Sushi Express

The gees and cees.

2008-12-15T21:43:00.004+08:00

C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 - C - G7 - C - G7 - C -G7 -

My left hand's getting tired! I've got my new toy to keep me company though. When all's lost and when you're feeling bored, just turn to music. Glad to see some familar guitar terms appearing though.

Christmas is coming soon, but somehow there isn't any party or plan to get my innards all jiggling and grooving to the xmas beat. Indeed, it's always the festive season that makes a person feel the loneliest. Being surrounded by nasty people doesn't help either.

However, there's always 2 sides to a coin, so as they say. Look on the bright side!!!

Tsk

2008-12-14T20:48:00.000+08:00

It seems like the group here is divided into factions.

Oh well who gives a damn.

Not good with programming

2008-11-16T22:41:00.003+08:00

Ah... a change of template means everything gone? What happened to all my links and chatbox?

Someone please help.

Chong chu jiang huuuuuu

2008-11-16T22:30:00.002+08:00

Due to an insufferable lack of entertainment...... I'm back!

Looking forward to 6th December, when hopefully all our hard work will finally come to fruit.

6th dec... the day when one of my dreams will come true!

Come on 6th dec!

All the hiking trips have made me realized one thing - Am i born to chiong sua?

Just a thought.

Away from ICT

2008-06-25T22:04:00.003+08:00

Woohoo.. feels good not to be reporting for ICT.

But feels bad too. Wonder how the guys are coping without me.

And I've finally gone electric.

Time to rock and roll!!

Been awhile

2008-06-19T19:57:00.001+08:00

To go electric or not?

Cooling up

2008-05-12T21:59:00.002+08:00

Just when i was complaining that it was getting warm, the weather took an erratic turn for the better. Cloudy the entire day, with forecast expecting a comfortable temperature range of sub 20 degrees, no wonder I'm smiling on my way to work today. Tomorrow's gonna be typhoon day, but luckily it's not gonna hit Tokyo.

Kamakura

2008-05-11T19:44:00.006+08:00

Been a long time since i added anything noteworthy here, so i thought i might just put in some pictures from my latest trip to the land of Zen - Kamakura. Many zen and buddhist temples galore here, so for anyone looking for a break from the city life, this sleepy town which attracts many tourists offers just that. Company for the day - Olga the Ukrainian chick again.

Not gonna comment too much here, except that it's getting bloody hot in Japan, with the 8am morning sun giving the same blistering radiation as the 11am sun in Singapore. Sweats whenever I walk to the office in the morning.

The most famous attraction at Kamakura is obviously this- The big buddha statue with its construction dating back to the 1200's. Anything THIS big will definitely be a tourist attraction.

3 Day long weekend

2008-03-17T19:07:00.015+08:00

Argh photos messed up in wrong order again.

To cut long story short, a gang of 5 consisting of me, Toohan, Olga, Kailun and Soon teck went for a low budget excursion trip to a place called Beautiful Forest on Saturday while the others went for, what else, another snowboarding trip. Enjoyed myself tremendously I must admit, and for once my weekends are free of bone crunching falls and sore limbs.

Enjoy the pictures! (Though they are once again in a weird order that only blogspot can explain why.)

A tatami mat in the middle of no where. Scarly got gong tao, better not step.

Olga lost in her own world. Maybe hunting deers or something.

Soon Teck for no reason getting stuck waist-deep in snow. All the king's horses and all the king's men had to go help him up.

Trekking without mountainous water-proof shoes can prove to be a huge challenge. The return of the army foot-rot is near???
They are slow!

This was during the trip there. Pretty sky must take picture.

At a stopover during travelling. With the woman with the ukrainian smile.
And the guys from sunny singapore.

A group photo up there. We were probably 1200 metres or feet above sea-level, which I'm not sure.

The two Luns!

A long way to go people... Led them with army songs to boost their morale.

This was before the forest chiong-sua. Climb hill on dry land first.

A very early shot of me jumping with joy.

And Kailun not really jumping with joy. More like super mario.

A river there, most notably remembered as my peeing place.

Soon Teck hates getting his feet stuck in snow.
Our picnic lunch - wine courtesy of Olga.

The spot with rocks as chairs.

Exercising legs is not enough, must work out the arms too! Snow boulder lifting time!

She resigned to becoming a weight lifter. Decided to make her snowman instead. Or rather, it turned out to be a snowwoman.

Olga's child - White chick!

And Kailun's - dunno-what-the-name man.

Getting high with the wine.
Yay! Leaving the place to create some romantic time for those 2 snow beings.

On the way down, asked an old man wearing only sandals to help with phototaking.

Finally down from the snow place.

Went to get some famous locally produced soft cream.

Tried to xian some japanese chick - tried everything I could, including using the most desperate method: soft cream bait, but to no avail. She just won't bloody look at the camera!

Ok think that's all for the Beautiful mountain trip.

Took leave on monday, so cannot waste it by sleeping at home. Went out to finally buy our most desired item since me, clarence and wilson came Japan - A made-in-japan bicycle! Coz everywhere you go, you see bicycles. To blend in with the crowd, one has got to ride a bicycle.

Sitting proudly atop my bicycle! Wooooo!!! Hope its not stolen at the parking lot downstairs. Oh, don't mind the same jacket that I wore for the trip to Beautiful Forest.

Clarence and his big red shiny bicycle that screams "COME GET A PIECE OF ME".

Wilson and his cute foldable bike.

So Japanese-looking! Ha I love it! Rides as smooth as a baby backside too!

Venturing around on our new modes of transportation.
Retired people having BBQ beside the river. I want to do that too.

His kampong instincts kick in whenever he sees a river. Must wash legs inside.

But his feet end up getting dirty instead.

Really, please don't mind the same jacket.

Across a blue bridge.

A nice drain.

The feat that faces them - an impossible one? Are they man enough to conquer that flight of stairs carrying their bikes?

They could, and they lived to see this - a shrine close by.

With many houses growing crops dunno for what. If i retire I want a place like this too. How nice.

My mom would be pleased to see this.

In a deserted-for-now shrine. Nice flowers though.

Settling things the dragonball style. Oh, and Wilson, stop raising your arms so high. Your fly is open like nobody's business. Again.

Clarence finishing Wilson off with his flying pork chop.

Did i mention that I want a farm like this?

Which finger is he pointing?

Did i already not mention that I want a farm like this?

Still pointing his finger at me.

And there we go. End of trip. What a day.

Messy post

2008-03-13T20:52:00.008+08:00

Went jogging the other day with my camera, with the purpose of showing you guys the park nearby. Perched just next to the Okutama river, running there gives me the nostalgic feeling of running along the drain at Clementi Ave 4. That's why I like it. Another plus point is the nice scenery - good for taking my mind off from the increasing fatigue during the run.

That's not the river damn it. Just a small pond.

The rocky path for pedestrains.. Be careful not to sprain ankles along here.

It's getting late...

These lucky bastards get to see the sunset everyday... I also want!

Playgrounds in Japan has these too.

Run run run pant pant pant see flowers go go go pant pant pant

The river with a palette of soothing textures above.

A spooky playground. Like those nice red metal frames by the way.

A bird cage? Or a rocket? You decide.

Another swing.

Run run run.

To put the knowledge gained from geography classesinto good use: What lies ahead is a meander!

Photography skills plummet when taking a picture while running.

So much for a sweaty post.

Bought a bread toaster the other day to give my morning breakfasts a little more variety (sick of eating bread and butter everyday; from now on it shall be toasted bread and butter). Looks good, but is it?!

Time for a short test... But oh wait... damn it my bread is too fat! But thanks to my engineering-trained brain, a solution was at hand: slice the bread into thinner slices, and TADA.. Dekimashita!
According to the toaster box, the toast will pop up 1 metre into the air when it's done. So i shall wait and see if its true...

Wait....

and wait.....

and wiat.....

and wait....

and wait....

and wiat......

and wait.....

and wait.....

10 more seconds....

THERE!! Pop goes the bread! Nice shaking of the hands during the critical moment though. -.-.

But at least the bread is nicely toasted. Made in Japan stuffs are indeed good.

Next... try to toast tofu...

Add some chilli-looking veggie into it? Shishidou... not spicy at all...

Tried my hand at yakisoba. Just see the pictures I too lazy to type anymore.

Like yee-mee... frying time!

Eating time!

Surprisingly good! All my cooking training paid off.

Acer good

2008-03-11T22:16:00.002+08:00

My head. Somehow my in built multi-card reader is not working, hence can't upload pictures. Maybe its because I always never click the 'remove device safely' tab before pulling out my card whenever I'm done. Siao liao now, got to buy a USB card reader.

This post is an obligation post, due to my inactivity in posting new posts, so there goes. In case anyone is wondering (if you still remember who i am), I'm fine.

Just bought a bread toaster today, which means I can watch baked bread pop up happily from the toaster. Happy man from tomorrow onwards.

1 and only 1

2008-02-25T22:15:00.005+08:00

Last friday marked many "first's" - First Lou hei in Japan; first time the Singapore Jamco guys come to my room for a gathering; first time 13 people had to squeeze into that small confined space otherwise known as room 208 and jostle with each other for that precious salmon sashimi or hotate; first time the Sg Jamco guys meet up with the new Jaders who just flew in on thursday, first time we old Jaders (I am 2 month lao-jiao ok) meet the new Jaders; the first time for many of them to eat a fruity lou hei (inspired by Evon's family); and the first time I had a halal lou hei.

Well, just enjoy the pictures, though there are not that many. It was definitely one good night people!

With the wave of my chopsticks, I hereby declare that Lou-Hei-cum-dirtying-my-room begins! *Frenzied swish swooshing of chopsticks with bits of carrot strips flying around*

Yeah definitely do-able once more!

And I finally got my handphone yesterday, although 90% of the time I was lost in translation, or rather, lost in conversation. Totally confused by the japanese providers. Too many functions for a simpleton like me. Watch tv, use GPS for navigation in Japan, scan at train stations or shopping malls using the phone ala ezlink, surfing the internet, heck they even have online porn on the handphone! Too many functions really. And too many models to choose from, making me so damn blur everytim i step into an electronics store. So I just decided on the simplest choice the HL way - get the cheapest phone.

So there you go, enjoy looking at my 0 yen phone! The only good thing about it that I know is that it has a 5.1 megapixel camera and it looks cool. And it has internet capability. And anyone can email my phone from the internet. And with a microsd card, plays music or videos. And twist 90 degrees.

Seriously, Singapore handphones are a notch below those in Japan. Buy one back and use!

Unpredictable

2008-02-19T23:03:00.001+08:00

Life is so unpredictable, don't you think so.

I'm gonna try live my life to the fullest from now on.

Farewell

2008-02-18T20:11:00.002+08:00

You will always be remembered as a friend, who fought alongside me in many battles during that 2 years.

This post is dedicated to you, for bringing us countless smiles and laughter along that rocky road. For helping out even though we knew you didn't want to. For straining yourself with that heavy son of a gun 84. For filling the void of the night, otherwise known as silence, with your witty jokes and heaving of chest from the cigarettes.

Most importantly, for being a friend.

Take care, my friend, it's a long road out there. You will be remembered.

Doh Natsu rampage

2008-02-15T23:13:00.004+08:00

It's official: Donut craze has hit Japan. (maybe the craze has already swept japan long ago, but I dunno lah ok) They are everywhere. Any happening place wouldn't be complete without a donut shop. Which means that Ushihama, the place I'm staying at now, is unhappening.

Friday, so decided to unwind after walking around Lumine (a department store at Tachikawa) at this cafe-cum-donut-place called Mister Donut. Seems familiar this shop. In Sg have right I think. Or is it that all donut shops' shop names are all alike, like they got share a similar word or something. Oh, maybe the word is 'donut'.

Lo and behold the mighty Mister Donut! Sg has Missy donut or something stupid name like that right. And surprise surprise! No queues! Yay that's what I call a shop. Not like those in Sg where people buy donuts like queueing up for Toto or hello kitties.

Stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of donuts. Get prepared for Carbo overloading time...

What to eat! Spoilt for choice!

The cafe inside. Think its a good idea to bring over this concept to Sg. Make it like a Ya-kun shop. They sell good tea and coffee too.

My Bitter Chocolate donut. 5/5!

My Matcha donut. 4/5. With Red bean paste. Yummy.

Snacking away means dun bother about image, not even if he's in front of a camera. Toohan calling to ask about the possibility of brining the franchise over to Sg.

