What's with the late nights just before going off?

Maybe it's the thought of idling on the transport while making way to the destination that makes me feel that I can catch up with my beauty sleep afterwards.

Then again, I've been keeping late nights for weeks already.


"...繁星守候月不能睡 自因为爱上了夜的黑"

- 《远走高飞》


This is so very unlike me. I used to be sleeping before 12 midnight and waking up at around 7 am. It's not that I do not feel sleepy, it is more of the reluctance to go to bed. I think I am afraid that my mind would wander off and some unpleasant thoughts would manifest itself the moment I close my eyes.

Ever since my late nights, I always wake up feeling that I needed more sleep. Hopefully, I can recover the loss while I'm at Desaru.


"You have yet to finish your blog on the Taiwan trip and now you're going to Desaru. Better write more when you return."

- Ms. Zheng, teacher-in-the-making (and with the makings of one)


Will be returning to Singapore on Wednesday.

You are a Samurai.
You are full of honour and value respect. You
are not really the stereotypical hero, but you
do fight for good. Just in your own way. For
you, it is most certainly okay to kill an evil
person, if it is for justice and peace. You
also don't belive in mourning all the time and
think that once you've hit a bad stage in life
you just have to get up again. It's pointless
to concentrate on emotional pain and better to
just get on with everything. You also are a
down to earth type of person and think before
you act. Impulsive people may annoy you
somewhat.

Main weapon: Sword
Quote: "Always do the right thing.
This will gratify some people and astonish the
rest" -Mark Twain
Facial expression: Small smile

What Type of Killer Are You? [cool pictures]
brought to you by Quizilla

Again, on the way home...

I caught the action of a full scale police raid on a KTV lounge along Geylang Road. There were about 6 police vans in all, of which 2 were civilian vehicles. My friend drove past just as dozens of policemen unloaded from their vans simultaneously and rushed into the KTV lounge, just like those raiding scenes commonly found in Hong Kong dramas.

Pretty happening neighbourhood to be living in.

On the way home...

I could hear them when I was 30 metres away, mainly because the stillness of Bukit Timah Road at about 4 am did nothing to drown out their voices. She was walking huffily down the pavement, while he inched down the road 5 metres apart on his scooter, maintaining his speed to keep abreast of her.

As I neared, I could see that both of them were dressed in the same junior college uniform. They were shouting loudly at each other as they moved along the road/pavement, regarding jealousy over issues of the other party receiving SMS from members of the opposite sex.

So intense was their argument, that the shouting did not soften even as I rode past them on my bicycle. They were still within earshot until I had moved on for about 3 minutes or so.

The junction of Adams Road and Bukit Timah Road is probably a long way from home, and the route quiet and deserted save for a few foreign labourers. Maybe it's best to resume argument after reaching home.

Insect museum

Soupy bun day

汤包日

My mom brought me to Crystal Jade at Takashimaya for lunch today. Fans of Crystal Jade will ask "Which restaurant did you go to?".

Why? Because there's not just 1, but 3 Crystal Jade restuarants in Takashimaya.

And all 3 of them were nearly full house at around 1 pm, though thankfully the one we went to had a vacancy for 2.

It was my first trip to Crystal Jade in.....let's see.....5 years? I almost forgot what they serve. Anyway my mom had a craving for 小笼包 (which reminds me of someone) and she felt that Crystal Jade ones were pretty good. We ordered:

• 小笼包
• 肉包
• 韭菜包
• 锅贴
• 炸酱面
• 酒酿丸子
• 煎饼

The first 4 items were different types of meat wrapped in wheat flour skin, and the best part about them is that all of them had soup contained within the skin. It felt like having an assorted 小笼包 buffet.

However, they were also rather oily and my stomach had a greasy feeling halfway through the meal. Subsequently, my stomach felt like bursting with each bite that I took. Shouldn't have been so greedy with the orders.

The last 2 items were desserts. 酒酿丸子 was actually 汤圆 cooked in rice wine.

