Do we really have to... ?

Just something to think about...

Stepped into the MRT train and found a nice comfy seat to last a long journey from the east to Boon Lay. Suddenly an old aunty or uncle boards at the next stop, in the same cabin as you. And of all places, stands right in front of you.

Question now.
Do you...

1) Get up and offer your seat?
2) Just not bothered by their presence?
3) Just not bothered by their presence and pretend to fall asleep?

Alot of goody-2-shoes will choose the Answer 1.
Of course, because it would seem the nicest thing to do.

However, some would choose Answer 2 or even worse, Answer 3.
Pretentious beings are the worst lot and they know who they are.

For me, it depends.

If my alighting stop is like 2 - 3 stops away, I will definitely choose Answer 1.
But if I am traveling from the east to Boon Lay, I might just go ahead with Answer 2. Anyway, even if I were traveling such a far distance, it depends on:

1) How old is that aunty/uncle?
2) What is my mood that day?

Screw all those who try to be Mr/Miss Nice-People and condemn me for my answers.
Who cares about what you think?

And of course, you probably haven't met those aunties/uncles who THINK they deserve the bloody seats on the MRT train. Some of them deliberately talk loudly in front of you, trying to get your attention, and some carrying items like plastic bags of groceries or whatever will actually "accidentally" bump the bags against your legs.

Come on, whether people offer their seats to the elderly is entirely up to us.

I had seen a recent newspaper article with a snapshot of a guy holding a handphone sitting on the Priority Seat in the MRT train. The contributor wrote that there was an elder standing nearby and "flamed" the guy for not gving up his seat. Why does it bother that contributor so much?

From the angle that the snapshot was taken, it looks as if it was taken at same level as sitting down opposite the fella on the Priority Seat.

Perhaps you have perfect aiming talents and can capture clear full-view shots of this fella, or maybe you were also sitting opposite the fella and complaining about him not offering his seat to the elder standing nearby.

If my second guess was correct, why don't you just get up from your seat and offer to the elder nearby and stop whining?

I may be wrong about my guesses, but that's that.
Anyway, thinking about this at this very moment just made me want to end this post. Totally no mood.

Ciaoz!

Doomsday Is Near

2 yesterday, 3 today, how many tomorrow?
That's a very critical question.

1 by 1 I see my new found friends leaving, because of company retrenchment. It seems the company is not in good shape and has no choice but to cut the number of staff. And to think I had earlier asked my boss when logistics side will be employing a new staff to handle the work left behind by the previous logistics coordinator. Just so close to being AXED!

Who knows, tomorrow will be the official announcement, wonder if anything bad will happen to me.

I was asked earlier by my boss to attend a meeting with a colleague (who was being asked to leave today) in the afternoon. Of course, I hadn't expected this colleague of mine to be asked to leave. Suddenly my boss started saying things like, "Whichever company or boss in future will appreciate if you have some interesting ideas to bring up for product development."

I was like (-_-")!!!

Why was my boss saying such things? Especially when there were only my colleague and I in the room. I just had a bad feeling that bad fate might befall one of us! Shit man!!!

Anyway, I put that behind me and continued doing my work. At around 6plus in the evening, my colleague was asked to go into the room, which a lot of my other colleagues have been asked to earlier today.

At around 7 plus, the talk was over, damage was inflicted and my colleague walked out shocked. Shocked that he had also been asked to leave, since he heard that only 2 will be AXED today.

In the end, some of us decided to go for dinner together and I joined in. Everyone was still discussing on why they were asked to leave and why management couldn't wait till after Chinese New Year.

A lot of views were exchanged but I just kept quiet. Who was I to comment? I am in no position to voice out anything since I am not one of those asked to leave. But who knows really? Just one thing on my mind, ALWAYS BE PREPARED.

Boring Sunday

Always the same old feeling whenever it comes to this very day of the week. It shall be the start of the long treacherous work week ahead. Whatever happy things that have occurred earlier in the day would soon mean nothing much as the hour hand creeps nearer to midnight.

