I had my lunch at 4pm today. Not because I am too busy. But I had no appetite at all. It's until 4pm that I feel up to eating anything. There's a soccer session later, so I have to eat something for energy.

I fell asleep at my desk this morning as well, though I do that even when I am not sick, this time it’s really due to me being sick. And my manager saw me. She say I should not sleep in the office. Sigh…

And when I leave at 6pm to go with the others for soccer, she says that since I go work at 9:30, my official time should be 7pm, I shouldn’t leave at 6pm. I explained to her that I am joining them for the session, then she say it is ok. I must have given her a bad impression. This morning she asked me to check out some error on a system something that I know nuts about. In the end she found it out herself without much effort. But that’s to be expected. She’s familiar with it, I aren’t. There was another problem last week. I was working on another project and did not manage to find a solution to that problem. She got that too. And the project that I am working on got shelved, I wonder for what reason.

The soccer session is quite good. My colleague who was away on 3 weeks just came back and joined us for the 1st time since I joined the company. I think he's the only 1 among my team who has some standard. He plays with a brain. He can hold the ball and he knows to run into space, draws away defenders and pass into space.

There's 1 guy who is quite fit, can run with the ball somewhat, but unfortunately, when he holds the ball, he only knows to run forward. We don't play corners, all out are given to the defending team. Our goal is only waist high. Our people can't head. And yet he likes to run to the byline and gives either the ball to the opposition when they kick it out, or cross to the center where no 1 can head, even if they can, with the ball so low, it's going to be pretty difficult. But he shoots quite accurately. He scored 1 and almost scored a 2nd. And if he decides to pass, it's always to the man furthest up field, regardless if there are other people in other good positions.

And then, there's me. I can't run with the ball well enough, though I managed to trap the ball well enough when it's passed to me. I can spot people in good position but I can't pass that accurately to them. And I managed to complete a couple of nice passes though. And when I shoot, it's always off target.

After the game, I am dead beat. And with my ailing body, I just slept till 10+pm once I reached home. No appetite for dinner at all. I can't even make the effort to bath. It's really bad. But I feel much better after the sleep and I can eat some stuff now. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Link

I thought this is a good read.

The last time, it's free coffee at Starbucks. This time, it's free ice cream at Ben and Jerry.

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The queue is very long, as expected. However, they have people bringing different flavors of ice cream down the queue. So if you spot your favorite flavor, you can get it from them and exit the queue immediately with your ice cream.

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If you did not at an ice cream from the runners, you can get it when you reach the front of the queue and tell them the flavor you want.

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The ice cream is quite nice. I queued up twice for the ice cream. I had Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Oatmeal.

Where is the next freebie going be at?

This morning is supposed to be soccer, followed by skating in East Coast Park in the afternoon. Then it's off to the hospital to pay Ah Choon and little Megan a visit.

The soccer session went smoothly enough. My boots are with Thierry and Gerald. Gerald told me he'll be late, so I told Thierry to bring instead. In the end Thierry is later then Gerald. Luckily Gerald brought my boots as well, so I was able to play earlier. Even then, I waited 20 minutes before being able to stay. I was always late for the soccer session. This time I reach there early, but can't play immediately...

After soccer ends, at 12nn, Thierry and I immediately went to East Coast Park. We are supposed to meet the others at 1pm. It started raining just as we reached East Coast Park. And it is raining heavily. So we went to Samwin's place for mahjong instead.

I've mentioned a lot of times that my luck has been bad. There are people who tell me that I should not play since I know I can't win. But I liked mahjong. And the money that I lose, I'll probably spend it elsewhere anyway. For me, playing mahjong is not about the gamble, though the money makes it more exciting. Mahjong is a very intellectual and mind challenging game.

Anyway, it seems that my luck is better this time. I've not won anything in the East Wind for a long time. This time I managed to win once. I managed to win another time in the South Wind. Both are 1 fan self drawn. I almost win a 5 fan, but well, my luck isn't that good I guess. In the end, I am still the biggest loser, but the amount is quite small, though we played quite big, so it's not so bad.