Pose first before eating.

Yummy yum yum. Jun and Brendan are the culprits who wanted to come here in the first place. If i grow fat I shall point my stubby fingers at you two.

Good snack!

Getting the cook bug

2008-02-14T21:28:00.003+08:00

With too much time on my hands, due to everyday coming home after work and reaching home by 7, had decided to make better use of my hands other than holding on to too much time. Beginning to hold onto cooking ware and utensils lately. Going to supermarket quite often too. Always see the same cashier. Give me some more time they sure can recognise me. "Always this weird guy with office wear coming here to buy vegetables and meat.", they would surely think. Couldn't agree more - I cut an odd figure among those old aunties and housewives in the queue.

Tried something different yesterday. Adventurous in fact. A dish that ranks highly in the danger scale - run a very high risk of smoking out my entire apartment. Thankfully nothing of that sort happened while this delectable plate of fried rice with tomato and egg was prepared. Topped with a fish steak. Unsure of what fish it is. Could be cod. Nevertheless it has a nice tangy feel to it. Fresh could be a word to describe it. A huge success, considering its my first time frying rice.

Today was something more hearty - a portion of spaghetti large enough for 2 big eaters, with slices of ham and onion and tomato included to give it an extra dimension of taste. Looked unsuspectingly healthy if not for the fact that it's cooked using instant pasta, the sort with msg powder to be used for its sauce. Shrugs off the unhealthy notion with the addition of large chunks of onion: Reason being onion being able to neutralize the harmful effects of msg, hopefully.

Bon appetit!

Again, the last 2 slices of fish steak bought from the supermarket yesterday. Admittedly its enough to feed 2 person once more. Must had unconsciously cooked everything in 2 portions today. Perhaps its the curse of Valentine's Day - On Feb 14 every single person staying overseas will try to cook an addition portion hoping another person will turn up. Well someone did turn up eventually - the postman. At my doorstep. With a package consisting of sauces and bak kut teh powder and spices from Sg. Courtesy of Evon. Appreciate them lots! Good v day present i must agree.

The fish in the sauce that was air flown in.

Eat up, lonely-single-alien-guy-living-in-tokyo.

Cooking is kind of tiring.....

Board of life

2008-02-12T20:03:00.000+08:00

Tochigi is totally different from the resort we went to in Nagano. Being nearer to Tokyo, with only a mere 3 hours drive separating the two cities, Tochigi proves to be a much more popular destination for the locals.

Just take a look below and compare.

Nagano - What the hell the only person ski-ing is Charlotte. No Japaneses in sight.
Tochigi - Freaking-alot-of-Japaneses-with-7-Singaporeans queuing up for the inermediate course cable car to the very top.

Outnumbered. When i saw this, i already had a vision in mind - Today is gonna be the day where I will bang into alot of people.

Fear not! The folks from sunny singapore will conquer Hunter mountain on this very day.

A nice breezy ride down hill.... Still looking good....
ALAMAK. My hump.. my hump... my hump....

Sekki concusses in the snow and began to grow snow tits.

Meanwhile, Soffiah tries to drag me and Charlotte down into the snow with her.

Who cares if people are looking? We are tourists! (pointing at you Sekki)

Got the photos mixed up. Have i mentioned how unconvenient blogspot's picture upload system? Urgh. Talking about convenience, here we are at a Konbini where we stock up our bodily fuels for snowboarding.

Girls on a diet deciding to rot in the 10 seater van that we rented for this trip.

Back to the mountains we are, smirks Tiru.

Or is he smirking at the sight of me changing in the van? Must wear red pants so can huat during this CNY weekend. For good fortune and most importantly, as little bodily damage as possible to be suffered from this snowboarding day.

Pictures mixed in a wrong order again, here we are at the Ryokan (Japanese traditional inn), in a smoky hazy room. Whole day snowboard + only 1 ho
ur of sleep in toe-crunching cold in the van the night before = Potent combination.
After a good bath and dinner (pls refer to previous post), a family photo with the Sing Jamco folks.

A scary moose head lurks in the lobby of the Ryokan.

Muhtar's glad that all this is over. Being able to curl up in the futon is pure bliss, I must agree.

A bath first together with the guys. A good chance to get chummy with each other and size each other up.

After the hot bath, out we go to the outdoor hot spring! It was actually snowing when we dipped ourselves skinny in the hot spring. Amazing experience...

Although man-made, it's still a wonderful time spent in this boiling pot of spring water.

The next morning...

Breakfast!

A rather scary picture. Some pale face looking out from a room.

Going back home... Muhtar decided to get all adventurous, hence these emotion-evoking pictures.. Sob.. I miss the place already...

A group photo under a cute tree before we leave this fantastic ryokan.

Our lives hanging on a thread... Singaporean driving. And it wouldn't hurt to put BOTH hands on the steering wheel, Soffiah.

Pretending to be calm and happy while Soffiah drives. Ok Tiru looks troubled.

Stopover for lunch. Tiru still looking troubled from the traumatic drive.

So troubled that he went mad and became a girl and got Charlotte to propose to him.

Come on Tiru! Smile! Sekki's driving next!

Remember those bubble thing that we used to play with when we were young? Bought from mama shops, these intoxicating-rubber-smelling-rubber-bubbles used to provide me with alot of fun last time. Soffiah found them in Japan. Sadly not from Mama shops. Zannen.

Soffiah goes optic-blast mode.

Hontoni tsukareta mina-san! One more time soon before the snow melts!

White Chinese new year

2008-02-11T21:56:00.000+08:00

Just back from my 2nd snowboard trip. Damn shag to post anything yet, so just stay tuned! (Partly too lazy also coz the uploading system is damn cock)

Gong xi fa cai everyone. First time never touch any red packets during cny. Feels kind of alienated. At least i got mandarin oranges at home.

Some pictures first

2008-02-11T21:22:00.001+08:00

Gong xi fa cai

2008-02-06T22:02:00.000+08:00

Here's wishing everybody a happy chinese new year! Hopefully we can all be as happy as rats and as healthy as monkeys.

This has got to be the loneliest chu xi ever.

Sick man on a foreign shore

2008-02-06T11:54:00.000+08:00

It had to happen one day. This fragile body of mine, always succumbing to the slightest flu, will eventually fall prey to this harsh unforgiving winter weather. What happened was that I went for my routine night run, partly to stay fit, partly to explore new surroundings. There were no distance marks for me to gauge how much had I ran, not like the one at Clementi where I always used to run. The freezing cold and dry air didn't help matters - after running I always had ice forming on my forehead and a very 'runny' nose (forgive the pun). Think i over-ran last night, and when I finally reached home, I was feeling giddy, sweaty and all. Think the body is not meant to take in cold air while it generates heat from all that running. Later that night, the after effects began to kick in - feverish, burping over 100 times, lethargic and headache.

The worse thing about falling sick is having no phone, and not having a family to care about me. No phone because I can't call my boss to tell him I can't go work, and having that niggy anxious feeling. Missing my mom's constant nagging already. And her lotus root soup. It's reunion dinner today... What a new year.

Houseman

2008-01-30T21:58:00.000+08:00

After much hesitation and mandatory self-doubt about my culinary skills, I decided to heed the advice of what many had been giving me all this while: that cooking is cheap and healthy and is essential for a foreigner to survive in any country. Except his own country that is. He can't be a foreigner in his own country therefore that statement is flawed and can't be applied to himself, so the conclusion is that he can survive in his own country even if he doesn't know how to tell salt from sugar. Ok enough talking cock. Pictures....

The very cramped cooking area. No where to put my onions and potatos and stuffs!

Washing and cutting the ingredients.. Quite a hassle.. but old man still can take it... Think must buy a peeler already... peel the potato until damn shag.

Some 'chong' to add flavor to the soup...

My favorite - Daikon, the japanese equivalant of a radish. Very delicious.

To start, just add in an entire bottle of oil as you see on the right of the picture. Neh just kidding. Boil some water, put in potato and daikon, cook awhile, add in onions, put in pork slices, miso paste, japanese consomme, and let the happy ingredients simmer in the overcrowded pot.

Cook rice before doing anything though, it takes longer to cook than the soup. But i must admit the ricecooker that i got free from a Japanese colleague is damn good. It will auto detect how much rice there is in the cooker, and has some sort of timer which will calculate how long to cook the rice.

The finished product! Pro or what sia! Got goreng egg some more!

Time to eat at long last!! Wack ah!

Nomikai

2008-01-27T22:15:00.001+08:00

What do you get when you put japaneses, koreans and a singaporean who's well known back home as being a really really really bad drinker who gets really really really red very very very fast after only 1 really really really small sip of beer?
A VERY FUN EVENING!

Decided to brave what no singaporean should ever venture on his own - Go to a nomikai (drinking session, no.. should be HARDCORE drinking session) with the locals and alcohol-seasoned koreans at a local Izakaya (bar).

However, one should never turn down an invitation by someone who happens to be his supervisor at work, furthermore by a local. So, without having drank a single drop of beer, let alone sake, in weeks, I found myself sitting in the bar with 2 Japanese, sipping away my first mug of Asahi super dry beer cautiously while they had already downed their 3rd mug in 40 minutes. Madness. Just notice Yamada's smile below as we take a picture as we gambai. To the left is Iwasa, my supervisor who looks as if she never had a single ray of sunlight illuminate her face. Oops she had better not read this. Haha.

Some food to get away the taste of the beer.

After 1 hour of boozing (I had 2 mugs!), some koreans from work,3 to be exact, swaggered into the bar. Choi below with Iwasa. Poor bloke's unsuspecting of the horrible fate awaiting him later that night...

A very red me with a happy Japanese and a not-so-high yet Korean, Oku. Shit cannot... high liao can't take it...

We decided to stop eating at this jap bar and headed down to a korean restaurant further down the road and join up with some more koreans. Man do they sure know how to party.

A bowl of water kimchi which I had at first. Very refreshing to drink after many rounds of oily meat.

More meat! A gigantic hot plate with pork slices. Similar to those I ate at Evon's aunt's house last time - Cook them, wrap with lettuces, some sauces, sesame leaves and you are good to go.

This is what impressed me the most. A big pot of chicken simmered in some sort of kimchi sauce. Absolutely delicious.

Some koreans.

A plate of wriggling octupus. They are apparantly very fresh, still moving about like worms while we pick them out with chopsticks, tentacles still hanging on dear life on the plate. Next, just dip them in soy sauce, and dump them into our mouths. And CHEW AS HARD AS POSSIBLE. Well at least i did. I had to kill the moving bastard.

KOREANS!!!

A group picture.

A shot glass. They drink 25% sake like water... and mix it with alot of beer... Scary.. What are their livers made of man?

Still not drunk yet...

AHA! A drunk korean, Choi. I was still holding my ground and yet he's gone earlier than me. Useless!!! HAHA!!!! Actually I only drank 2 beers and 1 shot.

After that, 2 more jap and some koreans (again from the office) walked in and took another table next to us. Time to cheers again!

Choi still dead.

Fake Bae yong jun showing the fellow self-called "erotic" guys a magic trick. Look at how happy alcohol make these guys. The guy in the middle sits behind me during work, and the number of sentences I hear him spout during work is so minimal I always forgot how his voice sounded like. Same with the fake BYJ. People sitting behind him told me how quiet and anti-social he is during work, how he can spend the entire day without speaking to anyone, and yet during nomikai, he totally transforms into another person. Amazing, the effects alcohol and a cosy cushion can do to someone.

Giving us their most erotic look. Shikishima (middle) looks totally off.

Who can resist a funny face at this state?

A very happy store owner. The koreans love this place as it reminds them of their homeland, and make it a must to come here all the time. They call her Oma, which is mother in korean, which the store owner will return with calls of 'son'. Tonight she's especially happy as her grandson is in town visiting, so we got freebies and drinks on the house! Also think that I'm very scary coz after this picture was taken, he cried. Ah... don't think he likes singaporeans.

Choi's belly..

After that was snowboarding wear shopping (at long last) on Saturday at Ochanomizu with the Sing Jam people. Think saturdays are reserved for them, sorry Clarence, wilson, ivan and toohan! Haha.
Reached!

Having lunch at some western restaurant. Very nice decor. I think my room will be decorated like this with monochrome pictures on the walls.

Muhtar (is your name spelled correct now) and Brendan. Think that might be the Meiji University campus behind us.

Jun and Soffiah with me.

