Splat Potato :: 我是马铃薯

The Melancholic Friday

2010-11-27T00:37:00.003+08:00

Somehow today doesn't feel like it's a friday.
in fact somehow i feel today's a bad day tho i din start e day feeling like this.
it was sometime in e evening when i started getting this whole today doesn't feel like a good day feel.

went to watch cinderel-lah w a fren. we were introduced by a mutual fren.
guess she's isn't too bad. nice pleasant girl. and i get e vibe she kinda likes me.
but i dun feel e same abt her.

on e other hand there's this other girl whom i guess i can say i quite like. we, too, were also introduced by mutual frens.
but somehow i get the vibe dat she doesn't feel e same.

it's kinda frustrating ain't it?
and i think, looking back, i'm always somehow not feeling e same abt the girls who liked me,
save for the one relationship but dat's something else altogether.

i know... i hear some of u saying 'y dun u go tell e girl u like dat u like her and see wad she says?'
but i shy la. i really suck at being able to broach a topic like dat.
i know i suck and damn no guts.

mayb, JUST mayb, dat's god's way of telling me to forget abt the girls?
hmmm... dilemma. dilemma. dilemma.

think i'll juz sleep this off and hopefully when i wake up, it'll all be good again.
BAH!! hate days like this.

p.s. if u know who are e girls i'm talking abt. good for u. if u dun, u can try asking me and i'll see if i'm in e right mood to tell u.

I Am Angry. Hear Me Roar!

2010-11-01T23:18:00.002+08:00

Work is a complete mess.
sea trial is on wed and i've yet to start commissioning on this system which is having some problems.
and we're having all these troubles now only because everything got delayed.
the yard took their bloody own time to get my cables run n connected, took their time to prepare my hydraulic system.
i had planned to have started on this system last mon or tue and i din get to touch it until sat.
and now we've run into problems, they're working wo any sense of urgency to get it up n running so dat i can get it ready for sea trials.

and as if dat isn't a big enough problem, more problems have cropped up tonite.
and it's problems dat dun seem to make sense coz all the settings are correct and the wirings are correct. and it seems the problems might be caused by parts which we dun have spare in e sg office. PHUI!!!

i really hope this blows over soon coz i'm sooooo damn sick of it all.
cant wait for 19 nov to come quickly so dat i can leave all the workstuff behind until 2011.
18 more days to tahan. these 18 days are gona seem like 18 months.

ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

The Weekend Burnt

2010-10-29T21:45:00.003+08:00

It's been quite an eventful couple of weeks.
been gng to the shipyard pretty much daily to commission a brand new system on this kiwi research vessel.
but some delays on the shipyard's part has resulted in me having to work thru this weekend so that my system is ready for sea trial by monday (hopefully).

so i'm hoping all goes on smoothly tmr n sunday.

in other news, justin n steph were married last sat at holy spirit church.
it's kinda strange how far this couple has come.
i can dare say i am one of the few ppl who knew both of them separately b4 they somehow got together.
and after years of dating each other, it's finally come to this.
and i'm happy for both of them :D

was asked to be e emcee w nat for the dinner.
was hoping to tell as many stories abt the couple but due to the schedule of the dinner, we only managed to tell 1 story abt each of them.

i think soon to come, i'll be the single dude who's always hanging out w the couples. lol.
actually u know wad, i'm ALREADY the single dude who's always hanging out w the couples. lol.
i think i'm at dat age where weddings are getting lesser but definitely hearing more news of frens being pregnant, giving birth, being pregnant again w their 2nd kid, baby showers and e whole lot.

and while on the topic of the babies, i recently went for michelle's son, isaac's full mth party.
and i met a fren from v v v long ago. the mid-90s is when i'll say.
we caught up a fair bit, staying at e party waaaaay longer than we had planned.
it's always nice to catch up w frens who u have lost touch w from long ago.

hopefully the throat will stay quiet over the next 2 days while i'm working.
been nursing a cough since last week. was much better, prolly to the point of being completely well. but suddenly a massive coughing bout last nite, made everything worse.
to e doctor i went this morning and got more meds. thankfully there was no phelgm so no antibiotics this time round. juz lozenges, cough mixture and some med to reduce the swelling from all dat coughing.

Poor Sick Lulu

2010-09-16T00:34:00.003+08:00

Lulu is sick.
she's been having some steering problem over e last couple of weeks i guess.
gona b on leave tmr to bring her to e doc.

hopefully it isnt anything major dat will burn a hole in my pocket.
she needs a set of new tyres too. the current ones are balding and need changing already.

gona b up early to send her to e workshop and if they're gona take a while,
den i'm gona b cabbing down to wavehouse n clock some flo-riding hrs. den pick her up again.

really hope i dun get caught in peak hr traffic when travelling both ways.

fingers crossed and hope she comes out fine.

The Birthday Weekend

2010-09-08T23:37:00.002+08:00

This yr's bday is DEFINITELY one of the quietest i've had in e last 2 yrs.
big bash 2yrs ago on my 30th,
awesome nite out at wala's last yr w approx $300 worth of drinks on e house
a zoo outing, a simple dinner at esmiralda and a nice sunday brunch.

it's free entry to e zoo if it's ur bday and u get a free icecream as well. u also get 10% discount off F&B and mechandise.

so to e zoo we went - ben, jacq n i. the rest couldn't make it :(
peter is in US.
mark had to work.
john had a rally and ewen n fel were helping him.

lovely weather on dat day tho - not much sun, no rain. nice weather to walk ard in e zoo.
fotos will b coming up in FB. so pls b patient :P

after zoo, it was dinner at esmiralda at orchard hotel.
for the longest time, everyone in church has gone to esmiralda one time or another.
but somehow everytime there's a dinner there, i'm travelling for work.
so sat was my first time dining there and it was most definitely yummilicious.
the meats are so fantastic, so juicy.

sunday's brunch was at Graze at rochester park.
it was e first time everyone else was eating there - ben, jacq, fel n ewen.
poor markie had to work again and john was busy in church.
had their signature cast iron pan which had bacon, sausage, potatoes, baked beans.
so awesome. yum.

it was juz a simple relaxed brunch, starting at 11am and we only left ard 2 or 2.30pm.
went home for a while to rest up and ard 5.15pm, i was headed to michy's place for house blessing.

she had just moved into her new home at bt panjang and friggy was there to do e hse blessing.
it's always nice to see friggy.

after blessing, it was dinner time and after dinner, we played more raving rabbids.
yes, we played e game too b4 e blessing.

went home w tired, achy arms but it was kinda well worth the fun.

Note to Self

2010-07-28T01:31:00.002+08:00

Please blog soon.

i will try to blog abt my trip to norway, legoland, basel and london.
and how crazy work is.
but i dun have e mood to blog leh.

The Norsk Adventure - Week 1 & 2

2010-05-30T22:38:00.003+08:00

It's been abt 2 weeks since i arrived in norway.

the weather is a little cold but enjoyable.
food is not too bad. been surviving on kebabs, pizza and salads.
i get to walk ALOT but dat's juz to counter the fat foods i'm eating.

was quite an adventure juz trying to get to norway.
my flight on tues nite (18may) on KLM got cancelled so was supposed to be back again the next day.
but a call to my boss, another to the company's travel agent and a 2 1/2hr wait, i was booked to fly at 9am to london on SQ den on BA to oslo
so i dun end up arriving in kongsberg too late for my training.

kongsberg is abt a 1.5hr drive from the oslo airport. the sun sets ard 1030pm and i heard dat the sun rises ard 430.
if i'm not wrong, there is not complete darkness at night. so there's always a tinge of blue in the sky at nite.

the place is a small quiet town where e shops close ard 5pm and on thurs the shops open longer til 7pm.
sunday is damn killer coz NOTHING is open. not even the supermarkets.
the place is SO small, u can pretty much walk all over town in an hour tops.
the weather here when i first arrive was great. 18-22deg with the sun. loved it.
but last sunday marked the beginning of a cold week. it was kinda raining almost everyday, esp the weekends.
left the hotel at prolly 19degs at 1pm only to return ard 11pm at 4.5deg.
and it kinda snowed in kongsberg too.

everything here is expensive from food to taxis to the movies.
cheapest food u can find here in kongsberg is kebabs. a meal w a drink will set u back abt 125NOK (nowegian kronors) which is abt $30.
the exchange rate is s$1 approx = 4.2NOK. a movie ticket is 85NOK = $21.
but the seat in front of u has a table thingy which u can open up so u can put ur popcorn n drinks.
i din know until the movie was abt to start and i saw these 2 guys open their tables.
din wana look like a suaku trying to figure out how it opens while the movie was going on.
caught the movie 'daybreakers' - a movie abt vampires being the dominate race in the world n humans are being harvested for their blood.
stary built up v nicely. but the ending was juz sooooo bad. it was like in 30mins and the world was saved.

back to the adventures.
on the first sunday here, i went to the silvermines kongsberg is famous for.
kongsberg only became famous coz of the large quantities of silver discovered here in the early 1600s.
only 1 mine is open to the public and u gota take a mine train into the mountain to get into the mines.
this mine, the biggest of the all the mines in the area and the first to be opened, is called the king's mine.
it alone accounted for half of kongsberg's silver output.
from the surface, the mine was abt 1km deep and was abt 3 times taller or deeper than the eiffel tower.

went to oslo yesterday w 2 fellow trainees from brazil.
walked ard for quite a bit. we visited the vigeland park, otherwise known as the statue park, which showcased abt 200 statues by gustav vigeland.
also walked to the new opera house built in 2007. din walk in tho coz it was closed but walked to the roof n checked out the view.
also dropped by the royal palace ard 1.30pm to watch the changing of the guard. toko a foto w one of the guards.
but they can talk to ppl who ask questions and tell ppl to move away from the barrier and if they're tired from standing stil, they can march abt their post. quite unlike the british guards we see on the telly.

most unfortunately, my camera batt died after the changing of the guards.
stupid me forgot to make sure the batt was fully charged the nite b4. dang.

took a ferry to cross the fjord to visit the viking museum where they had 2 whole viking ships on display.
a third was also on display but it was not intact any longer. it also displayed the artifacts which were discovered w the ships.
after dat, it was another quick walk to the FRAM museum which shows the history of norway's polar explorers.
the main exhibit is the ship, FRAM, which sailed further north and south than any other surface vessel.
it is preserved in it's original condition and it's open for visitors to enter and explore its walkways n rooms.

after dat, we took the ferry back to the main city centre and went to the nowegian musuem of science n technology.
it was kinda like the science center. but they have a full sized plane in there.
think it was one of the first jet engine planes operated by SAS.
u could walk underneath the landing gear and check out the hydraulic pistons and hydraulic lines and mechanical linkages
and figure out how exactly the landing is retracted into the body and how the door will close after dat.
okie... engineering geek stuff. mayb only aerospace geek stuff. lol.

after dat stop, it was almost the end of the day. most museums close at 5pm, 6pm latest.
one of the guys from the start of the trip wanted to visit the icebar by the ice hotel.
if some of us might remember, the ice hotel was featured on discoery channel showing how they built the hotel from scratch.
so the icebar is basically a replica of the actual bar in the hotel which has now melted.
so temperture inside is fixed at -5degs so we had to wear a thermal cape to keep warm. cover charges included a drink.
so it wasn't all dat bad. i had a drink which was a mix of aquavit and apple juice.
aquavit is a local spirit which i think is local to scandinavia.
so gona bring a bottle home from this trip.

and after dat, my 2 colleagues were gona visit one of their nowegian colleague.
so i left them to get my own dinner. walked past a chinese restaurant and tot i'll have chinese for dinner.
a mixed meat stirfry of beef, pork, chicken and 2 prawns, chicken soup (which is more western than chinese) and rice n tea came up to 240NOK which is abt $60. $60 dollars leh! can go owen seafood n eat seafood at half price lor.

i think i've gota stop converting prices here to sing dollars. i will go crazy thinking abt how expensive things are here. REALLY.

today is juz a relaxing day at home. juz gona watch some tv series, get on fb (wad's new?) and cook dinner later.
still havent decided wad's gona b on the menu.

i'm gona try to get my lappie to detect my sd card so i can copy my fotos and upload them to fb.
next week, i'm thinking of taking a train to bergen, a city on the west coast of norway. this route is in the wor;d's top 25 trains.
so till next week! take care y'all! miss u!

5 Years On...

2010-05-10T22:38:00.003+08:00

It juz dawned on me while in the shower dat i've been single for almost 5yrs now.
time sure has passed real quickly.

i'm not complaining. in fact i'm happy w my life.
and i'm thankful for frens who have been w me thru these amazing 5yrs.

so thank u again dear frens. u are most definitely loved coz u shared ur love w me.

Almost Missed

2010-05-03T14:51:00.003+08:00

Was off to philippines for work on sunday morning.
so left the chalet early at 7.30am to go to changi airport.
everything went well until i got to the domestic airport.

my flight was scheduled for 1605 takeoff. but my boarding pass said boarding time was 1625.
but there was no display or notification to say dat the flight was delayed until prolly like 1600.
so i heard dat the flight is delayed due to a late departure from singapore.
so i continued listening to my music... while waiting for the gate to open.

it was almost 5pm when i heard the announcement calling for me to proceed to the gate.
i had only heard my name and not the gate number so i quickly looked for one of the gate staff to enquire.
got the gate number and run like the wind. wasn't sure if i was the last one or among the last ones at dat time.
upon reaching the gate, den i realized i was the last pax.
so i had the whole plane waiting for me. oops :P sorry folks. and thanx for waiting.

when i sat down and was preparing to turn off my iphone, i couldn't find my iphone pouch.
i figured i must have dropped it when i jumped up to run to the gate.
and in the pouch was my airplane earphone adapter. looks like i'll b using SIA's not-dat-fantastic earphones for the flight back.

so here i am now at the hotel lobby, blogging and FB-ing and msn-ing coz there's no internet service in the rm. only free wifi in the lobby or poolside.
think i shd adjorn to the poolside later after lunch.

but waiting for something to happen, not knowing when it'll happen sux.
sux to the max.
coz i'm now waiting for the agent to tell me wad time he'll pick me up to send me to the heliport.

but meantime lunch is here.
so this entry ends now coz feeding a hungry stomach is impt.

The Weekend That Was Not Meant To Be

2010-04-26T21:41:00.002+08:00

This past weekend is really an interesting one.
Barring sunday, friday n saturday were filled with plans dat did not go as planned.

wanted to go wala's on fri to catch EIC but silly us met at the hawker centre at 7.30pm,
completely forgetting dat we shd be IN wala's at 730 to get ourselves a table.
upon reaching wala at 8pm, there was a queue downstairs and it was full upstairs. (wad's new?)

so we went off to dempsey to check out the new little extension. there was this restaurant/bar place called Contemporary Melting-Pot & Bar or CM-PB in short. most awesome mussles in marma ham sauce. nice little quiet place in a corner of dempsey, away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the place.

saturday started out nice and easy. woke up late, bummed ard at home until 6ish.
den it was time to go to marina to try to catch the opening ceremony of the helix bridge.
on the way there while on the AYE, some dumbass decided to pull some stunt, causing a cab 2 vehicles in front of me to jam brake which resulted in the cab directly in front of me to jam brake as well. and of coz i jam braked too. i stopped in time, stopping narrowly behind the cab.
but before i can say 'HENG AH!' the car behind hit me. pushing me infront, thereby hitting the cab.