In the end, we were late in meeting Sharon to go visit Ah Choon. All because Thierry did not throw the 2 tong early enough for me to win the 5 fan, and we have to play another game. :P

She's not named at the moment I took this picture.This beauty here is called Megan. I hope she's not going to sue me when she grows up for putting her picture without her permission...

Anyway, she has just migrated to planet Earth and we want to all give her a welcome. And congrats to the parents, Ah Choon and Ah Beng.

As we were making our way back to Singapore from Johor Bahru, there's a bad jam in the causeway. After sitting in the bus for sometime, we decided to alight and walk to the Singapore customs instead. The distance is not really far.

Turned out there's a coach break down in front. It's leaking diesel. Scary.



We saw this as we were walking on the causeway. Somebody is shutting down the advertisement PC and forgets to off the power....

This restaurant is on the 3rd floor of City Square. The ambience is quite nice. The food is quite expensive, by Malaysia standards. The food is average. Don't think I'll go there again.

I went to their main branch in Crystal Crown Hotel while preparing for Garry and June's wedding. The food was quite nice there.

I saw this restaurant in Sofitel Palm Resort in Johor. Is the food bad? What are they paiseh about?

Right after my soccer session with my colleagues, I went home bath, and out I go to Jurong Entertainment Center to watch Firewall with Samwin.

After having read a number of Star Wars Expanded Universe stories recently, featuring old Han Solo (60+ yrs old), watching a movie by 60+ yrs old Harrison Ford movie feels good. Too bad there won't be a 50+ yrs old Mark Hamill movie. :P

Overall, the movie is quite nice. It's about this man who was in charge of Internet Security of a bank. 1 day, his house was broken into and his family was held hostage. He has to help the bad guys rob the bank where he's working in, for the safety of his family. Of course, he refused to follow orders meekly and tried to get out from the controls of the bad guys, but each time, he's thwarted by them.

Of course, in the end, the bad guys lose. There's 1 scene at the end, where he walks up the slope with his family members after escaping from the bad guys. The back drop was a lake with a cottage by the side. That scene is very beautiful. Too bad it's very short.

My new colleagues play soccer at a secondary school near my house every thursday. I've worked here for about 1 month, and this is the 1st time that I do not have a program on a Thursday evening. So I get to join them this time.

There is actually 2 groups of people there. We split into 2 teams, with my company people in 1 team. I think the other team is better than us in terms of skill, but we managed to score 1st. But we lost 4-2 in the end.

There's not much time to play. We started at about 6:45 and there's no light at night, so we'll have to stop when the sun sets. I think I had a bad game. Fitness and visibility both plays a part in this.

We shall see if I can join them next week.

Interesting link

PS: This link is NSFW(not safe for work).

Went gym last night. Hit the treadmill 1st thing. Run a solid 3km. took 23min+ to complete.......

Then I tried a variety of the weights machine. Did more on arms and chest. By the time I finished, my arms are so sore and tired that I have problem bathing. :P Now the muscles are aching. I am so weak...

After my Pepper Lunch dinner, I went to the gelatin shop. It's near to the Hagaan Daz booth near the basement fountain in Taka. 1 scoop is $2.80, 2 is $3.90, 3 is $4.80. But they have giving the 3rd scoop free as promotion. so 3 scoops for only $3.90.

I chosed Belgian Chocolate, Tiramisu and Rum and Raisin. Belgian Chocolate is very rich, Tiramisu is average and the Rum and Raisin is quite nice. Alex ordered Green Tea, Italian Coffee and Butterscotch. I did not try Green Tea, but I don't like Italian Coffee. Butterscotch didn't taste too good either.

Bel ordered Belgian Chocolate, Straberry and the last flavour I forgot. Belgian Chocolate I have, Strawberry is a bit sour. Not sweet enough I feel.

I went to Pepper Lunch for dinner just now. I find it quite nice. 1 complain though. They have 1 usher to tell you where to sit. Bel and I reach the restaurant 1st, and Alex is coming later. The usher on seeing that there are only 2 of us, insists that we sit on the 2 person table until the 3rd person arrived.