After a shag day, went home and found these strangers in Ivan's room. Another nomikai, albeit in a small confined space. It's Yajima's birthday celebration as I learnt that day (the guy in front of me). Other new faces include (from my left) Mori, Holga, a Ukrainian, Tiiru, Singaporean, and Ken. Yeah more people to get acquainted to. Another good week ahead I hope!

Oh no.

2008-01-23T21:31:00.000+08:00

To anybody who says Tokyo doesn't snow, please do not read on further or else you might get the shock of your life. I bear no responsibilities or whatsoever if due to your reading of this post you should suffer any injuries, bodily harm, a dent to your pride, or leave a trauma so deep in you that you scream in horror everytime you see ice or order ice kacang.

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You should be able to guess what I'm reveal in a short moment, even if you only have the IQ of an ape.
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Disclaimer posted, so I'm safe. Read on.

IT.

SNOWED.

DAMN.

HEAVILY.

IN.

TOKYO!!!!!!

There goes the urban myth that only seemed to be regurgigated in whispers at dark alleys amongst Singaporeans - Tokyo does, in fact and as a matter of fact, snow. Myth debunked. Do not listen to Singaporeans who only go holidaying in Japan during the "hot" winter season. It gets finger-numbingly cold during the end of January and Febuary and to the locals, snow is a common sight. Think i need an umbrella from now on.

WHITE GLORIOUS WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!

The slightly different scene from what I had seen everyday till today.

Cold............................................ But that can't stop me from posing together with the frozen lamppost.

Feeling good. Not frozen yet. Still alive and warm. Thumbs still functioning well.

These 2 seem a little annoyed that I keep stopping and taking photographs. Stop and enjoy the snow man!

Remember Lisa Ono? The bossa-nova singer brazilian native who also happens to be Japanese, with a funky jazzy silky voice? In Singapore she might not be that famous, though there are some of her albums available at cd shops, but in Japan I guess she's the most well known in this genre.

Was having lunch on Monday when I overheard Kimmy mentioning she's going to some concert of Lisa Ono and I nearly puked out the strands of Udon still travelling down my food pipe. Lisa Ono?! Better yet, performing at Tachikawa?! Even better yet, costs around 6000 yen only?! Count me in ladies and gentlemen.

So after work on Wed, me and Clarence, Ivan, Brendan, Kimmy, Kobayashi-san and Kenji went to the Tachikawa concert hall which is just a 10 minute walk from the train station for some jazzy chill out session from a world-renowned musician. Oh boy, my palms were sweating in anticipation out in the cold. Girl from Ipanema bompeepee!

Sat down snugly with Clarence. In fact, overly snugly - Legs had cramps the entire time I sat there. Think the average concert-going japanese has very very short legs.

The other blokes - Brendan, Kimmy and Kobayashi-san. Kannasai Ivan has premium "eye-level-with-Lisa" seats somewhere below. No fair.

After taking this picture, a staff briskly reminded me that pictures are forbidden. Damn should have turned off the flash.

Despite that warning, I managed to take some photos of the concert behind the safe confines of my coat. There she is! Looking resplendent, and pregnant, in the green floral dress and sitting down with a guitar.

Say encore!!! Wonderful concert!

Yay. Next month going Jay Chou concert.

Siao liao

2008-01-21T23:17:00.000+08:00

Life is slowly slipping into a similar pattern - wake up and for some inexplicable reason have aches around my arms and neck and be careful not to kok my head on the ceiling, join in the squeezing session with the rush hour crowd, do morning PT at 830 am along to the tune of some cheesy patriotic music, try my best not to fall asleep while Tsuru-san tries his best to explain stuff in english, go for my 10 minute break sitting on the toilet bowl that escaped from Star trek, have my cheap udon meal during lunch, fight the Z monsters after that, test the japanese system with my frequent breaks walking here and there pretending to be busy collecting printouts from the printer, eye nervously as the hands on my watch take forever to reach 530pm, go for dinner at preferably somewhere cheap, go home, sit down on my floor-recliner and stare at the comp until 9 or so and realise what a waste of time that is and continue doing that despite realising what a waste of time it is, have a warm shower that could possibly the highlight of the day, warm the floor-recliner for another 2 hours or so, curse and swear at how much more time I have before bedtime, climb up into my small sleeping box which makes me feel like a hamster, set my alarm to 630 am, sleep really well but for some inexplicable reason wake up with aches around my arms and neck and be careful not to kok my head on the ceiling, join in the squeezing session with the rush hour crowd, do morning PT at 830 am along to the tune of some cheesy patriotic music, try my best not to fall asleep while Tsuru-san tries his best to explain stuff in english, go for my 10 minute break sitting on the toilet bowl that escaped from Star trek, have my cheap udon meal during lunch, fight the Z monsters after that, test the japanese system with my frequent breaks walking here and there pretending to be busy collecting printouts from the printer, eye nervously as the hands on my watch take forever to reach 530pm, go for dinner at preferably somewhere cheap, go home, sit down on my floor-recliner and stare at the comp until 9 or so and realise what a waste of time that is and continue doing that despite realising what a waste of time it is, have a warm shower that could possibly the highlight of the day, warm the floor-recliner for another 2 hours or so, curse and swear at how much more time I have before bedtime, climb up into my small sleeping box which makes me feel like a hamster, set my alarm to 630 am, sleep really well but for some inexplicable reason wake up with aches around my arms and neck and be careful not to kok my head on the ceiling, join in the squeezing session with the rush hour crowd, do morning PT at 830 am along to the tune of some cheesy patriotic music, try my best not to fall asleep while Tsuru-san tries his best to explain stuff in english, go for my 10 minute break sitting on the toilet bowl that escaped from Star trek, have my cheap udon meal during lunch, fight the Z monsters after that, test the japanese system with my frequent breaks walking here and there pretending to be busy collecting printouts from the printer, eye nervously as the hands on my watch take forever to reach 530pm, go for dinner at preferably somewhere cheap, go home, sit down on my floor-recliner and stare at the comp until 9 or so and realise what a waste of time that is and continue doing that despite realising what a waste of time it is, have a warm shower that could possibly the highlight of the day, warm the floor-recliner for another 2 hours or so, curse and swear at how much more time I have before bedtime, climb up into my small sleeping box which makes me feel like a hamster, set my alarm to 630 am, sleep really well but for some inexplicable reason wake up with sore around my body.

Well you do sort of get the picture right.

Sesame oil chicken!!!!

Harajuku

2008-01-19T21:47:00.000+08:00

Finally the weekends are here, after 4 gruelling days (monday was a holiday) of a caffeine-charged life working in the office. Decided to go down to Harajuku, check out some snow-wear and see if they are within my budget so that I won't have to wear silly purple snow pants again.

But before this 'shiong' shopping session begins......

Time for a brunch session with some new friends, Jun and Bernard!

Following Bernard's recommendation, we found ourselves at this small little street in Harajuku, housing a small little red restaurant which sells crepes. Looks like they celebrating chinese new year or something, with the red facade and all.
A distinct european style to the designs. Got some bagpipe-scottish music playing, reminding me of some boy's brigade parade or something.
A happy Bernard shakes off the winter cold in this cosy little corner. I think he likes wooden tables.

The crepe that I ordered. Filled with ham, cheese and a sunny side up. Delicious.

The dessert we shared. Some orange thing.

The arab-looking waiter. Think he looks cool.

After that is a walk along Omotesando and along the streets to Shibuya. Somehow we wandered and wandered and ended up walking the opposite direction of where the snow-wear shops are at. Tsk... not goal-orientated.

Takopachi eatery along the streets. Somehow these people don't feel cold.

2 happy fellow singaporeans jubilant at the thought of spending money on clothes. Evil Bernard meanwhile hatches some plot to make us spend money.

2 other happy singaporeans, Soffiah and Murthar.

A cliched shot of the blue skies and willowed trees. Singaporean mah.

And after much walking, we finally reached Shibuya.

A truck blaring music of the advertised pop group, whoever they are. Noisy advertisement.

My brother very 'gian' these shops, Beams and Ships. And no, they neither sell beams nor ships. Nice clothes by the way.

A gigantic Gap store.

Bathing Ape store entrance. Yellow shoes are lined up and moving along a conveyor belt underneath a glass panel on the floor. Interesting concept.

The famous Shibuya traffic crossing as seen from Starbucks. Had to hurry this shot as we are not suppossed to take pictures inside Starbucks. Big burly women are stationed as bouncers in case naughty tourists such as myself decide to break a rule or two.

That's all for now... Shall have a good rest on Sunday I suppose.

I want to eat chicken rice...

Itsu?

2008-01-17T21:47:00.001+08:00

I wanna go break some limbs again. When?!

Thursday

2008-01-17T20:45:00.001+08:00

There was a surprise this morning - it actually snowed in Fussa! We were still wondering why was the floor wet until me and clarence saw the white rooftops and snowflakes-covered plants. Then we began dancing in glee when it began to snow immediately, like small boys who had just received their toys during xmas. What a pleasant start to the morning.

Toohan posing with the rubbish collection shed. He seemed mighty pleased.

Evidence of snow! In tokyo!

These were today's dinner. Didn't plan to eat but clarence keep bugging me with his "Yi qi" (together) theory. But the food damn good. The rice bowl tastes like gong bao ji ding, and the udon is as filling as you can get anywhere else. But we had to stand and eat coz this eatery is located right inside Tachikawa station, for people who had bought their tickets, went past the turnstiles, and decided to grab a quick meal while waiting for their train.

For dessert, I bought this gigantic mochi bun. According to someone it tastes heavenly. The size of this mochi cake covered my entire palm.

One bite..... and I almost shot to heaven. Wonderful texture, nice creamy filling, and most important of all......................................

There's an entire strawberry hidden inside! Shiok la.

Tomorrow is gonna be friday. Help.

Surroundings

2008-01-16T21:40:00.000+08:00

Some pictures to show the neighborhood around my house. All taken in the morning during the walk to Ushihama train station.

Clarence with his big-head imitation.

Wilson's turn.

Walk and walk and walk. After around 10 minutes, we will reach this street. Train station is just ahead, and most probably we will reach in time for the 745am train. Once we missed this train and we had to run from Tachikawa to our work place. Crucial street this is!

At Tachikawa station. Very crowded even in the early hours of the day.

One of the various shopping malls at Tachikawa, Lumine. Others include Isetan, Takashimaya, Granduo and so on.

Yeah pictures again tomorrow!

100

2008-01-15T22:55:00.000+08:00

100 yen sushi at Shibuya. Enjoy. Forgot who recommended us there but I wanna kiss him - the sushi there rocks 100 times more than Sg's.

Snowboarding

2008-01-14T09:27:00.000+08:00

3 words: Snowboarding damn fun. But extremely tiring if you are a novice coz its inevitable that on the way down you will have to pick yourself up from the snow when you fall. Countless times. And the injuries you pick up from the falls can make your bed feel extremely conducive for sleeping. If not for my sheer determination for not wanting to waste the entire day sleeping and nursing my sore limbs and neck, I would probably still be comfortably curled up underneath the blanket. So as it was, i spent the weekend endangering my life at Kijimadaira located within Nagoya prefecture. It's apparantly one of the cheaper resorts around, but so far the only grouch I have are the purple ski pants that they provide. They make me look like a gay version of super mario, minus the moustache.

The tour bus that we took, reminds of those coach buses that we take to msia. But extremely cramped inside - Come on Japan, I know your land is scarce but even that in a coach bus?! There are even seats along the centre aisle. Poor guy, whoever is sitting there.

Theres me and my new friends, Kim, a korean colleague (he has a perculiar habit), and Murtha, a fellow singaporean from Singapore Jamco.

At one of the stopovers. Another msia-like feature, the foodcourts and shops selling snacks and biscuits and all.

Finally after much delay (we were supposed to reach at 4 am but only arrived at ard 9), we are there. And at the wrong hotel some more. Bummer.

While waiting for time to pass, I can only do something that only silly tourists will do - Take pictures! There's me and a native eskimo. Neh, its just Ha-san, or Q as he preferred us to call him. He explained that koreans have their own name, and a nickname, which is Q in this case.

After a 10 minute walk, we arrived at our resort.

Getting a shot with Sekkii-san, a younger than me japanese. Interesting guy. Wonder if I can take over his unused electric guitar.

