Daniel invited us to his house today. I am supposed to meet Sotong at Admiralty MRT at 3:30pm. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my wallet. I realized it only when I reached the MRT station, and have to go back home to get it. In the end, I was 15 minutes late. Even then, we were still the earliest. Thierry came soon after, followed by Jean. Sharon is the last of us to arrive.

We played Blackjack. I am quite lucky in this game and managed to win quite a few. I always bet only $0.50, except once when Sharon is the banker, where I bet $2. I got blackjack for that round. There's another time where I got 16 pts for 4 cards and decided to risk a 5th card and I've got 5. So I won double for that round, and the banker, Jean, go on to win that round with 5 cards as well. If I had settled for 16, I would have lost double.

Towards the end, my luck starts making a turn for the worse though. When I was the banker, I've got 14 pts with 4 cards and am forced to take a 5th. I got a 9. Have to pay everyone double... When for the last game, Thierry the banker has lost quite a lot of money. So I tell him I am willing to bet $10 on the last game if he dares to take it up. If I lost, he'll recoup his loses, and I am just back to square 1 only. But if I win, he's going to double his loses. In the end, he chicken out decided to limit me to only a $5 bet. He won the game.

After the Blackjack game, Thierry left for another gambling session gathering. The rest of us just played some games for awhile more before going for a late and light dinner as we had quite a lot of snacks and isn't too hungry, before going home.

[IMAGE: Knee]

The outside of the wound seems to have dried considerably, though the center part looks like it's still a bit wet. This is probably due to the movement of the knee when I have to squat down during my numerous toilet visits over the past few days. It's been almost 1 week, I hope it heals fast.

The trial date for Google for refusing to comply with a court order has been set.

How far would Google go to protect the privacy of their users? The result of this suit will affect the surfing habits of a lot of people I think...

Link

So what's new?

Link

Sharon, Sotong and Thierry came to my place for a mahjong session. This is despite coming home late (5am) the previous night.

We played 3/6 half rate, 3 rounds. I lost money for all 3 rounds, first round the most, last round the least. I have not had such bad luck for some time. Despite not giving much tiles to opponent, I've had problems constructing a winning set. I hope I've used up all my bad luck in gambling...

More on this mahjong session By Thierry

After visiting Ken at his new house, I went to Chinatown to meet up with Sharon, Thierry, Sotong and Jean for a KTV session in Party World Oriental. We booked a room until 3am. The singing went as normal, but this time there are considerably less Twins songs. :P

Anyway, after the singing, we went to Boat Quay for supper. This is because the bus-stop where we care going to take the night buses for going home is there. This being the festive season, 162M is running, and that means Thierry got to take a night bus back as well. The other night bus that goes to his place, NR 1, stops at a place where he'll need 20 minutes to walk home.

His bus came first. And Sharon and I continue to wait for our NR 5. We become suspicious when there's not a single NR after waiting for 20 minutes. It turned out that there are no NR buses tonight! They are supposed to operate on Eve of public holidays, and today is Saturday, and tomorrow is a holiday, so if this isn't an eve of public holiday, then what is? Maybe they wanted to let their drivers have an off night during the 1st day of CNY, fine, but why isn't there any notice to announce it?? Sharon and I were waiting like idiots for a bus that will never come.

And to make it worse, it being the first day of CNY, 60% of the cab drivers is on leave, making it even more difficult to get a taxi. We only managed to get 1 after walking to the Clark Quay MRT area. I have already made a call to the taxi company to make a reservation when Sharon managed to hail a cab.

It's a Merc cab she got, and an environmental friendly one. It's quite a nice ride. The driver is a nice person who answers any queries that we have without being too talkative*. And the car is quite comfy.

I am really quite disappointed in SMRT. On a day where there is supposed to be night buses, they did not do it and did not inform! I could have saved a lot of time, and some money as well, by taking a taxi straight from Chinatown if I had known there's no Night Buses. I don't have to walk to Boat Quay. Grr.

*Update: Sharon complained told me that the driver was complaining that I am not gentlemanly and that I should send her home first among other things. Still a nice driver nonetheless.

More on the KTV from Thierry

Last week, I was having dinner with Alex and Bel in Orchard. I was talking to Alex about playing mahjong during this Chinese New Year, and we thought of Ken. We have not met him for about 8 years I think. It has been a long time, maybe we can meet up after all this time and have a game of mahjong like we used to.

After calling him, we found out that he has ROMed and his new house opposite Kenbangan MRT station. We could use the opportunity to visit him at his new place as well. I called up Franky, the forth person in our group, and tell him about our plans to visit Ken for mahjong on the first day of CNY. Unfortunately, he says he would not want to play mahjong, though he would like to go visit Ken. And we can't really find another person to for the mahjong, plus the fact that Ken do not have any mahjong set or table in his new house, we decide to just meet up for dinner.