And to make it worse, the food arrives right before Alex arrive. This means that once the food reached my table, they move it to another table. Normally this is alright, except that the added time that it took for settle down means my beef is overcooked as it's a hot plate.



At about $2 more, you get to chose either a drink or a bowl of soup. They have corn soup and miso soup. I chose miso soup. It's quite nice too. Even got the tau pok.

Alex say he don't like the place though. That's because he don't eat beef and salmon and there's only 1 chicken item there. And he did not cook it properly and the chicken is pretty uncooked. Keep complaining that at $14, he expects his food to be cooked and he don't have to cook it himself.

Anyway, I think it's a nice place I will want to go there again.

I saw this at Sun Moulin, a bakery in the basement level of Shaw, Lido.

About 1 month ago, I saw a dustbin placed right in front of the Mediacorp signboard.

Yesterday, I saw that it has been moved. Now we know the directions to Radio and TV gate...

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After getting home early in the morning after an overnight birthday celebration session, I surfed a bit and slept a bit and I go meet with Sharon to go ECP together. I went to Jurong East Library to return books before meeting her. Samwin says he's tired and is not joining us.



Unfortunately, it rained when we have barely travelled half the distance we wanted to travel. It's just too bad. We decided on going to Boardgame Paradice for some games.

And guess what? They have closed down!! :P

Belle's birthday in April too. So we had a celebration somewhere in between our birthday. 15th April, Saturday.

We were having the party in Cat's place in Yishun, and we go to Woodlands for a KTV session before that. We were supposed to meet at Woodlands Central and go to the KTV together, but everyone was late. I was there 1st, followed by Belle. She told me there are 10 people for this session. I thought it's going to be a boring session as more people means longer queue for your song. End up, only 7 people went. 2 joined us very late. 1 did not turned up at all. Of the 7 that turned up from the beginning, only 3 persons are singing. So it's not that bad after all. :P


After the KTV, they bought the sushi and KFC to Cat's place for dinner. After dinner, some of us went to play mahjong while the rest played games in the living room and drinking booze. Those people are scary. They are drinking like there's no tomorrow. I prefer to drink my drink slowly and appreciating it.

Sun is funny. When she heard that her bf is outside drinking a lot of alcohol, she kept asking him to take over her in mahjong. It's obvious that he don't like to play mahjong, but she just wants him there so he won't drink so much. And while he's playing, she keeps telling him his play is wrong. After 1 game, he'll wriggle out and joined the rest in the living room. Later she'll attempt to get him onto the table again. I know she's concerned about him, but I would prefer that my gf let me make my decision on how much I should drink and what game I should play. I sure don't want to be in his position.



There is some taboo in mahjong about players leaving the table during the round of the west wind. But that's the round that Sun's bf joined us for 1 game and left. And that's about the time where some of the guys wanted to leave, so all of us have to leave the table and go sing the song and blow the cake.

I always think it's weird to have 2 persons stand in front of a cake and listen to birthday song singing and blow the cake together. I've done it with a group of people before. It was also weird, but slightly better. Can't really place the feeling, just feel a bit weird.

Anyway, we blow the candles, receives our presents and its back to mahjong. My luck for mahjong had been quite bad since the 1st day of Chinese New Year. This session is no different. I finish the round as the biggest loser. I let Charles took over for the next round and is about to go join the others in the living room but Charles is a novice in mahjong. So I stayed behind to guide him. His hand is always so much better than mine. I don't enjoy such good hands so often, even when in my better times. But sadly, he did not manage to win most of them. He ends up losing a couple of dollars. Could be the adviser is lousy. :P

As we were preparing to sleep, someone got so drank that she puked on the bed. Poor Cat and Belle got to clean up for her. She got puke on her t-shirt as well and they got her to go bath and change to a new set of clothes. She changed to her old set. And they asked her to bath and change again. Again, she wears back her old clothes. They made her bath a 3rd time, and this time made sure she changed to the clean set of clothes.

I am the only person sleeping in the living room. I woke up at 8am and I went home myself. I am supposed to have a soccer session at 8am in Tampines, but I told them I am not going. But I still have a skating session in East Coast Park in the afternoon.