Oh, there's Matsumoto-san caught with his jumpers on! Damn funny, I was supposed to take a picture of the room until he came onto the view just at the moment i pressed the shot button. Thanks ah Matsumoto-san, for the candid shot. At least his pants were on.

Next up, to the mountains we shall go! The daunting task lies ahead of beginners of the likes of us singaporeans. Don't underestimate this seemingly- gentle slope - it's actually steep enough to make us fall countless times. The numerous 'momentos' I left on my butt is testament of that.

The chairlift trip up makes me nervous during the first time. But the view is breathtaking. All I saw was covered with a white and black and grey hue and everything was in a monochrome theme. The 2nd picture is the view from up there.
The view back down again. To be able to see this chairlift station means that I have some how managed to survive once again. The sight of this always made me want to climb back up again and do those bone-breaking moves once more.

A shot with Sekkii-san. Haven't seen him in action yet though.
The entire gang during dinner. On the left row, from front, is Toohan, Yun, Kim, Jun, Matsumoto-san. On the right row is Q, Sekkii-san, Charlotte, Kimmy, Wee Ling and Stephen (husband and wife). Missing in the picture is Murthar and Sophia, as they had to cook their own muslim food.

Overcrowding spotted near the heater. Kiasu singaporeans everything also must hog. Even the heater also must absorb heat than other people. Tsk.

Sorry Kim-san, but i just couldn't resist putting this picture up. If i were you, i would wipe that smile off and cover my jewels quickly.

The happy faces after 2 days of snowboarding and heater hoarding. Good day, good weather, and good company = Good Trip! Mou ichi dou!

Skeeeeee

2008-01-10T22:13:00.000+08:00

It's been almost a week since I came here and how time sure flies. After many countless trips to Daiso, at least 3 different ones at different stations, my little abode finally resembles more of a home now. What's left is a sofa, another table for my computer, a more comfortable chair, some posters to deco, some running gear and bloody hell some packets of bak kut teh spices which i forgot to bring over.

Other than getting dry skin everyday and shitting everyday, i guess there can be no complaints. Even though Clarence complains often that our aparto is freaking far and ulu (he's scared of deserted dark places we were told, must be do too many naughty things la), I still kind of like this place. I must had got sick of all the hustle and bustle of the sg city life, so i suppose that's why this seems like a pretty good retreat from all the noise. For now. But i sort of understand his grievences - we have the choice to change the location of the apartment and there is in fact an empty Leo palace aparto at Tachikawa which is just less than 10 min walking time from our work place. In spite of this, somehow me and Wilson don't seem to want to move away from this cosy little sleepy town called Fussa. Perhaps its the additional $100 or so we have to fork out per month to change to a more desirable location, or perhaps its the fact that Fussa is the more 'country' of the two.

Oh and i love shitting at my work place toilet. There's this spray thing that clears all the leftovers that's left at the arsehole, not to mention that the toilet bowl is those heated types (careful get piles), and even has buttons to lift and close the toilet bowl's lit.

One last piece of information: probably you guys won't be seeing me online on friday and saturday night coz I'm going Nagoya for ski-ing!! Yipee! Too bad Clarence and Wilson not going, otherwise i can crack up watching them fall in the snow. Haha.

That is all for now.

Tour

2008-01-09T20:52:00.001+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ei5XDJxxHE

My place

2008-01-08T22:40:00.000+08:00

The Leo palace porel that I'm staying in now. Looks pretty nice eh.

Safe and sound

2008-01-07T20:22:00.001+08:00

Hello people. Hope the airport farewell wasn't as emotional for you as for me. Well, it can't be - You still have chicken rice, satay, claypot rice, sesame oil chicken, beef kway teow, briyani, pratas, teh tarik, fresh fish soup, pork innards soup, prawn noodles, lor mee, zup chai peng and mini toons' gummies. Oh man i miss those food so much i am getting hunger pangs even though I had dinner just a while ago.

When i arrived, it was not so much the culture shock that shook me, it was the cold. Even if the day is sunny, a breeze would just slam right into my face and past my thick woollen clothes as if they didn't exist at all. The day gets dark early - at around 5 when I knock off, it's like 8pm back in sg. Oh man i miss the sun.

It's a long walk from the train station, Fussa station, to my apartment, or aparto as the locals call it. To all those skeptics out there thinkin i'm bullshitting, trust me - when i say it's long, it's damn bloody long. It takes us around 30 minutes to get to the train station (eki) everyday, just to take a 7-stop ride to Tachikawa where my office is at. It's a ghost town some more, everytime we walk along the streets to the eki, we don't see more than 10 people within visibility range. Talk about Japan being unbreathably crowded eh? So for the past weekend, the 3 of us had been walking to Fussa to and fro carrying household appliances (many from daiso!), muttering curse and swear words while our fingers turn purple from the weight of our shopping goods and cold (oh and i got a camera at akihabara, an electronics haven, definitely cheaper than sg - only less than $300 for a canon ixus with 2gb memory card and casing) . It's a wonder I'm still left with 10 fingers.

Today, for our first day of work, Toohan, who came Japan 1 year earlier than us, brought us to work, and imagine our faces when he brought us to a nearer station. $#!@&* enuff said.... -_-|||

Work wasn't too bad. I'm attached to this guy called Tsuyu-san, who seems like a real nice guy, no airs on what-so-ever. Though his english is sputtering and limited, with a combination of japanese, english and hand signals we still got our messages through. It's a typical Japanese company, or so that's what wilson said - The manager sits right at the front of his section, overlooking all of his department members. No cubicles are in sight, nobody is covered, so even when I dig nose everybody can see. I had better not then.

Now then, to my aparto. I must say it was quite a pleasant surprise. I had already half expected some more kind of lok kok building, reminisque of those that we so often see in horror movies, with the classic dark alleys, tap water dripping sound effects and all. But what greeted us was a nice, modern place which reminds me of some kind of hotel room, but somehow less cosier. What's the weird thing is my designated sleeping area is to be accessed from a ladder, so i need to literally climb to bed. What's more, there's free internet and cable tv (albeit with just a few cable select channels and many other pay-per-view channels) .

Just take a look below yeah:

My corridor. My room is the 2nd last from the end; at the end is Toohan.

My front door. It's a high-tech key hole with a biometric sensor and retina scanner. Neh kidding. The key is just a metal card piece ala hotel room keys.

Along the corridor after entering the front door. Not suited for people who get scared easily.

The shoes area when i just step in. Shoes pointing out!

The washing machine corner. Just beside the main door.

Next up - The cooking area. 2 hot plates and a sink is all the give us in this space-limited aparto.

A closer look at the sink. Sui or not? All self-bought.

The door to where i do all the dirty jobs. And the fridge and the kettle which i bought.

Open the door and hola! A toilet bowl! As per usual, wholly decorated by me, including the bathroom mat and toilet rolls and baskets to put my clothes when i bathe.

My humble bathroom which i suspect i would not utilise it much during this winter season.

A higher view. An interesting thing is that I can hang my laundry on the pole and dry it using the air humidifier-cum-laundry dryer.

As we creep further inwards.....

Welcome to my 16 sq metres of personal space! Tv and internet provided!

My table chucked full of things and a mirror and my precious guitar. Hooks are essential in this hookless place.

The closet and the storage rooms. Ladders to increase the risk of in-home accidents after i wake up. It's like the size of an aircon duct up there, but yet surprisingly cosy.

Last but not least, my 'bed' - consisting of a futon (japanese mattress), comforter, and a pillow i bought. Strange as it looks, its comfortable.

Ok alvin complaining that i take damn long to blog. Updates soon!

Take care folks

2008-01-03T00:11:00.000+08:00

Well then i guess this is it. After much speculation, waiting, false confirmation after false confirmation, the day has finally come for me to go. 3 years in a foreign will not be easy, and it certainly will not be helped by the fact that I won't have all of you guys giving me support and helping me through with these incredible friendships. Sounding slightly sappy here but I'm speaking the truth. Hopefully I won't miss all of you folks as much as I think i will, otherwise it's gonna be a damn long 36 months!

Thanks once again people. Appreciate all those dinners, parties, and meet-ups!

Baggy bag bag

2007-12-27T21:19:00.001+08:00

Calayfaires behind us spoiling the picture. ARGHHHH damn you 3 - oh wait not supposed to swear during festive season.

All i want for xmas..... is a baggy bag bag!!!!!

No more of suffering the indignity of having to plead with XC to borrow a bag to go with my formal wear anymore. That in itself deserves full marks!

Wishing everyone a merry merry xmas for the 2nd time.

Leaving soon.

Not a white xmas

2007-12-26T00:41:00.000+08:00

Here's wishing everybody (IF theres anyone reading this almost defunct flop of a blog) a very merry xmas.

Time for those dreaded new year resolutions to kick in again. The hardest part about them is not whether you can fulfill them; it's about coming up with new resolutions that really makes you want to pull your hair out. However, there's a solution that's quick and easy on the mind - Don't come up with any resolutions and it shall promise to be a quick and happy new year.

After pulling out almost every strand of hair available on my relatively hairless body, I've managed to come up with one: Stay happy and have a happy year.

Well that wasn't very hard at all was it?

1/4 century old man

2007-11-26T22:59:00.000+08:00

Hang Out @ Mt. Emily

Chuan jiang hao zi @ Chinatown (AKA Steamboat)

French restaurant @ Little India

Thanks everyone for a memorable birthday celebration! 1/4 century old man very happy!

Kaching!

2007-11-10T00:10:00.000+08:00

Today was the day that i finally emptied my already quite full piggy - or rather beary - bank and count what my savings were. This is actually the first time I had ever saved a substantial amount (no kidding its a substantial amount), so i am mighty proud of myself.

The coins falling in on the parade square. KEKENAN LURUS!!!!

Everything falls in place, with the parade commander watching behind. Must be feeling very hungry now my bear bank. All his innards being spilled out and arranged.

From this photo, you can only arrive at one conclusion - that i got too much time already and i jiak pa boh xi zoh.

A macro shot taken nicely.

The leaning tower of pisa appears in clementi.

And...... ladies and gennermen....brace yourself for the revealing of the amount saved..... (drum rolls..... camera flashes.... breaths held in anticipation..... gasps of disbelief..... )

Yeah so it came to that amount, if i didn't count it wrongly that is. Saving money never felt so good!

Finally

2007-11-05T21:19:00.000+08:00

Boohoo

2007-11-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

The title says it all - No more waking up at 12. No more swimming in the afternoons with all the tanning gays. No more feeling like everyday is sunday. No more late nights. No more unemployed!

4

2007-09-18T00:46:00.000+08:00

Now I'm back with 4 legs, and come to think of it, 4 legs are better than 2. Walking through the journey of life is more balanced, every leg can support each other when its feeling tired, and burden can be shared.

From now on...

2007-09-13T02:06:00.000+08:00

....instead of four legs, I shall clamber on this long tedious journey of life with only two.

Professional Conman

2007-09-03T12:11:00.000+08:00

It promises to be bigger, bolder and better. It is what every geek had been waiting for, teetering on their seats for the past 3 months and biting their fingernails in anticipation for this show. No donut queue can ever come close to compare with how much crowd this show brings. It is the COMEX 2007! And with my purse damningly empty, I had no choice but to work in this comex.

Attached to P.A. Mart, I was assigned with the daunting task of selling Toshiba laptops. Prior market survey done on a few friends foretold a bleak 4 days for me - that they rather buy other brands like fu***** or Le**** or even D***. Furthermore, I don't consider myself having attributes that make a good salesman.

The first 2 days were designed as a warm-up for me and the kids (I was the 2nd oldest part timer there with the other 13 being 22 years and younger! But they couldn't tell haha dunno if its a bad thing or not). Sales were admittedly not as good as I had expected, with all the greedy mercenary people squinting their eyes hard at the prices and scoffing at their dastardly high prices the next moment. Crowds came and went, and only a handful actually bought something. At the end of the 2 days, however, we were told we had the highest sales among the other toshiba vendors. That was a major morale boost. HA! Fight with us? Tang kuku!

The weekend was the worst. Crowds started jamming the walkway, the display booths had no elbow space, and we didn't had time to properly eat. Our already overworked throats had to work overtime, rolling out the specs of every machine from our lips like spreading the gospel, hoping to change their faith on whatever they had previously decided on. As one of my boss, Anthony, aptly put, "We are honest merchants, and at the same time professional conmen." It was our duties to provide the best deal for the customers, and also think on our feet if a customer countered us with another brand providing a better deal than us. For example, a customer would say that Fu***** is made in Japan, and Toshiba is made in China. We would tell them "Balls to Fu*****. Their processor is Intel which is made in China, their parts are made in China, and the only difference is that they ship all these parts to Japan. Then they would assemble their machines using Japanese-made screws and japanese automation. The cheek of them to proudly state that their machines are made in Japan where in fact its all produced in China! Shame on them!" Or something along the line.

