First post of the year - Mustafa visit

Have you been to Mustafa before?

I went there with RC for the first time in my life on Monday, 11th January. And I'm sure it won't be my last.

At the entrance (of which there are many), a security personnel got me to keep the little plastic bag and my new watch box it holds, in my bag. Following which, she proceeded to secure my bag using cable ties, as a way to deter theft.

It is a good idea, except for TWO tiny issues.

Firstly, she tied the cable ties around my bag's clasps instead of securing them to my bag, which means that I can still open my bag. It's basically like tying a bicycle chain around your bicycle instead of chaining it to the bicycle stand! All she achieved was to leave me with two ugly 'feelers' on my bag. -.-

Secondly, even if she had tied them correctly, there's still plenty of space for me to squeeze stuff in my bag given the design of my bag. Perhaps she noticed it and thus decided to just go through the motions.

Anyway, it was rather hard trying to keep a straight face watching her do her job. We couldn't stop talking and laughing about it afterwards. Lol!

Inside the mall, I was surprised at how big it actually is. Having only passed by a few times on bus, I didn't expect it to be more than just a tiny three storey shopping mall. Actually, in terms of area, it pales in comparison with Ngee Ann City. However, it sure is well-stocked with all sorts of things u expect to find in a department store, and more!

There are rows upon rows of watches, jewellery, cosmetics, shoes... A kid could well get lost in one of the many piles of clothes! I can't imagine being the stock-keeper at Mustafa - or do they even have one? The general arrangement was rather haphazard and cramped, but contains plenty of good bargains, such as cheap perfume. Of course, no one should be surprised since they probably order goods by truckloads rather than by mere boxes. Haha!

We had plenty of fun browsing through the paraphernalia in that amusement park of a shopping mall. There's still plenty of things to see, and I hope to be back soon!

Crazy start to the week of Aug 24-30, 2009

Busy week running to hit target. And we've only gone through two days of the week.

Monday Blues...
Monday will be remembered for the day when my laptop auto-shut off due to depleted battery. While I was trying to close case via electronic means. I ended up going back to office (from appointment location at Far East Shopping Centre) to look for a spare battery / charger with my client. Subsequently, I realised that my program crashed.

Despite repeated attempts to 'revive' the system through restarts, it stubbornly refused to recover, and I ended up using paper forms to close the case instead. As a result of all the trouble, my appointment ended up dragging to three hours from the intended one hour. Haiz...

Upon reaching home, I discovered that my system had somehow been restored to my last backup, despite my failure to get it done earlier, in the office. The only problem was, the case which I closed in the afternoon was gone! How was I to submit the case?

In the end, I had to extract the saved files from the program folder and seek help from the technical helpdesk with regards to the submission. Haiz...

Prospecting till 11+pm on Tuesday...
Tuesday will be remembered for the first time I took cab home due to closing case at late hours.

Tagging with two colleagues, we managed to close three NSFs at Choa Chu Kang at 11+pm. By the time we were done and ready to leave, it was past twelve. The cab ride back cost me almost $13. Thanks to Alvin for the reimbursement!

With five more days to the end of the week, and agency outing coming up tomorrow, I can't help but feel excited about the days ahead! Hopefully, no more nonsense a la Monday blues in the subsequent days!

Haha... Back from my long hiatus!

Today, I found out exactly how long I've not blogged.

I have been lazy.

I have been procrastinating.

But today, I'm BACK!

Anyway, this is the 2nd day post-AHM. I woke up with relief that my knee ache after that 21km of paid torture was subsiding at a faster-than-expected rate. Given out I had taken 4 days to recover from my first run (which I similarly did not train for), my knees appear to be on a slightly faster track to recovery. Oh yeah!

Next year, I shall do better than my 2:39 this year! Target will be 2:15! And I will do it!

But for now, I will need to focus on my sales. After slacking for half a month, it's time to buck up.

CHARGE!