I went to the newly opened Cathay Cineplex just now. The shops are not opened yet, only the cinema is opened. Hamsup was telling me the thing he liked best about this new Cineplex is that all mobiles will not get any reception while in the theatre, but I still got full bar reception. I will have to ask him about it again.

The cinema I went to is the Grand Cathay. There are ushers to show you to your seat like in old times. The seats are quite also far apart so that there is plenty of leg room. And the slope of the cinema is steeply enough that you are unlikely to be blocked by the person in front even if you are slouched in your chair and he's sitting upright.



The movie we watched is 8 Below. It's about 8 huskies that are left behind during a very big thunderstorm. This movie is about how they survived.

During the middle, there's this scene where 1 of the huskies were stranded, and he came across a killer whale carcass. You can see that part of the carcass had been eaten away. This husky was sniffing around and taking a few bites when suddenly a leopard seal appeared roaring. And a baby cried. Apparently a baby in the cinema was frightedned by the leopard seal. :P

It's a nice movie, and quite touching as well. I would recommend all to go watch.

It's Daniel's birthday tomorrow. Since he'll be celebrating with his wife, we celebrate for him the day before. The first item on the agenda is dinner at a Japanese restaurant. They went to Cuppage area to look around and settled on one that's on the 3rd storey of Cuppage Plaza. I thought the food is quite nice though it's quite expensive.

After that, I suggested Ice Cold Beer, but it's too crowded so we went to the pub that Daniel frequent, Room Full of Blues, at Princep Street.

We went in too big a group and there's no comfortable seats there at first. After sometime, then we get to sit on the sofas. Even that, I also think it's not very comfortable, but it's better than the original small table and high chairs.

We ordered 1 round of beers 1st, then we ordered a bottle of Chivas. At first, we worry that we won't finish the bottle. The last time we went drinking, we almost can't finish that bottle, and we did not have 1 round of beer before that. Surprisingly, we finished all of it this time. Maybe it's because the last time, it's some lousy whiskey, while it's Chivas this time.

After some drinks and games, we started taking some crazy pictures. I shan't post all the pictures here, just 2 of them.

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Nice picture.

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Disgusting picture.

Daniel gave a ride back for the rest of them, Sharon and I took the night bus home.

I went for my 1st gym session finally after having signed up for it 1 week ago. I am starting to regret it. Doesn't seem to be able to find time to visit it more often. If only my office is in the gym area...

Anyway, I have a trainer bring me around introducing to me the various exercises. He only shows me the exercises for abs, arms and chest as I told him those are the areas I want to build on.

There's this time when I am doing in a machine for my abs, lying down right in front of me is a fat lady with big breasts. From my angle, can't really see the rest of her body except for the big breasts. :P

Anyway, after bringing me around for awhile, he brings another trainer to come talk to me. He's supposedly his senior. They tell me about this 12 and 14 exercise program and ask me which 1 I prefer. They never ask me if I wanted to sign up a program with them. They just ask me which program I prefer. So I tell them I don't want to sign up as I have budget constraints. Then they tell me about a 6 session program. Again I decline. Then they tell me about this machine they have that is very accurate in finding out the fats composition and some other muscle information. To take the test, it cost $21 each time. They wanted me to pay for 4 times 1st and then take the test when I want. I don't understand why I would want to do that when I can pay them when I want to take the test. They just want my money.

Going to this gym feels like going for some time sharing exhibition. They just do all kinds of things to entice you to part with your money. Fortunately, this time, I resisted.

After that, I went to do some treadmill on my own. They have TVs on the wall in front of the treadmills. Under each TV, there's a sign that says the FM frequency for the sound of each TV. I thought it's quite cool. I can tune in to the channel and watch TV while I jog. Unfortunately, the channel for the TV I wanted to watch doesn't work.

I brought a pair of knee guards and wrist guards about 2 weeks ago. The brand name on the guards is interesting. What do you think it is? Click on the permanent link to see the anwser.

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On first look, I thought it's sniper, but it's actually radius

It's Bloggers' Night every Tuesday in Pitstop. $6 for the night with unlimited drinks and gaming hours. Normally on Tuesday nights, I'll be playing badminton, but I have not been able to book the courts for tonight, so off to Pitstop we go.