#$@#%$%^@^@... and the thought on my mind while getting particulars of the 2 cabs n the car behind was: damn... there goes the plans for tonite. cant catch the fireworks.

and within 30secs after the accident, a couple of guys from some workshop appeared and helped the drivers with getting all the necessary information while asking everyone if anyone was injured.
they offered to take my van to the workshop to get it repaired and of coz settle all the paperwork. and i was in no mood to like think abt which workshop to send my van, i juz drove my van to their workshop for them to handle all the affairs related to the accident.
got a rental vehicle to use in the meantime while the van is being repaired.
lulu is gona b in the hospital for abt 4-5 days. hope she can discharge b4 i fly off to the philippines.

since the workshop was in kaki bukit, dinner was at bedok 85. and of coz we ordered lots of food. (wad's new?)
and after dinner, we went back to the marina bay area to check out the helix bridge as planned.
it wasn't as awesome as it was made out to be. but we still walked across the whole bridge to the end which was abt 2/3 across. the remaining 1/3 was cordoned off as construction works on the other are still not complete.
and so ends saturday.

and this is the weekend when nothing went according to plan.
now aint dat sweet?

Counting Down, Counting Down

2010-03-12T02:22:00.002+08:00

In another few more days, i'll b home, back on land.
in another few more days, i'll b sleeping in my beloved bed, which i'm 1000% sure, my bro is sleeping in right now.
in another few more days, i'll b playing bioshock 2 on my pc.
in another few more days, i'll b powering.
in another few more days, i'll b back in the office.
in another few more days, i'll b pokering on weekend nites.
in another few more days, i'll b checking my toto tickets. (yes... i havent checked them yet.)
in another few more days, i'll b mj-ing on fri nites.
in another few more days, well... u get the idea.

i've been away for quite a while now. 1 wk b4 CNY and 2 more after makes 3 weeks living onboard.
miss the food the most. luckily i've had my power pitstop couple days ago.
if i'm lucky, i might get my maggi goreng w teh tarik pitstop tmr morning. *fingers crossed*

well, it's nice to have made some new frens on this trip.
so a big harlow to u all but i doubt they'll b reading this.
it's been great working w them and getting to know them as well.

my sleeping pattern was all out of whack sleeping at 10am-ish or 3pm-ish and waking up in the afternn or ard 9pm-ish.
over the last couple of days, i've been sleeping like 3ish and waking up ard 9ish, trying to get back into a regular proper sleeping pattern.
guess i shd b gng off to sleep now.

see u guys pretty soon! hope u havent missed me much.
let me know if u did :D

Splish, Splash

2010-03-01T17:45:00.002+08:00

The last couple of weeks have been busy madness.
staying onboard the rig for a week b4 CNY to finish up commissioning my system and all.

now dat it's all done up (more or less) and on sea trial, i can now take things a little easy.
coz it's now the software engineer's work now.
cant wait for the day we get back from the trials and having all my time sheets signed.

den it's the mad rush to replace faulty parts and complete my paperwork.

den it's off to a dive someplace in m'sia. hehehe...
cant wait to get into the water again. and if a dive is not possible den a trip to wavehouse is deemed necessary.

cant wait for this project to end. and get a little break.

on a happier note, ben proposed to jacq and she said yes. lol.
ben, mark, fel n i went thru like all kinds of schemes to try to come up w a proposal plan.
but in the end, it was done at dinner at sage.
congrats to u both.

CNY gambling has been good. won a fair bit of money. abt 300 i think.
i'm getting sian of all the visiting but still feel obligated to drive my parents ard.

kinda spacing out already so i guess i'll stop here.
cant wait to get back to poker and power. lol.

Work and Phelgm Dun Mix

2010-01-14T08:43:00.003+08:00

Juz when the cough is pretty much no more, working like crazy has caused the return of the phelgm. the cough better stay away.

it's been a mad week. rushing from home to office, office to the yard and finally only leaving the yard between 6-7pm to get home.
it's thurs today and the unwell feeling is slowly creeping in. i can sooooo feel it in my bones. RAWR!

work has been crazy on the yard. everyday, i seem to have done lots but when i think back of wad i've done at the end of the day, it doesn't seem dat much. somehow time juz flies and i'm not having fun!! WTF!

i juz need to last till fri, den things shd hopefully slowdown.

okie. gota go liao.
will blog more another time.

The Christmas Eve Entry

2009-12-24T00:40:00.002+08:00

It's christmas eve now but i've still gota go down to the yard to get some stuff done.
hopefully i can finish most of the stuff by 2pm. den i'll juz scoot home.

gona b gng for mn mass at smota. gona b there like at 1030 to get a seat so i can watch the pageant, listen to the carols and den mass.

for those who have read abt the girl who wow-ed me, here's a little update.
she's not so into me. so it's pretty much over now.
but i'm not like superly sad coz in some ways, i kinda guessed dat's how she feels.
i will b lying if i were to say dat i didn't hope it'll work out.

well... xmas is here. and dat's a good reason to be happy abt and to celebrate.
and with the coming new year, i've decided to help out in st iggy's rciy.
hopefully dat'll kinda kickstart my spiritual life a little bit.
it'll prolly b a struggle in the beginning but i hope i can commit and contribute.

somehow this xmas has been a inspirational one.
decided to help out in rciy, went to town JUST to write xmas cards. good frens all know dat i dun write cards all along. lol.
but i think somehow this year, i wana let them know how grateful i am to have them as my frens.
so tho every card might read ALMOST the same, there's still the little differences.
but i most definitely mean every word i say.

for those who do not end up getting a card from me, it doesn't mean ur frenship means nothing.
juz dat i run out of energy n cards liao. hehe...

so for all my frens out there who i prolly wun get to meet during xmas, here's wishing u a blessed and merry christmas!

Beauty, Beast and the Birthday Boy

2009-12-14T23:32:00.003+08:00

It was quite a weekend.

caught wild rice's beauty and the beast on fri nite w ben, jacq and andrea.
the show was fantastic. super funny and entertaining.
worth every cent paid. quite unlike victor/victoria.
and even b4 the show started, there was drama liao.

while gng to pick up jacq n andrea from work, i realized i had forgotten the tix.
cant freaking believe it still dat i had forgetten them.
it was 6.45pm when i realized it and the show was to start at 7.30pm.

rushed like mad back home to grab the tix n rushed all the way back to drama centre.
reached the theatre at 7.40pm and thankfully the show started a little late and so i din miss much.
but i kinda spent the first 15mins trying to catch my breath.
note to self: do not buy row 1 seats on circle 2 at drama centre.

it was dinner time after the show and we went to geylang for beef horfun.
had quite a bit to eat and after dat, it was yonghe tau huay for dessert.
was super stuffed dat nite.

and the nite was nowhere near over coz i headed over to ivy's place for mj.
started at 2am and din end till almost 7am. played like 2 rounds i think. or 1 1/2. cant rem liao.
lost $9 dat nite.

got out of bed ard 1pm on sat and met ben n jacq at vivo to look for presents for the good friends.
walked ard, saw some stuff, bought some stuff.
and soon it was time to head to Rocks for john's bday dinner.
happy belated birthday john!
not even sure if he reads my blog. lol.

food there is quite good. the cod was a little dry. i din really like the super crispy skin on my trout. but i loved the meat.
john's medium rare steak was fantastic.
their truffle mash potato side was absolutely heaven.

after dinner, peter headed to sentosa for zoukout while fel was headed to ade's place to go for zoukout.
ben sent jacq home coz she wasn't feeling too well.
ewen n i went over to john's place to chill in his newly renovated room. and it looked great!
love his sink n shower as well as his cupboard. made me wish i had space like dat in my room.
prolly need a complete spring clean of my room to find new space. but dat might take me like 1 whole week to clean out.

sunday was nice n quiet as always (i think).
met up w jarrod n michelle for brunch. havent seen michelle since we last met up BEFORE jarrod left for melb.
brunch was at simply bread at guthrie hse. nice simple sandwiches there. yummers!

den i met up w ben to take a look at the stuff we're planning to get for jacq. but it din quite fit the criteria.
so it's the backup gifts for jacq then. also bought the present for john.
went over to ben's place to wrap them up b4 headed to holy cross w jacq for mass.

and i juz realized dat i had been out w ben n jacq for 3 days in a row. hahaha...
useless bit of interesting information.

back to work today... feeling kinda lazy still. trying to get the "engine" restarted n running again.
the boss has assigned me a project in sg. which means i prolly wun b travelling ard till at least feb.
hoping to finish most of the work by 3rd week of jan so i can go HK in feb. *crosses fingers*

and on a side note, i've kinda restarted my collection of my starwars lego.
kinda spent 1.5k on 3 sets in the last 3weeks.
awesome stuff but i need to find a place to keep them.
they're at peter's hse for now but i'm planning to bring them home this weekend.

it's now abt 2 weeks to christmas. cant wait.

The Undead Blog

2009-12-01T22:26:00.002+08:00

It's alive!! It's alive!!

ok... i've only not posted for abt a mth. but it feels like so much longer.
a thousand apologies to the ppl who come here to look for a new entry only to find none.

well... nov seemed to have been a rather exciting month.
let's roughly list out wad's happened from 29 oct till now.

1) met someone who kinda wowed me on the first meeting. but most of u peeps who read my
blog know the story already. *fingers crossed*

2) away from work for a whole month - 1 week leave and 3 weeks of reservist.
went to bkk for a short weekend holiday during the 1 week leave.

3) bought the imperial star destroyer lego star wars collectors edition which cost me 720.

4) felt really super broke when i had like abt 100 in my wallet to last me for abt a week.
felt really super relieved when my ot came in today.

5) started going for my ipt training. finished 1 1/2 weeks, 2 1/2 more to go.

6) went to sentosa on the hari raya haji holiday to tan. got a decent tan (i think).
found a new nice hangout place - wavehouse. waaaaaaay better than cdm imo.
plus weds are 1-for-1 for EVERYTHING! food, drinks and surf.

7) celebrated jacq's and alex's bdays.

8) watched victor/victoria. it was alrite. not worth watching a 2nd time.

9) met up w the church girls group (now more like girls n partners) for dinner on haji also.
and also to celebrate bdays.

guess dat's all. but it was all goooooooooooooooooooooooooood.
sorry i'm too lazy to give details of everything. ask me if u kaypoh enough to wana know more.

The Lighter Wallet

2009-10-29T14:21:00.006+08:00

Made a few purchases lately.
had 2 spectacles made - one for wearing out, one for wearing at home.

wearing out wearing at home

and in addition to my collection of guitar hero games, i picked up DJ Hero by the same ppl who did GH.
damn power la. but power comes w a price tag - $339. the not so power one only costs $199

been playing the game the past 2 nites. 5-starred every song.
so u can call me DJ SPLATTIE!
kekeke...

The Day The Sun Shone Like Hell

2009-10-22T10:44:00.003+08:00

Was on leave on monday coz was supposed to go to KL last weekend.
but since i din get to go to KL, i had the day off.

woke up like 9ish coz the workers were happily hacking the walls outside my hse due to the lift upgrading program.
milled ard the hse for a while and ewen msn-ed me to ask to lunch.

it was a nice hot, sunny day and i felt like i wanted to chillax somewhere w a cold beer in hand.
so after lunching at the coffeeshop near my place and getting a new pair of specs at westmall, we headed to sentosa to catch some sun and down some cold ones.

saw this place called azzura (cant rem the spelling) dat din look too bad. class95-ish music while u relak in the sun.

but we ended up at cafe del mar coz there was more to see. lol.
and since it was after 3pm, we had happy hour 1-4-1 carlsberg.
but dat first glass was damn no kick la. i think it's the heat. i felt like i was drinking bubbly plain water w a head.
now the second tasted more like beer and dat was a good one.
chilled out in the sun for a little more and coz i din use any sun block, i quickly got out of the sun.
dun wana end up like tioman again, red as a lobster and peeling like some onion.

walked ard some more after leaving cdm and discovered wavehouse.
damn cool la! it's basically like a wavepool thingy powerful enough to surf on.
and it's quite cheap at $30/hr but i think if there's a long queue, ur $30 might give u one or 2 rides.

went home to shower and went out to meet my cousin who's back from dubai for the weekend i think. it was definitely nice seeing her again coz we missed each other when she was back during cny and i was out at sea. tried meeting up when i went to malta but she was in japan.
so had a little chat and all but left after an hr coz she was there w her other frens as well.

met up w candy, jo n sam for dinner and somehow decided to go k after dat.
ended up at shenton way partyworld, bought a 3hr block and din leave till abt 1.30am.
i would have died if we had booked 4hrs lor. coz by the 2nd hr, i was quite tired liao.
crashed the minute the head touched the pillow.

The Perth That Killed the KL

2009-10-22T10:12:00.003+08:00

Been back from perth for abt 1/2 week now.
been too lazy to blog abt it.
but since i've got time in the office now w nothing to do, tot i'll juz do a quick update.

this trip is prolly one of the most incident/drama-filled trips ever.
got the confirmation email from customer on thur, 8 oct.
so tried to book tickets to perth but our travel agent said flights were full till tue nite which means i'll only arrive on wed morning to start work. so checked the internet for seats and they had seats available. tried to select the flight but the SQ website was busy and in the end the flight was full again. had to refresh for like ther next 30mins b4 i could get a ticket to fly to perth on fri nite.

met up w julien, a long lost church fren who's now a PR in perth. dinner on sunday nite at the little creatures brewery for pizza.
good food there i tell u. the nachos were power as well. 3 ppl, 3 pizzas, 1 nachos, all gone. well... almost all.

work was a lil hairy for the first 3 days coz i had not found the necessary info to implement the new switch i was supposed to install and got quite frustrated.
but thankfully a phonecall to the boss gave me a new direction to work in.
and dat pretty much solved all my problems.
the new switch was installed, ready to go on wed and needed the engines to be running to do a complete test.
engines were not ready until fri nite/ sat morning.

sooo... i have thur n half of fri to walk ard perth!
went to the casino on wed nite. won abt aud300 but after deducting cab money, i had won ard aud240.
met up w joe, an old colleague from the airforce days, for lunch.
walked ard and shopped abit. bought 2 starwars tees and a fedora from roger david, another 3 more tees from jayjays.
walked ard the city some more, visited the swan bells tower (din go up).
joe bought me a whole apple strudel from corica to finish. it was really good stuff. but it was too much for 1 person to finish.
so had apple strudel n beer for dinner dat nite.

met up w joe again on fri morning to go to harbourtown for factory outlet shopping.
bought a hoodie and a pair of shorts. went back into the city and got myself a rashguard to use when i dive.
macs was having an angus beef burger promo so tried it. decently good but the real thing din look like the peekture :(
but it was good stuff.

thankfully the weather was good on thur n fri - nice n warm. unlike the other days from sat to wed when it was kinda windy n cold.

sat was time to go home :(
wad i dun like abt perth is it takes amazingly long for a taxi to show up after u've called for one.
waited for abt 50mins for the cab to take us to the airport lor.
but dat was all over and i'm juz glad i managed to deliver the goods for the customer coz it'll definitely look bad if we had to charge them for no work done.

but coz i had to fly back on sat, i had to miss the long-awaited KL trip w some of the JDYC peeps :(
at least i could claim the money back from the office. so no loss there, except for the fun and the adventure. DANG!
"perks" of the job dat i have to live w i guess.