Relieved

It turned out that my mouse was dead after all...ok semi-dead.

After functioning properly for one night, it went back to non-functioning state yesterday. Which means that I did not purchase a new mouse that I did not really need.

So, to my old mouse: R.I.P zombie mouse!

Where's my chat box???

Arghh!!

I just realised my chat box is gone! Apparently there were some data corruption according to the website which provided the service.

YL, I need your help!!

I got punked by my mouse... -.-

My mouse had been dead for about a week. Or so I thought.

The light comes on when I plug it into my laptop, but the cursor does not move when I move my mouse. I tried other USB ports but it was equally unresponsive. Then I tried my desktop mouse, and the cursor moved as it should.

I was convinced my mouse was dead. I decided I had to get a new one if I were to continue gaming.

One day went past. Then two. Then three. And suddenly one week had gone past. I was contented to using my desktop mouse or my dad's laptop mouse when my brother or dad are not using them. It was a bit troublesome, but not too inconvenient. Besides, I did not feel like shopping for it intentionally as it was not an urgent need.

Today, Hon asked to meet for dinner at PS. And so I decided. This shall be the day I get a replacement! :D










I reached home to find my 'dead' mouse fully functioning.

Exam blues episode 2 - Feeling of deja vu...

Oh no! I'm having my final paper on Wednesday and I'm already planning for activities after that. Can't stop my mind from wandering...

The same thing happened last year and I failed my Macroeconomics...

Do others suffer from this Last Paper Syndrome as well?

I. Need. To. Focus. -.-"

Exam blues...

There's FI paper on Wednesday and I'm been feeling so lethargic the past few days...

I NEED TO FOCUS !!

Look at what's HOGging the headlines...

In the midst of a bear market, the pig has made its move over the weekend. Originating from Mexico, there are now confirmed cases of infection in Canada, with suspected cases as far as France, Israel, and even New Zealand. Are we going to see another flu epidemic, a la the Avian Flu?

The Asian stock markets have already reacted to news of the swine flu, with airline stocks leading the bloodshed.

Is this going to be just a roll in the mud or is the pig here to stay? 

One little black bird sitting on the tree(window)

Woohoo! Thanks YL for the help in setting up my chatbox! ;D

Now my blog looks more complete.

I'm sure birdy agrees...

In case anybody is wondering, this was supposed to be my new pet. Mum got a shock when she walked to the service balcony and saw 'something' there. She turned on the lights to find it perched proudly at the window.

Totally. Motionless.

Even with the lights on. Even with us discussing about it (Is it dead? Or sleeping? Or just resting?) a mere two metres away. Even when I move forward to take this photo, less than a metre away.

Apparently, it was sleeping.

Dad came along. "Shoo! Shoo!"


Birdy woke up. It was feeling groggy, perhaps due to the bright lights, perhaps it was having a hangover. It turned its head to the left. Then to the right. A little shake, then to the left again. And yet another shake.

Dad advanced. It flew away. No more pet for now.

Adding a chatbox

I can't believe how difficult it is to add a chat box to my blog. The instructions are very straightforward and easy to comprehend. The steps are easy to execute too. But why is it not working for me?!?!

According to http://chatter.flooble.com/, "Flooble chatterbox works as a javascript include, which means that there is no additional strain on your server, and that it can be added to a page by simply inserting one block of HTML where you want the chatterbox to appear. We give you the code, you just paste it in. Nothing could be simpler."

Nothing could be simpler indeed... It's mocking me!!

Arghh!!!

HELP!!

RWM outing to HealthZone

We had our last Read-With-Me (RWM) session today. Unlike our usual sessions at Hougang Student Care Services (HG SCS), we had an outing today to HealthZone at the Health Promotion Board (HPB).

Most of the kids were already waiting excitedly at HG SCS when I arrived with Yi Lin around 9:10am. We were late. (Ops!) Thankfully, we were not the last.

