Mandarin. I managed to catch some of stuff he mentioned, so er I suppose I should consider it a success!

It didn't help that my boss' secretary was blaberring in English disturbing my brain conversion process - it was working at 120% converting all audio input in Mandarin into English to be stored in my brain but it was getting interference from the secretary. Bah. I kept waving at her to shut up but they couldn't stop giggling at my attempt to converse in Mandarin.

So anyway the conversation went somehow like this. I can't remember how it all went in Mandarin - it was kinda all stored in English in my brain.

him: "Wei, ni hao. Wo shi XXX I'm calling from Dalian regarding YYY. I'll be in Singapore tomorrow and I'd like to ask what time I should be at your office blah blah"

me: "uhm, liang dian ban".

him: "oh ok very good I'll be there then. Apart from the seal of the company, Do I need to prepare any wen2 jian4".

me thinking: knn. wtf is wen2 jian4. shit shit. I think it means contracts. ok. I think he needs to bring the corporate resolutions of the company.

me: "nin2 deng yi deng"

me to roommate: "how the hell do i say resolutions in Chinese?"

roommate: "uhm uhm...."

me to roomate: "god you suck"

me: "uhm...xu yao dai re1-so3-lu1-tions3". when in doubt, imitate the hongkies

him: "oh. hao hao. dunno what dunno wat prepared by the secretary, do you have the form of these resolutions?"

me to roommate, who is by now hysterical with laughter: "how do I say these are being prepared by XXX firm?"

roommate: "uhm, uhm"

I glare at roommate.

me: "uhm, xiang gang de lu shi yi jing zuo hao le"

roommate whispers: "it's zhun bei hao le!!!"

me sticks my third finger at roommate and mouth: "KNN WHY NEVER SAY EARLIER"

him: "oh ok. that's fine, so I'll see you tomorrow at 2.30 then"

me: "hao3, hao3, ming tian jian", and hurriedly pressed the "End call" button.

My roommate and the secretary are, by now, in stitches rollling on the floor.

So, in 12 hours time, I have to meet this Mr. xxx. My boss doesn't speak any Mandarin. I've dragged my roommate along who

shall be my translator. She sux though. She couldn't translate "how was the flight". Or are these Western forms of greetings.

I suppose I should ask if he's eaten.

Urgh.

I was telling my colleagues I felt completely emasculated in the sense that I'm unable to perform on demand. The feeling of helplessness sux.

Anyway, I figured out how to add music to my blog. So hurhur here's a Mongolian song to fit the post. Nevermind that it's completely unrelated. I like the tune. iBanana. Grant me some indulgence.

Pengerang et cetera

A bunch of us choir peeps planned to go to Pengerang on Sunday. At the designated time of 11 am, we all met at Changi POINT Ferry Terminal. Note to readers, Changi Ferry Terminal is NOT the terminal you go to go to Ubin / Pengerang - Mr TBoy ended up there and called up Ms. [insert flirtatious adjective of choice] sounding very lost. Mr. Haha K K then went to pick him up in his swanky Merc.

Note also: I can't believe nobody thought we needed Ringgit in MALAYSIA. Luckily I had a bunch of notes on me.

The journey across the straits was quite horrible and I felt ill, due in no small part to the fact that I *had* to read my Sunday newspapers. The journey was a torturous never ending 45 mins or so across choppy seas. I felt like an illegal immigrant and made sure i had my eyes on the lifejackets and those orange buoyancy ring device things (what do you call those orange tires?). The journey inland took another 20 solid mins. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth it.

When we got there, Mr. Korea started going on an ORDERING SPREE, peppered with comments of: "do we have enough food? do we have enough food? let's order more!". I was quite shocked at his appetite. Our menu:

1. buttered lobsters (Note to all bananas: long2 xia1 does NOT mean very big prawn)
2. steamed lobsters
3. chilli crab
4. brocolli and scallops
5. bamboo clams
6. drunken prawns
7. oatmeal prawns
8. wee bit of rice + lots of fluffy deep fried buns full of oily goodness.

I thought the food was not too bad - I've had better, but the place was better than the usual seafood joints. The bill came up to RM 330 - I'm glad there weren't anymore people who went, because we were flat out of money - I had about RM 20 left, so I think if another one went we may have had to wash dishes.

I'm not sure if I'll go back anytime soon - our total travelling time from the time I left home till the time i reached the ferry terminal again was some 7 hours, just for a lunch...

I guess it was more of the change of scenery and company that mattered.

As if we weren't pigs enough, we went to Plaza Singapura's Secret Recipe for dinner - 'cos I had a $30 voucher which had to be spent. I must say Secret Recipe's food and cakes are uhm...well...the recipes can remain secret for all I care. Very mediocre. There was a Diner's card promotion, if we signed up, we'd get a slice of free cake. So I made all the working people sign up - 4 free slices of cake, + my $30 voucher, dinner came up to a grand total of S$3.85.

