Last working day of year 2005

No mistake about it. Today is the last working day for my company, and I think it's because my company follows the holiday (on 30th Dec) in Japan (for this case).

This could probably be the last blog entry in 2005 for me, since my PC refuses to be revived. Probably only the experts at Sim Lim can do something about it. Brand new PC, brand new headache. Shall look forward to the brand new year instead.

I have a dream - to personally drive a boat out of Singaporean waters to some island resort, anchor my boat somewhere and spend the rest of the day diving. Dinner could either be settled on board the boat or in one of the resorts on the adjacent islands, with the view of the setting sun right in front of me. At night, I'll just lie on the deck of the boat watching the stars, listening to the waves and feeling them rock the boat. Never seem to get tired of all that stuff.

Would start with Pulau Tioman first since it's the nearest safe spot from Singapore, and perhaps slowly work my way to further and more exotic places. The boat and the diving equipment doesn't necessarily have to be mine.

Before I can do all that, I'll need to get a diving license (been putting that off) and to clock more sea mileage. And not forgetting to save up more money so that I can carry out all these activities.

Dreams...are what keeps people striving in life.

There is no such thing as a free lunch...

Last night, I met Ru-Tian to buy a birthday present for a mutual friend. We starving by the time we reached Orchard from work, so dinner was pushed to the top of the agenda.

Ru-Tian recommended durian fried rice from Central at Takashimaya Square basement. I'm no durian-lover but I don't abhor the fruit either. Anyway, having a change from normal Singapore cuisine would be quite refreshing, so I agreed.


[Food review look-a-like section]

Central serves Hong Kong style dishes and is situated right beside the fountain of Takashimaya Square basement, together with its big red signboard, which makes it easy to locate. With a passing glance, one can tell that majority of the patrons are lured by the big advertisement stating "The first and only durian fried rice in Singapore" (as of now, the only one).

The next popular item seems to be their baked rice, but that looks more Western style to me, just that the rice is served in a claypot-like utensil instead of a casserole.

I ordered a durian fried rice and a iced milk tea added with grass jelly, while Ru-Tian decided upon a unique form of Char Kway Teow and 鸳鸯, which is actually a mix of coffee and tea with milk. The Char Kway Teow was very different from the normal kind we see everywhere else because it was tightly packed into spring roll skin and the whole thing was fried quickly.

The durian fried rice gave off the distinct aroma of durian only for a few seconds after it was displayed before me, subsequently all signs of durian were detected mainly by my tongue. The taste was that of good standard fried rice, coupled with that of durian. I thought the durian taste would be distorted by the heat and mixing with the fried rice, but that wasn't the case. In fact the proportion of durian was just nice that it didn't overpower the fragrance of the fried rice.

The Char Kway Teow was equally nice, has a light taste and an addtional crunch thanks to the fried spring roll skin. Greedy me thought it wasn't enough for both of us as we were very hungry then but it turned out to be quite filling, since both dishes were fried and drinks with milk added on to the 'filling feel'.

After stuffing all that food down our throats, we discovered to our horror that it was 8.45 pm - the shops would be closing soon and we had not bought our birthday present yet. Thus we tried to get the waiters' attention.

I waved my hand. A water told me to hold for a moment.

Several moments passed. Ru-Tian waved her hand. We were told to wait again.

A million moments flew past happily. We were still waiting.

We decided to get up and pay at the counter (but there wasn't any). No one even noticed us standing around looking lost, or that we left our table without paying. I was pretty sure we could just walk out of the place just like that and some of their waiters would still mumble a "Thank you. Hope to see you again". But of course we did pay eventually.

And so, to end this entry from where I started:

...but there are things such as free dinners provided you know how to get away with it.

Do you?

I got this from my friend's wedding dinner last Thursday. Guess what's inside?


Keeping guessin' guessin' guessin' (a la Limpbizkit)














Looks cute doesn't it? Almost couldn't bear to eat it. But then again, I'd rather not waste the chocolate. It was made from dark chocolate, not too sweet, not too bitter - the kind that true chocolate lovers appreciate (or so I heard).

My Christmas present

I won the tug of war against Jieling - Ahqiang went shopping with me on Christmas Eve.

Ok, there wasn't really a tug of war. Actually, Jieling let me have Ahqiang for the afternoon. Choosing the new hardware didn't take too long, but waiting for the bugger I paid to have it assembled took almost 3 hours. Ahqiang had to hang around Sim Lim Square with me like delinquents at a void deck of a HDB flat.

