Where's my time?

Seems like I've been really busy... everyday came home feel so tired and don't even bother to turn on my PC sometimes... Anyway today there was a department lunch outing today at Far East Square. But my team went late and there was not enough seats at the restaurant to accomodate us. In the end we had our lunch at another japanese restaurant nearby, with a budget of $25 each... (not bad ah)...

ECQ Dinner & Dance 2004

Location: Hotel Rendezvour, 2nd level ballroom

Attendees: Staff of ECQ (who else). Oh and ex-staff too...

I quite enjoy the night really, especially by the performance of AJ and KY... Top prize was won by a new staff IP. And I got a pair of movie tix.

Wedding Dinner of KT & LY

Location: Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant

Attendees: Exactly half the class attended if I counted correctly, including those that has disappeared for a long time, like TCH, OTY, THT etc...

It was suppose to be a happy occasion for the newly wed... somehow NPS got into PMS, sort of I think... But can't blame him too much, he was really vexed by some personal problem...

Church Wedding of KT & LY

Location: Chapel Of The Resurrection (near SAJC)

Attendees: NSC and THT (sisters). CYY, LYP, NYY, CGM, KCM, KLT, LBP, TSK, WC.

Finally it's the wedding of our beloved chairlady... hehe.. For all 4 years, she was elected unaimously as our class chairlady, and I think she had done a good job during her reign... Back to the wedding, it was the first time that I've attended a church wedding, and indeed it was an eye-opener. A lot of singing, and then the pastor said his lines and give the bride and groom his blessing, and more singing...

Christmas Dinner

This week had been a busy week for me, leading a bug's life (oh, my work is sent for QA this week, and the bugs has been coming in like no one else business)... Anyway, back to the Xmas dinner, which was on today at AJ's house...

Suppose to go there straight after work. But have to wait for SM to collect the turkey and meet us (i.e. JX, ET and me) at the office. In the meantime, me and JX tried to book a cab to go to AJ's house. But it took us like half an hour and we still could not get one (cos it was peak hours then). In the end, DT offered us a lift which we gladly accepted. :)

By the time we arrived at AJ's house, it was almost 8pm already... And some of the food we've brought still requires some heating up to be done, namely the turkey and the ham... sounds pretty straightforward rite, simply heat up the stuffing for the turkey, the turkey itself, then the ham and we're ready to go (well, read on to find out more)...

Problem #1:

After heating up the stuffing, we proceed to heat the turkey. But the turkey was too big to be put into the microwave oven. After a bit of surgery to dissect the turkey, we've managed to put it into the oven. Upon closing the lit and turning on the switch, sparks were seen in the oven, which wasn't quite right (think it was caused by the aluminium foil wrapping the turkey).

Then AJ found another electric heater/steamer (or whatever that is) which she said we could use as an alternative... Just that she forgot to told us not to wash the device (because it runs on electricity). When the device was plugged in and turned on, it just short-circuited and the whole house went into a state of darkness (the power supply was cut off).

Finally, we decided to put the turkey into a wok and steam it instead. But then there was 1 last problem, again the turkey was too big and the lit could not be fully covered. So we use the lit of the electric steamer as cover and finally we can sit back and wait for the food to be ready...

Oh yes, there is still the ham. After going through so much trouble with the turkey, AJ decided that the ham can be served cold, since it was cooked, and we just need to heat up the sauce. So much about the food, at least we can still take the pizza for the time being...

Problem #2:

Then there is this red wine brought here by ET. And somebody forgot to tell him to bring the cork screw and the best thing is, AJ don't have one as well... So, we tried to find whatever things that we can use to open up the bottle. We managed to find a screw and asked AJ for a screwdriver and a plier before we started working on getting the cork out of the bottle. And it took like 3 engineers and some 15 minutes before we finally got that thing out...

~~~

By this time, it was already past 930pm... We just sat around a table and enjoy the food and drinks... Next comes the little game that AJ has thought up... The first game was to guess who ate the speically prepared bun, with butter and wasabi spread, by judging on the looks and reactions of the people who took the bun (3 people was determined to eat the bun by drawing lots). And HJB got the honour of eating 'that' specially prepared bun for the first 2 rounds, while I got it for the next round.

An Analogy

Imagine yourself as a monkey in a tree full of monkeys... There are many branches, and you are in one of the lower branches... No matter which branch you choose to go, there are a lot of monkeys higher up in the trees. So you have to take whatever s**t that has dropped from up there... There may come a point when you cannot take it anymore, so you can either choose to find a branch that can help you climb higher, or simply leave the tree...

PS: this analogy is given to me by JT, whom I met on my way back from the office today.

Urban Skating II

Join the zigzagueur for an urban skating session this evening. Initially I wasn't intending to go, cos there was only 1 person I knew in the group (HJB), but suddenly just feel like going skating... Anyway I managed to get to know more people after joining the session today.

The route we took today was pretty similar to the previous urban skating session, but a bit longer... This time the group went to Boat Quay and then all the way down to Clarke Quay... along the way we stopped a couple of time, where the group started demostrating their slalom skills... it was quite an impressive sight, which attracted the attention of the public, especially the tourists ... while I was taking a seat admiring their skills as well...

I was quite surprised that I could wore that pair of skates for more than 3 hours before starting to feel the pain (FYI, this pair of skates have served me pretty badly, my feet got blisters every single time I wore them without fail)... maybe its because I've finally managed to place the plaster at the most 'strategic' position this time...

Even though it was inspiring seeing the rest doing their tricks so well, I think I'll not have the patience (or passion maybe) to really go and master the skills... Think I'd just prefer to skate... especially in the urban area at late night (just like going for night cycling)... But in order for me to do so, I'd still need to horne my skating skills (and of course getting a pair of new skates)...

PS: Oh... was planning to go shopping this evening, but guess I'll have to do it some other time (asap bah... cos some things have to be gotten by this week... :p)

Mid-week meet up

Meet up with CH for dinner today. It was like a last minute arrangement. But before that, I went to scout for the pair of skates that I have been wanted to buy for quite some time.

We went Suntec for dinner, at subway... sat down there, chat up about work amongst other things while eating... Can't seems to remember when was the last time we met. CH said he saw me at Funan on a sunday around one month back though, and tried to get my attention but to no avail. Cos at that time I was too engrossed with something/someone according to him... (hmmm... don't really remember seeing him leh...)

After dinner, we went to a cafe to have coffee, sat down and chat further... think it's good to meet up with old friends once in a while...

The Wedding of NS

Attended the very first wedding dinner of my friend last night (more to come in the coming weeks). NS is the initial of the groom and the bride rather than the acronym of something that all Singaporean guys went through for 2 ~ 2.5 years of their life...

The bride was my secondary school classmate. We were in the same class for 2 years and I still remember that she could solve every single Maths problem that comes her way... Anyway back to the dinner, the few of us who were invited (around 12 + 2, will explain later) met up at Suntec before proceeding to the hotel where the dinner was held. Or rather I should say we accepted her invitation...

So why the number 12 + 2? Actually there are two interpretations: Each table at the banquet can sit 12 people, so all of us were divided into two tables by the number 12 and 2 (poor BL and BH were the ones isolated at the other table...). Another way of interpreting is that 12 of us there were her fellow classmates along with our class form teacher Mrs Lim and son.

How time has passed so quickly... To think that our form teacher was about my age then, just starting out her career as a school teacher when we were still in sec 3. Now, she is a mother of 2 already! But I think its good that my class has been keeping in touch pretty often, at least a couple of time every year, given the hectic schedule of everyone. I first knew of this event during the class gathering in March and we were still talking about it at the Homecoming dinner in August and busy updating our contact info.

Anyway this is probably the 1st of many to come... Already round 2 is just around the corner in two weeks time. And I won't be surprised if I got another 'red bomb' from the ladies in my class next year, judging by what I've seen yesterday... :)

(As for the guys in my class, think most of us need to buck up... me included... hehe)

Riddle of the Day

"近づけないよ 君の理想に すぐには 変われない......"

PS: what's this (may need to use Jap encoding to view)? Clue - lyrics of a song (actually the next line is the crux), which happens to be the theme song of a jap drama starring Takuya Kimura and Matsu Takako... Come on its not that difficult la...

Singapore Marathon 2004

Went for the event this morning... woke up at 6am, was supposed to wake up earlier, but slept late last night cos was chatting online... Anyway, when I arrived at the Esplanade Bridge at around 715am (where the starting point was), they already flaggd off for those running 10km, which was at 7am... (fyi, I was running in the 10km run, not the full marathon if that was what you think) But its ok cos I was running just for fun, not competing or what...

About 1km into the run, met YS at the other side of the road going opposite direction. He was running in the full marathon along with 4 other guys from ECQ (really "pei fu" these guys)... After running past the 3km mark, I decided to start walking... Cos was feeling a bit uncomfortable, probably due to the breakfast (but I only ate 2 slices of bread)... So for the rest of the run, I just run a bit then walk a bit (dunno for how many cycles)... before finally completing the whole 10 km, which took me like 1hr 15 mins...

Met YM, JZ and TZ after the run while collecting my barang barang from the deposit area... We took a couple of photos as a memento and decided to go back office after that... (and oh, they actually have a medal for anyone who participated in the run, even for those running 10km... hehe)... And SK called while I was at office; he was running in the half-marathon, so he finished the run later than me... But he was going home straight after the run so we didn't meet up (anyway will be seeing him tomorrow at the dinner lor)...

Went for breakfast, or lunch I should say, with YM, JZ and TZ. At first I didin't want to take anything, but decided it was probably better to eat now so that I can sleep straightaway later at home... and oh, I'm supposed to go rest now, why am I still writing here... :P

PS: Wonder if I can take MC tomorrow, cos feeling really lethargic after the run... But if i do, think JX is gonna kill me, literally...

Busy week... sort of...

Had been busy with work for the past few days, trying to complete my part of the system for a preliminary QA next wednesday... Nothing of note happened really, except that I switch from taking MRT to work to taking buses. I think it was a refreshing change. I can take a different route, depending on the bus that come first, to work everyday... possibly can have up to 10 different combinations of buses... I also get to take a seat on the bus (cos i can choose not to go up buses without an empty seat)... :)