On arriving in his house, we find it a nice place, too bad I did not take any pictures. It's a condo called Trumps. There are still a lot of empty units there, must be due to the bad times. :P Anyway, his unit is a first floor unit, and it comes with a courtyard. It's a cement courtyard, so you can't have a garden, but he put a table in the middle of the court yard and uses it as the dinning area. And with candles, it makes a nice atmosphere for a gathering. Almost like a restaurant. But I see 2 bad points about this dinning area.

First is the lack of covers. It will be bad if it rains. We will have to huddle in the floor of the living room for our dinner. :P Lucky it did not rain.

Second is the lack of lighting. It's nice to eat in such conditions once in awhile. Especially when he has just moved in for 2 days, and has a bunch of old school friends coming for a visit on a new year. But I can't imagine eating in those conditions every day. :P

Ken and his wife are good hosts. The dinner is nice and sumptuous and they prepare a wonderful dessert to top it off. Thanks to you Ken and Angelyn!

Happy New Year Everyone!!
恭喜发财
万事如意
心想事成
龙马精神
年年有余

According to my webstats, I've passed the 5000 visitor milestone yesterday. I've got my 1st visitor on the 31st Jan 2005. It has taken me about 1 year to reach the milestone. I hope there's more milestones to pass! :)

No, I am not Christian. And I don't think that God got leave us in the first place.

I meant the Liverpool God, Robbie Fowler.
He's back!!!

This is like a dream come true. I don't know if he'll be back to his best, but that guy belongs in a red shirt. If for nothing, just looking at him wearing a red shirt again is as good as it gets.

After some teartment by a previous manager, I think Fowler deserves another chance to show his love for the club. His best years may be gone, but that guy is a Liverpool player thru and thru. Even when he's playing for other teams, he has shown his support for Liverpool. For that I respect him.

I don't know how he'll fare in this 2nd chance, I certainly hope he plays a big part in this Liverpool march back to the top.

Source

[IMAGE: Knee]

I think I accidentally knocked out some of the barely dried parts. Now It's all gooey. Gross. :P

[IMAGE: Knee]

Been walking awkwardly the whole day today. It's not really pain, but it does restrict movement of the knee. Seems like it is drying liao. Soon It will peel of and the skin will be nice again...

When I go visit Kelvin at his clinic, he told me that he's going home for dinner and ask me along. I thought since he and his wife are working and have no time to cook, it's probably to eat at nearby eateries. It turned out that he meant going to his parent's home for dinner. It's abit paiseh, but his mum is a good host. His cousin, Derrick and his brother Adrian are going for the soccer session as well.

There are 8 of us, so we played 4-a-side. This time I played quite badly. Can't control the ball properly at all, but I scored a good goal at the beginning. After that, when fatigue comes in, I am terrible. Not that I am that good to begin with. I had a few knocks on the shin and a fall. There is now a slight pain at the shin, which I think should go away after awhile, and a big cut at the knee. It's only superficial and should heal after some time. I don't think my old knee problem act up this time though there are times when I feel I may have aggravated it. Luckily it turns out fine.

[IMAGE: Knee]

Kelvin asked me to play street soccer at the-place-formerly-known-as-NIE at 8:15pm. It was quite a inconvenient place for me as there's no direct bus or MRT. And I went to Orchard Road during the late afternoon and finished doing my stuffs by 6pm. Seeing that I have a lot of time left, I went to Kelvin's hearing clinic at Bishan. And since I am there, I took a hearing test. They give free hearing tests to people who are concerned about their hearing, so if you think you have hearing problem, maybe you want to check them out. They have a few branches in the different parts of Singapore, just click on their website and look for the clinic nearest to you. And the hearing aids now very high tech. So small that your friends would not know that you are using hearing aids, so no scared. :) And if you have hearing problems, if it's not too serious, you can still manage without hearing aids, and there's no obligations to buy.

Enough advertising for him, let's go see my test results.

I have been having doubts about my hearing. I am a tank commander in the army. Operating in tanks can be quite noisy, especially when it comes to live firing. Luckily it turns out fine. I don't really understand the audiogram, but Kelvin says my hearing is good. Phew.

A long, long time ago, composer 柯貴民 brought a guitar and went for a radio interview. In the interview, he performed a song that he has written. After the song was aired, there was quite a lot of response for the song. A lot of people called up the radio station to ask which album the song is in and that they wanted to buy it. Unfortunately, the song was never cut into any album, although the melody was later used by 柯以敏. The recorded of the air version is all we have of the song.