We left the centre at around 9:30am, after all who were supposed to be present had arrived. I took charge of Manfred today, as I usually do. He seems rather attached to me and would always come to me if I were around. Hongchuan is the 'spare tire' in my absence. :p (I was to find out from Hongchuan during lunch, that Manfred prefers a male teacher, because he looks to elder males as fatherly figures. His dad had left his family for another woman.)

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At HealthZone, the kids were all so eager to get into action! It was hard to get them to line up and wait for their turn to enter. There would probably be a stampede if the teachers release the students.

The slide was a major attraction. These tykes seem to have no qualms with playing there the whole day! Of course, we did not let them have their wish; or rather, we had to show them that there are other attractions apart from the slide. And indeed there were. After bringing them on a tour of the place, where we saw exhibits ranging from a huge lower jaw with tooth decay for the room on Oral Hygiene, to this food monster below in the room for Healthy Eating.

Then it was up to them to choose the games they wanted to play! They were quick to spread out to different stations, although there seemed to be a general herd mentality involved, as they tended to stay in the same room. Except for Daniel. He was perfectly at ease playing with minimum company or even alone.

Here's Daniel testing his strength...

And at the stationary bike... The poor kids were not able reach the paddles even when the adjustable seats were pushed all the way forward! But Daniel was somehow able to get into a comfortable position, and stayed on the bike to complete the challenge!

And finally, a group photo to end the day. Aloysius on the left was throwing tantrums again. After he was pried off the Step-up Machine to join in the group photo. :D Guess he couldn't bear to leave...


While waiting for the bus, Damien and Manfred discussed the prowess of Ultraman and Ironman. Would the Ultraman on Damien's shirt, beat the Ironman on Manfred's shirt?

Here's Manfred eating the chocolate sandwiches that Angie prepared for the kids. He didn't like those with strawberry jam...

I'm sure the kids enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed my time with time too! Too bad the next semester is in August...

Wizard of Id - 29th March 2009

Source: http://comics.com/wizard_of_id/

Familiar story isn't it? Unfortunately, despite the failings of the top executives of banks, finance firms and auto-makers in the US, their government has no choice but to bail them out due to the disastrous macroeconomic impact that would follow on their collapse. Conversely, the small firms that get innocently embroiled into the economic mayhem are left to their own devices.

The world is unfair. And it will always remain that way.

Non-sequitur

I just read this on the panel of 'Useless Knowledge' on the right side of my blog:

A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.

Wow... Imagine a bouncing ball of glass... :O

Kids, do not try this at home! Adults, if you intend to try this, do remember that a ball of glass will shatter when dropped on/thrown against most surfaces. A ball of solid steel, meanwhile, is likely to shatter everything else. A ball of rubber can be dropped/thrown quite safely. Do note though, that I shall not be responsible for shattered chandeliers, smashed glasses (drinking glasses, reading glasses, glass balls, etc...), holes in windows, and any other possible damages resulting directly or indirectly from dropping or throwing a rubber ball.

Ok, now you can go ahead and experiment.






Go on!

Chess gang meet-up (Mar 09)

Jia Chuan is back for a two weeks break. As per usual practice, it was the perfect excuse to meet up for lunch and chess! And seeing as Hon's birthday was merely a week ago, we decided to include a belated birthday celebration for him!

Esmirada Orchard was chosen as the venue from an initial shortlist of three. I was quite excited to eat there as I hadn't been there before. It helped that I had read about their lunch promotion with Citibank, which means that we could get a good discount for our meal! :D

The plan was to meet at Orchard MRT at 12 to get Hon's birthday card signed, before he reaches at the 'actual' meeting time of 12:30. Shi Qin was pretty late, and we were initially worried that he would spoil our plans by being later than Hon. Thankfully, our worries were unfounded. Hon was over 10mins late. When queried, he gave a very interesting response:

"I was late because I left my house late."