Time To Blow Off The Dust

2009-10-06T13:41:00.004+08:00

My poor dusty blog.

i've left it untouched for a little too long liao.
so time for some 'action'
lol.

2 sats ago saw auggy n cheryl joining in holy matrimony.
overall wedding experience was, imo, kinda wrecked by the presiding priest who decided that the wedding mass is like ordinary sunday -
to be quickly gotten over and done with.
and the experience kinda scared another fren who was getting dat same priest to preside over her wedding mass.
good job, priest.

but reception after mass was v nice food was good and there was a nice spread.
good choice, wedding couple.

sunday was nice n quiet.
until tues nite.
was on half day leave coz of the lee n wong wedding dinner - the augustine lee n cheryl wong dinner.
well... more becoz i was one of the emcee for the dinner, hence the need for halfday.
was there at 5pm and had a short rehearsal w geri n the banquet captain.
overall went quite well considering dat i had to emcee in mandarin.
u shd see my script. was kinda littered w hanyu pinyin all over.

well, the both of them are now in greece enjoying their honeymoon.
well, i think they are but somehow cheryl is fb-ing while on her honeymoon.
who the hell does dat? lol.

think the rest of the week went by quietly.

the last weekend had me playing mj on fri n sat nite.
i've got 4 words to say - Welcome home, Mahjong luck!
was quite lucky on both nites - winning 55 on fri nite n 15 on sat nite.
havent won like dat in like ages.
better keep at it while it lasts.

possibly heading to fremantle, perth in a couple of days for work.
but it all depends on the customer giving the go-ahead to purchase the spares n fly over.

i want my 1-week leave!
Grrrr....

Oh.. forgot to add dat during my mani last evening, the manicurist was commenting to another colleague dat i've got nice nails.
and dat they shd paint it red and take fotos like in the case of a hand model. hehehe...
all these yrs of mani/pedi has paid off eh?
kekeke... cheap thrill i know.

Why The Hell Am I Awake Still?

2009-09-11T02:47:00.002+08:00

Soooo... why the hell am i awake still?
i duno.
juz cant fall asleep.
and i've gota b up in abt 5hrs.

the last 2 1/2 days of the sea trial was a terror.
was climbing up n down these 2 hatches dat were like prolly 8m down from the main deck,
try to solve the mystery of the non-working equipment.

i've got 2 identical systems running on the port(left) and starboard(right) side of the drill ship.
the port side works perfectly fine. and somehow the stbd one doesn't.

as part of troubleshooting, i took parts dat i suspected were faulty from the starboard side to test on the port side.
but every time, the parts work fine when i bring them over.
and the working parts from the port side are tested on the starboard side and they dun work.
so it'll mean all the parts dat i've swapped are not the cause of the fault.
so after 2 16hr-workdays of swapping and testing, the problem is still not solved.

and it din help dat the customer was complaining abt how they had gone out on the sea trial on the pretext dat everything is working,
and how much it'll cost them to go out for another trial juz to test the system and to show the approving authorities dat the system works, and blah blah blah.

and of coz, with every part swapped and the problem not solved, i was getting v tired n irritated also.
the nice thing amidst all these rush n pressure was dat the workers who were assisting me,
were all there to help me with wadever i needed to do.
and i'm grateful for these angels for helping me out.

now dat i'm back onshore, the problem still needs to be resolved and i've still gota b going back to the ship next week to work on the problem.
but dat's next week's worries. i'm gona enjoy my weekend and rest as much as i can.

for now, i'm going to try to get some sleep.
not much rest i'll b getting tonite i guess but oh wells, i've gota try at least.
nites everyone n see ya soon!

Sailing, sailing home...

2009-09-03T21:42:00.003+08:00

I've now been onboard for 4 days now.
of which abt 2 1/2 days were spent being actually out at sea.

i've been doing nothing except eat, watch my tv series and play my fb games.
i finished 17 episodes of The Big Bang Theory Season 1 on monday,
23 episodes of The Big Bang Theory Season 2 on tue,
4 episodes of Robot Chicken Season 4 and 1 episode of Prison Break Season 4 on wed,
and finished 5 episodes of Carrier Season 1 today so far.

this sea trial better end soon or i will finish watching everything i have on my hdd.

on a more positive note, being able to do all these means my colleague did a proper job of commissioning the system onboard. so i have to thank him for dat.
but it's also thanks to him dat i'm on a sea trial as well coz he is away in norway for a training course.

and becoz of this sea trial, i have to forfeit my weekend dive at pulau aur which cost me $370. gona see if i can claim the money from the office. luckily i've satisfied my diving needs in malta. but i would really love to have gone for dat dive.

so i have another 5-6days to go before i can dream of us sailing back to singapore. so i guess i better go easy on the tv shows n movies.
till den have a great weekend!

Pre-Bday

2009-09-03T20:08:00.002+08:00

Coz i was gona sail off for a sea trial this monday, i gathered the usual sat gang to go have dinner and drinks at walas.
i also heard dat shirlyn is back from the US of A and we all know dat she plays w The Unxpected at walas on saturdays.

so we arrived at walas like abt 7.20 after parking at the hdb multi-storey carpark opp cold storage.
ben had some work to finish up so he n jacq arrived later.
guess it was a good thing as well coz the 5 of us - alex, ewen, fel, peter n i pretty much took up the whole table when our food arrived.
ben n jacq came after we had finished our mains.

the happy hour band was called velvet vendetta. pretty cool name i must say.
they play pretty heavy shit. but their sound is good.
and they are from hong kong and are playing at baybeats.
so i dun even need to go for baybeats, baybeats came to me... kekeke...

was kinda disappointed when shirlyn din start the 1st set but it soon all changed when she arrived to front the 2nd n 3rd sets.
of coz the booze n alcohol were flowing not non-stop, but at a decent rate.
before the 1st set, we had our own beers. i ordered silly saison which was never to be ordered again.
after the 1st set, we had a round of tequila shots and chicken wings n fries.
and after 2nd set, we had a round of jaegerbombs and i had a flaming lambo, courtesy of peter n duno who else. hahaha...

ben n jacq left after 2nd set coz ben had work to do.
the 5 of us stayed on.
i have to admit we got kinda high. i really seldom drink to this level coz i always dun drink enough or i drink too much till i fall asleep.
(ppl at my 30th bday will know.)

the 3 drivers among the 5 of us couldn't really drive. so we went to the coffeeshop to order some food n drinks to try to sober up a little
so one of us could at least try to drive. but dat din work. so decided to leave the van at the carpark since parking was free the next day.
and we decided to walk to clementi afer dat. hahaha...

we stopped by cold storage to get some water. and we walked. walked down holland ave, walked along the road towards ghim moh.
and fel decided dat she din want to walk anymore when we were near the junction of ghim moh n commonwealth ave west. so we shared a cab home.

ben n jacq got me a flattened beer bottle clock, which i now have to find a hook to hang it up, and a t-shirt which i like and will wear. kekeke...
wala wala also gave me a bday present - 17 free shots.
somehow they forgot to charge us for the tequila shots n jaegerbombs.
assuming they're $15 each, they saved me $255. dat's damn a lot la!

and i din notice it when i was signing for the bill.
i was looking out for stuff dat we din order rather than stuff dat they missed out.
so i was damn surprised when i saw the bill again when i was sober on sunday.
hahaha...

so dat was my pre-bday celebration.
fotos will b up when i get back. videos too. hahaha...

The Maltese Adventures - Day 5

2009-08-24T16:42:00.002+08:00

Wednesday 19 aug 2009
Alarm sounded at 7.20. Snoozed thru 10mins.
Woke up still coz I wana dive!
Going to faroud, a oil tanker wreck.

Faroud was a damn cool dive.
Swam across open water for abit, den slowly e shape of e stern comes into view.
Swam thru e port side corridor of e middle deck den was out in front, facing e main deck.
Swam up to e monkey island. Took some fotos.
Quickly rejoined e group n swam on, passing e stack along e way.

Next dive was at lapsi. It's basically a small seawater pool day's sheltered.
But there's an uw cavern underneath day leads out to e sea.
Swam thru e cavern in a straight line w the dive guide in front and me at the back.
Entrance was a little small but big enough to dive thru. No squeezing required coz the cavern opens up really wide.
Swam along e reef back to e 'lake'. saw a couple of hermit crabs and another octopus.
It was quote interesting g to be diving at abt 10m below ppl's feet. Watching them swim, tread water, or snorkel.
2 kids who were snorkelling saw me n waved. So I waved back. Turned out one of kids, who's 15, dived w me yest.

Back to e dive shop after e dive to make payment n to wash up my gear.
Forgot to take a foto of e 'pool' in lapsi. Also forgot to get a foto of the bay we dived at to get to faroud.
Hope I can find fotos online to show u.

The Maltese Adventures - Day 4

2009-08-24T14:49:00.003+08:00

Tuesday 18 Aug 2009
Diving day! But e bad luck continues to plague for a little while more.
Juz b4 gng for e 1st dive, my fin strap broke. So I had to sit out on dat dive.
It was a wreck dive of a patrol boat.
But e dive shop ppl managed to help borrow a pair for my 2nd dive. Coolios.

Hit a thermacline at ard 18m. Good thing e suits were 5mm. So it din kill me much tho I was wearing shorties. Saw a few jellies.
there was a statue of e virgin mary in an underwater alcove. Saw some old stuff lying on e seabed.
at first glance i tot they were like old cannons but tot they wun b on the surface still after so long.

Went for nite dive as well. Most interesting thing was we saw a baby octopus.
1 of e dive masters tried to catch it but failed. In a bid to escape, it squirted a lil swirl of ink instead of a big puff. dat was fun.

was ard 12.30am by the time i got back to the hotel and dumped my stuff to find food.
but there was no food to be found. no room service either.
spoke w the recep to see if there was any food ard, but there was none.
the coffeehouse had some cheese n ham available for breakfast the next day so they said they could make me a ham n cheese sandwich.
i readily said ok. 1 sandwich and a fairly filled stomach, i went back to my room.
was super tired. fell asleep halfway writing this on my itouch.

The Maltese Adventures - Day 3

2009-08-24T14:40:00.003+08:00

Day 3 Monday 17 Aug 2009
Din dive today. Woke up a my left knee kinda stiff. Knew it was e result of too much walking at mdina. Went to e hospital nearby to get meds to recover so I can dive on tue n wed. Got a lil lost looking for e hospital. Walked past it, not realizing it was a hospital. stopped a car to ask where it was and he told me it was round the corner. and i had not spotted the hospital after making the corner until i saw the ambulance parked in front. only den did i realize dat DAT was the hospital. saw the doc and he said dat e pain was a result of built up lactic acid in e body.
looks like my body needs to get more fit.

stayed in the room pretty much the whole afternoon n watched my movies to rest up the leg.
by evening after dinner, the pain is no more n I can dive tom! Woohoo. Not as many dives as I had hoped. But at least I get to dive.

The Maltese Adventures - Day 2

2009-08-23T02:59:00.002+08:00

Before i get down to the actual blog details, i'll juz state dat i'm juz dumping wadever i wrote in my itouch during the duration of my little holiday in malta.
there is no day 1 coz nothing really happened. i juz walked ard.
and fotos can be found on fb.
and with dat, let's begin.

Day 2 Sunday 16 Aug 2009
Super cockup. Forgot to charge can batt. Got half life for whole of mdina. Hope it will last.
A bus inspector came up to check out tickets.
funny thing is the inspector looks like he's abt 15yrs younger than e bus driver la.
hahaha...

my cam batt died halfway thru Mdina.
it is really as it claims to be - a silent city. A small walled city a narrow streets.
you feel like u're in a different world once you step in.
and it's not jus a tourist attraction, it's a place where real pol live in a their own addresses.
the place is pretty steeped in history having survived thru e centuries. simply amazing.

cockup no2 - somehow e itouch got turned on.
guess I din turn it off tho I tot I did when I got off the bus.
so no music for the bus ride back to the hotel.

on the way back, e bus drove by a car accident.
couldn't see if any1 was badly injured, but there was an ambulance.
and it doesn't matter where u're from, you'll kaypoh when u see an accident.

Back at e hotel ard 5.15pm. Quickly dumped my stuff in e rm n headed down to pub at e street corner to catch e spurs-liverpool match.
spurs played a gd game I must say. Liverpool din look like they had much ideas gong fwd.
glenn johnson did put up a gd performance running down e right flank.
insua din seem to know wad to do a e ball on e left flank up front.

gota b up early tom for my dive at Gozo.
hope I'll get to see some of e island.
Need to find some form of moisturizer cox my jergens ultra healing lotion is running out.
shd head to e supermaket now b4 it closes.
bad news - the supermarket is closed.

BAH.

Bored, Boring Monday

2009-08-03T14:39:00.002+08:00

Wad a slow day today is...

got nothing to do in the office.
and malta is now postponed to next week.
i hope i only fly on thur. den can still mambo on wed.

in the midst of bored surfing, i was sent 2 websites:
http://stevenlim.net/models.htm
http://rawkitchenbar.com/RAWKITCHENBAR/rawkitchenbar.html

raw kitchen bar looks like a nice awesome place to be checked out soon since it's so near home.
and stevenlim.net was just for laughs.

had a decently quiet weekend tho sat was a bit of a rush.
was awoken at 10am by candy to help her bring her stuff to singpost to ship them to bkk.
and after dat went down to sim lim to get the new desktop for the home.
haircut after dat and den to holycross for mass.

dinner was at aston's at jurong east and i gave markie a treat coz he was feeling emo for the whole week.
and the reason for his emo-ness was dat we were caught on camera during the liverpool match and of the 4 of us, we could see 3 of our faces. mark's face was blocked by my liverpool scarf.
so tho we all know he's in the papers, his face was covered.
i'm sorry markie.

fel, mark n fred went to jp to watch the potter boy. so ewen, ben, peter n i went to my place to play powergrid.
played one game but it was a damn close game. and i won! i usually dun win at boardgames. coz i dun bother to think hard enough.
we ended the game ard 1am.

sunday was damn nua. woke up ard 11plus. den milled ard the hse till 2pm den left the house to have lunch n to go get my hdd from peter
at guerrilla games. played GH world tour band career till abt 6ish den it was off to dinner w the family.

dat's all for my quiet weekend. this coming weekend shd b good since it's national day weekend.
ideas of whole day mj sessions are floating in my head now.
and a day at the beach sounds good too. but i think it'll b damn crowded but we'll see.