The song is 爱是你眼里的一首情歌.

郭美美 is a Singaporean singer. She released 2 singles, 老鼠爱大米 and 不怕不怕, in Singapore before releasing her first album in Taiwan. She has a good voice and she can sing quite well.

The title for the Taiwan album is 不怕不怕, and the producer is 柯貴民. And 1 of the songs in the album is 爱是你眼里的一首情歌. I first heard the song on radio. I did not recognize 美美's voice then, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear a female voice singing the song. I thought it's a very nice song and it's a pity that only Singapore radio listeners get to listen to it. I was glad that the song has now finally seen the light of the day.

Last night, I was watching a Taiwan variety show and they were interviewing 美美. At the end of the interview, she asked her to intro the next item and asked her to read the 大字报. Alas, she can't read Chinese words well and the hosts have to help her out. So malu!!

Now that Sotong, Shadow and Thierry are all not in Singapore, there's left only me and Sharon. We arranged to go to Chinatown and immerse ourselves into the festive spirits of the Chinese New Year. What a disappointment it turns out to be. With less than 1 week to go, the crowd there is quite little. Not much chicks people to ogle at there.

Before going to there, we went to the newly renovated People's Park Hawker Center for dinner. As far as I can remember, other than having better lighting and is cleaner, the place is almost the same as before it's renovated. The old stalls are still there and in the same unit as well. This will be good for locating our favorite stalls.

[IMAGE: Deity of Prosperity]

Saw the Deity of Prosperity there. He's now employed by Tiger Beer to sell cartons of Tiger Beer. Must be bad times in the heavens. At least he's assisted by beer ladies, not aunties.

[IMAGE: People's Park Complex]

As I was walking along the streets of Chinatown, I noticed that they have nice projections onto the side wall of People's Park Complex. There is even a laser show, but I can't see much as I was quite far away. I just saw green lasers drawing pictures on the wall.

Due to the crowd being so little, we finished the place pretty fast. This is despite me being called up to help a guy sell his ointment. He's doing some demonstration with snakes, which looks pretty boring. Then he asked me up and showed me how he can poke chopsticks at the soft spot of his throat and break the chopsticks and he did not die. I am not sure if it's for real or he aimed it lower at the top of the chest. It happens too fast.

Then he asks me to hold a pole behind my back and bring it over my head to the front. This is impossible as the shoulder joint is not meant for such movements. He said that he'll loosen the joints for me and such that I can do it. I declined and he proceeds to say I am a coward. Idiot.

I left the place soon after that and it's barely 9pm. We managed to cover Chinatown in less than 2 hours. Boring.

Take the test here.

The bed has been moved to under the window. No more nua on the bed and use the pc...

Your Type is ENFP

Extroverted	Intuitive	Feeling	Perceiving
Strength of the preferences %
44	25	38	44

ENFP type description by D.Keirsey
ENFP type description by J. Butt and M.M. Heiss


Qualitative analysis of your type formula
You are:

• moderately expressed extrovert
  
• moderately expressed intuitive personality
• moderately expressed feeling personality
  
• moderately expressed perceiving personality

Take the Quiz

It's soccer time again. I have not played for 3 weeks due to the holidays, and I am itching for a game.

As usual, I reached there very late. This time I played without any warm up. By the end of the game, I was panting badly and feeling giddy. My fitness seems to have fallen a notch again.

To make it worse, my knees is having an reaction too. I am now feeling a niggling pain in the knee. It's not so bad that it will affect my walking, but I hope it not going to get worse in the morning...

Google Trouble

Seems like the USA Government wanted Google to show them what their users have been searching for to help with fighting against child pornography. Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have already complied with their government's request, though they claimed that they did it in a way that protects their users' privacy.

I think I heard in the news that Google is now being charged for not complying.

Breaking the law is not good. And the government's reasons for the request are noble. But somehow I think this is a potential big problem open for abuse. They may say they are using it to fight child pornography now, but who knows what else they going to use the information for. Even if it's all above board now, once precedence is struck, it just takes an evil officer next time to use another beautiful reason to abuse it. *shudders*

Anyway, I think Google going to gain a lot of brownie points from their users for standing up to such requests from the government.

I mentioned last night that there is an accident at Woodlands involving a Civil Defense vehicle, a bus, a taxi and a private car.

I just found out from Channel News Asia that 1 CD officer died and 3 were injured in the accident. They were rushing to a fire site when this occurs.

The officer who died is only 24 years old. He still has a lot of his years left, and yet he has left. I would like to send my condolences to the family of the officer, and I hope fatal accidents don't happen anymore after this.