-.-" Oh. Wow. I resisted an urge to laugh out.

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The metal cover of the menu. I like how the rust gave the restaurant name a nice highlight.

I was quite impressed by the decor at Esmirada Orchard. The instant I stepped in, I was reminded of Hogwarts Castle in the Harry Potter movies. If only they had used chalices instead of glasses.

We were disappointed to learn that the Citibank cards discount only applies to their ala carte items and not for the set lunch. Nonetheless, most of us decided to go for the set lunch. I had a two-course set with a main course of roasted chicken and warm chocolate cake and walnut maple ice-cream for dessert.

The chicken turned out quite burnt, and I had to spend quite a bit of time slicing / chipping off the charred bits. Otherwise the taste was good. I loved the crispiness of the potato wedges, though they were a tad too salty for me.

Unlike the main course, dessert was great! The warm chocolate cake was delightfully sweet, and combined well with the ice-cream, while the walnuts provided a good juxtaposition of textures.

Hon's birthday cake was yet another chocolate cake. It lost out to Esmirada's offering, but was still good. By then, everyone was pretty full, and being the cake-lover that I am, I was glad to have more of it. ;P

Non-sequitur: The three lychees in each glass of Cher's Lychee Martini were pierced with one of these plastic sword. Very interesting!

Lunch was followed by some browsing and shopping at Borders, before we proceeded to Cairnhill CC for our long-awaited chess session!

(I ended my day with more cake during my grandma's birthday celebration at night. No, it was not chocolate cake.)

Wei Ting's Wedding Dinner

First wedding dinner of the year(and I already know it's not going to be the last)!

Yesterday's dinner at Oriental Mandarin Hotel was interesting in that the menu departed from the usual wedding fare I had been accustomed to. An example is the 2nd course(out of nine), Double boiled shark's fin soup with chicken. Unlike the shark's fin soup that we commonly find at Chinese wedding banquets, this one is not so thick, and it contains one small abalone, one dried scallop, and chicken on top of the leading character - shark's fin.

My favourite dish last night was the Baked fillet of cod in superior teriyaki sauce. One huge chunk of juicy fried cod with a very compatible sauce. Marvellous. I can eat that everyday, every meal. Heck, I feel like eating it now.

The Crispy king prawn was quite a disappointment though. The presentation was excellent, unfortunately, it wasn't as crispy as it looked, and in fact, turned out a tad tough. Many had difficulty removing it from the skewer.

Hmm... Close up, it looks rather like a worm doesn't it? o.O

Right up next is the deep fried pork ribs glazed with honey. The fatty part was an indulgent delight; the meat was too tough once again.

Here's a closer look...

And finally, for dessert, we had these two slices of cake below. The brown one is chocolate mousse, but I'm not sure what the yellow one is made of. It has a nice tangy flavour though. The orange bits at the side was mango.

And of course, a photo of the groom with a back view of the bride (my cousin Wei Ting).

Overall, I think the food presentation was great, but the taste and texture of the food have lots of room for improvement. Service too, wasn't fantastic. Although we were served for every dish, topping up of drinks wasn't as prompt as I would like. In fact, no one topped up my iced lemon tee; I merely got a new glass when before the toasting session. I love the washroom though. Spacious, clean, dry, with an attendant to boot! Towels were provided for us to dry our hands.

And finally, the souvenir for the evening:

Very interesting...

14 Jan 2009 or The First Post of 2009

The spider had established itself. A big web spanning 50cm across, with a second layer starting to form behind. It had grown to around 8cm in length, pretty remarkable given the open location it had chosen to make it's home. The line of dead insects stuck on the web seemed to be 'arranged' in order by the web master. That was the last time I saw it, on 12th Jan.

The row of bougainvilleas have been pruned. The arachnid and it's home were gone.

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I arrived at Tampines. There was no queue at the station control. I thought I could change my ez-link card.