Our tasks were not made any easier that every person who went to comex wanted to squeeze every single drop out of the shops there. The price had already been lowered, freebies were already given at a premium, and yet they want more of this, less of that, with exorbitant demands made. Nothing to their expectation, they threaten to walk away and look at other brands. Especially indians (no offence but it's true, speaking from experience). They would come up with the most original excuses, like wanting to build a special relationship with us, giving us name cards, promising to buy 3 or 4 sets, but only if they give all the freebies and at a lower price too, and sensing that they would lose the battle, eventually back out subtly and only end up buying 1 set, after wasting 1 hour of my time and energy. Human nature has never looked so dark to me.

Thankfully the colleagues were fantastic people. Time was made easier to pass with the stupid jokes made and the talk-cock sessions whenever we were sick of approaching people. Not to mention my outstanding bosses, Anthony, Keltner and Benny, who supported us patiently whenever we had questions to be answered. I dare say I made a few friends there during the short 4 days. Just a pity I didn't get their contacts.

Now all that's left is the paycheck, which is worryingly due only in 2 to 3 weeks. P.A. Mart, I will definitely support you if I have any laptops to buy in the future.

Back to my zho boh lan days.

A fine city

2007-08-15T14:15:00.000+08:00

Bread and butter

2007-08-12T12:03:00.000+08:00

I thought every relationship mellows down after awhile. Gone are the thrills and spills that often accompany a blossoming romance. In comes familiarising with each other's habits, accepting each other's flaws, accepting each other for who they are. IF that is not what a relationship is all about, I don't know what is.

In transition

2007-08-09T00:59:00.000+08:00

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive. Quite in the pink of health I would say. It's hard not to be, though, as being unemployed there's nothing much I can do other than getting ample sleep and swimming and jogging.

But that's not to mean that I have been wasting my days away ever since graduation. Letters sent, interviews attended, time passed. And yet still there hasn't been any news of any offers coming in. Despite all the hoo-ha about the economy picking up and jobs bountiful in these prosperous times, I still remain an unwanted piece of unpolished gem left on the display shelf. Thankfully I remain in no hurry to auction myself away to the fasted bidder. I very much enjoy remaining on the shelf, thank you very much, until I finally see a good owner.

And that good owner has finally come, I think. I just hope they will turn a second glance at me and call me up for the second interview. This time I must grab this opportunity with both hands, for too many times in my life had I made lazy decisions and not fought for what is best for me. Too many times these decisions turned out to be wrong. YES - I will not repeat those same old mistakes that I had been so accustomed to.

Here's wishing everyone a happy National Day.

Sad

2007-07-04T00:53:00.000+08:00

Why does this always have to happen? Why can't we just move forward?

If we always live in the shadow of our past, then when can we see the light of our future?

tinbuk2 - R.I.P.

2007-06-18T01:55:00.000+08:00

To my loyal servant, timbuk2:

It is with utmost sorrow that I have to lose you in such circumstances, to lose you in such cruel fashion, that we can't even say goodbye for the last time. To have you snatched away by some person with such low levels of integrity and social ethics, not to mention that he most probably has a pair of smelly and oily palms, is such a hard joke for me to take. Make no mistake, I had tried scouring through the rain pelting on my head for you, running about searching for that unique green/grey stripes of yours (for it is who created you), however to no avail. I had tried to find that lowly son of a bitch and give him a good old walloping, but whatever remaining hope in me diminished as time ticked away, telling me he had most probably got away scot-free, likely to be at Vivocity sipping tea and enjoying you as i had enjoyed. And so i gave up, resigned to the latest blow that Fate brought upon me.

You were almost a part of me, a single entity fused together with my physical body, a multipurpose pouch that almost seemed like an additional pair of hands to me. We braved through thick and thin together, with you at my back I feel as if the load was lighter. From clementi to hokkaido to NTU, we had seen it all. Together. We even queued up for donuts together. Now all thats left are memories of me and you.

Goodbye, my beloved bag. I will miss your companionship, and miss you always there watching my back for me.

Rest in peace, timbuk2.

.

.

.

.

.

Time to get a new bag!

Deja Vu @ Redang

2007-05-22T23:09:00.000+08:00

A year had passed and once again we got our white bums down to the paradise which was otherwise known as Pulau Redang. This time round the long arduous coach journey was made shorter by a clever invention known as telly-on-bus, playing old washed-up movies which were nonetheless enjoyable considering there was nothing else left to do on the coach except sleep and munching on calorie-laden snacks. This explains the wonderful paunch of a tummy i proudly possess at my mid rift right now, which was also contributed largely by the buffets we had for every meal. Time to jog! Zzzz....

Here we are again!! Sun was good everyday!! WooPee!! Clear seawater!

The 3 brave men who, well, braved through UV radiation gallantly for those 3 days.

The premium sea view room which offered a delightful view of the sea.

Playing volleyball with malaysian men brought me down to my knees. Literally. And we were a weird team - them speaking malay while i was the only singaporean.

Our cute little couple outfit.

Banana boating was memorable. And scary. Prayed there were no sharks.

The happily burnt sextet snorkelling. Special mention must go to the 5 ringgit that enabled us to buy this picture from those money grubbers from the resort.

Reality sets in now........ Time to look for a job.

Vegetables? Nah.

2007-05-17T00:28:00.000+08:00

When it comes to the 16th of every month, it can only mean one thing ----- FOOD!!!! We will gorge ourselves silly with food that we seldom eat, and today was no exception. After all, we both have a similar mantra: Eat to live, live to eat!

After much hesitation over what to eat (first it was a tug of war between Black Anus - Angus sorry - and Fosters for their juicy steaks), we finally decided on Brazilian Curraschuria, a type of brazilian bbq, at Carnivore in Vivo.

The name says it all - meat meat meat meat and more meat. I swear i had never eaten so much meat in a single meal before. Sausages, pork, ham, sirloin, knuckle, bacon wrapped with breast, topback, chicken heart - you name it they have it. All grilled and marinated to just the right taste, although i feel the taste wasn't consistent for some. Or maybe my taste buds had gone awry with the prospect of so much protein intake.

Of course, to lessen your guilt of having consumed so much meat, they have the obligatory salad bar, which wasn't too bad at all. My favourites were the french beans and baby squid.

One thing different from other buffets was that instead of you having to walk to the counter to pick your food, here they have the weirdly accented waiters walking around with huge skewers of grilled animals impaled in them, and cutting chunks of the animals onto our plates even though the sign on our table says 'NO PLEASE, I'M VERY FULL AND SO IS MY PLATE'. One of them, i suspect, might be a relative of Ms Swan, as baby duly pointed out that he speaks the same as her.

Uhm... some food on my plate?

Here is the female carnivore.

She's gone all obsessed with eating mushrooms after a meaty meal that she's turned into a red-blushing-mushroom-that-is-inverted-from-the-front. Either that or that a big red smiling fungus has grown on her head. Told you to bathe more often liao.....

It was a good meal baby. Thanks for the treat! Happy 28!

Y is for Why

2007-05-12T13:11:00.000+08:00

Why do things always turn out like that?
Why does it, despite my best effort at being patient, always end up on a sour note?
Why am i not allowed to have flaws?
Why is it always my fault, whatever i do?
Why why why why why why why why?

How to reduce stress

2007-04-22T13:11:00.000+08:00

2007-04-07T01:11:00.000+08:00

HOT.

Of donuts and money

2007-04-03T11:25:00.000+08:00

It was just 36 hrs ago when i found myself sitting at a chair in a conference room located at the other side of the world from clementi, waiting for a big ang moh named John. As i contemplated the questions and answers that could possibly spring up during that 45 minute 'grilling' session (ok i did not think of any Q&A at all, thus i was thoroughly unprepared), a thought ran across my mind: Is working here really such a good idea? It's at pasir ris for buddha's sake! Guess I might as well try it out since i was already there (which was in fact a rarity by itself as my bum is the laziest in the world).

So in came John the big man and the interview kicked off. In came the usual questions, but credit to him for trying to make my feel as comfortable as possible by making the whole session very informal. The whole process ended with 'Thanks for coming down and good luck for your long train ride home. Will be calling you in a 1 or 2 weeks time or perhaps not at all. Please don't leave your personal belongings unattended and stand behind the yellow line.'

But there was one sentence which stirred me into doing something which I would never do even if you chop off my bells - 'Go queue for donuts, HL, since you are so free.'

Thoroughly heeding his advice, my lazy bum found itself down at Raffles city for the famous donuts specially catered to the eccentric/retirees/pontang students/bored housewives/curious passerbys/kiasu/feet masochist/post-interviewees/unemployed share a common goal - To queue for a bloody freaking 2 hours or more for 2 dozens donuts, which for 1 single donut you could finish it in exactly 5 chomps, or 20 seconds. To do the math: they are queuing for something for at least 2 hrs just to get that grand total of 8 minutes of gratification, which i say isn't a very good trade-off. And most probably they wouldn't be eating it all for themselves.

(*-delete where appropriate.)

But queue i still did, armed with my trusty issue of Today as well as my mp3 player to help me through these arduous times. Not even Today could save me, thanks to the at-least-30-strong-queue before me, so long is it that it appeared to be stretching away into the horizon without the shop in sight. My plight, as well as the plight of the throng of eccentric/retirees/pontang students/bored housewives/curious passerbys/kiasu/feet masochis/post-interviewees/unemployed* which magically formed behind me (thank the lord i came 10 minutes earlier otherwise i might still be there queueing for my million-dollar donuts now), was worsened by inconsiderate people in front. There were those who queued up individually and upon reaching the shop, their friends or colleagues would instantly appear and conveniently join the queue as if it were their divine right to do so. And i'm not talking about 1 or 2 there - ITS ONE WHOLE HORDE OF BLOODY THICK SKINNED ARSES NUMBERING UP TO 5 OR MORE! They have utterly no regard for the effort of the people who are queueing behind. Obviously this is a unethical move and if perpetual queue-cutters do that in hoping to get a fair share of the pie quicker, the management has to take a stance and impose on some rules to make it fair for the other customers. Maybe i should write in and complain.

For people who do not want to queue up to buy one whole bloody box of donuts, i also suggest cordoning off a small section to cater to those who just want to buy a single donut and f*** off. Surely there are some smart alecs there who think they can go to the counter 20 times, so why not take some effort into making sure these people won't queue more than once within a certain time frame. Please do not neglect customers who don't wish to buy in bulk and just want to grab a quick bite for fun. However, knowing how money-minded these entrepreneurs are, i doubt that will happen anytime soon. But, i beg of you, Mr Manager of Donut factory,in case you are reading this (highly improbable) - Do take my suggestion seriously. Do not neglect your smaller sales potential!

Upon reaching this 'landmark', I knew that I had succeeded in wasting approximately half of my day into doing hello-kitty-esque queueing. This meant that I had done something right. Unfortunately, this is also the point of the queue where I couldn't turn back and the only way out is to continue queueing lest all my efforts are wasted - Welcome, to the POINT OF NO RETURN.

The view as seen at the POINT OF NO RETURN. Notice the woman with the red handbag - She's supposedly the person queueing in front of me and I had to be very sharp to catch anyone who's evil enough to cut the queue by standing behind her and behaving in an innocent manner.

Some idiots obviously cannot see this sign which states theres another queue behind so to anyone who reads this, it also unfortunately means that there is another 1.5km long worth of queue made up of a potentially violent and angry mob of donutters BEHIND YOU. Ignore this sign at your own peril. You might get bombarded by glazed donuts.

The quest for the holy grail is beyond reach! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS MYYY PRECIOUSSSSS...I had survived the test of faith, and i came out a better man - with donuts that is. This queueing up process should be inducted into the army's passing out parade for recruits. It's no joking matter - I saw at least a dozen fit-looking ah pehs crumbling under the immense physical demands of moving 0.000000000001 metres per second during the queue as well as the tremendous boredom one could undergo, and they were promptly put onto evacuation beds and sent to the nearby hospital. This is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

Well, I was glad that dear was happy to get her donuts. Don't worry ya, even though there was this misunderstanding, there's no hard feelings on my part. =)

Just to leave you with a quote from my Prof, Dr. Chin , during today's tutorial:

"You all heard before this phrase, that 'Money is the root of all evil'. In fact, it is not. Somebody cleverly changed it, rephrasing it to be 'The love of money is the root of all evil'. In fact, I even have my own version, going one better than the previous one : The lack of money is the root of all evil'. That's my version."