Found this poll generator web site from Cowboy Caleb. I am just thinking of setting up a poll for something few days back. so I decided to check it out.

Refresh

Have not been to 木船 for sometime. Since Nov 05, almost 2 months. Arranged to go there with Bel. I asked Danny and Cloud as well, but they could not make it, probably because I ased them too late.

Last year November, I wrote something about them. I mentioned that they have moved to the Safra at Carpenter Street. And that their prices have gone down. I also bumped into 1 of the boss near Bugis. He told me they have moved upstairs. The last time that I went, they were performing at the ground floor.

When I reached Safra, I've got 2 surprises. The 1st is that they are still performing on the 1st floor. I wonder why the fella told me they moved up. 2nd is that the prices have gone back to the original level. I guess that was a 1 off thing that day when I paid only $9 instead of $15.

[IMAGE: 维扬, Michael and 阿诚]

Tonight is the usual group, 维扬, Michael and 阿诚. Their normal female singer, 敏慧, who has not performed with them for a long time is performing on a alternate Friday from them. Strange.

They played their usual songs. Strangely, there are much less song dedications this time. The more special song of the night should be Honey, of 王幸凌. He sang 需若宣's 恨恨爱 as well. I thought Honey is much better.

I dedicated 心事谁人知, butt they did not sing that. All in all, I have a good time there.

The time was almost midnight. PS heard a loud crash. Apparently, an accident occurs somewhere near the place he stayed. He called the police, and went down to take a look. The accident took place at the junction between woodlands avenue 4 and avenue 7, near plaza 888. Involves a civil defence vehicle, a taxi, a car and a bus. The CD vehicle is upside down and it seems that somebody trap in that civil defence vehicles. The rescue team was trying to get him out. Somebody is already sent to the hospital. This sure looks serious...

Sharon, Thierry, Sotong and I were talking about a School Uniform party blog that Sotong saw. Thierry mentioned that they tried hold a School Uniform party for their company d&d, but it was vetoed by the d&d organising committee. I told him he shld have pushed for a costumes party instead. Or a pyjamas party. Then Sharon says that pj party sounds cool. And since her birthday around the corner, we decided to hold a pj party for her birthday.

I was asking Daniel over msn if he want to join us for the party. This is our conversation.

StupidGenius says:
we going to have a pj party at abt sharon bday.
u wan come? it's either friday or sat nite.

Daniel says:
when is tat?

StupidGenius says:
weekend of 4th

Daniel says:
ok. if i'm in sg. will attend

StupidGenius says:
ok.
rem ar. pj party.

Daniel says:
wat's tat har?

StupidGenius says:
pyjamas

Daniel says:
sorry. me "sua koo". wat's tat?

StupidGenius says:
睡衣

Daniel says:
i know lah. but wat's pyjamas party?

StupidGenius says:
u wear pyjams go party.

Daniel says:
wat???
siao ah
wear pj go where? pubs?

StupidGenius says:
either chalet or hotel.

Daniel says:
oic.

StupidGenius says:
dun think we got alotta pp, else can bk pub oso not bad.

Daniel says:
i dun hv leh

StupidGenius says:
find

Daniel says:
really siaaaaaaaao
hahah

StupidGenius says:
and i talked to sharon.
there's a rule where every1 have to down 1 shot of alcohol at the door then can go in.

Daniel says:
u wan orgy tat nite is it?
haha
wake up dun know who's still wearing PJ

StupidGenius says:
no lar. we r tradditional, guai, though fun loving pp. :P

Daniel says:
sure or not?

StupidGenius says:
or duno whether u wearing the pj is it the 1 u wearing the prev nite izzit?

Daniel says:
ya lor. haha
maybe when u wake up, somebody else is wearing urs

StupidGenius says:
no lar. safe 1 lar. jus 1 shot onli.

Daniel says:
ok lor. anyway, after tat nite at ice bar, it looks like sharon really can drink

StupidGenius says:
we've always noe she can drink 1 mah.

Daniel says:
ok. i dun no

StupidGenius says:
so, her pj u can't wear the next day.

Daniel says:
haha

Daniel says:
i shall see who and who got orgy

I've said that I found this line of 林俊杰's song, 距离, meaningful:
距离是你走过我的身边

I was watching 情颠大圣 when I saw this line that go 1 up on 林俊杰:
尘世间最遥远的距离
不是我站在你面前
却不知道我爱你

而是明明知道彼此相爱
却不能在一起

The hottest topic in the Singapore blogosphere right now. This is so interesting!

After having visited 3 board game cafes in the past week, Thierry wants to go to a 4th to make his reviews of board game cafes more comprehensive.

