My visa mini

I had my visa mini for some years now but I could count the number of times I've used it with my 2 hands. Its just that instinctively if I dun have enuff cash I would always use NETS, maybe now I should use it more often since retailers now pay much more when customers use NETS and there's more discounts and perks from using my visa mini.

Nice song from S.H.E - 聽袁惟仁彈吉他. It has some really nice rap by Ella that sort of has a story to it. Anyway I've been watching Initial D these days i must say the storyline is actually quite ok, but i found it rather amusing the watch it esp when the website I'm watching has some of the episodes dubbed in cantonese. After watching Naruto a few weeks back, I find it better than Bleach in terms of storyline and its fighting scenes, so Bleach fans out there who haven't watch Naruto u're missing out on the good stuff here.

Judge presses $54 million suit for lost pants

Those of you who has been following news these days would have heard of this lawsuit which has attracted international attention. Its about a judge who sent her pants to a laundry shop with a sign that says 'Satisfaction garuanteed' who then misplaced it. So now the judge is suing them, asking for a compensation based on the fees for renting a car to another laundry shop and the other stuff for originally US$64million but she later reduced it to 54 and the shop said it found the pants but she said it wasn't hers. Full story click here

In my opinion this is an extreme example of how the rich and smart bully the poor. Come on, how much does these people earn from a small laundry shop and she's asked for millions for losing a lousy pair of pants that cost US$1000. Its probably impossible for the family to repay her in this lifetime and I'm sure she knows that. She probably like that pants alot and got angry at them losing it but this is no excuse to exact revenge in such a way just becoz u noe the legal system. Ugly side of people, but pretty unexpected from a judge, at least to me. Buying a dry cleaner and put it in your house would probably cost less than 1% of wad she's asking for. Shame on you!

The selfish, the stupid, the wierd & the old

The past week has opened my eyes to people displaying the above 3 traits. Firstly on my way to work one sunday afternoon, as i go through the single lane 2 way street beside Bugis village there was this car that selfishly put on its hazard lights, stopping just outside a carpark entrance. Since its single lane either way and outside a carpark entrance, it created such a big bottleneck that stretch hundred of metres. As I passed that car i saw this mid-age auntie shading 4-D/Toto tickets in the car, oblivious to the chaos she caused, gave her a loud horn but she was too engrossed. I swear I wanted to confront her if i wasn't running late that day due to an earlier downpour, though such selfish acts rarely affect me since i'm on bike but it totally irks me.

So on another day also on the way to work, traveling along ECP, I saw the stupidest use of technology. First everyone knows its an offense to use an handphone while driving, but using hand-free is okay. As its name suggests, it helps you by removing the need to use your hand, that's why its called hands-free, but this driver happily use his hand to hold his hands-free, then wad's the diff from holding a handphone? maybe if he get caught he got an excuse since he really did use hands-free. Maybe its time he invest in better hands-free.

Then this wierd old man came to the library one day with his young granddaughter(presumbly, i dun suppose he's a paedophile). So an unfortunate thing happened to him such that the library's security sounded when he walked past and the security guard did his normal procedure of asking the old man to have his books checked at the customer service counter. Suddenly the wierd old man flared up and asked wad's wrong, saying he did not steal anything, creating a ruckus in the library. So the nice librarian explained that sometimes the books have a problem in the security chip but he apparently gave no heed, kept insisting he did not steal and stuff. So when the librarian finally resolve the problem with the books, the old man scolded the security guard useless, finally ending this 'drama'. Well the thing is he wasn't giving the little girl a good example and there wasn't really any need to shout to prove your innocence.

Finally we come to the old man who also visited the library on a nice weekend sitting on the sofa at our exhibition. Then he got up and asked me if i worked here, so i said yes(i tot he meant the exhibition), so he asked the chinese travel guide he borrowed has anything abt germany. But before i could said anything, he started telling me abt his life story, his father was a farmer and could only allow him to go to either an English or a Chinese school, thus he only knew english while his brother only knew chinese, unlike his sons who are studying in US who could learn both languages....blah blah blah. After answering his few questions, he started saying his wife only knew chinese so need a chinese travel guide cos they intend to visit Europe since he's sick of China.... blah blah blah, and he finally left, at last!

What an interesting week.

Not 2, not 4.... but 6

To those who didn't get the tickets, dun be too sad, its common for that anyway since 7/8 of the ppl didn't get theirs. For those who had the burning question why I had the luck of getting these 6 tickets to the NDP, well I thought since its all on luck whether u're picked, it doesn't make much difference if I chose 2 or 4 tickets so why not 6 tickets. And no I did not pull any strings to get them, its purely beginner's luck.

Some old pics

A carpark 2305m above sea at Mt Fuji

Finally at the peak of Ophir

One of the 'perks' being in Armour!

They said its the 'Cut Telt Course' and i didn't believe at first!

One of the clearer photos during my dive

"Scum" demonstrating how clear the water is at Pulau Dayang

Until next time...