Worse of all, the PC couldn't work after I set it up the moment I got home.

I called up the same bugger to find out what can be done to get my system going, and he gave me a whole lot of explanation in technical terms, which I could hardly understand. That idiot had the nerve to tell me he assumed Ahqiang would come over to my place and fix everything up for me, as an excuse for his own mistakes. He's very lucky he wasn't right in front of me when he said that.

The next day, which is Christmas Day, Kenny came over to my place to try to fix the problem. Spent the whole afternoon at my place messing around with every possible configuration but to no avail. In the end, Lawrence came down as well and by some miracle, he managed to get it to work. By then, it was already 9 pm and their dinner at home had turned into supper.

The best present I had for this Christmas, is the wonderful friendship given to me by these people. Without them, I wouldn't be able to blog at this unearthly hour. This entry is especially to say Thank You to Jieling, Ahqiang, Kenny and Lawrence.

Tis' the season to be 'OWNING'

Owning: A slang, coined by DOTA players, used to signify that they are gaining the upper hand after killing off opponent-controlled characters for a number of times.

My office looked so empty right now, that I felt as though I just came to work very early in the morning. For the first time since I've graduated, I had this heart-warming, floating-in-the-air, and I-can't-stop-smiling feeling inside me.

Guess what? I'm in a HOLIDAY MOOD! So is everyone else in the office (I think).

It's the time of the year for everyone to compile a wish-list and post it to Santa Claus. For me, I just wish to be able to have a good game of DOTA without any lagging, which means I need a system overhaul. My pay's coming in on Saturday, and that is just nice for me to drag Ahqiang along to do some Christmas shopping (I'm sure I can beat Jieling in a tug-of-war).

Just joking.

Most of the people around me are having real plans (and a real wish-list) for Christmas. For me, I've never thought of what I want to have for Christmas. I'm not exactly a hardcore gamer, but I don't want to ask for things that I can't have.

Anyone like to bet on it?

What is the probability that within a few minutes of taking a photo of the sunset, another person in the vicinity is also taking a photo of the same scenery? Assume that the place is not at all well-known for sunsets (or anything else for that matter).

Not too long ago, I took a photo of the evening sky at Teban Gardens (see also shot of the day). Today, I just discovered that someone else took a very very similar photo. Though there's no way I can prove for sure that both photos were taken at around the same time, nor can I say state with absolute certainty that the cloud formation at Teban Gardens "always look like that", I believe that these two photos have much similarities.

Anyway just click on both links above and see for yourself.

I'm for both photos taken at around the same time. Any takers? Calling once...calling twice...

高手

“你是爱情高手。。。”

I only realised yesterday, that quite a number of my colleagues are good at badminton. They're the good-enough-to-join-competition calibre. I had a great (not to mention tiring) time playing with them last night. My legs were already aching on my way home.

Not long after I was home, one of my fellow monster killers called me up for a few rounds. There was a pro on my team that night - my friend's younger brother (but I think he clocked twice the amount of time I spent on DOTA). His presence made a big impact on our team's performance.

Feels good to be mingling around with the all the 高手 last night.

我也是高手。 我是个很高的对手。

Company profile

MEA is all about D&D. If you'll believe me.



Taken during a break in between D&D activites


I haven't treated Peilin to a meal since she helped me get my current job. Lost count of the number of people I owe a meal to. Debts are already piling up sky high within the first month of starting my job. Oh dear...



Alex introducing himself during the "Mr MEA" nominations


Alex is the only other NUS fresh grad to join MEA Technologies. Both him and Peilin sit at the opposite end of the office from me, so I don't usually get to talk to them.

For those who want to look at the pretty girls/handsome guys in my office, too bad for you. All I can offer is this:



I was very surprised when this young girl suddenly appeared in the midst of our D&D. Not exactly something I'd expect at such a function.


Hope HCl isn't bleeding all over his keyboard.

King Kong

The spoiler.



Nah, I'm not that mean. All I'll say is that after this movie, I won't be mesmerised Jackie Chan's kungfu moves any more.

Learning a new language

There were quite a few visitors who came over to my company today. Maybe this has always been the case, but having worked for only 3 weeks - times flies as 1 of my colleagues remarked when he realised the same - I still don't know a lot of things around my work place.