So we go with him to The Mind Cafe. We actually wanted go to Oasis 1st as I've been to Mind Cafe before. Unfortunately, Oasis had closed.

[IMAGE: Games]

We played 3 games in our 2 hours there. I won in Rumis but lost in the other 2 games.

The first is Rumis, a 3D version of Blogkus, a game we played in ">Pitstop Cafe.

The second is Junble Speed, which is abit similar to Snap! I don't like this game. The patterns on the card are too similar to each other and it’s too hard trying to tell the difference. The last game is Sorry. It's quite similar to the Aeroplane game.

Of the 3 board game cafes I went to recently (Thierry is the 1 who went to 4), Mind Cafe is the cheapest. The sofa is also quite comfortable. In fact, I thought Mind Cafe is the most comfortable. Boardgame Paradice has the biggest shop, so everything is quite spacious. In terms of service, I thought Pitstop is the best. They treat you like a friend. The others treat u like a customer, which isn't a bad thing actually. And Pitstop have New Zealand ice creams. :P Other than Boardgame Paradice, the others were quite near to town, so it's quite easy to make our way done to 1 of them.

To my friends who have seen my messy room, it's now in a worse state then you've seen it!!

It's not really spring cleaning, more like rearranging of furnitures. I am moving my bed away from the computer desk to the window. As there's very little space to work with, I have to remove the stuffs originally at the window and put them at what little of the room left for walking.

Found this comic strip generator site which looks quite cool. For now, I got no idea what to draw, so it's just a simple hello. Till next time...

Found this in Pitstop Cafe's flickr account. This picture was taken by them when we went there for the first time.

Thanx, you guys were great and is great fun as well!

To friends who have been monitoring my blog via rss/atom feeds or browser bookmarks/favourites, I would like to suggest that you use the following urls if you have not done so.

Blog url: http://blog.stupidgenius.org
Feed url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/StupidGenius

I may change my blog location next time. Using the above url will ensure that when I do change, you don't have to do anything.

thanx.

After the skating session, Thierry, Sharon, Raymond and I went to this board game cafe near Parkway Parade called Boardgame Paradice. We had come across it while on the way to dinner at the hawker center.

[IMAGE: Boardgame Paradice]

Apparently, this shop is only 1 week old. This is the 3rd board game cafe that I went to. The other 2 are Piststop Cafe and Minds Cafe. The rate at BP is about the same as Pitstop, thought the others told me the package price is higher than Pitstop. I did not verify that though, and I will be happy to change it if anyone told me that it's not true.

Other than the prices, BP is a bigger shop and thus can seat much more people. We'll have a higher chance of getting a place there. However, it's far away at Marine Parade. It's not exactly at the Central though it's quite near. Most of the other board game cafes are at town area, so they are more accessible. The people at BP are polite, but the people at Pitstop are friendlier.

[IMAGE: Games]

We played 2 games, Ingenious and Settlers of Catan. Both games, Raymond won.

[IMAGE: ]

We played Ingenious first. It’s recommended by the store people when we asked for strategy game. There are 6 color tiles, and we are supposed to arrange the tiles to get as much points for each color as possible. All of us except Raymond were too intent on arranging the colors nicely so that we can get as much point as possible, but neglect the part about not giving your opponents the chance to get the points. In the end, Raymond and I managed to get the maximum number of points, while Sharon got within a whisker of getting the maximum point. Thierry was quite far behind.

The 2nd game is Settlers. Thierry has played it before. I've always wanted to tryout Settlers. It's not bad, but not very fantastic either. Takes a long time to set up, but the game play isn't really long.

I went East Coast Park for inline-skating again today. Sang Wee and Nicole supposed to go together with me and Sharon, but they got something on at the last minute and they say they'll meet us at East Coast Park instead. But they come at such a late time that we go ahead without them, and they skate on their own. Only managed to talk to them briefly after we finished our skating and we part our ways again.

[IMAGE: Sang Wee]

No, the bent in the railing is due to got nothing to do with Sang Wee.

So far, all 3 skating sessions did not go smoothly.

At the first session, it's my first time skating, so obviously I'll run into a lot of problems.

At the second session, I thought there's something wrong with the shoes. It seems to be too loose, despite tying the laces to the tightest that Thierry and I can tie. The shoe could have been too big. At the same time, the wheels seemed to be too hard, and I can't glide for long. And it rained just before we skate, so the ground is quite slippery, so the speed is a bit faster when I pushed, but go down pretty soon after that. By the time we finished, I am dead beat.