Sake! SAKE! (think of the movie "Samurai" where Tom Cruise shouts for the beverage to ease his torment)

It tasted sour but not alcoholic as I thought it would, since it was made from rice wine. A wonderful dessert, but not for those who don't appreciate sour food.

------------------------------------------

I know I should have done this long ago - take a decent photo to put up in my resume. After a few eons, I slowly brushed the cobwebs off my body, donned on a collared shirt, borrowed a tie from Shijie, and dragged him to my place to help me with the photoshoot.

The photo was taken in my brother's room. No image processing was done except resizing and cropping. It was the best expression I can manage. I just don't have the ability to look professional, or show a charming smile, or whatever.

We took about 20 shots before we got this one. If only my face could be moulded like plastic.

Sisterhood of the Crimson Blossoms

There are not many who can glow with the beauty of the setting sun. Or rather, blush.

The first that I came across is Val, on the day we had a lecture in LT 5 when half a row of students got up so that she can walk out from the centre of the row of seats. It was like standing up as the First Lady walked by.

Valerie's complexion is so fair that she seems to reflect all the light that falls onto her skin, thus the slightest blush would reveal the full colour of her blood.

The second one is Jun. Unlike Val, Jun's default skin colour is rosy. It was a crashing tower of wooden blocks a.k.a Jenga that gave me a chance to witness (and to know that it is possible to have) the transition from rosy to red to crimson.

Last but not least, we have a "Jolin wannabe" whose cheeks has an in-built automatic detect-ultraviolet-radiation-and-presto-instant-blush blusher. I think there's a photo or two as proof from the Pulau Tioman trip. Will have to hunt for it.

My idea of a perfect way to spend a day is...

• to have a good lunch and accompanied by an award-winning cheesecake for dessert and then going to karaoke to sing my heart out.


• to kayak for the entire afternoon out in the sea followed by a satisfying buffet dinner.


• catch a good movie and subsequently have a 'marathon' of pool.


• play LAN games as if there's no tomorrow.

...and most importantly, to be with my friends while I'm at it.

Disturbed

Normally when I'm bothered by something real bad, I would play computer games for hours, and sometimes late into the night, because I couldn't sleep or do anything else.

Today, I'm so bothered that I don't even want to play my computer games anymore. I think my life is an utter mess and I should be doing something about it, yet I'm didn't. Don't feel like doing anything at all.

I hate this feeling.

Nocturnal conversion

Since my visit to Taiwan, I've gone another step closer to becoming a night animal. And with the recent night shopping craze, perhaps Singapore is joining me (or the other way round) in adjusting our bio-clock.

Somehow, my mom (who is undoubtedly the most unlikely person to go for nocturnal conversion course) asked me to go out for supper. Her question rather worried me, and for a moment, I thought the sky would be falling down over my head anytime soon.

Just to give a better idea, my mom usually sleeps at 10 pm and wakes up at 5 am.

We decided to go down to Lot 1 to fill up the remainder of our stomachs (because dinner was a pathetic amount of fried bee hoon), and if the shops at Lot 1 are joining the midnight shopping trend, perhaps some shopping as well.

My mom had never done shopping so late at night before. Heck, she hasn't done anything but sleep at this time of the night for decades. From the way she made a beeline to Veeko, no one could tell what her sleeping hours used to be.

It seemed that the more common apparel retailers, like Giordano and Veeko in Lot 1, were closing late to catch the market caused by the recent trend.

Anyway, I shall skip the boring details of the shopping process (good thing my mom doesn't know of my blog) and go on to the more interesting part - food! We discovered that a pasar malam was set up beside Lot 1. All that spells to us was "dinner".

Make that "supper".

I felt as if time has drifted back to the days when I was in Taiwan, wandering through night markets on the lookout for food. I ate myself silly with a half a pack of muah chee, 3 kueh tu tu, 1 Ramly burger and a Japanese pizza. Ah, the fond memories of eating as if there's no tomorrow while in Taiwan.

Following supper was sitting down for an ice blend at Lot 1's Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves.