These visitors were all foreigners, as far as I can see, and that somehow make me feel compelled to learn new languages. Especially Japanese. To think I've been avoiding third language subjects for years, due to my slow language learning capabilities (a.k.a. excuses).

Some of my colleagues are thinking of taking up a Japanese course next year before their exchange to Japan. Maybe I should follow them. Not forgetting buying more ties and shirts and pants. I heard that the Japanese are very particular about their working attire, and I've verified this with my own eyes - they wear a tie to work everyday. More shopping...argh.

Then again, I don't even know if I'll ever get to go to Japan.

Cold joke

Finally, after all these years (of torture), it's my turn to shoot back a cold joke first thing in the morning (at You-know-who-you-are).

Though I used the word "torture", I'm still your friend.

Question: What is "jaywalking" in Chinese?

To find out the answer, hover your mouse over here and look at your window status bar (the space that shows the web address when your mouse moves over a link).

Senseless banter

My brother just borrowed the VCDs for "My date with a vampire" series 3. You know what that means? No, not early nights on Sundays from now on. It means:


I CAN DATE MA XIAO LING EVERY NIGHT INSTEAD OF ONLY SUNDAY NIGHT!!


I still stay up late on Sundays nights, but it's for killing monsters. Speaking of which, I've not had any good games for sometime. There's always someone who leaves the game when it just started, making the whole game unbalanced (for example a 5 v 5 game suddenly becomes a 5 v 4). The presence of childish and arrogant people just makes things worse.

At this point, Ahqiang would probably tell me to stop wasting time on Battlenet and move to IRC, where most of the better players are found, or something like that. But I hardly see him online these few days.

Ahqiang, where are you?

MAYDAY

RAWKS!

ROX!

I meant MAYDAY ROCKS!!! Got a little too high after Mayday brought the roof of Singapore Expo's Max Pavillion down, with the help of a 10,000 strong crowd (according to my own estimation), including myself.

The entire concert lasted for about 3 hours, including some funny video clips, solos (by the group's guitarists and drummer) and wishing 石头 (one of the guitarists) happy birthday in between.

Throughout most of the concert, I was standing up with the rest of the crowd, singing, shouting, shaking like nobody's business. Too bad for those behind me. There's no point in holding yourself back when you're in a concert like this one, and it makes you look out of place, when even the aunties are standing up to get a better look at Mayday.

Every scream brought away a part of the frustrations built up over the past few days. This event came at a really good time for me. But it wasn't just the performance that made this a worthwhile trip. In the hall, there was this young couple seated side by side in front of me with their young daughter, probably 4 years old, on their laps.

Apparently, the couple are fans of Mayday and they had brought their little daughter along to catch their favourite rock group's live performance. It was a most heartwarming sight to behold, the couple sat shoulder to shoulder, holding their daughter together and all 3 of them swaying to the music. However they had to leave early because their daughter couldn't stay up too late. A pity, but I'm sure that short period of time was the sweetest in their life.

Maybe I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Mayday concerts are worth every single cent of it.

It's no big deal

Yesterday, I felt that the burden of being the sole breadwinner was suddenly heaved, though unintentionally, onto my shoulders. Actually it's nowhere near a worst case scenario, whereby one has to start earning money during adolescence to upkeep household expenses. Furthermore, I'm a graduate with an Honours and I've just found a nice starting job with reasonable pay.

So I just tell myself, It's no big deal.

But when I get down to doing the maths - calculating the total amount of expenses needed and looking at the remainder that's left, I probably won't be able to tell myself it's not a big deal any more.

People have advised me before, "Don't bring your work home", meaning that work problems should be left behind in the office after you've knocked off. Similarly, I feel that family problems should also be kept within the confines of the four walls and the roof of my home. That is why I hardly talk about work and family issues on my blog.

For now, my only long term plan is to make sure I have enough money to get by when I retire, and also in case of emergencies.

活着是要活的快乐， 而不是要活的长久。

It's TIGER TIME!

Last night, I joined my former colleagues on an excursion to tour Asia Pacific Breweries in Tuas. The excursion was organised before I left, though the actual event was set at last night.

What does a non-drinker like me want to do at a place that produces beer? I joined for the company, not for drinking (although the latter is inevitable). It was a pretty nice feeling stepping back into my former workplace where everyone greeted me like a special guest. It felt as though I had walked into a classroom where I used to have lessons and all my ex-classmates were there, happy to see me after some years.