The Flu Story

2009-07-25T14:54:00.002+08:00

After getting 2 days mc for the flu, i tot i'll juz go get checked if i did catch H1N1.
went to another clinic nearby at westmall. did the influenza A test and the results were positive.
so the doc gave me another 7 days mc till next tue.

he prescribed tamiflu which i'm taking now. tom is the last day of meds.
been feeling quite well the last couple of days. dun have a fever, only slight cough.

and for educational purposes, contracting influenza A doesn't mean u've contracted H1N1 as there are many strains of flu A viruses. H1N1 is juz one of the strains.
so i'm only on 7days mc, not 7days quarantine.
but i thank u, my frens for ur concern and ur medical advice.

and i'm sorry if i've given some of my frens a scare when they found out.
hope u're all fine.
i dun even know where i might have gotten the virus from.

feeling pretty good rite now. cant wait for the liverpool match tom evening!!
gona b camping there at the stadium real early.
so frens who are going and wana form up bigger "contingents" at the east stands, gime a call.
the more, the merrier and more fun it will be shouting n singing.

did more studying last nite, trying to learn more of the LFC fanchants.
never really did learn any of the chants. hahaha... hope the atmosphere will be super.

Sniffles, Dribbles & Coughs

2009-07-21T18:10:00.002+08:00

Down w the flu today. got 2 days mc.
forgot to ask for the H1N1 test when the doc told me i've got the flu.
coz i took the flu jab last month when i went to melb.
will call the clinic later to ask if they have the test kits.
gona go get the test done if they do.

knocked out for the whole afternoon after taking my meds.
waiting for mum to come home to cook dinner.
but she's not home yet. i've got a bad feeling abt dinner.

The Day I Walked A Lot

2009-07-12T21:27:00.015+08:00

Note: i started writing on sunday but was too tired n lazy to finish.

Wad a day it was on sat.
started w late lunch at victor's kitchen w ben n jacq.
awesome stuff.
first up was the glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf den the har gaow, carrot cake n some veg dumpling arrived. all yummy.

while eating the above, the siew mai w quail egg and the spare ribs came.
siew mai was a little dry but not too bad. the spare ribs were nice n soft.

This is the end result of round 1:

Den round 2 began.
1 plate of fried beancurd roll and 1 'long' of some teochew dumpling pictured below.

the dumpling damn shiok la. it's got bits of meat, turnip/radish, peanut, chives in it.
and after dat was round 3 consisting of 1 'long' of the oyster sauce char siew pao.
thankfully there's only 2.
the char siew damn shiok also! the meat is damn juicy tho cant really taste the oyster sauce.
damage to the wallet was abt $60 in all.

up next was lots of walking.
after parking at timbre which has free parking after 5pm, we walked to ACM to catch 'The Unguarded Moment' by Steve McCurry.
when we arrived, we saw the photo submitted for the photo contest and we tot dat was it. felt a little cheated.
and some of the entries which were put up were kinda crap coz there din seem to be a central focus or not in line w the theme.
but jacq picked up a brochure and read dat there IS an exhibition of his works.
so we asked the ppl at the counter and we were told dat it was on the 2nd floor. Note to ACM: put up proper signage!
the minute i reached the top of the stairs n saw the first foto, i instantly saw the difference in quality of the photos by Steve and the contestants. and his fotos were truly amazing. the subjects of his protrait fotos all seem to look straight at, into and through u as u look at his work. if u need further proof, here it is. yes. this was taken by him.

after the exhibition, we walked to funan coz i needed a new flash for my old skool camera. but no stock. coming in on monday :(
so next we walked to raffles city coz jacq was looking for a rash guard. walked ard and couldn't find one she liked.
so we took a train from city hall to somerset. coz ben wanted to get citadels from paradigm infinitum.
and it seemed like an adventure taking the train again.
if memory serves me right, i have not taken the train in like 1 1/2yrs since i started driving.

after getting his game, walked ard OG next to centrepoint to look for crocs. not finding any i liked, we chilled at starbucks for a while.
den we walked over to orchard central to have a look at the new mall.
and who would have tot this happened.

met the thambie.

chatted for a while. den ben, jacq n i walked back to somerset to train back to city hall to meet up w fel n mark for dinner.
dinnered at BK. den walked towards the car to offload our stuff n to go visit the peranakan museum.
but halfway there, it poured. like majorly poured. sought refuge at stamford house - the building where mph used to be. i think.

after a wet adventure, we reached e national museum and walked ard. went for the vernon panton exhibition.
i love the forms he uses for his designs, not to mention his use of colors. damn retro lor! but den... his designs were all done in the 70s.
(i think. cant rem exactly :P)

den we juz chilled ard in the museum waiting for 10.30 so we can go outside to watch this german troupe perform.
i'm too lazy to write liao. enjoy the fotos.

to end it off, i want to complain!! y cant blogger put new fotos at the bottom of the post instead of being right on the top.
v mafan to drag down lor! anyone who has a fast method of arranging fotos, pls pls PLS let me know.

Nameless

2009-07-02T11:41:00.002+08:00

Been wanting to blog but have been pretty lazy to do it, even tho i've got nothing to do at home.

1) went down to next on monday for a haircut. but hairdresser suggested a perm to give my hair a little more shape n volume. so i gave it a shot. so i've got slightly wavy hair which is a nice change really. after seeing my hair in it's straight, floppy limp state for the last i duno how many yrs.

2) the new lift at my block is operational! and it's fast. and i'm still try to get used to stopping on my floor and walking to my door. and like wad jerms said, now i will know which floor all the babes in the block are on. kekeke...

3) eugene left for switzerland last nite. so he's not gona b ard for the next 6mths. look like i REALLY need to get the new comp otherwise i'll hear no end from my dad abt the comp hanging while he's on skype w eug.

4) i really need a holiday. i'm comtemplating a 5day chillout at redang liao. keep expenses low.
need to save up for nz in jan next yr.

5) i must remember to eat up dat LAST krispy kreme dat's been in my fridge. i keep wanting to eat it on my way to the office but i keep forgetting!!

Staying Home For Three Days

2009-06-23T17:51:00.003+08:00

Today marks the 3rd day i've stayed home on a self-imposed quarantine after returning from melb.
the last 3 days have been pretty much crazy. crazy coz i've done nothing much except play rockband on the xbox, play plants vs zombies and play my fb games.
i sooooo wana get out of the house!! (ok... i've actually done dat alr last nite)
but i wana get out during the day.
and i never imagine i'll say this, but "I WANA GO TO WORK!"

got a sms from the boss this morning. he told me to stay home for another day since there's nothing much happening in the office.
i'll prolly go out tom evening for dinner.

and MAYB i shd go build my lego set. it's been sitting at home in the corner of the room since last sept.
den i can go get a box made for it so i can put it up w/o having dust collect on it.
sounds like a plan :D

on a different note, i bought this from ntuc express last nite.

damn shiok la!
go try it if u can.

Fiesty Princess Charmaine

2009-06-23T17:36:00.002+08:00

If you've been reading the papers lately, you'd prolly have read abt this little girl whose mum is trying to raise funds to send her to NY for cancer treatment.

a fren sent me the link to their webby and i spent a little time juz to read thru all the updates.
and i tot i'll do my little bit in spreading the word thru this little blog of mine.
seriously, i dun even know who still reads this. hahaha... but i'm gona do it anyway.

pls go visit the blog and if u really cannot donate any cash, juz click on the nuffnang ad on the top.
they need to raise abt $500k for her treatment and to date, they have abt $180k.
times are hard right now but i'm sure we can do our little bit to help, financially or otherwise.

Supper To The Power of 2

2009-06-23T03:26:00.002+08:00

After spending 2 days at home not doing v much, i decided i needed to get out for a while.
so went down to ntuc express at jurong point at 1am after picking up mark.

bought stuff for lunch tom -
bacon, corned beef, potatoes, onions and orange strawberry juice.
tot since i'm getting stuff, i might as well re-stock on the instant noodles.
found out when i got home dat there's potatoes n onions at home. but i guess it doesn't hurt to have more in supply.

was feeling peckish after dat shopping at ntuc which almost had me buying the entire frozen food section.
so went to boon lay market for supper. met up w mark's frens there.
had 2 plates of nasi lemak coz i was damn unsatisfied after 1.
first plate had chicken, otah, ikan bilis and egg - $4.
2nd plate had chicken, fishballs, ikan bilis and egg - $3.50

i am so in need of exercise or i'll die a horrible death as a result of too much unhealthy food.

Bird-Days Aplenty

2009-06-16T10:25:00.002+08:00

2 frens are celebrating their birthdays today - stefette n ivy.

i called ah tham last nite to see if i could try to get thru to ivy during her shift so i can wish her happy birthday and so dat's wad happened.
and so i heard myself on air chatting w ivy for a little bit. wahaha... kinda surreal hearing ur own voice on the radio.

ah tham asked me if i wanted to meet at ivy's place to give her a birthday surprise.
so i agreed. met up w ronald there at the lobby w a cake he bought from polar jurong point.

the cake was sooooo cute. small cake w a pic of the power rangers.
and we so totally surprised and gave both tham n ivy a scare when ron and i jumped out from behind the pillars. hehehe...
went up to ivy's place, sang her a birthday song, cut cake, eat cake, have a cup of cup noodles, talked a bit, laughed even more, den went home.

forgot to set my alarm this morning again... thankfully my dad called at 8.30 and i got awoken.
so i wasn't v late for work... hehe...

so now i'm bored shitless, juz sitting in the office coz i'm still kinda not really awake.
and not really in the mood to go to the yard to attend to the vessel.
so i guess i'll wait till the afternoon to do dat.

den it's off to melb tom morning, back on sat, quarantining myself for abt 3 days, den it's back to work again. phew. i hope i dun come back from melb w anything more than wad i brought over and some snacks including krispy kreme. hehe...

Rome-O

2009-06-08T23:44:00.003+08:00

Went to catch angels n demons today w ewen n alex.
the show really brought back memories of my trip to rome last year.
and inspired me to want to go back there to check out the churches in the adventure as well as the other churches of note.

Week Of Misery

2009-06-06T02:18:00.003+08:00

It seems this week is a week of misery or emo-ness for quite a few ppl i know, including myself.
well... i hope the weekend will provide my frens w some good times to get over the unpleasant week gone by.

my weekend is half burnt coz in an hr's time, i'm leaving for the vessel to sail out for a short sea trial. hoping i'll b back by sunday morning.
so we'll see.

take care everyone and enjoy ur weekend!
see ya all next week!

The Curse Worsens

2009-06-03T18:29:00.002+08:00

Went back to the vessel, thinking it'll be the last day i'm gona be onboard.
but lo and behold, i was told they want to do a modification to the vessel.
which means i have to go back again tomorrow.

and to rub salt to the wound, they want to go for a 1-day sea trial on friday, sailing off in the afternoon.
so i have to cancel my leave on fri.
this.sux.big.time.
like.mount.everest.big.

Of Cursed Ships, A Birthday And A Holiday

2009-06-02T16:11:00.003+08:00

Got back from the 11-day sea trial on sat evening.
and wad a weekend it was.

reached home ard 7.30pm on sat, and after unpacking, clearing emails and snail mail, showering and all, i was out of the house at 8.30pm for dinner w peter, mark n fel.
juz chilled at mark's house after dinner.

and somehow i couldn't sleep dat nite.
tossed n turned in bed till i got sick of it and went to play 'kungfu panda' on the ds.
also watched 1 episode of deadliest catch.
by den it was abt 5.30am when i went to bed.

managed to sleep till abt 8.30am when i got awoken by a sms.
tried to get back to sleep but couldn't so out of bed i climbed.
stayed up the whole day still ard 2am... so was pretty amazed at how i survived a whole packed day on abt 3hrs of sleep.

coz went for 11.30am mass, den went to KAP mac's for lunch, followed by a haircut or a trim, den followed by a pedi.
went home for abt 30mins, den went to pick ewen, alex and peter up to go to ocbc building for ben's bday dinner @ beng thin hokkien restaurant.
food there is good!

so a decently packed half a weekend i had.

monday was a good day juz sitting in the office the whole day.
but today so far is a completely different story.

went back to the vessel to install a new piece of equipment.
but once i went onboard, i was told another 2 more equipment had problems.
couldn't have the problems fixed onboard so went back to the office to seek for a solution from my colleagues.
thankfully a solution is found and hence the time to actually blog rite now.

so it's back to the vessel at loyang tom again. and i hope it'll be the last day i need to be there.
looking fwd to thur nite at wala and catching 'unexpected' in action.
and a work-free friday!

planning a holiday to taipei and kaohsiung in the first week of august so i can extend it by another day coz of the national day long weekend.
so the hunt for cheap sleeps n cheap airfare begins.
also welcomed are tips on where to go and wad to do while there.
email me, msn me or drop me a fb msg. i need all the help i can get.

Mark Is Gay, Very Gay, So Very Very Gay

2009-05-17T22:10:00.003+08:00

Mark started playing restaurant city last nite.
he has 118 frens playing.
this morning, he told me he has 3 level 10 dishes liao.

it seems this weekend is a 'meet ppl everywhere i go' weekend.
was at wala's on fri and i met like 2 frens there.
was out in town yesterday and i saw someone i know.
was at st teresa's for mass this evening and i met 3 more frens.

wow... this rarely happens.
wad a weekend.

The Indian & The Chinese

2009-05-16T13:42:00.002+08:00

Went wala last nite w wad i tot was a small group of fel, ben n i.
but in the end, mark was able to join us as well as ryan.
and marcus was there too! and he got us a table. thanx dude!
and much later on, some of mark n fel's coursemates came along for a while.

coz jack n rai were doing a gig at class95's fearless fun female event, they were not ard to do the first set.
so some band was brought in. dorian roach n something something... never really got to hear their full name.
not too bad actually... playing mainly classic rock i.e. songs from the 60s, 70s. music dat will go well w a stick of weed in ur hand or a stick of coke to snort. hehehe... i think dat kind of music would have been perfect for a monday or tuesday when ppl juz wana chill and juz have good music in the background.
so not perfect for a friday nite where ppl wana partae the nite away.
so in a way, they bombed.

anyway... after 1hr odd of music which the crowd had enough of, eic came on at abt midnight.
and you could see the change in the ppl's moods. hahaha...

but i've gota say the highlight of the night was during their 2nd set where rai sang jay zhou's 简单爱. and he did it damn well!
markie tried to take a video w his phone but the sound isn't too good.
but it was good... too bad if u left after the 1st set.