The sign on the glass panel at the control says the nearest locations for the replacement of ez-link cards are Tampines and Bedok Ticket Counters. I thought the Station Control IS the Ticket Counter.

"Hi, I would like to exchange my ez-link card!" I flashed a smile.

Station staff pointed at the sign and replied curtly, "Look here."

I read the sign again. I did not realise my mistake.

"Ya, it says Tampines Ticket Counter..."

Looking irritated, she shot back, "Go to the Ticket Counter!"

"Isn't this the Ticket Counter?" I was totally bewildered.

Finally, looking very irritated, she pointed to a sign higher up the glass panel: STATION CONTROL.

I turned back to walk away, and promptly saw the Ticket Counter at the other end of the station. I left wondering why she couldn't have politely pointed out the Ticket Counter to me right from the start instead of beating around the bush and speaking with such attitude. Even if I had been ignorant, she should have been polite, which is the least I expect from a service staff!

Membership promotion, anyone?

In October, I received that scam call from a China girl. Today, I received a telemarketing call from Sam. He is an Indian.

Now, I do not have any prejudice towards Indians, but some of them do speak with an incomprehensible accent, and Sam is one of those.

"Good morning, my name is Sam. I'm calling from ... Company... Our company is celebrating our 10th anniversary, so we are having a promotion. 50 selected people will get to sign up for our membership at...and you are one of the lucky ones selected. This card...very good...many discounts with...free accomodation at ...Hotel at Kuala Lumpur...Transferrable to your friends and family members... Two years free... Only have to pay $59.90; $59.90 to sign up for the membership!"

The "..." represent the parts which I could not understand. I told him, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

And I told him, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

And I told him again, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

"May I know why is that so? This is a very good deal, and we are having a promotion now so only 50 people will get it. You will only have to pay $59.90! Other people have to pay three hundred and ... to get it. Our company is located at Genting Lane, and we have been here for 10 years already. If you have any queries I can transfer you to our ... Manager or you can call 6*******(I did not bother to remember)."

"No, I don't want it."

"...Can I have your name and address so we can send our courier team to your place to explain the details to you? It's really a very good deal..."

"Sorry, I'm not interested. You can give the promotion to someone else."

"Sir, can I have your name and address so we can send our courier team..."

I interrrupted him, "Sorry, no."

"...to your place..."

After some more rambling, he finally gave in to my persistent rejection.

"Ok. It's really a pity that you are giving up this chance, Sir. "

Phew... Finally! Actually throughout the conversation, I was wondering whether I should have just hung up the phone, but I decided that would be too rude of me. I believe many would have done so if they had the same experience. Anyway, I did not believe that the so called 'promotion' is only for 50 people. He probably said that to everyone he called up. Unfortunately for him, I do not have the habit of taking up dodgy offers from people of ambiguous background, saying things I could not understand half the time.

While it was a relieve to finally get him off my back, I was to have another shock shortly after. Barely 10 minutes after he hung up the phone, I received another call. A private line, just like before.

"Good morning, my name is Sam. I'm calling from ... Company... Our company is celebrating our 10th anniversary, so we are having a promotion. 50 selected people will get to sign up for our membership at...and you are one of the lucky ones selected..."

"You called me earlier."

"(Pause)Ya...actually I really think it would be a pity if you give up this chance. For only $59.90, you get to enjoy...while others need to pay...If you have any queries, I can transfer you to our...Manager..."

"No, I'm not interested. Bye!"

Kevin's Wedding Dinner

The Merchant Court Ballroom
Swissotel Merchant Court, Singapore
20 Merchant Road

On Sunday, I attended the long-awaited marriage of my army bunk-mate, Kevin Lu, with his girlfriend of ten years, Brenda Tan. But before that, Fabian and I met up with WP and Joanne at Tampines, for a ride down to Orchard to meet Kenny for some shopping.