No kidding. I was just as delighted to see them all.

There was a coach outside Carrier's office, waiting to transport us to Asia Pacific Breweries. The turnout for the excursion was pretty high - about 20 people went - which wasn't surprising since we were entitled to free flow of freshly brewed drafts of beer.

For me, most part of the tour was pretty boring, as it involved the setting up of the plant and the history of Tiger Beer. I was more interested in the automation system within the manufacturing sector, where beer bottles and cans were sealed, arranged and packed into containers.

I was observing how the delivery system works, with only 3 people overlooking after the entire process, rather flawlessly in separating uprighted cans from the fallen ones before they were packed. Everything seemed rather ingenious to (a greenhorn like) me.

At the end of the tour was a catered dinner, which we ate inside Asia Pacific Breweries' pub, or rather a pub-look-a-like, since it opens only till 10.30 pm. The pub-look-a-like even had a pool table and a KTV system complete with an overhead projector and a screen. Cool idea having this pub inside the brewery.

I drank to my limit last night, the limit being the point when I started feeling tipsy. Training me up for future entertainment trips, my former colleagues (actually I prefer to call them my friends but this is for easy reference) said, which I accepted in good nature. After all, what they said is true and I didn't have to pay for it.

It was the first time I experienced the sensation of being drunk. My brain seemed to be dancing to rock 'n' roll music, and I had to make an effort to walk in a straight line. The worse part was after I got onto the taxi - the driver turned at such high speeds that I felt nauseous. I did my best not to puke inside the taxi.

Perhaps the driver wasn't experienced enough to know that people who are drunk are more liable to motion sickness, or perhaps he wanted to get all of us back home as quickly as he could before anyone threw up.

In the end, I puked the moment I got home.

Ahqiang will be taking care of me for the rest of my life

...if my boss ever sees me typing out this entry. Even if it means he has to put Jieling aside. Jieling please don't come after me, it's Ahqiang's fault if anything happens (read comments here) .

My 1st blog from the new office! At least I have something else to do when I need a break (apart from going for the daily tea breaks).

Just a note for this entry: my horoscope for today (read from The Straits Times) is freakingly accurate. Wonder if it's the same for everyone else...

Just plain lazy? Or...

I actually have a sizeable collection of photos which I took during my stay in Carrier, especially during the company's R&R Day, but I didn't want to put all of them up. Only a selected few have been uploaded here.

It might be a waste to have taken so many photos and not upload them for all to see, but most of the time, the shots that I took are more for practicing my photography skills and not to capture the faces of my (former) colleagues, which is the opposite of why most people take photos. Perhaps that is why I didn't upload all of the better photos.

Or maybe I'm just lazy.

I was planning to buy sports shoes today, most likely from Queensway Shopping Centre, but didn't go out in the end. Didn't feel like going out today, even though everyone else at home is out. Either I miss lazing at home, or I just don't feel going anywhere or doing anything. Laziness again.

Coincidentally, 2 different cliques have asked me out to go KTV this weekend, one on each day. Quite unfortunately, my cough came back AGAIN (for the 3rd time in 3 months...what a record), and I had my shopping to finish. Then again, I'm not sure I would want to go even if there were none of the above problems.

Just 1 word: lazy.

Time to get the pesticide out and drive all the lazy bugs away.

Supposed to be blogging on the last day of work at Carrier

I actually didn't have the time to blog last Friday, all the way up till now. Friday was mainly spent on clearing the work on hand, and saying my farewells to my colleagues (put up some photos here). After which I went out for a LAN session with friends.

Saturday was KTV followed by more LAN (I was out since morning all the way till night), and Sunday was Christmas (or rather, desperate and last minute) shopping.

Subsequently, my perm job started. Just like that, without a break (the weekend wasn't long enough to be a proper break). I stepped across the boundary of 1 side of the working world to the other. Ever since I've been doing my temp job, I've been getting an idea of how different a perm job and a temp job is, and they really seem to be on the opposite ends of the same world.

Been going home late almost everyday. Not because of work, but because there's no one at home, and I'd rather eat out with my friends, or just hang out somewhere by myself. Don't see the point of going back early to an empty apartment, save for my little Furball. Hence all the late nights.

My new company exercises very strict control over the use of the internet - I can't even check my Yahoo mail from the office. But then, I haven't tried blogging from there yet...