For this time, the right shoe feels to be higher than the right shoe. Thierry and Sharon also thinks so after looking at my shoes. This made it harder for me to control my skating. And for quite a number of times, I found myself drifting to the right.

I had 2 great fall due to the right shoe being higher. The first time I saw that I was heading towards incoming bikes, and I quickly hit the ground to prevent rolling into the path of the bicycles. The fall itself isn't much, but 1 of the cyclist in the group is holding a video camera...

The 2nd time is due to me loosing my balance while going at a fast speed. I fell hard on my bums, but I managed to break the fall using my hands. If not for the wrist guards, I would be quite badly hurt. This is the hardest fall that I‘ve had.

There's still a slight pain in my knee when I go for this skating session. Luckily it did not worsen after that. Weiling said that I injured my knee by executing T brake incorrectly. This time, due to the problems with the shoe, I found it very hard to even attempt to do T brake, but I managed to do the heel brake properly. I've always had problems with it in the past.

Sang Wee asked me to play mahjong at his house this Saturday. He invited 2 other friends, Nicole and SF as well. I think the 3 of them had arranged to play first. I was there to make the numbers. :P He specifically bought a mahjong table for this at West Mall. It's only $40+ for a table and a mahjong set, which is quite cheap. However, the quality of the table and mahjong set is not that good. At less than $50, can't expect too good right?

We play 3/6 half rate. Later Nicole told me that it's the highest that she has played. To think that I wanted to play the 3/6 rate at first. :P Anyway, we played 2 rounds. The 1st round we took 3 hours to complete!! But the second round is faster. We managed to finish it in 2 hours. This is due to less diao zeng and us playing at a faster speed.

The stupid chips that comes with the mahjong set is too little, so we used a piece of paper to tabulate our winnings and loses. Took us quite awhile to do it, but in the end, Nicole and I won $61 and $4 $4 and $61 respectively, while Sang Wee and SF lose $35 and $30 respectively. I used my earnings to pay for our Canadian Pizza dinner, which leaves me with $19 profit. And it's not enough to cover my expenditure at MOS later. :P

There's quite a long queue, as usual, but it's nowhere as long as during the Christmas and New Year period. And it clears pretty fast, so we were in MOS within 15 minutes. We started with area 54, Sang Wee's favorite. Danced there for awhile, then we moved to explore the rest of the disco. We stayed in my favorite, Pure, for awhile. But Sang Wee and Nicole do not like it, so we moved to the super crowded Smoove.

Overall, it's really a nice and happening place, like what a lot of people told me, though the drinks were quite expensive. We ordered a jug of Vodka Lime, and it cost us $49.

After that, we went to Geylang to join Nicole's friends at Yong He. I have not eaten the You Tiao for a long time, it’s time to organize another night cycling outing. :P

Gosh. This is must a boring read. Sounds so much like TH. :P

The Starhub people are going to Sharon's place to install her MaxOnline account tomorrow. She is borrowing my notebook for the installation, so we met up with Thierry to waste our Friday away.

I was supposed to be helping YH do some project stuff for the day. It ended early and I can meet up with them early, but Thierry was held up in his project. I went to Sharon's office to play pool and show people a funny MTV clip of Jay Chou's 七里香.

[IMAGE: Dinner]

We went for dinner at Makansutra at Esplanade. We ordered fried Hokkien Mee, 蚝煎, sambal barbecued stingray, sambal sotong and sambal kang kong. The Hokkien mee is not nice. I thought the rest not bad, but Thierry and Sharon think only the stingray is nice.

[IMAGE: KTV]

We head to the 10 Dollar Family KTV at Chinatown. It's at the shop houses behind the stalls at Smith Street, aka Food Street. It's really quite cheap. There's a free bowl of shark's fins (they claimed it's shark's fins) and free flow of drinks. It's quite cheap. It cost us a total of $46. Compare this to Party World, which will cost us about $72.

[IMAGE: Cute Sharon]

Sharon and being cute are not oxymoron. This is a rare occurrence of Sharon acting cute. I had a hard time persuading her to put on such pose. I wanted her to put on more cutesy pose, but this is all I managed to get. :P

[IMAGE: Late night drinks]

After KTV, we walked back to boat quay. The bus stop for our night bus is there, and they wanted to go Pitstop again. But it was already 1+am. I suspect they would be closed or closing when we get there.

Sure enough, they are really closed for the day. We head down to 7-11 to buy some drinks and supper and proceed to the riverside under UOB building for some finger guessing games and drinks. We stopped when we finished the drinks and we head home. Thierry took cab back while Sharon and I went to take the night bus. We waited more than 30 minutes for out bus. By the time we went home, it's already 5+am. Yawnz.

Saw this from Natsu
I need to find my love...