Arggghhhhh! (>_<)

Woke up at 8 this morning for no reason, just couldn't tell my body to keep sleeping as long as how BaoBei can on weekends. Really AMAZED at how she can just let her body fall into the "realm of darkness". I had to find something to do, otherwise I would feel extremely uncomfortable for the whole day, especially when it's Sunday.

Took the train back home and decided to surprise my family with simple breakfast of bee-hoon and fried carrot cake. In the end, everyone except my mom, was still asleep! My sis had earlier arranged for a morning swim which I had to turn down because I was not sure what time I would reach home. Turns out the rest of the family REALLY set their alarms for a late morning wake-up call.

*FAINT* (-_-")

We went for a swim around 1 in the afternoon due to a heavy rain just when I reached home. The usual practice, 30 laps to get the body warmed up and muscles working. I really need to burn off my excess fat I had gained over the past 2 weeks. Not forgetting the fact that I am going to have my ICT in 2 weeks time! Shucks man, definitely no chance at getting the $200 for Silver! Anyway, that was expected given the fact I had slacked alot after I ORDed. My main aim is just to get my weight down and at least build back a leaner body.

For once, I felt my freestyle improving in speed, maybe because I changed the way my arms cut and pull myself through the water. My freestyle was even slower than my sis's frogstyle, which was terrible! I am glad this swim session was better than previous ones.

Anyway, we were back home by 4PM and my cousin, Hao, asked me out for a walk. He has just finished his exams on Thursday and finally taking a breather after 2 weeks of hardwork revising for his exams. We agreed to meet up at my place first because my mom had cooked pasta and crabs. And just because I had watched my diet, there was too much to finish!

I went to pick up Hao from his place because he was going to pass me his Canon Pixma printer. He has an extra set which he said was collecting dust in his house and asked if I wanted it. Since it's free, why not? Moreover, it's a multi-purpose printer with additional scan and copy features, something I will want for my new home.

After the late lunch, Hao and I went to Marine Parade, our usual hang out place during Sundays, as it was nearest to our place. I had earlier suggested going for a foot massage as my feet were aching from the wearing of my bro's shoes which were 1 & 1/2 size smaller for my comfort level.

OUCH!! (x_x)

Thanks to my BaoBei, I will have new shoes to wear tomorrow! No more grumpy old feet. Thank you BaoBei! Love my new shoes very very much!

We decided to take a walk around PP (Parkway Parade) first because we wanted to take a look at the computers first. Massage can wait, or that's what I thought. In the end, we walked aimlessly through the shops in PP and by the time we know it, it was already 8.15PM and the foot reflexology center we frequent was closed. Got some drinks and just chit chat the time away, also on the same topic as to why Sunday seems to be one of the worst days of the week. Same answer: it is the day before we start the working week!

*Sobz x Infinity*

And so another chapter ends as it was time to go home and rest around 8.45PM, to get ourselves ready to fight a long battle starting tomorrow.

B
O
R
I
N
G
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!
!

Friday Night Out

So tired that I had to post this only in the morning!

Was out last night with my colleagues after a hard day's work.
Dinner was a norm and we decided to go to Bugis for some entertainment at the Amusement Centre.

We had originally wanted to sing K in the office (yes... we have a Karaoke entertainment system in the office... courtesy of our boss) but the store department wanted the room for watching DVDs.

So down we headed to Bugis, just ML, A and myself
Still remember the days where I could just spend the entire day playing arcade games @ Cineleisure. My favorite game was KOF (King Of Fighters 97) which my group of friends can "book" the entire row of KOF machines.

Just imagine... 50cents after 50cents worth of tokens were exchanged at the counter just to entertainment ourselves for the day. I must have spent quite alot those days, especially when I am noob at KOF.

Pros can place 1 FREAKING token and wait for other challengers to show up. A great sense of achievement would be when he feels his 1 token has already incurred the loss of a substantial amount of money to his helpless challengers. I was lucky to have achieved that some times. Har... Har... Har

Anyway, back to Bugis. 3 of us finished our "gaming session" around 10 plus and we decided to call it a day. I couldn't find anything else to do and decided to call up my friend of almost 15 years, A, to see if he was interested in coming out for a catch up session.