Which reminds me: why is is that the shopping centres (in Orchard area) that I visit close at their regular timings, when it seemed that midnight shopping is going on everywhere on the newspapers? I always always asked to leave promptly before midnight whenever I sit down at a cafe with my friends. Why don't those shopping centres (with at least 1 cafe) cater to midnight shoppers?

Red Alert

I usually prefer to walk (for around 15 minutes) back home from the bus stop, along Bukit Panjang Road just before the exit to BKE, via the part connector (HCl should know what I'm talking about).

It was about 15 minutes to midnight when I got off the bus. The entire stretch of the park connector seemed surprisingly deserted. Surprisingly, because I know there is always someone in the neighbourhood who goes jogging at any time of the night.

It's not the 7th month of the lunar calendar yet. There should not be anything putting them off tonight. The answer to the puzzle came a little further down the road, at the fitness corner situated midway along the park connector.

As I neared the fitness corner, a mongrel suddenly appeared from amidst the obstacles and ran to the fence at the edge of the fitness corner, barking fiercely at me. Following, the remainder of the pack, probably about 4 or 5 of them, joined their comrade in showing unwelcome at my approach.

The fence, which was the only obstacle between the park connector and the fitness corner, stretched for less than 20 metres - the dogs could easily reach me either by running round the fence or after I have walked past the stretch fence along the way home.

I just ignored the stray dogs' incessant barking and continued my way home, thinking that they would not bother me once I have walked past 'their territory'. True enough, the sounds of barking gradually became softer when I passed by the fitness corner.

Of all a sudden, my senses warned me that 1 of the barking sounds seem to be getting nearer and nearer. 1 of the strays was trying to prove that it had the greatest responsibility in driving 'the intruder' off and was coming after me, while another less aggressive member of the pack followed it a few metres behind.

I turned around abruptly to face my pursuers. The sudden move scared them, and they quickly turned to flee. Those 2 mongrels were just bullies who thought I was an easy target. They had changed their minds and rejoined their pack.

Though I managed reached home unscathed, I certainly do not wish to take that route back home again. I had no idea how those dogs got there, but they are discouraging people from using the park connector. I should have informed the police about them, but was too tired to make a trip down to the police post just now.

I hope no one is harmed by those dogs in the meantime.

The importance of warranties

I bought a camera tripod from Harvey Norman just before leaving for Taiwan. A tripod is an important accessory if you wish to take photos at night or in dark places, where the foreground is too far away to reflect sufficient light from the flash.

Usually the camera shutter speed has to be lowered so that it can capture more light and the photo will not turn out too dark. Lowering the speed however means that slight movements will result in a blur picture. And that means you can't take nice photos with your hands.

I got my Steinzeiser tripod at $28 (after discount) together with my camera. Both served me well when I became trigger happy in Taiwan, though I used my tripod only twice so far. When it's not in use, I kept the tripod in my luggage bag where it is cushioned by my clothes.

However, upon returning to Singapore, 1 of the adjustment handles came off. Not very hardy I must say.

Anyway I called Harvey Norman's hotline to find out if I could have it replaced or fixed anywhere. Their reply was that the product did not have any warranty and neither do they provide services for fixing tripods. They did suggest a solution though: buy another stand from them at $28 (usual price $48).

Buy another sub-quality stand and wait for it to spoil for no apparent reason so that I can replace it again for a discounted price (WOW!!), and wait for it to spoil for no apparent reason so that.....hey, did I just repeat myself?

That's a really good way to make money. Too bad I'm not that stupid.

Came home not too long ago from watching "Monster-in-law". Not bad, the jokes were not low-class, and well, laughter is the best medicine.

If you're expecting to have a lot of hot J-Lo scenes, be prepared to get disappointed. Go for the sake of watching a comedy, and you'll still get to enjoy yourself.

Di think that I 'lust' for cheesecake, and always conclude the day by going to some cafe, usually Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves, because we agreed that the cheesecake there is fabulous. Wonder what have I done to give her the impression that I'm a cheesecake addict.

I think RT eats more cheesecakes than I eat dessert...ooops.

I thought I would feel better after letting out something I've been keeping inside for more than half a year. Doesn't seem to be any difference.