Being in her shoes

2007-03-29T00:38:00.000+08:00

It's not easy being in your counterpart's shoes. Really. It's tough. Way tougher than i had expected. It puts such a large strain on my feet that it hurts real bad. Especially since I have feet the size of the Yeti and hers are those of a fleet-footed pixie. Just trying to squeeze my manly toes into her seven-ers makes the blood clog along the veins, turning them into a purple-reddish freak show.

Not to mention that her shoes stink after walking up and down her work place counting dustbins (as commanded by the contractors there), as well as climbing some 'worse-than-brunei' slope that exists en route her office, which i suppose serves no other purpose other than to give lazy couch potatoes working in the offices some real nice punishing workouts. I know of her every-morning-plight as i experienced this masochistic torment first hand today.

Well, take heart : If anyone ever suffers from cardiac arrest whilst huffing and puffing up the steep slope, there is always the NUH emergency wards just at the foot below the hill.

Oh, and its also not easy being in her shoes as they tend to look girly and pinkish with flowery patterns printed on them.

Life is no fun without sound

2007-03-27T00:31:00.000+08:00

I feel deaf whenever i sit down in front of my computer, thanks to my nearly 10 years old creative sound card finally buckling to the effects of old age. Clicking on 3d sprites and commanding my hero to wack the creeps and casting the blizzard storm and in the process get a triple kill no longer gives me the thrill it used to.

All because there is no sound coming out from my speakers. What if i kanna gang bang by 3 heroes? I might not even know if i'm dead by then.

So please, somebody, anybody, everybody - give me a sound card i beg of you.

Power Pink Blog

2007-03-14T23:24:00.000+08:00

3 blind mice for milky.

Hope I am not too late

2007-02-21T13:08:00.000+08:00

Yeah, as the title says, I hope I am not too late to wish everyone a happy new year and prosperous times ahead. 2006 or the year of the Dog saw us dogs having having a really bad year: bird shit dropping wherever i go to, 4D buy what number also cannot win, wait for bus also must wait very long, get onto the bus also no seats, walk around the void deck also get bitten by cats for no reason, getting choked on fish bones, having a hard time at school, finding egg shells inside your noodles, getting worms in the can, having download speeds affected by the earthquake, play mahjong lose ka lao sai, etc etc you know what i mean. Who ever said that year was gonna be the year of the dogs? It ain't, all because of some old geezer who is called tai sui and we, without a choice, had accidentally trampled on his head and messed up his hair and beard and so he became angry at us and decided to curse all the dogs born in 1982 to have a calamitous year.

Now that all of that has gone, and all the dust has settled from all the kicking about, its time to usher in the year of the pig with hope. Coincidentally this year is also one of the deciding chapters of the latter part of most of our lives - graduating and finding a job to fill our tummies must be the greatest concern we have on our minds.

And it wasn't a bad start at all. The holidays had been jam-packed with activities, and dare i say it was one of the most memorable of recent times. Inevitably it was spent with dear, and i'm glad i did, coz it was indeed fun. She has a fun family i guess haha sing ktv ah, eat weird but refreshing yusheng, watch vcds, win money on tai di. An extremely stark contrast as compared to my relatives, whom i swear were informed that should they talk during house visiting on CNY, some mishap will befall them.

Now the new year has officially come. Let the fyp wars begin!

Whim Wham Wala Wala

2007-02-11T23:05:00.000+08:00

Weekend nights used to be as mundane as leaving a depressed shape in the form of your buttocks on the couch after a whole night of mindless telly watching; until recently that is - where our favourite hangout resides at one corner (although arguably the most happening one) of Holland V. It has everything a man with his companion needs, from soccer on widescreens to beer, rock music and a pesky waiter who acts fren fren with us. What else could be more fun than spending the weekends with ear deafening live music pounding on your ear drums? Nothing much except snorta, which comes a close second.

The sextet at the happening bar.

The girls, coincidentally all in white!

The guys, coincidentally in white too! Ok maybe not alvin he's dirty so he wear off white.

The band for the night, EIC (no relation to UIC or NTUC). They were boring until the electric guitarist Steven Chua came on, and the 2nd set was much better. Unexpected better?

The special for the day - 5 Danish beer, Tuborg, for only $35! Doesn't matter anyway, coz all beer taste like piss to me.

The Tuborg ladies! Ter Boh!
The happy couple! Muack!

Hope everyone enjoyed yourselves there! More Wala nights to come! Maybe we should give our group a moniker too, something like 'The Walas' or something?

And here comes the Walas.....

Or shall we be named Tuborgs?

Let it be

2007-01-25T23:31:00.000+08:00

To those who are feeling down, as if the whole world has given up on them, as if nothing is going wrong for you, as if you are carrying the entire world's burden on your weary shoulders - Don't despair, its not the end of the world.

Let it be.

You still got me to offer free hugs.

Absolutely no obligations.

Congrats

2007-01-22T14:26:00.000+08:00

Here's a big CONGRATULATIONS to baby evon for being offered the job!!!

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nostalgia

2007-01-05T00:39:00.000+08:00

Those were the days where i wore pokka dotted uniform everyday.
Hmmm i wonder how are they now.

In loving memory of Rocky

2007-01-02T15:53:00.000+08:00

Gone. As sudden his departure is as his arrival amongst the pack of bicycles, he's gone. This is all i have left of him - digital graphications of him at his cute furry best.

See ya, my young friend.

And here comes rocky...

2006-12-30T14:37:00.000+08:00

I know some people are going to be particularly outraged over what i'm gonna say soon, but i just can't help it!!!

I JUST FOUND ANOTHER KITTEN DOWNSTAIRS!!!

Don't despair, coz i dun think i am ever gonna bring home another one of those feline creatures, thanks to the strong protests coming from 2 of the elderly statesmen of my family. One cites the house has no more room for another quartet of claws and that it's too troublesome to look after it, while another claims it is extremely bad luck for chinese to keep cats because they are sent from the high heavens by the almighty god of misfortune to heap bad kharma upon yellowskin people.

So there.

But it's so cute - a total contrast to milky with his black fur interlaced with brownish stripes. He even has a black nose!!! He was trembling when i held him - must had been the cold weather. His dwarfish frame only seems to accentuates how weak this kitten is - he weighs almost next to nothing. And he's so gentle! He doesn't growl or swing his claws when i approached him, instead he yearns for more interaction.

So here comes the inevitable- i will name him............ ROCKY.

Oh well.

Rock and wala

2006-12-27T01:00:00.000+08:00

Go down to the little corner at the end of holland village, where the land is so low below sea level that it would be no surprise if there's a flood during this rainy season, look for a bar called wala wala and spend your saturday night there. You won't regret it. And regret was what we didn't have last saturday.

Pizza wala is indeed walicious. I swear this is the first time i saw so much toppings on the pizza.

Me and the set.
Trying to get up close and personal with the band Unexpected, but you know me lah, very shy one. So no choice sit at a distance.Them belting out their repertoire of heavy rock, emo rock and soft rock to a strangely muted and passive audience save for some. Come on guys we gotta be more spontaneous!

What a saturday.

Decemblues

2006-12-20T00:36:00.000+08:00

The last month of the year is supposed to be what most of us look forward to after a hard year's of work. Even those who had spent all year long slacking, December should be the month where you slack the most, nevermind work. We are supposed to go overseas to somewhere of a cooler climate (though with all the rain we've got here it ain't too shabby!), be a tourist and act silly, spend money on souvenirs to give to your folks and friends to brag about the place we've just gone to, as well as gorge ourselves silly over silly hotel breakfast and orange juice.

We are supposed to spend our hard earned cash from the past 11 months and spend it all once during these 30 days. We should be racking our brains on what to get for whom during this xmas, and get a headache formulating our wish lists. No one is allowed to wake up later than 10, and sleeping before 3am is considered blesphamous. The beach should be our daily routine, getting our backs the tan they deserved and also getting sand in our pants.

Instead, I am made to make the ardous trip to school everyday. Every inch closer to the lab where I'm having my FYP the force compelling me to return to my bed grows stronger. It does not help matters that I'm a total greenhorn in the subject my fyp deals in. Everyday i don't feel confident going back to conduct my experiments, which in the first place are explained very ambiguosly to me by my prof. I should have realised it long ago - 3 months ago in fact - that I should do something familar and of 2nd nature to my course. BUT!!!!.... Sadly there's no but. All i can do now is stick my chin up and do the best i can to muster the grades to get me through this last year.

I always seem to make bad decisions in life.

The little sad corner i'm being confined to in the lab. Ok saying that i'm being confined is a tad too harsh as i can actually move around on my own. But it is a fact that its a sad little corner.

I am chemical resistant! Gimme all your sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, detergent etc i also not scared! Just not the face thanks.This is where you handle radioactive babies.

Baby lucky i've got you. Aja aja...

To rub salt into the wound, i've got an ulcer on my upper lip which hurts like mad. Thus the obvious next course of action - to rub salt into the wound, literally.

Wishing you all a merry xmas and a happy new year. Whoever you are, got fyp do fyp, got to work go to work, and let's not let this unfortunate series of events bring us down!

So is this entry being optimistic or pessimistic?

Final year shit

2006-12-05T23:52:00.000+08:00

The title says it all.

Lookalikes

2006-11-25T22:59:00.000+08:00

Haha. I've got a celebrity face. Check out all these famous people! THEY look like me!!!

I shall get them to pay me royalty fees for looking like me.

A post not for the faint-hearted

2006-11-24T23:50:00.000+08:00

Vegetables are an extremely important part of our diet, as they are enriched with the essential vitamins that help to maintain a healthy body. Ask anyone what's his favourite food and there's a good chance that he will give 'brinjal' or 'carrots' as his answer.

Here we shall examine what are the roles of this biologically-friendly food for us, and what are the tasty veggies that we all love to hate, and hate to love.

Seriously, veggies are good for us. Eat more veggies, and you shall live like some of those monks to a ripe old age.
Isn't everyone a veggie supporter? IF you are, then wear green or orange or purple today!!!!!!!!

.................

.................

Be a pro-veggie person to reap the benefits of a healthy body system!!!

...................

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NOT!!!!!!!!

WHO WANTS SOME TASTY GRILLED MEAT?!?!?!

ME ME ME ME ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ROAR!!!!!!!!!

FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHARCOAL!!!!!!

WHAT'S THIS?!?! GREENY KA-POOEY?!?!

FRESH...... MEATTTTTTTT!!!!WAGYU WACK YOU!!!!!!!

MEAT!!!!!!!!!! PORK ALSO WACK!!!!!!!

WAGYU TONGUE!!!! WACK AH!!!!!!!

WAGYU RIBS!!!!! WACK WACK WACK!!!!

THE MEAT GOT DEAR'S ADRENALINE ALL PUMPING AND SHE BECAME ALL MATRIX-STYLE.

NOT WAGYU BEEF ALSO WACK!!! SCALLOP AND GIGANTIC WAGYU PRAWN!!!!!!!!OMGGGGGGGGGG

WHAT BETTER WAY TO EAT MEAT THAN TO GRILL IT?

LOOK AT THOSE FATS SHIMMERING IN THE HEAT!! ECSTACY LIAO BUT STILL CAN WACK!!!!!

QUAKING IN ANTICIPATION OF THE GLORIOUS PIECE OF WAGYU THAT'S GOING TO SLIDE DOWN MY OESOPHAGUS.

STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I'VE GOT WAGYU!!!!

LOOKING COOL AND COMPOSED BUT IN REALITY SHE'S GONE TWICE AS MAD AS ME.

A VERY SATISFIED TUMMY AND AN EVEN MORE SATISFIED BELLY.

ICE CREAM THAT'S MADE OF BEEF. (I THINK)

A BIRTHDAY ISN'T COMPLETE WITH A BIRTHDAY BOY HOLDING HIS BIRTHDAY CAKE.

FINALLY A PHOTO TOGETHER AFTER NEGLECTING EACH OTHER FOR AN HOUR THANKS TO THE BEEF.