Tick Tock

2009-05-15T03:40:00.002+08:00

It's 3.40 in the freaking am.
and i cant get to sleep.
i am sooooooooooooo screwed when morning comes.

The New Babe

2009-05-13T20:16:00.002+08:00

There's a new addition to the family.
A real babe and boy has she a character.
~~will post up a foto soon... like tom.~~

here she is.

i.know.
i.am.a.geek.
a.geek.who.loves.his.lego.and.his.star.wars.

NZ! NZ! NZ!

2009-05-12T17:21:00.000+08:00

Been watching skydiving vids on youtube.
makes me wana go nz NOW!!!

The End

2009-05-10T16:28:00.001+08:00

So a chapter is now closed.
Another will begin... but when?

Stairway To Heaven

2009-05-09T03:02:00.002+08:00

Phew~ wad a trip.
some nice kid decided to re-decorate the only lift in the block w his puke after a nite of drinking.
so i ended up climbing up flight after flight after flight of stairs to go home on the 20th floor.
thankfully, i had jerome to keep me company for the first 13 floors.

but it had been a busy day.
was at the yard to try to finish wadever i needed to do b4 we sail on monday.
but i couldn't solve one problem which involved a v old equipment.
so had to go back to the office to get help from my boss.

once the clock struck 5.30, i rushed home to get ready to leave the house to go for marianne's 21st post-bday bash. i say post-bday bash coz her actual bday is on 28th april but she's only celebrating now coz she was having exams that week.

aye was jammed so the trip from my place to michelle's place to jody's place to changi coast walk took us abt 1 1/2hrs. but the food was yummy.
after cutting cake, taking fotos and eating the cake, we headed back to the west.
after dropping michelle off, we went to byron's place for a round of mj.
a round only coz i have to work later.
which means i will b missing pam's wedding :(
dumbass boat.
my only hope is dat the supervisor calls in the morning to say dat it wun b sailing on monday.
den i can go back on monday to finish up the outstanding work.

it's been a long time since i've played mj w jerms n byron n jods.
so it's nice playing w them.
so of coz after mj, came home, only to be greeted by the wonderful aroma of dinner and alcohol.
and i guess u all know the rest already.

tom's gona b another busy day w my cousin getting married and all.
phew. wad a weekend it's gona be.
hope u all enjoy ur weekend! ciao!

S,B & The Bed

2009-05-08T09:34:00.002+08:00

Was feeling lazy to watch gossip girls on the laptop last nite.
so i watched it on the telly thru the xbox while lying in bed.

and this morning, i woke up w a slightly sore neck. DAMN!

but at least i'm now started on the show. time to catch up!
finished S02E08 last nite. another 12/13 more to go!

Time's Up?

2009-05-06T16:41:00.002+08:00

Spent a good part of the afternoon reading posts on the AWARE fiasco by yawning bread and mr wang says so.

read abt what had happened at the AWARE EGM at suntec city.
din know wad had happened coz i was out away in bkk :)
it's also testament to how bored i am in the office.

been feeling kinda tired lately... so tired of things dat's happening ard me.
wish someone will knock me out and get me hospitalized so i dun have to think abt anything else to eat n sleep.
but i'm pretty sure frens who have been hospitalized will tell me dat it's not fun lying in bed in a hospital.

i think mayb i need another little holiday after this project i've got here.
if the boss approves of my leave. mayb i shd go alone and juz spend alone time.
and mayb think abt things, if i'm not busy doing things already.

Sweet Dreams And Sleep Tight

2009-05-05T11:58:00.001+08:00

Had one of the best sleep in recent weeks.
i hope there's more to come.

And 3's A Crowd

2009-05-04T11:26:00.001+08:00

I now finally know what dat phrase means.
and somehow, i feel like i'm dat 3rd person.

Busy Week

2009-04-30T23:41:00.002+08:00

This week has been uber busy...
going to the yard everyday juz to get my work done.
but thursday's coming to an end...

and friday beckons!!
woohoo!! another 5hrs more and it's time to wake up and head to the airport!
a holiday at last!!

and before i've gone for my bkk trip, i've decided to go new zealand for another holiday next jan.
and i'm looking for a travel buddy.
but be warned!! i wana bungee jump, hang glide and skydive. they're on my MUST-DO list!
:D

Midnight Shopping

2009-04-23T00:08:00.002+08:00

Bought the complete series of Mind Your Language from amazon.co.uk.
completely forgot abt getting the dvds when they were out of stock in late 2007.
but i now own a copy, juz have to wait for the item to arrive in 8-12 business days.
so exciting!! woots!

while browsing thru the site, i saw this.
who in their rite minds will buy it?
i wonder...

2 Reasons

2009-04-20T23:18:00.002+08:00

Two reasons why everyone should watch Britain's Got Talent.
juz watched episode 2.
coz youtube has disabled the embedded code, pls click on the links.

Reason 1
Reason 2

'nuff said.

Sahara In Singapore

2009-04-18T17:27:00.002+08:00

It's damn bloody warm today la.
i swear humidity today is like 500% and the temperature is like 100 degrees.
no amount of showering is gona make me feel un-sticky.
why am i having a bbq today? IVAN!! u chose the wrong date!

Britain's Got Talent

2009-04-18T14:31:00.003+08:00

Finally found the first episode of the 3rd season of Britain's Got Talent.
been really difficult getting hold of the show, but i'm glad i've gotten it.
cant wait to start watching it. woohoo!!

Ouchie

2009-04-17T16:51:00.002+08:00

Had the most siong ipt session last nite.
woke up w slight aches all over.

it's been a while since i've felt the shiokness of a good workout.
makes me kinda feel like making sure i continue w the training after the ipt is over.
haha....

but for now, i cant really laugh v hard coz it hurts.
and i needed both hands to staple my paperwork for submission and it wasn't a thick stack of paper.
good thing the next session is on tue.
and the ippt on thur and this chapter is closed.
phew.

In Other News...

2009-04-14T17:08:00.002+08:00

Britain's Got Talent is back for another season!
i've always loved the show.

with ant & dec hosting the show, it's always funny, and heart warming.
somehow, the american version doesnt give off the same vibes as the british one.
america's got talent somewhat comes across as too commercialized, for lack of a better word to use.

here's a little preview of episode 1.

SF4

2009-04-12T23:22:00.002+08:00

Got home only ard 1pm from the sea trial dat kept me out of sg for almost the whole week.
unpack, and cleared my mail and emails.

and when all was done, i left the house at 6ish to go to mark's house for wad alex calls a sausage fest.
i call it a gathering of 4 guys to play street fighter 4 on the xbox. hahaha...
and amazingly, we played for abt 4.5hrs until jacq came at abt 11pm and we went to boon lay for nasi lemak.

yummily late supner/ dinper and to ps cafe for dessert.

went to holy cross for easter day mass at 11.30. coz of the easter fiesta going on in church, the carpark was closed and as such, the entire road was packed. had to park like really far from church.
but it was a simple easter. went down to the carpark after mass to watch/listen some of the choir ppl sing and to grab some food for lunch.
sat for a while and headed home.

wanted to blog abt some thought i had while on sea trial but i'm kinda lazy rite now. so i'll blog abt it another day. remind me ok?
guess dat's all for now. another seemingly busy week w ipt taking up 3 nites this week. sianz. but it's a necessary evil.

Breathe! Breathe!

2009-04-03T19:01:00.002+08:00

Went for my 2nd ipt session last nite.
and i've come to a v critical conclusion - my cardio fitness is S.H.I.T.

mayb i shd start running to get fit again...
but this sounds fairly familiar...
like i've said this a million times b4...

so we'll see how after i'm done w my ipt training on 23 apr.
meantime, it's mj tonite!
woohoo!!

Biting Into The Inedible Apple

2009-03-30T16:53:00.002+08:00

Bought my first apple product last wed - the ipod touch.
bought the 16gb version coz i dun think i'll need 32gb of space.

the main reason i got it is coz the 4gb samsung player i have isn't enough to hold all my music.
my main gripe with the ipod is dat there is no radio but i guess it's something i can get used to.

been spending the whole of yesterday updating my library, looking for album names and album art for all my music.
after working from 3pm to almost midnight, i've finished doing up all the chinese bands and female singers and a few male singers. gona continue w finishing up the male singers and den move on to the english songs.
it's gona take quite a while but i get the massive feeling of achievement seeing all the songs having an album art and scrolling thru all the covers in cover flow.

and while looking for a sock for the ipod on sat, i saw this amazing ipod radio.
since the hifi in my room was dead after a long tenure of service,
i tot mayb getting a ipod radio might a good idea since the need for a cd player isn't exactly there anymore.
i must say the first time i tested it at the store, i was blown away by the sound quality.
it's got a decently good bass for something dat small.

but when i brought it home and set it up under my table, i realized dat it's too high for me to dock my ipod if i wana play my music.
so to plug in the ipod, i have to bring the duo-i down to the floor.

but overall, i have to admit it's a good buy.

and after all dat talk abt my apple and apple-related purchases, i wana rewind to sat morning.

went to rider's cafe for brunch w adel after accompanying her to make her study loan enquiries.
and i must say the food there is amazing.
i had their rider's breakfast which includes 2 pieces of toast, 2 eggs (i had mine sunny side), a choice of bacon, ham or sausage ( i had ham).
added a side order of bacon to the rider's breakfast. and if dat wasn't enough, i also ordered pancakes to share.
fotos are on adel's fb (i think). my fotos are still in the camera coz i am not done w the 36 exposures :D

i like the v cozy, laidback feeling the place seems to have.
it seems like it's one of those places where u can go every week for brunch, sit ard for tea and juz chill.
but of coz dat is also subjected to the health status of my wallet. but dat's another story altogether.

dat's all for now... it's almost 5.30 which means it's time to go home.
yes... i'm blogging while at work.
Shhh.... pls dun tell anyone. hehe...

Advanced Splashes

2009-03-23T11:07:00.002+08:00

Woohoo!!

finished an awesome weekend of diving.
6 dives in 2 days, 4 on sat, incl a nite dive and 2 on sunday.

doing 4 dives on sat was a killer.
i'm not exactly v fit to begin w, so it was definitely physically draining...
but the moment i put on my wetsuit, gear up and enter the water, the fatigue is gone until u have to fin on the surface to some location a distance away.

fotos are all on fb. so pls check them out over there. i'm too lazy to upload here on blogger.

sat was a real scorcher, w the sun beating down mercilessly.
and my 30min lie-down in the sun, gave me a lobster-red glow, which in turn, developed into sunburn.
as a result i also got a real sexaye tanline. across my body. in fact, there's only 3 lines - 1 across the waist, and 1 across each thigh.

took leave today in the morning so i can sit in the ac room and cool down, while dousing myself in Burnaid for pain n burn relief.

but the food there was pretty shiok!
when we first arrived at 3.30am, ben n i each got ourselves a ramly burger coz we were hungry.
tho we bought snacks, i din wana eat them coz i wanted hot food.
so dat was round 1 den off to bed for 4 hrs b4 we got up and started diving.

after 3 day dives, ben n i, again, went to have prata. damn shiok la.
nothing beats having a nice prata after a long day of diving.
after our prata, we went to look for jacq who had to do her theory test to get her open water.
and while waiting, we had a bit of jacq ice kachang, dat was also shiokness.

did my nite dive after dat.
nite diving is definitely something different.
for one, u need a torch to look at the little stuff dat's going on.
but the fishes u see darting and swimming ard in the day are all juz floating motionless in the water.
did a couple of drills underwater and we went on looking ard for interesting stuff.
1 diver said he saw 2 bamboo sharks. but i din see them. so it was a rather quiet dive for me. but dat's good enough coz i was really tired.

packed up my gear after the dive and went back to the room for a nice cold shower, and den it was dinner.
bbq seafood and meats w fried rice or fried noodles. food was not too bad.
but came the real treat, the super shiok ice kachang. guess it's shiok coz they put a bit of milo powder on the top.
so the milo gives it a fair bit of oomph.

but while we were halfway thru it, the wind started to pick up and it got REALLY cold.
so having ice kachang while the cold wind is blowing at u is indeed a really interesting experience.
i quickly finished up the ingredients and we were back to our room, getting our much needed rest for the next day's dives.

woke up the next day, feeling tired and slightly achy. did think of skipping the first dive.
but somehow, once i got to the boat, i juz suited up and jumped in.
i'm glad i went on dat dive, coz got quite a few nice fotos from dat dive, incl a foto of 3 barracudas and a nice foto of a clownfish in the anemone.

came up, rested a bit, and did my last dive, which included a underwater navigation drill involving moving in a triangle n a square pattern. did both w/o a hitch and went on to enjoy the dive some more. came up, packed our dive gear and the moment we hit land,
ben n i went straight to the prata shop for food.
so lunch for me was 1 plate of mee goreng, 1 prata kosong, 1 prata bom which is basically planta butter n condensed milk, followed by 1 ramly beef double special. on top of dat, i had 1 teh and 1 teh tarik. shiokness to the max man.

after dat, went to shower and packed our bags to leave tioman liao. thankfully there wasn't much of a jam at the checkpoints.
so we were back in clementi ard 7.30pm i think. had dinner, den went home.

dat was truly a fun adventure. but i dun think i'll kill myself doing 4 dives in a day.
congrats to jacq for completing her open water course as well.
welcome to the diving fraternity! she's super excited abt diving now. wanting to go for another trip.
so we'll see when we can go for one more. my best guess will be ard aug/sept but we'll see... we'll see...