As if we hadn't seen enough of each other yet (saturday choir, sun outing), we went to check out ACJC's choir concert on Monday. I was very impressed by their sound - the sops and altos were wonderful. the college tenors are a bit gross and the college basses lacked oomph. But the conducting left much to be desired - as someone said, you could substitute it for a metronome and you'd get the same effect. It totally spoilt my enjoyment of O Nata Lux and several other songs. Even with my eyes closed, I could literally hear every wave of her hand. She conducted every beat.

Their second half was much better than the first - as if they had found their voices - Kang Ding Qing Ge was fantastic as were most of the second half songs. If they had been conducted by Mr. God, they would be Singapore's super choir. Oh no. 8 more weeks to competition. Panic. So many things undone.

hurhur iPostCardHigh

Ok this is a really silly post. I promise I'll write more about the weekend gastronomic adventures of the Secret Seven (minus one) in Pengerang with pics and all, but for now hurhur iOnPostCardHigh.

I thought postcards I wasn't really a postcard person and that they are silly, but then I just got one in the post from Barcelona (although for some reason it was posted from ENGLAND...), and hurhurhur it lit up the beginning of my afternoon. hurhurhuhur. iPostCardHigh now.

More on Pengerang later haha. I still feel buttered lobsters crawling in my stomach.

I think I'm going mad from the noteworthying exercise. Dang dididi Dang dididi Dangdidi

Yesterday I dreamt I got smacked by my landlord's maid who thought she could smack me because I was going after her daughter. I remember in the dream I burst out laughing and said: "YOU THINK YOUR DAUGHTER DAMN HOT IS IT?!?!! FREAKING UGLY LAH". And then I proceeded to abuse the maid by sweeping all my pencil eraser droppings all over the floor for her to clean up. Strangely, this all took place at my home in Malaysia.

A few problems:

1. The maid doesn't have a daughter. She's younger than me. It's the landlord who has a daughter.

2. The landlord's daughter is fat and chao bin all the time. I can't stand the sight of her.

Dang dididiDang di di di di....exercitus....spi-iri.....tus.....

I can't get the sop line out of my head. I'm going nuts.

iDunGeddit

I dun get women. If A is not interested in B, why is A continuously pawing B like a kitten with a wool ball? Paw, paw, paw. Wool ball unravels and wraps itself round the kitten. More paw action. Until kitten + wool ball become completely tangled in a big mess. Isn't it tiring to keep pawing someone if you're not interested in that someone? Shrugs.

If I have to keep sending SMS i think i will die. so many buttons. so slow. Or is that the point? are some things meant to be savoured slowly. I guess I wouldn't know.

I have nothing to blog about, except that the instructor in the r@ffles gym spinning class is a masochist. How my colleague and I suffered today.

Hw@ Ch0ng Voices

Went to watch their performance today and was pleasantly surprised - their blend was quite good, strong voices throughout the sections and quite neat. Wonderful tenor solos. They've already memorized all their competition pieces, so er, we're kinda behind compared to them.

Their sleep was much better than the one I watched at the University of Sa1nt Th0mas choir performance last week (that one had no chords), but I wish they had done it a tad slower, and less stiff. Lux Aurumque was good as well.

We've got to buck up!!!!

However, their college choir left much to be desired. They were at least 2.5 times the size of the alumni, but sounded the same. Tenors were very weak (and gross) and sops had tons of split notes and they sounded shrieky. The sound was gross and blend was gross. They totally ruined my Remniscences of Hainan which is one of my favourite songs. Bin Nam Ma was gross. Ok everything was gross. They sang this horrible coconut song which got the audience laughing and my cringing on the edge of my seat. When the audience shouted encore at the end of the performance, the alumni didn't sing anything, but instead the college choir sang, and they sang that bloody coconut song again. I almost died, couldn't take it, and walked out after 5 bars of the encore coconut song. Shudder.

The audience must have been one of the worst I've ever had the misfortune of being with. People talking throughout, including during the songs, other people playing with plastic bags, having no regard for the people wanting to hear the choir, kids giggling and passing handphones, people taking flash photography (you think ur bloody 2 cm x 1 cm flash run by AA batteries powerful enough to illuminate the stage 10 metres away issit???!!? Please lah go back and study your inverse square law...knn). Bah. We need more audience control. I must have been spoilt by the Esplanade.