MANY THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO WISHED ME HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AND THE NUMEROUS COWS THEY HAD TO SACRIFICE FOR A HUNGRY TUMMY.

AND OF COURSE NOT TO MENTION THE BIGGEST THANK YOU IS RESERVED FOR DEARIE, WHO GAVE ME SUCH A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! <3!!!!!

Sssshhh

2006-11-24T15:36:00.000+08:00

Oh please don't tell my mom that i ate beef. Lots of beef. Unless you wanna see me get castrated.

W+a+g+y+u=delicious

2006-11-24T13:51:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered where the hell 'Wagyu' is or what on earth is it? The answer is simply this: It means Whack You. Whack all of it. Whack the tongue. Whack the ribs. Whack the gorgeously layered streaks of fats sandwiched in between the tenderest of the tenderest meat you will ever taste. Whack the cow whack all of it. Leave no part of it undigested. No part of the Wagyu cow.

Wagyu beef - in short it is sensationalism in your taste buds at its very best. And what way better to cook in a flaming japanese style of charcoal bbq. Unfortunately, it is also the single most wallet-burning food you can ever find. Just a dish of a paltry 100 grams of meat can cost you up to $20. So imagine me with a voracious appetite that can rival a bull's (pun very much intended) and as i watch agape the price spiralling exponentially up like nobody's business.

But its worth it- every ounce of the red meat that went sliding down our throat was an experience. So was the bill.

And i got a present!!!

Thanks dear love you very much!

@!#%#@

2006-11-20T17:31:00.000+08:00

#@%^$#@$!$^$%&$%@Q$&%$&$##@%.

!@#%$@^%&$@#$!%#$^#$%#@$!@$!@$&%^(^&P*()&#$$!@#~!@#EF#$&^$#RY$%^@#$!@$@#%#

%#!$#^%$*^%#@$@#$@!$!%RUFTDHW%$*&%*$%@#$!@#@!#%^

OH MY GOD!!!!

2006-11-17T15:26:00.000+08:00

In case you can't see, its man utd being relagated in the season 08/09. Can this be actually true?

Holiday lo...... ya rite

2006-11-17T14:31:00.000+08:00

Just one paper is over (admittedly the stupidest and the most deserving of the waste-time-module ever) and I'm starting to think its the holidays already.

If only that is true...

Wait a minute....

The holidays shall be spent everyday in the biomems lab in school rushing through my FYP.

Holidays don't look so enticing suddenly....

Bummer....

3 a day

2006-11-05T01:28:00.000+08:00

I love to eat bananas. Especially those Del monte types, not those small phallic, sad looking ones. 3 a day can make my day. Yeah!!

Botak baldy yum yum yummy

2006-11-04T20:18:00.000+08:00

I hated being botak, coz the only time when i was botak was back in those days in the hellish piece of mosh pit located on a god-forsaken island in the far north east which is the last piece of land any holiday resort would want to be built on. Over there, the vegetation was suffocatingly thick, birds were fierce, spiders were monstrouly-sized and the food was horribly bad. Stinker. Mix them up with the mud from the ground and it wouldn't taste any different. That's why the word 'botak' was never linked with the word 'delicious'. (Ok, technically speaking i wasn't botak-a few mere inches of hair stood in between my scalp and the toxic air.)

But from 03112006 onwards, i took a different stand towards the relationship between botak and food. Enter BOTAK JONES!!!

Hidden within the obscurity of HDB flats in rural clementi stood this kopi tiam which housed the 3rd shop of the botak jones franchise. If not for the fact that i myself am a clementian, and that i am internet-literate, I would never ever find this place.

Bright neon lights!!! Don't tell me we wandered unknowingly into some red-light district where balding gay men hang out?????

Aha! The evidence of a long queue with innocent looking people quells our doubt of this being an illegal hangout. This is indeed Botak Jones!! FOOD!!!!
A secret attempt from Dear to take a candid shot. Lucky i alert.

A special type of mustard which neither of us had seen before. Authentically american eh. Does that mean we will get fat like those yankees??

YEP...... Judging from this huge piece of cadjun chicken, WE are in for some serious fatty business tonight. Look at the servings! And it's only $6.50.... What the... guiltless pleasure... ARGH!!!

Here comes the Swanky Franky!! Dear's selection!! Look at those onions!!!! And the size of that!!! Good luck.

Let's zoom in a little closer to look at those lovely slices of onion sprawled across the dog.

Enough said!! Tuck in!!! Her first task, as with all girls, is to share, no i mean give, all the lovely onion to her unfortunate boyfriend who happens to enjoy having bad breath. Hey, they prevent cancer too in case you don't know.

ATTACK!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

My friend, Jiawei, who's working there. Damn him. I think i'm gonna not friend him anymore. He never give me discount.

The words on his back sums up the food we had. JIA GUD GUD AH!!

Tough week

2006-11-02T18:45:00.000+08:00

Yes it was a tough week, with dear in her 2nd week of work at biopolis and me nearly being admitted to woodbridge asylum thanks to school work, so what better way than to meet up with my precious to eat the famous commonwealth dessert!!

The scrumptous tasty gastronomical piece of work known to all of us as sweet potato soup! Notice that the stock used this soup is no ordinary stock - it's Cheng tng!! Wow talk about a double deal at the price of 1. And it's only $1. Alas the picture is only half full coz as usual dear couldn't help but forget to take pictures first at the sight of her food.

AHA!!! May i present to you, the bowl of cheng tng that doesnt slip even if the bowl is hanging precariously on a vertical wall! Notice that the soup and the ingredients maintain their shape in the bowl as well. Truly a magical bowl of dessert there. I was utterly flabbergasted, as you can tell from the look of my face.

Here's a nerdy looking evon enjoying her sweet potato soup! Isn't that adorable?? Oh i mean the soup haha.

After countless hours of using the calculator, the eraser, writing on my crumpled piece of foolscap, THIS is the end result - the shear flow diagram of an idealised sectional area of a wing of an aircraft with stiffeners carrying axial loading. Nevermind if you don't understand the drawing, for it is the abstract art of a genius. Currently there are only 3 people in the world who could understand what the diagram is about - me, jiawei and alvin. Effort sia. MP4A02 is so fun.

Haha. Dear can sew!!!!! Thanks to her i can wear this pair of boxers again!!

Hmmm maybe i should get her a present as a form of my gratitude. Hoho.

Exams approaching in 2 weeks plus time... oh crap.

Soon

2006-10-09T01:02:00.000+08:00

Yes!!! Soon!!! I can't wait woopee!!!

Returning on a jet plane

2006-10-08T23:01:00.000+08:00

All her bags are packed and she's ready to go
She's standing here at Incheon airport's doors
She hates to leave there and to say goodbye

Now her holidays ending and she's wanting more
The temperate climate and the land of Won
She ate so much of kimchi that she could cry

So quickly her time has passed
8 full days to be exact
Spent until she wanna go maddddd

Coz she's returning on a jet plane
She'll be back at changi later than ten
Oh babe, your hand i want to hold

In other words..... Shes back!!!!!!! =)

50

2006-10-08T13:49:00.000+08:00

What the.... just as my lungs had begun to grow in capacity to take in more oxygen in anticipation of the thickening haze, and my nostrils had begun to grow bushier inside to trap the smoke particles.... *POOF* The haze just seemed to had disappeared into thin air. Now it's a healthy range of less than 50.

Take a deep breath.... I can almost smell the grass already.

Egg yolk

2006-10-07T00:29:00.000+08:00

It's saturday and I am alone. No evon for the weekends and it feels strangely incomplete. It's like eating a mooncake without the egg yolk.

Tonight is supposedly the night with the brightest moon for the whole year, yet I dare say that the bloody sumatra haze has completely ruined the romantic mood for many couples who decided to spend the night gazing at the big round object in the sky and whisper sweet nothings to each other like nobody's business.

"Darling don't you think the night is smashingly brilliant tonight? Look at the moon it's so big and round."

"Honey, the only thing that's big and round here is your balding head and.... cough.... cough.....cough.... your bloody stupidness for bringing me out ..... cough cough...... into this thick haze. I can't see no moon shit tonight!"

"Baby, this haze is specially prepared to add a surreal feel to this special night where we can mucha mucha all night long. Doesn't it feel extra romantic with this veil of smoke all over us?"

"More like smog. Help.... cough cough.... think i'm having an asthma attack.... cough cough..."

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

Right.

K.A.L.

2006-10-03T13:02:00.000+08:00

As of the time of writing, dear must had already touched down at the Incheon airport, barring there were no delays of whatsoever (touchwood!). While I am slowly wilting away in front of the computer at home, trying to absorb my notes while the darn sumatra haze envelopes my room, she's over at the land of kimchis frantically busting her lungs shopping spreeing. Well, maybe not. Maybe she's stuck at the airport dying of boredom while waiting for her transit flight to Jeju island at 4 pm haha.

Watched a movie called 'Little miss sunshine' yesterday with her yesterday and I must say it's a pretty good film. It's about a mobley crew of a quirky family of 5 who had decided to go on a road trip so as to enter their daughter, who's dream was to become a beauty queen, into a kiddy pageant. Never had a movie that had no signs of sex and violence - the usual ingredients of hollywood - ever felt so good. The closest we had of anything that came across as a sexy hot chick were the not-even-pubescent contestants of the little miss sunshine pageant. Not that I'm complaining though - I find it a welcome relief. Folks, go watch the movie it's good.

Walked around town for a few hours before going to the airport, and our doubts whether her flight could be delayed were first casted when we realised the haze situation was getting worse. Good thing it didn't, else dear would had been terribly disappointed.

Lucky the sending-off wasn't a tear-jerking, mussy event. I hate those stuffs. Now I'm wondering what I could possibly do during this new found period of freedom.

And the signs are not looking good - I'm starting to feel bored already.

I want to ride my bicycle

2006-09-29T00:39:00.000+08:00

Being in yr 4 does not necessarily mean it's a good thing.

Sometimes i wonder why some of my friends are more successful in life than me.

A friend is becoming a regional pop star.

Another has developed his hobby into a serious job.

Yet another is working and studying simultaneously.

Everybody seems to have a certain goal and they are progressing towards it.

Me? I can't even find the motivation to go for driving lessons.

Oh well. I want to ride my bicycle.

That's why i'm glad baby is here with me. You are the bright spark in my otherwise dull life.

=)

Schnappi birthday!!!

2006-09-15T14:25:00.000+08:00

Yeah!! Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to you!!! Happy birthday to Deeee earrrr... Happy birthday to you!!!!

Woot finally the long awaited day arrived and i'm glad i kinda pulled it off with the party preparations as well as my 'surprise' for her. Hope you liked it baby!!

Hopefully you never xian qi how we spent the day ya.... As you know i'm such a goon when it comes to these sort of things. Really cannot make it i must have some sort of curse on me i think.

Yeah many more birthdays to come ya?

Happy family

2006-08-22T15:03:00.000+08:00

Woot! Our first family portrait in years, or rather, our first family portrait. Hopefully next year i might be able to don that silly looking scholar square hat too.

Waiting and waiting and waiting......

2006-08-19T14:06:00.000+08:00

Here i am at home on a nice saturday afternoon waiting specifically for that one phone call - the one phone call which will has the power to send my scrawny ass back to where i spent a good one year plus, LCK camp 1.

SAF... forever wasting my time. When are they gonna bloody call?!?! What's the point of doing all these recall stuff anyway?!?! Oh well....

Hang on a minute... Heard they just called. CRAP. Long 4 here i come.

Catshots

2006-08-09T23:58:00.000+08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, may i present to you, the fuzzy wuzzy cozy latest addition to the Lai family (albeit amidst -you've guessed it- vehement protests from the 2 elder statesmen of the family).......................

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*Drum rolls*

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MILKY !!!!!!!! ROAR!!!!!!!!!
His poor victims - Simba the lion king and cookie monster
A rare moment when he kept still.

Ain't he adorable?

Lost and found

2006-08-09T02:27:00.000+08:00

Just when i thought that all hope was lost, he appeared again. The unmistakable white pearly fur, the skinny deameanour, the helpless large shiny black eyes, the adorable whimper of a miew - Milky is found!

This time i am determined not to let him disappear again, so i brought him back home.

He's as cute as a baby.

M.I.A.w

2006-08-06T12:16:00.000+08:00

My self-adopted kitten is missing... Where's my milky?!?!?!