A Weekend of Ups And Downs

2009-03-16T21:20:00.002+08:00

Wad a weekend it was!

let's start w fri.
e company had a football kickabout at east coast after work.
was good fun playing w the colleagues and getting to know ppl's names and all.
and of coz bonding w the ppl i already know.

but unfortunately, b4 heading down to east coast i had to make a detour to sim lim tower.
and on the way there, kinda got into a little accident, costing me $250.
while going down towards sji after exiting PIE at stevens road, i was slowing down coz it was a red light.
but somehow, i duno how, i fell asleep, awoken by a slight 'thud'. and i knew i had kissed the guy in front.
my foot was on the brake and i was slowing down, juz dat i hadn't stopped.
so drove to the road leading to sji and checked our bumpers.
his bumper looked alrite from the outside but can feel dat it was soft.
i only have a little faint line across my number plate.
dat's how light the impact was but it did enough damage to cost me abt $250 to juz compensate the guy.

putting dat aside, went on to play football.

after dat, went home, showered and left the house again for dbl-o for the marsch birthday bash,
which is basically a bday bash for a few march bday babies.
lotsa fun, lotsa drama, lots a of money spent.

and dat concludes the fri dat 'killed' my legs.

a lazy sat afternoon beckoned with my waking up at 1.30pm.
went for my strip appt at 5.30 and went to meet ewen, mark n fel for dinner at the zi char at my place. sub-$10 dinner. so everyone's happy.
after dat, we adjorned to my room for the big game.

good show by liverpool, winning 4-1.
tho 3 of the goals were a direct result of poor defending, i felt the man u's fans' pain to see their team lose 4-1.
so ya, league double over man u! WOOHOO!
but unfortunately, the win is merely a small dent in the red devils' march for the premiership crown.

peter, came over as well and bumped up my word challenge score to a seemingly insane 20+ thousand points.
seemingly insane to me at least.
ben n jacq came over at the end of the match and we juz chilled till ard 12plus.
and so ends a simple sat w the usual gang.

sunday was mass, and going to bt ho swee to see the sinseh to hopefully get my ankle in shape by fri.
and like sat, it was a simple, lazy sun, esp w the heavy rain which made looking out of the window impossible.
but once it subsided, we were off to 5 star chicken rice at bt timah for dinner w eug n dad.

went home for a while and was off to byron's place for a few hours of poker.
din do too well, lost $30, making my current win/loss figure at -$31.
i think i'm better off playing mj. hehehe...
but i haven't played poker in a long while and i prolly need more games to get in shape.

was on mc today as well, to get meds from the western doc to reduce the swelling due to my skin's allergy to the sinseh's medicinal patch.
i totally forgot i was allergic to it.
so went to hdb to renew my season parking and got my 20,000km servicing done up as well.

tom's a new day and i really hope i wun b going to pasir gudang for a job coz i really dun wish for it to drag out
and make me miss my weekend dive.
haven't finished reading the chapters i need to read up. completed abt half of wad i need to cover.
so will do it in the office tom.

this week seems a little quiet coz my only appt in the evening is on wed.
but guess sometimes we need our little quiet time to stay home n save money.
hehehe...

gona hopefully get my new speakers n amps installed by this week.
and probably gona get my scratched left fender, resurfaced and repainted.
looks like both jobs are gona burn a $800 hole in my pocket.
but it's money dat needs to b spent.
so let's juz spend it.
hahaha... alritey folks, dat's all for now.
see ya ard soon ya?
till den, take care!

Bumming Around

2009-03-10T14:49:00.002+08:00

It's now the 2nd week since i've been back.
haven't really done much in the office other than clearing up the paperwork for the melbourne job and the 3 week sea-trial job.
now i'm waiting for the money to come in!! *rubs hands in glee*

it's been fairly quiet in the office front. and i've had some trouble trying to find stuff to do during office hours.
been on fb playing mousehunt, fish wrangler and robot builder.
now dat i've gotten my advanced manual from jacq on sat, i'm trying to read up on the stuff i'll b doing for my dive in 2 weeks!!

yay!! 2 more weeks and i'm off to tioman for a weekend dive.
and for more good news, my colleague is giving me his regulator! woohoo!
juz need to have it serviced and checked out.
dun think i'll bring it for this trip. but mayb i'll bring it for the next one after i get it checked out.
and i think he's putting up his fins for sale. and i hear they're jet fins. so we'll see how :P

i cant wait till the end of the week to come.
coz fri nite is gona b a drinking nite at dbl o w some of the church peeps.
i can envision a nite of senseless drinking. hahaha...
ok.. mayb not senseless... but still, i see lots of drinking to be done on dat nite.
sat is the usual w the churchies. mayb i'll make an appt w strip for this weekend.

need to go to taka to spend dat $30 voucher which i have for quite a while liao.
wana get a shoe bag coz den i dun have to take out my tap shoes everytime i need a shoebag.

speaking of which, i think i need to get my tap legs warmed up again. but i cant tap at home!
i think i'll ruin the nice marble floor.
in fact, i'll prolly get a scolding from my dad if he hears me tapping on his marble floor and for making a lot of noise :P

i'm juz waiting for 5.30pm to arrive so i can get out.
it's a colleague's last day today and we're going to qun zhong at neil road for a farewell dinner.
it's been quite a while since i've gone there.
looking forward to the xiao long baos, zha jiang mian and guo ties! YUMMY! *rubbie tummie*

Mr A-Z

2009-03-06T20:28:00.002+08:00

Jason Mraz was fantabulous!
being my first concert n experience and all, it's been great.

he's absolutely fantastic w his stage presence, his vocal abilities and his geekiness.
he's definitely one cool geek.
and if vocal ability is a superpower, he'll b an ultra supergeek who'll save the world.
hahaha...

but was disappointed w the choice of joi chua to co-sing lucky w him.
mayb no one else was ard in sg.
she's nowhere near colbie caillat and the top she was wearing juz made look as if she has a penis.
dat was juz weird... first, a long time ago, zoe swallowed, and now, joi is a "tranny"
so wad's next?

enough of the not so fantastic shit...
and juz like fel, seeing him on stage, using his polariod to snaps fotos of his band and throwing out to the peeps in front made me wana get one too!
juz snap and it's done! spontaneous and fun!

and it seems dat last nite was the night of doomed cameras.
coz among the 8 of us, we had 3 cameras and all were low on batt.
i managed to get some fotos in, but they were not sharp at all.
so i'll think abt putting up the blurry fotos on fb.

went supper w steph, justin, byron, daph n sam after the concert.
it was definitely nice seeing byron n daph n sam coz it's quite a while since i've seen them.
the old man in me cant recall when was the last time i saw them.
so yea...

it was an awesome show, and i think i wun be selling my ticket for anything less than $500 if he's coming down again. hehehe...
good show mraz... now i shall listen to the mp3s and pretend i'm back in the stadium once more.

Bloob, Bloob....

2009-03-05T00:42:00.003+08:00

With abt 2 weeks to go b4 i head to tioman for my dive,
i tot i'd better get the dust off my gear.

so i emptied the bag to wash it.
but coz the dive bag is a mesh bag, there's some dust over the gear in the bag as well.
a quick rinse and all is good to go!

boy, have i missed these stuff... cant wait to go diving again!!
to think my last dive was bali in '07.
it's been more than a year.

but everything is still working.

3 Words...

2009-03-01T07:46:00.000+08:00

I.am.back.

Love By Numbers

2009-02-24T06:45:00.002+08:00

Was watching the telly in the hotel b4 checking out and the hosts of the morning show, sunrise, were interviewing this guy who had juz released a book abt compatibility based on ur birthdate.

all u need to do is to add the digits of ur bdate and reduce it till it's a single digit.
eg. 4/9/1978 = 4 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 7 + 8 = 38, 3 + 8 = 11, 1 + 1 = 2.

went to google for the analysis and i must say it's a fairly accurate analysis.
if anyone gives this a try, let me know how accurate it is.

gona b checking out soon and going down to st kilda's beach.
hope luna park is open, but i really dun think so coz the sch hols are over.

There's No Place Like Home

2009-02-23T17:20:00.002+08:00

Am in the hotel room now.
flight's booked for tom at 11.20am...
upgrade confirmed...

but guess i'm not destined to leave melbourne yet.
coz abt 1/2hr ago, my boss called.

the client called to say dat the boat will b ready by wed.
and so i am staying some more.
i'm so ready to go home liao lor.

kinda falling ill... nose is all clogging up, and am coughing a little liao.
now i'm wishing i have dorothy's shoes to click myself home.

Luck Running Out?

2009-02-20T11:13:00.002+08:00

I happily checked out of the hotel today to go to the vessel,
confident we'll get my test done and we'll sail out.

but let's juz say i think my luck has run out.
first i missed the captain's email in the morning which could have saved me all the misery.
coz he emailed me to stay on in the hotel coz the vessel isn't sailing till sunday. 2 nites leh!!
i could have done so much more w 2 days n 2 nites lor. like buy more clothes and shoes n gamble some more.

but instead i'm stuck onboard the vessel, with nothing to do, no shopping, no gambling, no walkabouts.
with a slow internet connection, tho i shd b grateful dat there's internet access onboard.
and to make things a little more worse, the internet connection point in my cabin isn't working and i have to use the connection in another cabin.

kinda getting a little sick of this waiting thingy. i juz wana get out and go back.
coz wad was supposed to be a hit and run job, became a lengthy car chase.
so i'll b missing on sat, the super bbq we've been planning for and on sun, sentosa sunday,
which we haven't have had in quite a long time as well.

and i cant go back in time to start my IPT since i've missed 3 sessions now.
and i can only miss 2 sessions if i wana get rt exemption.
so dat means i'm gona re-book for another schedule for my IPT.

ROAR!!

Weekend Cruise To Nowhere

2009-02-19T21:16:00.002+08:00

I'm going on a cruise tom.
gona b out until sunday i think and i hope it'll only b until sunday.

so dat means i wun b able to make it for the super bbq n sentosa weekend w the churchies.
sigh... was SO looking fwd to that lor.

stupid boat.
so instead of the bbq on sat n sentosa on sunday, i have a 3d2n cruise to nowhere, doing nothing.
and hopefully i'll get to return home on monday.

den can go for my IPT on tues.
i dowan to re-book my ipt. i want to fast fast clear.

Billy Elliot

2009-02-18T19:55:00.003+08:00

The show was great!!

the dancing was fantastic - the ballet and the tap.
ESPECIALLY the tap. loved it.

had a little trouble trying to catch the accents. but on the whole, it was great.
the ending bit when everyone was coming out to take a bow was a real treat coz everyone was tapping.

wonder when they'll come to sg and i'll love to see where they get the peeps to play billy.
they got 5 aussie kids to play the lead kid roles of billy, michael (billy's good fren) and debbie so the kids get enough rest.

and i think i caught the show on opening nite :P
lucky me!

and while on my way back to the hotel after e show, i saw this:

a stretch hummer la!
in bright pink no less!

alritey... i'm off to crown now!
wish me lotsa luck!!

Shopping And Eating

2009-02-18T15:18:00.006+08:00

Since I have half a day free after finishing up wad i had to do,
i walked to DFO next to southern cross station. and all i needed was an hour
and i had spent 225. 2 tees from jay jays, 1 tee and 1 polo from mossimo, 1 pair of berms and a pack of 5 pad socks from industrie, and a pair of slippers from aldo.

the loot -
domo rocks n super grover are from jay jays,
the other 2 tops are from mossimo, berms from industrie
and slippers from aldo.

and after walking thru and buying wad i wanted, i brought my loot back to the hotel.
and while packing my stuff, i remembered dat 'Billy Elliot the Musical' is here in melb.
went to google the show and after 10mins, i was at the ticketing counter, buying my ticket for tonite's show @ 7.30pm.

after ticketing, it was time to fill me tumtum coz the show's only abt 2.5hrs away.
and so to swanston st i walked. why?
coz there's where mekong is. ryan swears by dat place i tell u.
hahaha... and i love it too.
the beef is oh-so-tender, the soup so tasty, the serving so big.
and their deep fried spring rolls are good too!
and greedy me bought a packet of rice to takeaway for my late nite snack b4 i head out to crown.

plan to go to melb central for a little more shopping tom and den head out to st kilda's beach and hang out there till evening when the night market starts. as luck will have it, it's happens only every thurs nite and wad do u know? it's thursday nite tom!!
so dat's y i'm gona b there to catch the sunset as well... but the sun doesn't set till abt 8pm.

alrite... gota go and shower up and get ready for billy elliot.
take care everyone! and i'll see u soon!!

You Know...

2009-02-16T21:54:00.004+08:00

You're kinda screwed when u know u have to wake up at 8.30 to start work
but u're still online and wide awake and still playing mousehunt, robot builder and fish wrangler on fb.

flying to melb on business class was indeed a real pampering experience.

a seat wide enough to sit 1 1/2 of me, as well as a seatbelt w airbag

this is the seat next to mine my personal entertainment centre seatbelt w airbag - who would have thought?
- i was too lazy to get off my arse to take a pic of MY seat,

3 course meal after take off,

appetiser main course dessert

another small one juz b4 landing (din take foto of this one),

a seat dat can also transform into a flatbed, awesome headphones, little bedroom slippers.

and headphones dat ACTUALLY look and feel like headphones

it's so shiok, first thing i did when i got into the room n got the lappie set up was to check if i can upgrade to biz for my return trip and have enough for a free trip somewhere end of the year or early next year.
and i think i can! dat means i dun have to put my krispy kreme under the seat in front of me and have no space to place my feet :D

i hope i get to finish my job by tom and have wed and thur to walk ard to shop and to check out more of melb.

The 30yo Needs New Eyes

2009-02-16T09:16:00.003+08:00

Flying off to melbourne in a bit.
but silly me din read my boarding pass after checking in my luggage.
so did a little walkabout in T3, had a little brekkie and headed to my gate.
while waiting for the security checks, i tot i'll read my boarding pass.
and guess wad i saw?

You are invited to the Silver Kris Lounge

felt a little silly lor... it's not like i get to chill in such lounges everytime.
so ya...

den after clearing security, we were told to go to A12 from the current A10 coz they were changing planes.
and i was at A12, we were re-directed to A5. so ya... after brekkie, i got a little walking exercise b4 i sit on my ass for the next 8hrs.

hope i get shopping/gambling/eating time in melb.
guess my flight is gona get delayed since they've got to re-prep the new plane and all dat.
so i guess i'll see u all in summery melbourne!!

tata!

STFU

2009-02-12T22:49:00.002+08:00

Was on my way to michelle's place after work to pick up my 'Random Name' stamp so that i can write NTUC Income an official letter, my colleague (let's call him A) called me to ask me abt a job i did this morning. and he was complaining abt how he was given the job last minute b4 he left the office and how the boss always gives him last minute work... blah blah blah...

was kinda pissed w his complaining and all dat coz if u dun wana do, tell the boss la.
so i juz asked him outright if he wanted to do it or not and he said no.
so i told him i'll do it. so mafanic la... and so ROAR!! i dun even know how to describe.

so tom's gona b a busy day, continuing w wad i did today on 1 vessel
and going back to e cursed vessel i was stuck on for 18 days.
lots of work, not much time. but oh well, work's got to be done so let's get it done.

dat's all... got it out of my system liao.
i'm happy again.
muhahaha... last day of work tom den i'm off to melbourne.
so exciting!! flying 7 1/2hrs in business class. *still crossing my fingers dat economy doesn't free up*
i'm a happy camper.
LALALA!! LALALA!!

And Away I Go Again

2009-02-12T16:56:00.002+08:00

Flying off on monday again.
this time to summery melbourne!
on SQ!
and at the moment - business class!!
WOOT!

Green Tea Is Good For You

2009-02-10T14:37:00.001+08:00

A colleague sent me this juz now.
so funny... kekeke.

enjoy!