We had the mee sua opposite Pitstop for dinner. Again. I told them I'll be there at about 7:30pm. They went to the coffee shop first and I reach there slightly after 7pm. They were saying I am punctual this time. I had known that I'll reach the place at about this time, but the traffic condition can make the timing unpredictable at times, so I told them a later time. And for that, I am being praised for being early. I guess it's all about expectations. Anyway, Pee Kay joined us for dinner.

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We are supposed to print out an interesting entry of our blog and paste it on their bloggers’ wall to enjoy the Bloggers’ package. Only Thierry and Sotong did it. And theirs are the only 2 entries on the wall now. :P

We played a few games tonight. the first is Poison, it's a card game that is similar to Hearts. I scored the 2nd highest. The highest score is the loser.

The 2nd game is Snorta. Everybody will have a representing animal and we took turns to flip our cards. Whenever we flip a card that shows the same animal with another person, both of us will have to make the sound of the other person's animal. The one that did it later will have to take all the opened cards of the other person. Thierry won this game.

The 3rd game is Ticket To Ride. The objective of the game is to build railway tracks across America. Thierry lost, and I am second last. I think it's quite a nice game, I would like to play it again if possible, but the rest don't like to repeat games...

After Ticket to Ride, we were just too tired to think anymore, and we just laze there for awhile before leaving for home.

Read Thierry's account.

I was out with FL and Vivian. We were shopping around Bugis area when we decide to go meet Sotong at Chinatown for KTV. As we were walking to meet her, we walked by this shop called Jing Jing Dessert Shop. I don't have the exact address with me, but it's at the road next to the McDonald's at Lucky Chinatown.

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I ordered a coconut ice with fruits and peanuts. It taste quite nice.

I think it's a nice place to hang out with, just don't order the common dessert like Honey Dew Sago, where you are paying $4 for something you can get for $0.80.

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Last week, I can't remember which day, I was at the Mediacorp Canteen. I saw this sign at the western food stall that says the original Happy Fish is there, so I bought it.

It taste not bad. Later, my friend tells me that when they need food for filming, it's mostly taken from that canteen. He proceeds to point out to me which stall that they got the laksa that Tay Ping Hui cooks for. :P

Come to think of it, having their food appear in TV doesn't mean anything at all. It's only for filming and it doesn't matter to the filming crew whether it taste nice. It's only the actors and actresses who will get a harder time if the food is lousy.

This entry is very late...

Thierry and I went skating shoe shopping with Sharon on 1st April. At first, we went Bukit Timah Shopping Center, but there's nothing much there. Then we went to the Skateline shop in Upper Paya Lebar. Sharon finally found the shoe that she wanted there.

By the time we leave the shop, it's dinner time, and we go to Chomp Chomp for dinner. We ordered a lot of stuff, as usual. :P

Then we walk around Serangoon Garden area and we see this shop.



It's actually a Karaoake pub. What's so different for them is that they let you record your singing to cassettes. I think it's quite cheap as it will cost you much much more to book a studio. Unfortunately, you can't bring your own minus 1 tape for your background music. Sharon wanted to record 5 songs, but unfortunately, the system is on strike that day.

Read Thierry's account.

Went for a soccer session this morning. Played from 9:30am till almost 12. After lunch, I went to East Coast Park. Started skating at about 3pm until almost 6pm. This is the longest I've skated. Feels good.

Went to FL's place for mahjong today. Sharon, Sotong, Thierry and I played. We played only 2 rounds, but we took almost 6 hours to finish them, which is quite slow. I am the only loser. We played the 3/6 divide by 2 rate, and I lost $70. Sigh.

After unabashedly putting my borthday wish list in this blog 2 months back, my friends did make an effort to fulfill them. 2 of the items I fulfilled myself in a recent Bangkok trip, so I strike them off the list. Another 1, a good paying and nice job, I have already sort of fulfilled it myself, but it is always nice to get better offers so I did not remove that from the list.