A just returned from Australia after completing his studies and almost lost touch with Singapore for the past 2 years. We decided to go for some food and drinks @ ECP Lagoon Hawker Centre.

Fwah! By the time we reached there, the stalls were almost packed up and there were limited choices of food left. We were lucky; the Satay Bee Hoon store was still opened and we decided to go for it.

This SBH stall's queue would stretch super long earlier in the day and at times, you may have to wait slightly more than 1/2 hour for your turn. What's nice about their SBH is their superbly fine-grinded peanut gravy, basically resulting in an all-round coating over the bee hoon every single bite. Ingredients are also very fresh, like the pork liver, cuttlefish, sea cockles, lean pork etc. Definitely worth the queue.

And when I say we are lucky, WE ARE!
Managed to get the last 2 plates before they close for the night. Heheeeeee.. =)

After supper, we took a good stroll to Bedok Jetty where we reminisce on the old days where A had actually spent the night there, folding paper stars while watching meteorite showers. Super long time ago can?!

As usual, what's the common topic when 2 guys are out? Girls this, girls that. How girls were in the past, and the girls now... oh... should mention... Singapore girls in fact... Times have changed for sure.

Anyway, we decided to go down to Orchard to see if we can catch the Xmas lightings since A said he has yet to see how this year's theme would be. Zoom zoom I drove down, and by then it was just past 2AM when I U-turned at Tanglin to enter Orchard area.

DAMNNIT! So "heng" man... really PUI! All the lightings were off at 2AM! We were sure we catch glimpses of lights when I was driving behind the Takashimaya Centre and just a quick U-turn at 2AM in the morning, OUT GOES THE DAMN XMAS LIGHTS!

HELLO! What is this??? Trying to save electrical bills is it? Disappointing.

What to do? Balek Kampong lor...
And it was around like 3AM by the time I reached home.

Hrm... feels great to have a good old friend to spend a Friday night with...

Idiotic Youngster

This incident happened about 2 weeks ago.

I was on the evening train back home from the west and these 3 youngsters boarded at Dover Station. 1 girl and 2 guys, probably 19-21 years old. 1 girl and 1 guy were definitely a couple, with all the PDA they were showing ever since they stepped into the train cabin.

My entry focuses on the remaining guy which I find his actions really retarded and immature. Lets call this guy IDIOT. He was carrying a disposable animal carrier box (those type where you just temporary put your bunnies/hamsters/etc in just to carry them around). I was sitting on the middle seat of the cabin, and on my right was an Indian lady with her young daughter.

IDIOT took the carrier and just threw it between the legs of the Indian lady and her daughter. When the Indian lady looked back at him, puzzled as to why IDIOT did that, IDIOT actually asked her in an expressionless tone, "Yes, can I help you?"

IDIOT was trying to be funny man, felt like slapping him.

Soon after, IDIOT spotted a Bangladeshi sitting on the opposite corner of where I was sitting and approached him. IDIOT started conversing with the Bangladeshi in English, adding some vulgarities in Hokkien during the conversation. Of course the Bangladeshi has no idea what some of the vulgarities mean and thus he just kept smiling. IDIOT continued asking the Bangladeshi to reconfirm that his father/mother/etc are as per what he described them to be.

It is by now that IDIOT was seen to be very racist and deliberately picking on Indians and other nationalities. What a dick-head!

After awhile, IDIOT gave up on chit-chatting with the poor Bangladeshi and went back to his friends. Just nice, the 3 seats on my left were empty and all 3 of them proceeded to sit down. (By now, they were all sitting directly opposite the Bangladeshi)

The guy then asked IDIOT to ask the Bangladeshi to move over and sit beside them. This, of course, would mean that I had to shift 1 seat to my right to accommodate him.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the cabin was slowly getting empty because some of the other passengers knew these youngsters were playing fools, and were getting too rowdy. They just got up from their seats and moved to other cabins.