Maybe some things are so terrible that no matter what you do about it, you won't feel any better.

Eating out with Di & RT

There's a saying that goes:

"You can't be eating poorly when you're eating with Di or RT."

Actually I just made that up, though it's the absolute truth. These 2 ladies know where all the good food are - from the expensive restaurants in town to the neighbourhood coffeeshops.

Thanks to Di, I just found out another nice supper spot within 25 minutes of cycling from my home. Does crispy and yet not undersized prata accompanied by delicious fish curry that only has a tinge of spiciness sound like something you've been looking for, but have never found it?

You can find it at the coffeeshop right across the road from Bukit Gombak MRT beside McDonald's. We ordered 2 teh ping, 1 iced milo, 4 kosong pratas and a mutton murtabak for only $8. No kidding.

Anyone wants to go for supper?

Let's go for a holiday!

After reading the recent papers (on and off because quite a few people are reminding me I have a very long blog to finish), I am reminded that there are some areas in which Singaporeans need to improve upon, like increase our environmental awareness, be more gracious, have better road courtesy (especially to cyclists), to name a few.

There have been quite a few countries which are successful in these areas, which is more than enough proof that it can be done. I feel that what Singaporeans need is not an example to follow, nor reasons to move in such a direction. What we really need is the motivation to make consistent efforts to improve ourselves, and our surroundings.

Rather than looking at what other countries have and wish that we were born in over there rather than here, we should take the 1st step to improve, to work towards what we want.

Maybe going for a trip to countries that have shown success in such improvements is a way to motivate people on the neccessity to make such changes. By visiting these countries, we can see for ourselves that it can be done, and that all we need is for everyone to take the 1st step together.

Building castles in the air

After idling for some time, the brain will start to wander off to avoid becoming stagnant. At least that's the case for mine.

Thinking back of what has happened, thinking of what may happen.

And sometimes thinking of the things that I should have and should not have done.

People usually say there's no point in thinking too much over what has been done a.k.a crying over spilt milk. However, I think that some extent of evaluation is still important, at least to the point of understanding what went wrong and how things could have been better carried out.

And after that, it's time to turn around and look to the future once more.

Are you ready?

Went down to Orchard with my mom and bought 1 set of formal attire, minus the belt. Will look for it another time.

Together with my new 'office bag', not so new leather shoes, and most importantly some pointers from someone who works in the HR department, I'm now all set to go for interviews.

Time to start some serious job hunting.


Blogging in between writing an ultra-long blog entry is 1 level up from normal blogging
-Tengkia

Quarter life crisis

New OS (Win XP), new hard disk (80 Gb, plus the old one makes 100 Gb in all). Finally my pc is up and running and things are in order again.

Yup, order in life comes from blogging.

Finally started writing the blog on my Taiwan trip, think it's going to take a week to complete, amidst the outings I've planned and someone pestering me for presents.

And job hunt commenced now that I've revived my internet connection. It's terrible having to go elsewhere just to be able to go online to send out resumes.

My friends are all going for overseas trip at different dates. It feels.....different, to say the least, not seeing them on my MSN list of online people for a few weeks.

Time still seems to fly by, despite that I'm idling most of it away.

At least now that I can install all of my games into my pc, I can play them 1 by 1 until I get a job. Life is bliss.

For now.

Oh yes, he's bored again

I've mentioned to some that my hamster has very interesting sleeping habits, or rather, sleeping positions.

Before I get down to the main topic, I'd like to mention that the running wheel in its cage was missing for a while. I think it dropped from my window ledge when I put it out to dry (potential killer litter, ooops).

Which means little Furball had no wheel for it to exercise on when it feels bursting with energy (it's always bursting with energy at night).

Until recently, my mom replaced the wheel. But instead of using it as a exercise mechanism, the ingenious little chap used it as a bed.





If there's anything about this little fellow that I can't compete against, it's coming up with new ideas for beds and sleeping positions





Just when I thought I'm the only one who sleeps with my legs sticking out...


I raise both hands in defeat.