Going Where? - Part 2

2009-02-06T20:15:00.003+08:00

A wicked twist of fate made me stay for another nite.
tho there's a chance i might have to stay till mon or tue,

I'm Going Home Tomorrow!!

*crosses fingers n toes*

Going Where?

2009-02-05T23:12:00.001+08:00

Going home!!
Going home!!
Going home!!
Going home!!

I'm going home tomorrow!!

Things To Do

2009-02-01T09:46:00.002+08:00

Things to do when i get back

1) Get a haircut - it's getting long n messy.
2) Do mani/pedi - especially a pedi. my heels are dry and superly cracked.
3) Apply for leave for march n may. diving in march, BKK in may.
4) Meet up w the ppl i have made dinner plans w but will miss if i dun make it back in time.
5) Meet up w the ppl i usually meet up w for dinner n mj n everything else.

i'm juz glad things are starting to look up a little bit.
bloody murphy has been running ard the vessel creating trouble for everyone.
if only there was some anti-murphy ritual, i'll b sure to perform it.

i think this is the closest i've interacted w him. damn him for coming up w his dumbass law.
and pls remind me to NEVER, EVER name my son murphy, if i ever have a son.

back to work now. took the time to blog while i was copying some stuff into a hdd.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

2009-01-27T15:31:00.002+08:00

And dat's juz wad i did.

din have much to do today since i've cleared most of my stuff.
so walked for an hr on the helideck. and since i dun have shoes, i wore my safety boots instead.
nice sunshine, no rain, no clouds, slight breeze.
i couldn't say no to a chance to get out of the cold and into the warmth to get a little bit of exercise and a tan.

but the 1hr walk a little too long coz now i think my shoulders are a little burnt.
but it's still good nonetheless.

juz heard dat we're going to begin tuning the DP which is a major part of the reason why i'm out here, NOT celebrating cny as i should. so dat's good news coz the sooner things finish, the sooner i get home.

was planning to put up fotos i took during my stay here...
but the connection is a little slow and will take forever to upload so i think they'll prolly juz go up on fb.

Die! You! Die!

2009-01-26T15:48:00.003+08:00

I have finally slain the evil beast that is the tautwire.
the bloody piece of equipment is the manifestation of evil that had been plaguing me the past few days.
and i can finally put it to rest coz i have finally fixed all the problems it can throw at me.
of coz i could not have done w/o the help of my colleagues. but wad's most impt is dat it's all fixed.
and i'm happy and the client's happy.

and so my first day of cny ends on decently good note.
the only thing dat can add to my joy rite now is to quickly finish this trial so dat i can go home.

CNYE

2009-01-25T19:34:00.002+08:00

If memory serves me rite, this will be the 2nd time in my life (probably) dat i wun be spending cny at home. i think the first time was in 2006 when i had juz started work w fugro.

being onboard a ship going for a sea trial is actually not too bad. but only if it's out for a few days.
being onboard a ship going for a sea trial is actually not too bad. but only if u dun have lots of little niggling problems dat bug the hell out of u.
being onboard a ship going for a sea trial is actually not too bad. but only if u dun have to miss a inaugaral sec4S4 gathering.

but i am thankful dat i have onboard quite a few more colleauges than usual.
so life is never quite dull. but at the end of the day, u wish u were back at home w the ppl who matter most.

and so i wish all of u who still read this blog (i know stefette does :D) a very happy ox-y new year. and may the love and joy and of coz, the gambling luck of the season be with you.

Worst Days At Work = X + 1

2009-01-23T22:45:00.002+08:00

Let's add another day to the count of worst days at work.

i'm not going to go all technical abt it but let's juz say a component of my system on the ship cannot be ready for the client to accept coz of a little accident partly due to my fault.

it's a real sucky feeling man...
i feel like i've let my boss down n whoever's expecting me to do a proper good job.
i juz feel like digging a hole and burying myself in there...

this is like the 2nd mis-adventure at work in a row.
on my last job to brunei, i brought the wrong software and din managed to complete the service call.
and another colleague has to go n finish it up.

ROARRR!!!! wish i can go home to my xbox n juz hide in my room n game...
or juz go out n have a few drinks to forget abt it....

this juz
SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS,
ASS BIG TIME!!!

Feb is all planned out.

2009-01-19T22:06:00.002+08:00

Even before i leave for my sea trial tom and before jan is over,
i've gotten my feb weekends all planned out.

i find this highly rare and blog-worthy. wahahaha...
and so here it goes.

7 feb - 4S4 reunion (if i'm back in time)
8 feb - family dinner w aunts (incl uncles n cousin)

14 feb - nothing for now :(
15 feb - chestnuts

21 feb - nothing as well :(
22 feb - beach day @ sentosa w the churchies

27 feb - nothing too :(
28 feb - rich, good food bbq w churchies

ok... after writing it out, looks like only my sundays are full...
sat are still free...but they'll prolly b filled w the usual stuff w the churchies.
but we'll see. esp on 21 feb.

tom is the day, 9am - the time...
there goes my normal life... till i get back again.

Over The Oceans and The Seas

2009-01-19T13:34:00.002+08:00

Since leaving the airforce, my life has inadvertably been very connected w water.
from the day i did my open water course till today, i've not looked back since.

and i'm glad everything happened.
i cant imagine myself leading a life juz sitting in the office, staring at the monitor.
and tho sometimes, unfortunate things happen, it all comes w the job.

and this cny will b the 2nd in 3 yrs where i wun get to spend it at home.
but i'm ok w it... it's juz my dad who was kinda like "what?! u're not ard for cny?!"
but i think he realizes that there is no other choice.
he prob wonders why cant i juz get a regular job like everyone else.

but like i said, i enjoy wad i'm doing and i think dat's impt.
i get time in the office, sitting in front of the monitor, going online, chatting on msn n on fb.
and i also get time out of the office (which is much more) doing REAL work at the shipyards, overseas, etc...

and so this year, REAL work is taking me out to international waters this cny.
gona b boarding tom and will b spending the next 10-15 days there.
i juz hope i can be home in time for dinner w jasmine n my most awesomely anticipated sec 4 class reunion.
dinner w jasmine can b arranged again... but the dinner meetup w the guys... i really wana go for this... *crosses fingers*

and before i leave tom, i'm gona see the doc today, coz i've been coughing fairly badly the last few days. and i suspect the generous benefactor who granted me this gift is adel.
thanks leh :S

if i'm lucky, i might get internet access onboard and den i can get online n kill time in a more sanely manner.
otherwise i hope my slightly over 100hours worth of movies n tv shows will last me.
and of coz i WILL be looking forward to the REALLY BIG FAT overtime angpow my office will bestow upon me when i get back.
kekekeke...

A Waaaaay Overdue Reunion

2009-01-14T16:22:00.003+08:00

7 feb - the date,
7.30pm - the time,
marmalade pantry, palais renaissance - the place.

my sec 4 class reunion... after 15 long yrs...
we are finally having a reunion.
it's gona b tough trying to get everyone... but we're gona try anyway.

feeling kinda excited really... to meet up w old frens and see their now pudgy tummies.
and mayb w kids tagging along.
how time flies...
it flies so fast, it's kinda scary.
but in the meantime, i'm counting down to 7 feb, crossing my fingers i wun be out for seatrial.

OUCH!

2009-01-11T08:59:00.002+08:00

Woke up this morning w my shoulders aching.
thankfully, the rest of my body isn't aching.

yoga kills my shoulders. but i shd say dat they're prolly not as strong as i had hoped they are.
hopefully, after a few more sessions, these aches are a thing of the past.

but we'll see...

Yummy Sports

2009-01-11T02:32:00.002+08:00

Today's quite an interesting day...

din start off v special, coz was bumming at home the whole time till ard 4plus.
but in between, i had a little scare coz i might have needed to go to work!
but thank god, dat din happen.

so left the house at 4plus to go to horse city.
to give this yoga class a try.
it's a free trial anyway, so y not? went w ben, jacq n fel.

was not too bad.
struggled to hold some of the poses. but typically i think i did alrite.
think i'll give it a few more lessons to see how effective it is in improving my strength n fitness.
i know it's not gona improve my cardio fitness but at least i think it can help strength and tone my muscles while improving my flexibility.

and fel can do a mean King Cobra. ask me if u dun wad kind of pose dat is.

went to markie's house to shower after yoga, coz got bluffed dat they had shower facilities.
so met up w ben n jacq again at his place after shower and we headed to ghim moh for crabs!!
after the exercise n all, and w fel still having a crab craving, and w ewen unable to join us for dinner,
this was the best time to go for crab for dinner.
had 3 crabs - 1 black pepper, 1 chilli and 1 salted egg.
the salted egg was damn good. tho it is different from the one at owen seafood at turf city.
the one at owen is drier and chunkier. this one's more watery and smooth.
absolutely perfect to drizzle over your rice. *SLURP*

went prawning at bishan after dinner. another good day, catching abt 12-14 prawns.
ben had a good 1st time too, catching abt the same, if not abt 1-2 more than i.
mark did fairly well w abt 10 and peter caught the least at 7, which was better than my first time.
jacq got squirmy coz we were hooking live prawns n all. but she was sufficiently entertained by a copy of vanity fair she found.
by the end of 3 hrs, 4 of us caught a grand total of 45 prawns, 8 of which were bbq-ed on the spot to enjoy, and bringing home another 9 each.

but while we were prawning, we noticed a couple across the pond from us who were quite formidable. they were catching a prawn like every other minute. they were hauling prawns into their basket non-stop. i bet they caught their 1 week's supply of prawns in 3 hrs.
think prawning is definitely something dat can be done every now and den...

fairly enjoyable, i must say.

so now i'm home, all showered and ready for bed.
except dat my hair's still at little damp for bed.
meantime, trying to see who's interested to catch jason mraz on 5 mar 2009.
tix are 148 (Cat A) and 103 (Cat B). see sistic for seating arrangement.

gona b flying off to brunei for work tom evening. so take care everyone and dun miss me!
i'll b back on tue nite!

The 8am Rescue Plan

2009-01-03T12:29:00.002+08:00

Woke up at an unearthly 7.30am juz so dat i can b at the branch office at 8am to get my season parking problem solved.

tot it was gona get tricky. but it turned out pretty easy. juz needed to fill in a form declaring dat i NOW know dat i get priority renewal between the 12th and 23rd of the month. but dat's not gona matter anymore coz i've applied for giro payment. so it gets renewed automatically.

and at 8am i was the 2nd person lor. dang... i should have slept in a bit more.
but i really din wana end up waiting for like 1hr plus lor.

so dat's solved. looks like 2009 isn't as bad as it looks after all.
Viva 2009!!

Sold Out ?!

2009-01-03T00:02:00.002+08:00

How can it be sold out?!
tried to renew my season parking just now and was told dat it was sold out.
SOLD OUT!!
HOW CAN!! there's still empty lots ard the carpark!!
wah lau!! damn sianz la.

now must park DAMN FAR LA!!!
tom must go hdb liao.
8am!!! 8am!!! how to wake up so early?

ROAR!!! ROAR!!! ROAR!!!

2008 Is Soooo Yesterday

2009-01-01T11:42:00.003+08:00

Quite literally...
2008 was so yesterday.

for as far as i can remember, in the last few yrs, this is i think the first time i'm welcoming the new year outside of someone's home.
went to the marina barrage to check out the place and find a place to camp to get a good shot of the fireworks.

arrived abt 7pm after work. met up w peter, ewen, ben n jacq. they had food n stuff on the ground floor, so we bought food and slowly made our way up to the upper floor, looking for a spot to camp on.
the barrage is indeed a nice place to chill at. it's windy, has wide open spaces tho the ground isn't flat.
wat's not to like?

as time slowly passed, we walked ard, took fotos and play "up the river, down the river".
jacq learnt it while on holiday in vietnam. i duno how to explain the game but ask me when u see me next time.
and soon, the person who introduced the game to us was languishing behind as the rest of us trailblazed past her and left her score behind.

the clock ticked closer to midnight and due to the difference in everyone's clock, some boats in the bay started blowing their horns.
and we replied w ours coz jacq bought ben a $10 bugle. kekeke...
and on the stroke of midnight, the fireworks began and the sky juz filled up w colors. so pwetty...
after the fireworks, u can see the typical human tsunami crashing out of the barrage. we hung ard a little more b4 making our way out.

was supposed to meet john, fel n mark for supper but they were stuck in traffic trying to get out of the office building.
supper was, in the end, at killiney w ewen n peter.

but on a serious note, looking back, not juz on 2008 but on the years past, i think i am blessed.
i've got frens who love and care for me, good health, a decently good paying job.
as much as i dun think i can ask for more, mayb a gf will be nice for 2009.
but we'll see wad happens come the rest of the 364 days.

and so for now.... hope ur 2008 has been fairly fulfilling and ur 2009 full of hope n joy.
viva 2009!!

Shiny Bling Bling

2008-12-20T13:41:00.004+08:00

Met up w adel for dinner and movie last nite at vivo.
she wanted to get a mani/pedi done so i tot since i haven't had mine done in quite a few months,
might as well get mine coz i have to wait for her anyway.

boy did we have to wait. our appt was abt 6.45 but we were early, so we grabbed a quick yoshinoya dinner. and good thing we ate den too coz our mani/pedi ended ard 8.35pm - 5 mins b4 the show was to start. but of coz we all know gv movies NEVER start at the indicated time. so we were still in time for the show. caught 'yes man'.

interesting concept to opening up to saying yes to oppotunities. but other than dat, the show was juz average i think. it wasn't as funny as the trailers had made it out to be.

anyhoo... back to the mani/pedi... i felt so good sitting in the chair and getting my nails done.
sorry if i sound kinda gay here... but it always feels good getting ur nails cleaned up and the ingrown trimmed off. and have buffed n shined nails as an end result.
nice, clean, shiny nails.

i think steph will know... i still can remember the first time she saw my pedicured toes.
coz we were playing mj and she, tress n justin looked under the table n could see the shine in my toenails. and they were OMG!
kekekeke...

it's been a busy week this week... not having stepped into the office until thur morning.
and it was only for the morning. but fri was a boring day as well, with nothing to do all day for 8hrs. but it's gona b a nice chill, laidback weekend.

gona get my hair cut for xmas today... and hopefully order something for the xmas potluck at john's on the 28th. and mayb spend dat $150 raoul voucher and $30 taka voucher. well... gota scoot now.
take care y'all and have a great weekend.

Animals, Queens and Snow

2008-12-11T10:03:00.002+08:00

Went to watch wild rice's snow white on tue nite.
and boy am i glad i managed to convince ppl to watch it w me...

it was simply hilarious! i felt the show din have a good start, but it definitely picked up as it went on.
and when sebastian made his appearance, there was no stopping him.
but celine rosa tan was fantastic as the magic mirror and nanny.
her v singlish accent for nanny was perfect.

kudos to the wild rice crew for getting elena wang to play snow white.
not only was she pretty, she sang v well too.

the other supporting casts weren't too bad themselves.
i esp laughed myself silly at the beginning part of the show where one pageant contestant requested for an interpreter. i'm not gona give too much away.
watch it and find out for yourself....

next show is gona b CATS in april. trying to get at least 10 ppl.
anyone interested?