Back to where I was, the Bangladeshi declined IDIOT's invitation to move over since there are no seats available. In fact, he signaled to IDIOT to move to the seat beside him to continue the conversation.

IDIOT turned his head to my direction, as if to tell me to move away so that the Bangladeshi can sit. I just ignored him, since this f*cKer doesn't even have the balls to look at me in the eye and ask me to move. Anyway, he knew he was not going to get my seat and gave up the idea of asking the Bangladeshi over. In the end, IDIOT LL went over to sit beside the Bangladeshi and continue his spilling of vulgarities at him. SO POOR THING!

IDIOT's "verbal diarrhea" continued till Raffles Place where all 3 of them alighted. Finally there was peace.

Sighz, really sad that there are STILL such people around. It has been ages since I came across such behavior. Really hope that IDIOT gets his just desserts and learn to grow up fast!

Fruitful Sunday

Woke up around 10 plus in the morning feeling so tired, must be the lack of sleep. Overheard my sis and mom that they were going for a hair cut and decided to go for one too. My hair is definitely getting unmanageable, time for a cut since I will be going for my ICT this December.

I was thinking whether to go to the traditional Malay barber (Bugs Bunny) or spend a little more at the salon my sis and mom were going. Bugs Bunny charges $8 for a hair cut which I find it cheap. Anyway, I am not one who goes to expensive salons like some of my friends do. To me, as long as the finished cut looks good, a $8 hair cut or a $20+ hair cut is the same.

We drove to a market at Bedok Reservoir and wanted to have some Kway Chap for brunch. In the end, we had to wait for half an hour for our food. What surprises me is that there is no long queue at all, yet we have to wait so long for our turn to get the food sent to our table. It also seems to me that the boss of that stall was rather cocky, the typical if-you-cannot-wait-you-can-go-eat-other-things attitude. Anyway, I didn't care much about the waiting time as I was too engrossed in my DS.

Oh oh! I finally bought myself a DS Lite! So happy, too bad I had to buy it with my own money since my Mongmong doesn't wanna buy it for me. (-_- )

To Mongmong: If you are reading this, I just wanna remind you that you still owe me a gift! *HRMPH!*

After breakfast, we drove down to somewhere near Bedok swimming complex for the hair cut. Again have to wait! Sianz 1/2... anyway, I was surprised that the hair cut was only $6.50! Wah sei! Even cheaper than my Bugs Bunny leh! I am rather satisfied with the cut too, probably gonna come back to this salon the next time.

My sis and I finished our hair cuts around 1PM and proceeded to Bedok swimming complex where we were supposed to meet up with my younger brother for an afternoon swim. By 2PM, we were almost out of breaths, must be the lack of exercise! I really need to train up my stamina for my IPPT during the December ICT, otherwise, will lose the chance to suck the government's money. Really need to try get Silver to get my $200 incentive.

Anyway, we decided to go for another 10 laps and call it a day. By 2.30PM, we finished and prepared for shower. MAN! My legs felt heavy! Shoulders were slightly aching but it felt GOOOOOD. Haha...

Alright! Time for some food after the swim, went to the nearby Long John's. Found ourselves a seat and my siblings went to order. I was staring into blank space when I suddenly noticed something strange.

You see... I was sitting in front of a Chinese couple, probably around 19-21 years old. It seems that the guy had one of his hands CUPPING the girl's right boob. I was wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me and decided to take a second glance. No doubt about that, his hand was still on that boob and he somehow turned to me and looked at me, as if to tell me "Hey! Check this out!"

I was like... (-_- ") and looked away of course. Such PDA should better be kept at home, wondering what was on their minds. Anyway, my food came and I tucked in. All of a sudden, the couple started "frenching", in front of all the other customers in the restaurant, oblivious to some of the stares they were getting with so much of their PDA.

I know I should just mind my own business, finish my food and get the hell outta there, but just couldn't help noticing all their actions since I am sitting RIGHT IN FRONT of them. "Quickly finish! Quickly finish!" that's all in my mind.