Then last night, on the day of my birthday, my friends, Kiasu(absent), Big Bird, Thierry, Dhanny, FL, Sharon, Sotong and Irene brought me to Werner's Oven to fulfill another item on the wish list. I thought the food there is really quite nice. They also gave me a birthday card, another item on the wish list that I am not striking off yet, so keep them coming. and a haversack, which I wanted but forgot to add to the list. And the ear piece for mobile, which is half a item in the wish list and I have strike that half off. And a pair of slippers, which is not on my list, but still is going to be useful next time i go travelling and skating. Thanks you all. The cheesecake is also very nice. :)

Throughout the day, I received numerous messages, from sms, icq, msn, all wishing me a happy birthday. A lot of these people do not read my blog, and yet they remember about my birthday. Thanks you all. Me touched.

Got this in my yahoo mail.

Nabei, must they include my age in the message?? Grr.

I've done sales before. Though I am not a good sales person, I can spot certain techniques that sales person applies when they talk to me.

I've been thinking about joining a gym for some time, but have never got around to doing it due to time and money constraints. Recently, California Fitness got my number thru Samwin and invited me to go to their hypnotising session a tour of their facilities. While I am there, I can really see a lot of sales tricks.

She try to make me feel I share an afinity with her by pretending that she is a Star Wars fan as well when she saw that I am reading a Star Wars Expanded universe novel. And she proceeds to talk about a Lord Of The Rings pendant that her friend bought for her.

Then she brings me on a tour of the place, showing me the facilities that they have. This is also known as product demo I guess. :P

Then she quote me a very high price for joining, and ask me what price am I comfortable with. I do not want to answer. In any sales negotiation, the one who makes the 1st offer is always at a disadvantage. But she kept asking, in the end, I gave a ridiculously low price.

She tells me she'll have to talk to her boss about it and went off. I am not sure, but I think she's not talking to her boss. They are already prepared to give me a better price. I am not someone special. There must be lots of people like me here already. They must have a doctrine on how to handle such situations. I think she just wants me to think that the management is concerned about my case and wants to bend backwards for me or something. I half expect the "manager" to come out with her. The person could be a manager or just another colleague to masquerade as one. Anyway, she came out alone and tell me a much slashed price. I still do not want to take it up.

So she went off to see the boss again. This time she really came back with someone. An ang mo. He say that since it's my first time to a gym, he can give me an even better offer and proceeds to tell me a much much lower offer than what she originally tells me. This should be the real offer that they want to offer me. Anyway, I think it's a slightly below average amount, but I may be wrong.

I told them I am interested but I need to go home and sit on it. One of the rules of sales closing is not to let the customer leave without commiting to you. If he leaves, he'll never come back, no matter what he says. So he tells me the offer is the last day that day.

So I signed up.

I was at a jersey imitation in MBK in Bangkok. the guy showed me a Liverpool jersey and tells me it's thee next season jersey. I was feeling sceptical, andd the jersey is sized too big for me. so I did not buy it. But I took a picture of me wearing it just in case it's for real...

Turns out it's really not for real. Luckily. This jersey was quite ugly I feel.

Read here for more info.

Just got this from the gahmen. Gotta make new IC soon...

This morning I heard a series of honking. I thought there's some argument going on downstairs. As I went to take a look, it's actually a bridal car coming back from the bride's place.

Congrats to this couple.

It is a bad day

After starting the day in a bad way, things can still get worse. I thought having a cold, headache and muscle ache all over is bad enough. But the aircon in the office manages to make cold worse.

And to top it all, it was raining when I left office to go meet my friends. There's a long queue at the taxi stand, and I am short on time to wait for the rain to stop. The rain is quite light. So I decide to walk out to the bus stop anyway. I had barely gone 10m when it started pouring. I have to run the rest of the way to the bus stop. By the time I reach the bus stop, I am all wet. And I am sick to begin with.

It doesn't end there. The bus doesn't come. I was stuck at the bus stop for sometime before the bus come. And it's a air con bus. The place that I am meeting my friend is shopping center. With air con of course. And they are late. So I am running a fever, hungry, in a lot of pain. It's a bad bad bad day.