Hello tuas

2006-07-09T02:09:00.000+08:00

ICT here i come.

2 weeks of nonsense and cock in the ageing dad's army otherwise known as SAF reservist i am going .

Looks like i'm gonna get used to all the 'third sergeant lai's again.

tim sum yum!

2006-07-06T22:53:00.000+08:00

today me n dearie went for Tim Sum Buffet!! YES!!! TIM SUM BUFFET!! mouth-watering.the mushroom smiles!!

how cute lil mushroom but i m gonna eat u!!! ROAR!

awww...... juice flowing out.. no more smiley mushroom.

but here's a happy man wif mushroom still stucked in his mouth. haha..

fresh from the steamer!!

duncha wanna pop this in your mouth rite now?!

after the satisfying buffet, we went to The Cathay to watch Just My Luck.. and it was Just My Fate that i hafta watch this.. becoz dearie wans to watch.. sob.. so i was drugged, knocked unconscious and chained to the cinema seat and forced to watch.. exactly how i made dear watch Superman. haha! but well.. it's a romantic comedy.. and i would say, 'it's alrite lah!'
me n dearie..

brrr.... *shivers*

Hammy Lai..

Good day.

Red underpants

2006-07-03T01:23:00.000+08:00

Yeah today went to watch the movie starring a bird. Or was it a plane? Neh, it's the iconic alpha male of the sixties donned in his ridiculously "now is 1960 and its so damn cool to wear red briefs outside blue tights plus a cape" costume. And who can forget his little cute curling pigtail at his fringe? Apparently my dear was so aghast at this super turnoff of a superhero that she protested against watching the movie. But to no avail. She was drugged, knocked unconscious and chained to the cinema seat and forced to witness the full blue glory of mister super in his crimson hot underpants. As the show went on, i could tell she was slowly being mesmerised by the according-to- her-the-pants-was-too-loose hero. She was actually enjoying herself, to say the least. That's good, coz the movie was actually quite entertaining, thanks to the wondrous special effects that doesn't make him look daft while searing through the sky in light speed. And he was kinda cool. Don't we all wished that we could be superman when we were kids?

Curiousity doesn't kill the cat

2006-06-30T00:09:00.000+08:00

You know, i had always wanted my own pet. But i have parents who are seemingly against having another family member joining the 5 of us in our already-cramped can of sardines. You know lah, old people don't usually fancy these kinda of things - they are more pragmatic of life and have a practical mindset. So when i was a little kid, every suggestion that we should add a cuddly youngling into our homely abode produces vehement protests that came furiously at us like a fire engine - we got turned down flat. In. Our. Face. Sad.

There was this once when me and my neighbour found this newborn kitten at the void deck, looking helpless, weak, vulnerable. It's eyes haven't even opened yet, so it was blind. It could barely stand, let alone walk. Leave him there and he might just be devoured by hungry lurking beasts downstairs, so we had no choice but to do the only logical thing there is at that pressing situation. I brought him home, hidden behind my back, hoping my mom, being the blur person she always has been, wouldn't notice.

So the youngest smuggler in the world had successfully smuggled a living, breathing, furry four-legged, meat-eating furball into his room. Illegally. (Duh, of course smuggling is illegal)

The next one week or so was spent doubling up as a 'mommy' and a babysitter for the unexpected gift from the stork. It was an indescribable joy when i first witnessed it gaining its sight for the very first time. Then came the euphoria when it began to stand on its own four legs, which admittedly weren't any good for doing what they were supposed to do, being weak and all. With milk came strengthening of the limbs, and soon he began prancing around like any mischievous kid would. The saying goes, ' Curiousity kills the cat', and how right it was. He was as inquisitive as any hyperactive kid i had witnessed - He would nibble at wires that laid strewn on the floor, scratch away at my mattress sheet, pounce on the little toy soldiers like he's a maneater, torture any insect that came strolling along, jump around as if he's beckoning me to play with it, largen his eyes whenever i make cluck sounds.

It was not easy harboring a fugitive inside your room when you are still a kid yourself. Furthermore he would always meow whenever my attention was needed. So what i did was to turn on the radio as loud as possible, hoping to drown the soft mewing coming out of my room. Somehow that naive plan worked like a charm, for never once did my parents found out about that illegal immigrant.

He had his bratty moments too. To relieve his shit and all, he will always go to this corner under my bed and do his business. So imagine the work i had to do all the time, mopping and cleaning up his potty, and at the same time keeping all these invisible from my blur parents. Everytime he did that, i would spank him like any parent would do. Instill discipline i must. But there must be some miscommunication, for time to time a stinking whiff of shit will reach my poor nose while i'm sleeping. I even tried putting newspaper on that area, hoping there can be less of a hassle during cleaning up. The effort was to no avail - he will always dig away the newspapers and lay his waste on my cold hard tiles. Oh well i give up.

There must be a different time zone between us humans and cats, as he is always napping during the day (in the box which i had made his home) and moving around in the night like a prowling predator. So who's the prey when this this feline friend of mine goes bloodlust? Me me me me me. I would be sleeping, and that energizer would be running about, tumbling over everything that was in the room. At times he would mount onto my legs, and sometimes my face, and scratch away like nobody's business except mine. Obviously i couldn't sleep at first, but as days (and nights) went by my skin grew thicker and i got used to his claw-sharpening.

The inevitable had to happen. One day it lurked out of my room, and greeted my father with a timid meow. My father returned him a shock look followed by a shriek so horrifying on the ear that you would thought he had witnessed the most perverse crime in his life. What followed suit was - you've guessed it - vehement protests. My pleas were in vain, and soon, he had to be taken home by my friend.

Weeks later, he died.

Then today i was taking photos and this cat came to my legs as if there's a magnet on its neck and its being attracted to my legs. Although looking nothing like him, i saw the same tinge of loneliness in its eyes, reminiscent of his, beckoning for some love.
To some of them, love means scratching their neck and lower jaw and forehead.

Oh well.

Arma-ezlink

2006-06-06T23:52:00.000+08:00

Today is the day where 3 of the same numbers come together to form one unholy replica of the mark of the-you-know-who. Sixth. June. 2006. The supposed day when armageddon would be unleashed. Instead, all i got was a grand total of $6.66 left on my ezlink card when i got off the bus at clementi.

Weird coincidence..... very weird indeed.....

Don't tell me that i'm the devil-incarnate?

Oh no. Now that makes sense. No wonder i never seem to win 4-D - Wait a moment, in that case i should win 4-D all the time!

Now it really doesn't make sense.

I feel something lurking behind me....

Good ol' days

2006-05-27T23:04:00.000+08:00

Having my fair dose of hdb flat-watching for the past few days had made my eyes sore and my creativity stagnated. What i see are just flats flats and more flats of the same designs. Sure, they might be totally identical to one another, but still. I'm afraid if i spend anymore time looking at these splitting images of one another my head is going to split from the scarier-than-'the ring' nightmares. It doesn't take much effort to realise what the blueprint of the government's floorplan of singapore is. Roads, canals, flats and car parks all jumbled efficiently into a small pocket of land. Plus with a whole lot of trees to give the place a naturesque feel. The gloomy skies don't exactly help in making our country look like a scenery-award winning city.

This is when the past memories of japan and redang start creeping in. Where are the nice blue skies of hokkaido? What about the 'melts in your hands, and also in you mouth' white snow? And those sandy shores of redang; the clear as tapwater seawater? Where are they????

＿|￣|○

I........ must......... have......... the best of both worlds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Now ain't that a spiffy idea?

The day of a HDB flat Photographer

2006-05-25T15:13:00.000+08:00

Don't laugh. I am really a photographer who's main aim is to take pictures of the most unimaginatively designed buildings in the world. The employer, called Informap, specialises on making 3-d maps of cities including singapore, moscow and paris, to name a few. Just what goes on behind the scenes is anybody's guess - they could be terrorists for all i know. What i know is there are currently 3,032,908 designs of hdb flats in singapore concocted a few centuries back by the boring-est, most stale-minded people of that time. What's remarkable is their blueprints remain so successful for small cities like ours that it's still used today.

So what does a hyperactive, approaching-30-years-old male (YES, 6 more years and all of us doggies will be 30) does on his workdays? First, he sets a time to wake up in the morning the night before, maybe at 8. Then he waits for alarm to ring, turns it off, then goes back to nua for another 30 minutes. A piece of bread is all he takes for breakfast for this physically demanding job, and soon he will feel in his knees the repercussions of taking in so little carbohydrates.

Wait a minute, physically demanding you say? Of course it is. Imagine walking around the vast neighborhood in the hot sun with nothing on except a bag and a singlet and berms and with a camera strap clad around the neck, not to mention climbing stairs or walking a few hundred metres down the road so as to capture the perfect shot (you should understand that flats are humongous). And i am not talking about 3 or 4 blocks of flats here either. It's a WHOLE neighborhood, e.g. from blocks 326 to 350, which is like 2,756 blocks of flats. Do the math, and my average energy output per day rivals that of a marathon runner carrying a camera round his neck. Just to take pictures like those below:

At this point it is perfectly normal to feel bored. If you are not, then you must be either one of the evil culprits behind the hdb designing team, a person who has flats fetish, a stalker who likes to peep into the windows hoping to come across something delightful, or that you are simply someone who's looking for a flat to stay in .

It is never always that smooth-sailing , this job. Like for example the picture below. Those darn trees are blocking what is looking to be a perfect overview shot of block 352 if not for those darn trees. But luckily i smart: Put in a playground and there you go, awwww a nice homely scene of family wonderness.

As if having a formidable adversary in mother nature is not enough, i have to overcome obstacles such as drains, roads and perfectly-parked-and-blocking-my-view cars or even worse lorries. Most of the time i have to venture onto muddy grass, fend off giant red ants gnawing at my feet, scale the slopes of mini hills, swing from tree to tree, leopard crawl underneath crevices, absail down building walls, swim across flooded canals, duel with giant snakes, or even help old aunties cross the road.

Today an even perculiar situation came upon me. I was taking a break from the snapping, playing with a group of foraging pigeons. All i wanted was to take a picture of them happily nipping at the grass, but whenever i approached they sensed a hideous monster coming towards them and always flew away.

That was when i heard some leaves rustling and a thud on the ground. To my horror, i found this, the gruesome attempt on my life by one of the residents of the block which i was taking snapshots of.
Isn't this the most vicious weapon you had ever seen. On closer scrutiny, it is in fact a slice of eaten honeydew! OMFG OMFG OMFG!!!! An attempt, albeit failed, on my life with this horrendous piece of fruit! Shame on you, evil-heartlander-who-likes-fruits! Don't like me take pictures of your flat then want to silence me and my lens. Thankfully his aim was not that accurate, although only off by 2 metres. Nice try you piece of shit. I leave with my brains still firmly intact in my skull.

After realizing that the assailant could still be around, i scoured around for any signs of the hitman's traces left at the scene of the crime. No marks found, and can't find him. He must be a professional honeydew thrower. Damn you, honeydew killer, damn you. Oh crap, I should have taken the evidence and try to find out his identity by matching the teeth marks.

Dark clouds began looming above my head before i knew it, and thanks to the downpour that was too early due, i had to end my assignment prematurely for the day. So off i went cycling home in the rain with my equipment safely dry in my waterproof timbuk2 bag.

So what exactly is the smell of a photographer? A sensual exotic blend of sweat from 5 hours of toil and 10 minutes of a tropical climate rain.

Yes.

2006-05-23T01:28:00.000+08:00

I know baby, i know. =)

Schnap snap click clack walla bang bang

2006-05-19T00:57:00.000+08:00

Say goodbye to jobless haolun, for i am no longer a useless good for nothing citizen that has nothing to contribute to the country except for the carbon dioxide and methane constantly being emitted out of my fart engines. Yes, i shall soon see my cpf account buldging like nobody's business, thanks to the $1200 this job gives. If i ever had a name card, the word 'photographer' would be emblazoned proudly just below my name.

Yeah i am a photographer. Not one that takes pictures of borings stuff like pretty people or the old fashioned theme of landscapes. Heck, it's not even about taking photos of sceneries or even abstract stuff. Welcome the new gerneration of photographers with open arms. Embrace the new breed of shuttlers - the heartland photographer. The object of his lens - the amazingly photogenic HDB flats. The aim? To capture images of these gorgeous buildings to create a 3-d map of singapore for this company called Informap.

I am damn shag.