By 4PM, we were outta Long John's and on our way home. Contemplating taking a nap as I knew the minute I hit my pillow, will be knocked out till 9-10PM where I will then have trouble sleeping again, hence this blog entry.

Ciaoz!

Close Up Shots

Feeling a sense of 'randomness' in me so I decided to take my digicam and start snapping some pics while I am resting at home on MC.

Didn't quite find a subject though, wondering around snapping my poopies pics.
Then I saw a Bougainvillea plant near the drain and decided to snap at its flowers. Have always seen people doing closeup shots at flower petals and leaves etc... decided to give it a try.

Here goes... Snap Snap!




There was no Photoshop involved, except to crop out the size I want from the big pics.

After the Bougainvillea, I suddenly stepped on some Lallang while stepping back. And so I decided to try with Lallang...

This is the result...


When I was about finished, I turned my attention towards my poopies and started snapping away again. Again, it occurred to me there were some small leaves near a crack in the tiles of my driveway.

Snap Snap... here goes...



The area captured is really from part of a cracked tile, just taking it at closeup range. I really love my cam but sad to say, its LCD screen has freaking looooooong rows of dead pixels... if I can count them, the dead pixels should take up approximately 6px by 70px.

Darn it! Somemore no money to buy a new cam. Poor me... :(

NeoPrints 2

I have decided to post a few more NeoPrints from years back. One of my Meis said I didn't put up any with her inside, so I shall. Sorry Mei! I am too busy to crop every single NeoPrint after scanning... this post is for you.

Must be after some band practice or something.
Ridz, Shirin, Me and Wenxin

I think this is at Tampines Mall MacDonalds.
Or was it Century Square?
Wenxin, Me, Ailing, Pei Lin and Shirin

Got my friend of many donkey years, Aron, into the pic.
Ailing, Pei Lin, Shirin, Me, Wenxin and Aron

Another typical lonely guys NeoPrint.
Again my friend of many donkey years, Kelvin, is inside.
Andy, Kelvin and Me

Oh man... this is classic! Asking Horny Gerz to rape us?
Andy, Aron, Kelvin and Me.

Wound Infection

It started as a harmless looking PIMPLE, and so I just did the usual and squeezed it. "POP" it went and I thought it was over.

Come 1 week later and the freaking PIMPLE swelled to the size of a 50-cent coin! Super pain man! Causing me sleepless nights, especially when I am one who tends to sleep on my sides. Turn right sure gena the spot, turn left and my left arm will be numb in no time.

And worse, my mind kept having thoughts that it could be a BOTFLY larvae growing under that darn wound. If you all have surfed around YouTube, you should know what I mean. Disgusting little maggot, growing under human skin and you need to use a pair of tweezers just to pull that freaking b*st*rd out!

Go ahead, take a look at this link!

Anyway, I went to see the doctor early in the morning and to my relief, it was just a very very bad wound infection. I guess the infection must be super bad because the doctor actually gave me 2 types of antibiotics just to bring down the swelling. That's a first for me. I was also given 2 days MC because I couldn't get enough proper rest since last week and I can only limp my way around.

For those who wish to see the infected wound, proceed down only if you are not those type who will be squimish over graphical images. Buahaha....
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Here's the wound without flash


Here's the wound with flash, you can see the infection is soooo darn bad... not forgetting disgusting.

NeoPrints

I was having dinner with my friends on Wednesday and we started discussing about what interests we had when we were younger. Somehow, my mind flashed back to those days where NeoPrints aka "大头贴" was causing quite a hype probably 10 years back.

I went back and browsed through my old MUJI organiser (the silver silver metal one) where I kept my collection of NeoPrints.

Oh goodness, 10 years is so DARN long! The days where keeping long hair was in fashion after Ekin Cheng's Young & Dangerous movies. 10 years ago was also when I had already finished my secondary school studies and enjoying the life of a tertiary student.

Ooooooh! Flexible rules with dressing, length of hair bla bla bla...
I took that opportunity to try keeping my hair longer than when in secondary school till I started putting on weight and my mom said I looked like an Ah Soh!

Anyway, just some NeoPrints which I decided to put up for this post.
Here goes...