I have been living in denial. hurhurhur. sounds like coming out of the closet or something. It's closet related. it's my CHORALE TROUSERS. THEY DON'T FIT. Having spent the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE day last tuesday in them (of course, that was kind of expected), I finally came to the conclusion that: ok I need to tailor new ones. I thought I could like just lose a little weight and it'd all fit by Xiamen anyway. But hurhur, with 3 months to go, hurhur, making new pants is the faster solution. It's been said, there's no problem too big money can't solve. Hurhur. problem of chorale trousers solved.

It STILL doesn't solve the problem of how I'm going to not look pudgy in my Xiamen photos vis-a-vis Bremen photos. How. die. Photoshop.

The tailor was at our practice today, so I just asked to make some new pants. Bloody hell he damn insensitive lah. KNN taking my measurements then remarked: "your thighs are quite big". knn. thanks. If they weren't big I woudln't be making new pants. KNN KNN KNN. Think the comment was heard by some of the Altos who then gave me knowing looks. KNN again I say.

After practice we went to see Da Vinci Code - I forgot to jio the juniors now I feel guilty. Anyway I must have fallen asleep at least 5 times during the movie for like 5 mins on stretch. It felt like a rehash of the book. I FINALLY understand what the conclusion in the book was all about.

iMelancholic

Wikipedia: Melancholia (Greek μελανχολια) is a mood of non-specific depression. It is characterised by low levels of enthusiasm and low levels of eagerness for activity.

I feel somewhat melancholic right now. Unidentifiable, general melancholia. Combination of a somewhat mediocre performance at Esplanade just now, uncomfortable pants the whole day long, no lunch break, having to go back to office after the performance, and generally ruing the current state of life.

iKNN

i'm in SUCH a foul mood. tired and feel like a hippo in a tutu.

iKowtow

I kowtow to you, oh Master of the Art of Flirtation. Be thou mine guru, and I your indentured and humbled Servant!

hurhurhur!!! Some people are born good at somethings, and some people at other things. Flirting is obviously not one of my fortes.

PS I continue to leave my friends nameless and "boh miah" so as to retain some semblance of anonymity (spelling?!!?? sorry - iMalaysian), though any semblance of that must surely have been destroyed by my posting of the Ubin pics.

What a busy day what a busy day.

I just realised everytime I ask the auntie to buy me lunch so that I can plonk my ass in the office chair to work over lunch, and, er, do a spot of blogging, she always buys the same things: rice, tofu, fried chicken, cauliflower nuggets. I must have eaten this same lunch for the past 3 weeks, barring any trips out for lunch. I need a change. Tmr I tell auntie.

Stuffing my face on the packet of rice, I realised I am a rice whore. I must have rice. I had a vision of myself being miserable working in London munching on cold soggy sandwiches for lunch. Blech. I guess Asia's the place to be.

It's somewhat strange to me that it seems all women have an obsession someway or other to get married once they hit the ripe young age of 25, or, a little later on, an minor obsession with the details of the ceremony.

Quote 1 (Age 24): "This isn't about me and my little girl's dream of getting married" ==> little girls all dream of getting married.

Quote 2 (Age 25): "...for all the years the boyfriend and I have been together, we would end up as happily before the altar to recite our vows"

Quote 3 (Age 26): "Never mind that I booked Sheraton already, I'm going to see Ritz Carlton this weekend and their wedding dinner options. All I lose is the S$3,000 deposit at Sheraton, but if Ritz Carlton's the perfect place, well, it's the perfect place and S$3,000 is no biggie." ====> S$3,000!!!!!!!!! OMGGGGGGGGG

Mayhaps mine sample is too small.

It is 1 am. Mayhaps I am too free.

Tmr (or, rather, today) is going to be a longgggggggg day. I need another long weekend.

Quote of the weekend:

"Ok guys, you can stop fawning now!" - Mike in response to our subdued silence as Dawn paraded her red tango-like dress.

Hey we weren't fawning ok!!!!!!

It's really sad when a person chooses to commit suicide. Can things be so bad that they would rather be dead? What about the family. Sigh - my sympathies to the family.

Three chorale ppl and I went to watch the University of Saint Thomas Choir today perform. 2 hours+ of solid singing. Talk about value for money! Individually they were really superb singers (no surprise there, half of them are Voice majors...), and they did really well in songs with solos, or musicals - really superb. Certainly they did a lot better singing "I'm so Pretty" than the stupid West Side Story cast in Singapore who really quite sucked.

However, I thought they need to work on their blend and togetherness as a choir - in a lot of songs it just sounded very loud throughout, and because it's very vibrato-y, it sounded just like a wall of sound - I couldn't make out the chords. They also need to work on song movement - it was all very vertical, no horizontal - exemplified by their performance of Eric Whitacre's "Sleep", which really put me to sleep. Because of the way they sing, all those chord layerings didn't come through at all (i.e. note after note being layered one after another along the scale)

Anyway, quite enjoyable evening, at the expense of the queue of work waiting for me which I was supposed to have been doing instead. The Filipinos are really very expressive people / performers, and the crowd really took to them. I never saw such a big standing ovation before for any other choir. Almost the entire house gave them a standing ovation.