There's a bicycle stand along the sheltered walkway behind the MRT station. Many people wait there for the free shuttle service to Giant. And it was here, I found a number of bicycles with rubbish in their baskets. So many inconsiderate and self-centred people around! :-(

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Wei Ping was driving his sis' husband's car. It is a very interesting car. The back seats came with seat-belts but no clips for them. So how are passengers at the back supposed to fasten their seat-belts? Hmm...

At Orchard, we spent some time looking for a cheap carpark. One particular dark and cramped hotel carpark charges $4.00 per entry! Luckily though, we managed to get a lot in the Shaw Centre Carpark at only $2.14 per entry! :-D

Kenny was late. We were supposed to meet at DFS Galleria at 6pm. It was close to 7 by the time he reached, along with his girlfriend, two younger brothers, and the girlfriend of one of his brothers. His mum was there too, and had evidently reached much earlier as she berated him for his lateness. We were quite surprised to see the family turnout, which we found out later was due to Kenny's mum playing Santa to her three sons, promising to buy one a Gucci belt each (WOW!) while getting a Gucci bag(and more) for herself.

I even met Leng there while waiting for the family to get their stuff. Wei Ping and Fabian thought she was my girlfriend. Lol! Apparently she was there to buy the LV wallet for RC for their gift exchange. Singapore is so small that we can easily bump into someone familiar along Orchard Road.

It was almost 8pm by the time Mummy Goh completed the purchase(she was actually the fastest among the four shoppers, so it really wasn't her fault that they took so long) with a 30% staff discount courtesy of Joanne. We watched in amazement as she fished out a thick stack of $50 notes, with more left in her bag!

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It was finally time to make our way to the dinner, more than half an hour late. After some initial confusion over the location of the banquet at Swissotel, we arrived at the Ballroom, where Kevin and bride were waiting at the entrance to welcome guests. Ha! Dinner has not commenced yet!

Unfortunately, it was already past 8:30pm by the time the dinner started, and my stomach was growling away. Fortunately, there was extra food available as two of my fellow guests were absent. :-p

There was a video montage of Kevin and Brenda, from when they were babies to their current stage as husband and wife. There was also a video of the proceedings earlier in the day, and we saw how the army friends who were chosen to be his 'Brothers' were treated to 'kaya' (wasabi) buns and raw bitter gourd juice. What a nutricious and 'delicious way to start the day!

It was almost 11pm by the time we ended. The nine-courses were all pretty delicious and I really enjoyed my dinner. The only minor grouse I had was that prawns appeared too often. Haha!

StanChart Singapore Marathon 2008

This is supposed to be all about my run, except that I did not run...

Yesterday, 7th December 2008, was supposed to be the day I complete my first full marathon. Although far from prepared, I had nevertheless decided to go for it last night. Armed with a bunch of three bananas (LOL... I managed to find this small 'bunch' at Carrefour) and some bread, I had gone down to Hon's house to stay overnight as it is far nearer to the run venue. Unfortunately, despite his kind hospitality, I was not able to get a good rest on the makeshift 'bed' of sleeping bag with two blankets. Having wrongly assumed that he did not have any spare pillow to offer, I rolled up one of the blankets to use as a neck support.

It didn't work.

Between 1130pm and 4am, I must have been asleep for a total of less than 3 hours, in the midst of all the tossing and turning. At 4am, after realigning my position, I tried to get some 'last minute' of rest before my official wake-up time of 4:35am on my phone's alarm.

I woke up at 5:30am(the marathon was supposed to start at 5.30am), wondering why the 35 minutes seemed like an eternity. As it turns out, I had set my alarm to sound on Saturday instead of Sunday. -.-" Stumbling into the toilet, I contemplated joining the half marathon or going back to bed. 15 minutes later, my eyes still as puffy as when I woke up, I decided it would be safer for me to get some much needed rest. I woke up Hon when I re-entered the room, and was promptly chided for not asking for a pillow as he passed me one. Ah!! Finally I could get some sleep!