That's about it for now... did not have time to scan every single NeoPrint.

Mongmong & Maomao's Home Defects Check

Today's the day for defects check for our home. We were actually supposed to begin the defects check after getting our keys about few months back but had been delaying it till now.

Armed with the most important tools, 2 SCREW DRIVERS!
You guessed it right, for the tapping of tiles to check for poor workmanship. Had a quick breakfast near our home before the tapping business and headed upstairs.

The most obvious defect before we even stepped inside our home was the wooden main door. Here! Take a look...


The crack is so bad that it appeared behind the door. Totally FAIL! MUST ask HDB to change the whole door man.


Next area we checked were the windows and hinges. A thorough check showed mouldy hinges, missing screws and loose window handles due to spoilt screw threads. Left out pictures for this area. We proceeded to check the bathrooms and their accessories. Most of the metal (Polished aluminum I believe) were mouldy and needed to be polished. Even the covers for the screws holding up the mirrors are mouldy, totally eye-sores to me.


Was out for about 1 and 1/2 hours for dinner and the time is now 9.04pm.
Back to where I left out earlier...

After checking the bathrooms, we proceeded with checks of the tiles and parquet flooring. Out came our handy SCREW DRIVERS and tapping we went.
A tap tap here, a tap tap there, here tap there tap, everywhere... Oops sorry, got carried away somehow. Anyway, we plastered all tiles and parquet flooring which "sounded suspicious". Below are some pics of these "precious finds"...




Other defects include an indent in the wall of the master bedroom, don't think I will put up the pic since it is not so obvious.

Basically, we finished around 12 plus in the noon and went for lunch after the defects check. Will be posting the pics of our home before any renovation. Here goes...

From entrance towards living rm window

From living rm window towards entrance

From living rm window towards entrance

Living rm window towards bedrooms

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Looking at toilet of master bedroom

Upper view of master bedroom

Lower view of master bedroom

Well... that's about all for now. Next post about this would probably involve the renovation works.

Ciaoz!

Holidays - Japan

It has been a long while since I traveled overseas and I am beginning to miss those days when I actually had the chance to do so. Decide to start this post to share some of my trips overseas... First Entry: Japan

It was in March 2007 where I was been chosen by my company to go for a training program in Japan. A few selected candidates will be chosen from each country as my company was a Japanese MNC. The objective was to understand the cultures of Japan and how Japanese companies tend to operate.

I had a total of 5 or 6 colleagues with me for this training program. (Been quite some time, cannot quite remember)

We arrived at Narita Airport late night and had to purchase tickets for the coach which will ferry us to the nearest hotel near where we were supposed to put up for the next week.
Reason was taking taxis in Japan would virtually empty your pockets so fast you can hardly believe it. And since this trip was sponsored by the company, most cost effective way was to take the coach and then take a taxi from the drop-off hotel to our actual hotel.

The next few days were spent in our head office in Tokyo where we had lectures etc. Usual boring stuff and nothing to blog about.

The interesting part was when we went for field trip to Inawashiro Resort located in Yama District, Fukushima, Japan. Oh... forgot to mention that March was around the end of winter, so we were able to see snow.

Just a pic of the snow resort which I took from the coach.

When we arrived, there wasn't much snow covering the area. A view of the ski area from my hotel room.

Somehow, it began snowing so heavily that night and the next morning, the same ski area became like this.

Seeing this, I immediately got my camera and asked a new found friend from Shanghai along for picture taking.


See how big the wind is that morning! Wooohoooo! >_< We had the chance to take the ski cable up to the top of the ski area and this is the view from up there down the hotel which we are staying.



Here's a pic with one of the course instructor. See the sleigh I am holding? That's what we used to play and slide from the top.


After about 2 days at Inawashiro Resort, we returned to Tokyo head office and did our final presentation. Of course, I managed to take some more pics from the coach on our way back. Here goes...


Once I reached Tokyo head office, finished up with final presentation and wrapped up the trip in Japan with some shopping in Tokyo.

And that marks the end of my first overseas trip post.