I just watched the Jasmine Women trailer. Zhang Ziyi really is very gorgeous.

A lot of songs have hidden meanings. Having watched Jasmine Women the other day, the song stuck in my head, and I went to download the lyrics, which, as translated, reads:

Beautiful Jasmine flower
Beautiful Jasmine flower
Blossoming and budding here and there,
Sweet-smelling and white, all declare
Let me pluck you with tender care,
And present your loveliness for all to share
Beautiful Jasmine flower

It didn't help that each time, Zhang Ziyi was singing it on her wedding night, so it kinda seems like the woman sings of er,

her beautiful "Jasmine flower", obvious reference to the act of deflowering there
blossoming, budding here and there - full womanhood
sweet-smelling and white - purity of the body
plucked and presented to someone else - ie surrender of the "flower" to the husband.

Folk songs should be rated RA.

How do I tell an employee that her feet stinks and smells like fermented chou doufu of the highest order of fermentation, and that she should never take off her shoes when I'm around, and that I feel like puking everytime I walk past her desk, made worse by the fact that she turns on the fan under her table which disperses the molecules so offensive to my olfactory senses and makes me nauseous.

How do I subtly hint so.

Argh. I want to go home.

My friend killed her cold-blooded fish. *shudder*....murderer.

 
 

Cool shit huh? 

Addendum: I forgot to mention my proudest achievement over the weekend! I drove a manual Kangoo all round Singapore! I thought it would be a complete bitch to drive, being manual and diesel and all, but it was surprisingly quite ok. Woohoo!!! I'm a driving master.

Makes me feel like buying a manual car.

God I don't feel like working. I'm still bushed from Ubin.

Pulau Ubin

This must be one of the more fun-filled Sunday's I've had in quite a while. The trip pretty much turned out perfect, except that the POSB atm didn't work, so half of us had no money.

Unfortunately I have no idea where I put my camera cable - I've got to go and find it so that I can send round pictures of the trip.

Right now my head's spinning a bit from the bumboat ride, and I keep smelling Off insect repellant everywhere I go.

We were meant to have met at 9 am, but by the time everyone got there, it was pretty much around 10 am. Had a leisurely breakfast and crossed over at 11 am or so. Rented some new mountain bikes - at S$6 for the entire day it was quite a steal. Cheap and fun way of bumming the day.

The track was quite difficult at some points, and MUDDY, but I'm proud to say that I think I'm one of the three people who escaped without a single mud stain. Owen, who was err dressed up to the nines, landed smack in the middle of a mud pool. Emma landed his foot in a puddle of water. Yenling got her feet half stuck in mud. Yuck.

The smell of Off! permeated the air, as SOME people diligently drenched themselves at EVERY PIT STOP with Off!

Lunch was Ham/Cheese sandwiches with PRINGLES, a taste which the Singaporeans and Korean did not take to. Baka. It's tasty ok. Drinks was Champagne and Hoegaarden. The Champagne was sour. Why Why Why???? But anyway quite an enjoyable and light lunch.

We ended about 4 pm, slacked till about 5 pm, and had dinner - pretty good value for money. Then we decided we wanted to go watch a movie, and I decided I had to see Zhang Ziyi in Jasmine Women, so off we went in Dawn's tiny Getz, the remaining 6 of us, unchanged, smelly (or, rather, smelling of Off).

I can't decide whether I like the show or not. I'm not really sure what the show was getting at, but for some reason or other, I like all these Chinese shows with idyllic backgrounds, speaking in authentic chinese - i.e. not catered for the Western palate like the nonsense of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The show's set in Shanghai, and tells the story of 3 generations of daughters, who, for some reason or other, will start off young looking like Zhang Ziyi, and end off old looking like Joan Chen. I guess we are meant to pretend that they are different people.

I liked how we get to see Shanghai changing from 1927 (?) all the way to 1986. I think Shanghai must be a really beautiful city, and I can't wait to go there in July.

There's a really gross scene at the end where she's giving birth in the middle of the street, and it was so gross I could almost feel the pain of childbirth...it was erm, that vivid. I'm glad I'm a man and not a woman. It's no wonder some women just want to get anesthesised and get over with it.

Right. I'm totally bushed. My clothes are unironed, but I have enough work clothes for another week, so I'll just iron next week during the long weekend. My skin feels hot - I hope I didn't burn myself or anything.