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6
Mind:	6.5
Body:	8.4
Spirit:	5.9
Friends/Family:	4.4
Love:	0.8
Finance:	2.4
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Contains 大长今 spoiler

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"请皇上封长今为您的主治医官吧。
让她快快乐乐地走她想走的路。
臣愿意为我的不忠负责。
臣明白臣子是不可以与皇上同时喜欢上同一个女人，
臣愿意以死谢罪"
-- 闵政浩 (长今's lover)

On finding out that the Emperor is also in love with 长今 and is intend on making her the concubine, 闵政浩 seek audience with the Emperor to advice him against it.

So so sad.

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Starhub recently had a promotion where you signed up for their Max Online 6000 for 2 yrs at about $71 per month and you get a free PC. You can pay some amount to change it to a laptop or a better PC. Quite a good deal. I am already with Max Online 3000, so I upgraded my account to a 6000 and signed with them for a further 2 years, pay them $399, for a notebook

Sharon also did something similar, except that she was not an existing subscriber. She does not have a PC at home either, She was planning to use the promotion notebook for surfing at home. Unfortunately, Starhub will only give her the notebook about 1 month after they set up her internet account. So she'll have to pay for 1 month's subscription for nothing while waiting for her notebook to come. On top of that, they told her that they need a PC or notebook when they are installing her modem and stuff at her place. So she have to go hunting for a notebook to borrow on the installation date.

Sharon is not likely to be the only customer who do not have a machine when they signed up for Starhub Maxonline. With a bit of effort and heart, I am sure they can come up with a better arrangement.

This time it's 徐若宣's 爱笑的眼睛.

The chorus is sang 3 times.
1st time it's
离开你我才发现自己 那爱笑的眼睛
流过泪像躲不过的暴风雨
淋湿的昨天删去
离开你我才找回自己 那爱笑的眼睛
再见爱情 我一定让自己让自己决定

Loosely translated, it means:
After leaving you do I discover my smiling eyes
The tears I've shed is like a thunderstorm that I can't hide
The wet yester-days, discard
After leaving you do I got back my smiling eyes
When I found love again, I'll be decisive.

2nd time it's
离开你我才发现自己 那爱笑的眼睛
流了泪当一个人看旧电影
是我不小心而已
离开你我才找回我自己 那爱笑的眼睛
再见到你我一定让自己让自己坚定

Loosely translated, it means:
After leaving you do I discover my smiling eyes
Crying while I watch a old rerun alone
It's just my carelessness
After leaving you do I got back my smiling eyes
If I meet you again, I'll be strong.

3rd time, it's again
离开你我才发现自己 那爱笑的眼睛
流过泪像躲不过的暴风雨
淋湿的昨天忘记
离开你我才找回自己 那爱笑的眼睛
再见爱情 我一定让自己 让自己坚定
It's almost the same as the 1st time except the 2nd and 3rd line,
which now means
The tears I've shed is like a thunderstorm that I can't hide
Forget the wet yester-days
It is similar in meaning except int he play of words.

After looking at the chorus lyrics so far, the verses carries similar meanings, the impression of this song is of a strong women coming out of a bad relationship. She's always in tears while in the relationship and she is happy that she's out of it.

And after the 3rd chorus, there's still 1 last line, it's sang to the same tune as the last line of the 3rd chorus.
再见到你 我一定让自己 假装很坚定
It's almost the same as the previous times, except for 3 words, which changes the whole meaning of the song.
This line means

When I see you again, I'll be pretend to be strong.

And there lies the beauty of the song. Throughout the song, we've been shown a strong women. Until the end do we realise that she's just putting on a strong front and she's really hurting inside. She isn't happy about coming out of the relationship, it's all her way of getting over the hurt of losing the one she loved.

Just 1 line at the end. And a line that looks just like another line on top, except for 3 words, and it gives the song in a new dimension. And this song has a melody and singer that can bring out the feel of the lyrics. I like this song.

Knee did not get worse from yesterday's badminton, but it did not get better either. There's still some pain, though much better when compared to Saturday/Sunday.

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On a side note, I met up with JT to discuss his project. Of the 3 projects, his is the 1 where the most is completed. That's because he lets me start the earliest.

I talked to J last night as well. He's quite happy with what I have done for him too, though I only completed half of it, but the half is the important part of the project and it's quite nicely done. Phew.

The worst is YH's. He came to me quite late, and requires the most work. Much more than J who came to me at about the same time. I've only done only half, and the other half is about as important. And he'll need time to do his report as well, as unlike the other 2, he have not done his report yet...