Surfing In The Rain

2008-11-17T11:07:00.002+08:00

A wet monday morning it is today.
and while on the way to the shipyard to do REAL work, it started to rain and it looked like it was gona pour like crazy.
made a detour to west coast mac's to wait out the rain.

and so here i am, sitting at mac's, logged in to wireless@sg, facebooking and blogging and chatting on msn.

this rain looks like it's not gona stop for the next couple of hours. i hope to get a spot where there's a power socket in like 2hrs coz i've only got 2hrs of laptop juice left.

guess dat's all the rambling i've got for now... time to go play pet society and word challenge :P
so for those of u in the office and struggling to stay awake coz of the rain, WAKE UP!
and for those of u mugging at home and also struggling, 加油!
and for those of u lucky-ass ppl who are juz bumming at home, HAVE FUN!

how i wish i am home rite now, den i can juz game on my xbox :(

From Swedish Meatballs In An English Pub To Grilled Meats To Playing In A Band To Jap Buffet To More Band To An Immobile Left Hand

2008-11-16T14:25:00.003+08:00

It has been a most busy weekend.
thursday post work hours were spent at 'The Old Brown Shoe' with jarrod n michelle.
the shoe is opened by one of jarrod's colleague in rj.

nice little pub w a nice english feel to it, except dat the music's not too englishy.
started w a half pint of guiness. quite alrite... still not a fan of stout.
den came the food we ordered... good stuff i tell u.
we had their fish n chips, pork sausages, swedish meatballs, their shoe burger and scotch egg.
i think dat was it.
the fish was fantastic - the batter was crispy and the fish was soft.
the swedish meatballs were shiokness - even better than the ones u get from ikea.
there's even mushrooms in the sauce.
the burger was good and filling.
but the egg was a little cold, but still not too bad.

apparently, every wed nite is pub quiz nite where everyone pays a little fee of say $5 to form a huge pot. and the winning team takes it all.
jarrod says he has a group of colleagues, among which is jamie reeves, wins the quiz every time.
after dat, michelle had to go home so jarrod came over to my place to play guitar hero world tour.
we played for a while den he left.

friday nite was spent having dinner w the friday gang of tress, apu, stefette and justin.
adel joined us as well... dinner was at grill-out@ sunset. still quite the same as the last time i went w the churchies.
food not bad, but service still not dat good.
after dinner, we all went to my place to world tour some more...
played for abt 2 hrs, den we changed to mj.
played till 4am i think... and i din win or lose. BAH!

sat was dinner at ikoi@ miramar hotel. we were celebrating jacq's and alex's birthdays.
but b4 we left for dinner, ben, jacq, mark n fel came over to world tour a little coz no one was doing anything from 5-ish till dinner time@8pm.
dinner was a ala carte buffet, so we juz had the food coming - sashimi, tempura, saba, shishamo, chawanmushi, handrolls,
more tempura, more sashimi.
the food was fantastic... and we kept getting complimentary food from the chef.
oh.. i almost forgot abt the most fantastic birthday rice cake the restaurant made for the birthday girls.
it was juz rice covered in roe at the sides. simple but good.

and after dinner, it was more world tour but not at my place.
it was at ewen's but it meant i had to disconnect my xbox and pack up the drums.
took us 1/2hr to pack everything get to ewen's place but it was all good when we had everything set up and ready to go.
played till abt 2plus, 3am and pack everything back.
we needed abt 3 ppl to carry everything. 2 guys to carry the box which the drums is packed in.
along w the guitars slung behind. and 1 more person to carry the console.

woke up today w a strained left thumb. can hardly move it. and the area near the wrist to the base of the thumb was slightly swollen.
so i went to see the doc for meds.
need to work tom lor. cannot afford to take mc. well... not for the next couple of the weeks at least.

going out for dinner later w the family. eugene's bday tom.
and den it's poker at john's after i drive everyone home!
i wana win money to pay for my chips! HUAT AH!!

havent got any pics for any of the nites... waiting for ppl to load n tag...
so check out fb for peektures k?

I speaketh no Tagalog but I can ROAR!

2008-11-07T22:51:00.002+08:00

It's been 5 days since arriving on monday.
the first few days were busy, with my day starting ard 7.30 and ending only ard 7.30.
staying at batangas country club.
sounds nice but it's damn ulu. there's nothing ard.
so no nights out to a bar and dat kind of thing after work.
dinner is usually at the resort's cafe.

but we ended slightly earlier last nite. was back at the hotel before 7pm.
so bruno (colleague i'm here w) and i went out for dinner.
dinner was at batangas largest mall - SM City Mall.
but it still pales in comparison w wad we've got in sg...
and when i reached there, i realized i've been there b4 last year when i was working in batangas with my prev company.

so dropped by dickies and bought a couple more berms.
and thank god, i had some "education" from apu.
coz them americans and i guess filipinos dun call them berms. they're called shorts.
so when i went into the store and asked to see the berms, the staff had dat blur look.
quick thinking me, asked to see the shorts and there they were - them berms.
and my waist has expanded. DAMN!
cannot fit into the size 30 ones... finally bought size 32 berms.

after dinner, bruno n i went to a couple of nearby bars for beers.
first one was juz outside the mall. so we went in n sat down. after a beer and a couple of songs by the live band,
we went on to another bar abt 3mins away.
there was also a live band there. the band was much younger and not as good as the earlier one.
after another round of beers, we left the place, looking for another bar w a live band.
but there was none.

so we hopped onto a tricycle which is basically a motorbike w a sidecar, and told the driver to bring us to a bar w a live band.
the guy brought us to this part of town which had a couple of bars ard. we went into tavern queen.
coz dat was the only one w a live band or at least we could see they had a band. another round of drinks and a much better band to listen to.
once dat's all done, we headed back to the hotel.

today din start out good - it was raining like shit. i so wanted to sleep in but couldn't.
got a vessel to go to. so dragged myself out of bed and out of the room when i heard dat the rain has somehow gotten smaller.
good thing once i was onboard the vessel, i was relaxing a fair bit coz the hardware bit's done and
now bruno is working on fine-tuning the system.
so i spent the day playing old dos games i had downloaded a while ago. kekeke...
if u're old enough, u'll prob recognise the game - quest for glory 1.

so after playing for a while, i changed game.
this time it's the grand-daddy of the EA NBA Live series - Lakers vs Celtics.
despite having not played the game in like eons, i still managed to win my first game.
but i was playing as the Lakers when Magic Johnson was still in the team.

ended a little late and so dinner is once again at the cafe - Manggo Grill and Cafe.
tom is gona b my last day of work. i suspect it will end really late... but it's ok.
coz every hour worked tom is considered as OT :D which means X hours @ $24/hr.
and it's probably gona b at least 10hrs.

den it's back to manila at 9am on sunday morning, reaching the airport ard noon and checking in for my flight at 2.20pm.

but i juz got news dat my other colleague who is kinda following me for this project i'm working on in sg,
dat he re-ran a cable which he tot was wrong but wasn't.
ROAR!!
he's always not checking his drawings and other documents properly.
so i've gota correct his mistake when i get back.
and the dumb boy din tell my boss he's got stuff to do on the vessel when he was told to follow another guy.
so he only went onboard today and got done some of the stuff i had told him to do before i left.
ROAR!!
cant wait for him to get his own project and b rid of him.
i know i sound evil but he really irritates the hell out of me.
and of all the people in the office, only he has managed to irritate me DAT much.
i duno y also. he da champ lor.

ok la... enough ranting liao.
time to go sleep soon.
catch u all when i get home!! cant wait!!
see ya! nites!!

Yes, M'am Miss

2008-10-28T21:48:00.002+08:00

A certain miss told me this afternoon to update blog.
so here i am now...

it's been seemingly busy the past couple of weeks.
i guess mainly coz of rt and make up rt sessions.
couple dat w work during the day.

some little events happening over the last couple of weeks.
kicking off the events will be prawning w apu, tress n adel couple of fridays ago.
i'll say dat was a much better outing for me than the one w the colleagues.
but it's mainly coz my prawns were not $10 each. but much cheaper.
the 4 of us caught 33 prawns in 3 hrs. quite a decent feat if u ask me,
considering the 8 or 9 of us colleagues caught 44 in 3hrs.
but we were all quite full from dinner, so we only bbq-ed a few and brought the rest home.

nothing much happened after dat besides the weekly rt sessions which i am bloody glad is all over!!
yay!! woohoo!! freedom!!

the deepavali long weekend was spent mj-ing mainly, starting on fri nite.
played till 6am. but din sleep till abt 7.30am coz was on the line w starhub tech support.
coz couldn't get online and i tot it was a starhub problem. but it turned out to be a problem brought abt by my avg antivirus.
once dat was confirmed, i went to sleep at abt 7.30am.
somehow at 11.30 or noon, i woke up or was awakened. couldn't get back to sleep so went to get the antivirus problem resolved once n for all...

din do much till the evening when i met ewen, ben n jacq for dinner.
simple one at clementi 'sam lou' horfun at ave 5 den went to settlers at hv.
but had to wait for 45mins for a table so we went to settlers at pine grove (i.e. ben's house)
but while waiting for the staff to check when they will have a table available, we saw this table near the door playing saboteur.
and coz ben n jacq bought me the game for xmas last year, we've played it quite a few times.

so i saw the tunnels dat the players dug out, i knew the miners all CMI coz they went one round around the starting point.
and if they were lucky, they can only reach 1 possible end card.
and one guy asked 'saboteur how to sabo ppl?'
but enough of dat coz i know i'm boring ppl who duno the game.

so at ben's place, we played bonaparte (otherwise known as the bean game coz u have to plan beans n harvest them for coins) and
evo (otherwise known as the dinosaur game?)
t'was my first time playing evo. not too bad i must say... really wun mind playing it again.
but problem is it's a fairly long game. w 4 of us playing and thinking decently hard, we took abt almost 2hrs to finish 1 game.
and dat ended sat.

sun was mass@12.30pm at smota. met jerms at the lift landing on the 13th floor.
den while in church, met jods n bryan.
after mass, lunched at BK w jerms n jods and scooted off for my haircut@next.

cut my hair short coz i'm sick of longer, flat hair.
and went to marina square for X08 w miah after dat.

previewed a couple of games and i must say i am looking forward to quite a few games.
guitar hero world tour is number 1 in the list and i'm gona train on the drums.
gears of war 2 is another i will be looking out for.
tried dead space and dat title din look too bad.

went to dinner at o'brien's at jelita den went home for a while b4 heading out to thambie's place for another nite of all niter mj.
played till 6.30am den went home. won abt 27. decent good game. had a couple of 5-tai hands.
but after deducting 10 for mac's, 10 which i lost on fri nite, i only won 7. but dat's still better than losing money.

monday was a quiet day at home. was supposed to mj w jerms but couldn't find a 4th player.
so went to peter's house to update my collection of tv series including gg, heroes n prison break.

and on a not so happy note, i kena $120 worth of traffic summons in the last 10 days - 1 $20 and 2 $50 fines.
damn shipyards w/o sufficient parking. dat's 5 hrs of ot to claim back lor.
sianzzz...

thank god for the long weekend. this week now seems so much shorter.
tom's already wed and b4 u'll know it, the weekend is here again.

going to the pee-lee-pins next monday. will b gone for abt a week. hope i can b back in time for bryan's open house.
guess dat's all for now.

i wana play poker! markie! ewen! ben! john! and whoever else! we NEED to poker.
i need to earn back the $160 i spent on the yummy chips.

Ice, Exercise and a bad back

2008-10-14T22:35:00.002+08:00

Wad a weekend!

start off w byron's bene-bash at kallang ice world.
was great being invited and sharing in his 21st birthday bash.
and was also great meeting up w frens i have not quite met in a while.
and of coz ice skating. cant rem when was the last time i did it... but it prob was during my poly days.
took a while to get used to the skates n soon i was skating ard, tho not like an ace but ok enough to move ard.

sat was a quiet day, going to imm w my dad to get his new specs done.
he got himself a pair of oakley rimless prescription glasses. cost quite a fair bit but i think it looks great.
i only had my specs lens replaced coz they were getting dirty n kinda scratched up.

the evening was more interesting.
had a surprise bday dinner for tress. apu had us all arriving at the restaurant so we could surprise tress when she arrived.
she tot it was a dinner between the 2 of them. good job apu. kekeke...
dinner was at waraku@marina square. food was decently good.
but the food was served in reversed order or sorts.
our own mains arrived first, followed by the tempura and sashimi.
plus they brought us orders which were already served - twice.
but it was good nonetheless.

met up w the churchies for a while at john's place after dinner and we played saboteur.
havent played in a long time and i was definitely fun playing it again.
after a few rounds, it was time to go home.

sunday was also fairly quiet. went for mass and went to watch burn after reading.
it's a nice little funny film w no real story to it.
so at the end of it all, u'll ask urself, so wad was the whole point of the movie to which i'll answer - there is none. haha...
after dat it was off to maju camp for my weekly date w the PTIs.
did some runs, and static exercises and went home.

dinner was at dragon phoenix restaurant at liang court.
we were celebrating basil's and my parents' birthdays.
food was good. yummy.

and when i got home, my back din feel too good.
like i kinda strained it. i guess it could have been the situp and bridging exercises we had to do during rt.
but i thnk it could have been the situp coz i've done bridging during rt b4 and nothing's happened to me.
but havent really done situps during rt. only crunches.

so woke up on monday w a bad back.
i could walk n all but couldn't really bend down and carry heavy stuff.
went to see the doc n had to call the office and trouble my colleagues to take over my duties.
coz i had to go to a ship to do a final inspection n rectify a software problem.
and coz of the injury and mc, i could not go to batam today to take over my colleague's project.
and another guy had to go in my place. and i missed out on abt $500 worth of overseas allowances :(

and of coz i still have to go for rt coz there is no way in hell i will wana defer the bloody rt again.
and coz my rt from my last window was not cleared (i'm doing it now).
and i couldn't get my ippt done for my last window, dumbass mindef decided to send me a letter today requesting for my presence at cmpb
to answer the charge of Neglecting to Perform a Lawful Duty. hello? not dat i din want to, i couldn't.
ur bloody system din allow me to book my ippt.
damn. have to call TAB tom liao.

and i've decided once i've cleared my rt. i'm going for ipt early next yr.
it's only 8 sessions and so i'm only inconvenienced for 4 weeks den i'm free of the military's obligations for the year.
i dun see reservist as any inconvenice. in fact, it's a nice holiday. kekeke...
it's only the bloody ippt dat's a bummer. waste my time. *ROAR*

time to shower!! see ya next time!