Close

I was going to meet Jerry at the Singtel Comm Center at Killiney Road. I was walking from the Sommerset MRT walking past this glass patch when I see a squirrel. I think it's squirrel. Maybe I am swa koo, but I've never seen a squirrel before, so I took some pics. Here goes.

[IMAGE: Squirrel 1]

[IMAGE: Squirrel 2]

The knee has been giving me problems since Saturday night. There's a pain in the knee everytime I move my leg. Today it is better. There's not as much pain now as in Saturday.

So I went to play badminton today. I hope it won't worsen again...

Farewell Elaine. We miss you.

We had a walk around Changi Airport, looking at chocolates and perfumes.

The thing that impresses me most is the toilet. Sharon told me the things that I saw in the toilet can be seen in the toilets of the airports of some other countries. But I've not been to too many airports to see those. I certainly did not see them in Singapore, not even in those 5 star hotels.

[Image Shelf in Toilet]

First thing I see when I stepped into the cubicle is this shelf. It's a simple thing, just a piece of metal. Normally people bring bags into toilets, and we leave them on the floor when we do our toilet business. This shelf is quite a nice touch.

[Image Toilet Bowl Seat Cleaner]

People are always complaining about dirty toilet bowl seats. Some people prefers to piss in the cubicles than in the urinals outside. Maybe they are shy about their miniscule dicks. Some people are so afraid of getting their ass into contact with the toilet bowl seats that they squatted on it dirtying it further because they don't take off their shoes. The seats may be clean enough for other people, but due to the paranoid nature of some people, body can have clean toilet bowl seats.

I've seen some seats that have special toilet bowl seat covers dispenser. They are made of toilet paper, but in the shape of the toilet bowl so that you can lay it on top of the bowl while you go about your business.

For Changi Airport, they have this thingy while you can spray onto your toilet paper and wipe the seats clean. Nice.

After Sharon collected her phone, we got nothing to do. We shopped in Sim Lim Square for awhile looking for a carrying case for my new notebook. I did not bring my notebook along so I did not try too hard looking for it.

[IMAGE: Pool]

We decided to go play pool. We went to Pool Connection at Middle Road, the pool saloon where it's all big table (9 feet I think), and all tables are red. Our skills are not that good to begin with, and playing on the big table makes it worse. :P We played 2 games each, everybody played everybody. Thierry won 2, I won 1.

[IMAGE: Dinner]

We went Geylang to have our dinner. I missed the Beef Hor Fun. It's yummy. We ordered 蚝煎. It's ok. We ordered the 姜葱沙锅田鸡 as well. It's yummy too. This is the 3rd time in a week that I've had 田鸡, all thanks to Thierry. At least this time is the best of those 3.

Elaine is flying to USA at 11:58pm. She'll be at the airport at 9+pm. It's only 8pm when we finished our dinner. But since we have nothing else to do, we decide to go to the airport straight away.

[Image ]

I mentioned yesterday that Sharon has lost her mobile phone. We had called back immediately and found that the phone has been switched off. We feared the worst for the phone. The one who picked it up probably wanted to keep the phone for himself.

It's funny that during the dinner right before she sound her phone missing, me and Thierry was discussing about setting a sim card / phone lock. We were of the opinion that we should not set the locks. If you lost your phone, and the finder meant to keep the phone, he will not return you because your phone is locked. He'll probably just throw it away or bring the phone to the telco to reset it. We should just let the finder enjoy his good fortune of finding a phone. Moreover, the finder meant to return you your phone, and for whatever reasons, your phone is switched off, the fella would not be able to contact you in anyway if/when he switched it back on again. I've known people who found a phone during midnight and the phone is low batt. In a couple of hours, the phone runs out of battery and power was cut off. The phone is locked. So if the fella who loses the phone discovers the lost of the phone the next morning., he have lost the phone forever. We could have bring hte phone home and charge and wait for his call, but we can't switch it on.

And as luck would have it, the lady who found the phone had the phone switched off. Either that or the phone got switched off when it dropped to the floor or something. Anyway, the lady brought the phone home and passes to the husband who switched on the phone and called Sharon's home from her phone book.

They arranged to meet at Sim Lim Square at noon and Thierry went with her to collect the phone. She got a lecture from the guy, but I am sure she would prefer that to losing the phone.

I joined them after visiting Jim for his daughter's 1 month celebration. To cash in on the luck of her finding the phone, we went to buy 4D. We bought the 1st 4 numbers and the last 4 numbers of her phone, and also the date that she lost the phone. Unfortunately, I write wrongly. Meant to get 1706 (01/07/06) but I drew 1705. Luckily 1706 is not the winning number. In fact, none of the numbers are winning number. Haha!