Stomp bash

Went to the stomp bash at St James last nite, it was supposed to start at 7pm but we went for dinner first before going down so we reached at about 8.20pm. Bash was at Bellini Room to be exact which was at the back of the St James and when we finally got inside, hoards of people were already there, so we were like stuck at the entrance part. Just so nicely when I got myself a drink, Juz B of the Superband fame came up stage to perform. Finally got a chance to see them live, i quite admire them for their courage to join in a chinese tv program and this malay Capella group actually advanced to top 6(i think) in the competition. Well, they really rocks, sang a few songs and totally warm up the crowd.

A little far from stage but its still Juz B

Emcees for the night were Najib Ali and Annabelle francis, Najib was real funny and Annabelle is really pretty. So after Juz B performed, we went in the main area and to the sides and sat on those high chairs of 1 of the tables and we saw Maia Lee. Then she proceeded to sit behind us, but on the same table. I must say she's really quite hott, pity Dawn Yang didn't turn up, at least we didn't saw her. Then there's more performances by i dunno who, but one of them shld be Sylvester Sim, at least according to Stomp he did perform, so shld be him. Okay then out of the blue Maia went to the bottom of the stage and gave what seems to be a paper flower to him while he's singing. At this point in time, we already moved away from the table and to the sides and Maia Lee instead of going back to her table stood in front of me. Our distance now was prob less than 20cm since its pretty packed. As she was standing in front of me, i realised how 'tall' she was, she barely reach my chin and she already on heels man. And i 'touched' her, okay now, people like Colin would prob be having geil(german word for horny) thoughts but it was actually just a tap on the shoulder cos the waiter who was clearing the buffet dinner was yelling 'Excuse me'. Gotcha!

The party ended with them thanking the sponsors and giving a quick introduction on the perks of the stomp card and also the lucky draw. Though i'm on a lucky streak, i wasn't lucky to enuff to win on 3/247 odds to win canon photo printer, nokia n95 or an Acer laptop. How sad... okay end of party, after tat was free drinks til i dunno wad time but we managed to get out before it started raining real heavily. To mi surprise there's a prata restaurant there but i was more interested in the japanese charcoal grill restaurant, looks pretty gd, menu too. Biggest mistake here was to take bus 65 home instead of MRT. It took frigging close to 2 hrs to get to tampines, shouldn't have listened to eugene, this by the way broke all records of mine for the longest time spent on a public bus.

Okay this part is for the easterners, especially Colin. For those who still dunno, there's a HK cafe in tampines now, its at the CC opp the polyclinic. Menu wise i must say the variety is really a lot, i think at least 50 different items, price wise was okay. I ordered a zha jiang mian($3) or noodles in minced meat sauce, a Xiao long bao($3) and a milk tea($1.20). The noodles was pretty good, the meat sauce was really fragrant and the serving was quite a lot too, xiao long bao had lotsa soup inside but tastewise not as gd as the ones i had at imperial treasure but still quite okay. There's no service charge or gst so all price stated in menu is nett. Overall its economical and quite okay, best of all its in tampines. Its opened from 6am-1am and service was quite gd and food was served rather fast, worth a try.

We live to eat

2 place i would like to share with u guys. First is the Tiong Bahru Chicken Rice stall outside bugis junction, opp Mos Burger. Discovered this place while exploring the area with one of my colleague last week. Firstly the chicken is really tender and not too moist though the rice itself is not very fantastic but at least its not too bad. Secondly at just $3 for a set with salted veg(taste rather sweet), not forgetting the cucumbers and tomatoes and a bowl of soup(everytime i go diff soup), its really worth it esp since the amount of meat they give is quite a lot. Also u can order thigh meat(鸡尾) and it still cost $3, there's also the other side dishes like youtiao, bean sprouts and fried beancurd, most of these cost abt $3 too. Lastly is the service is rather gd, though they kept asking passer-bys to come their stall they dun appear too aggressive and they're kind enuff to refill my soup and say thank you when i leave. Did i mention to hordes of OLs u can see during mealtimes, now that's a big bonus!

Yesterday was watching Fantastic 4 which was not fantastic at all, the show is a total crap, totally not worth watching. But after the show the swimmers went to Imperial Treasure La Mian and Xiao Long Bao at Marina Sq for a late dinner(we're the last customers). I had Xiao Long Bao and this wanton in red chilli oil. Firstly i think its real cheap, $3 for 4 Xiao Long Bao is real worth it for its quality, seriously i can't tell the diff b/w this and the ones i had at Dingtaifeng which cost a lot more. The wantons were great too, 5 or 6 for $4.30 but the skin was real thin yet they were rather generous with the meat. Delicious. Eugene had a nice big plate of fried rice which cost abt $10 i think and i find it rather tasty, very fragrant. La Mian cost abt $5-$10 there and its rather big bowl so the dinner really compensated for the disappointment of F4. Do try it when u're there next time, its not the typical expensive chinese restaurant, dun believe can check out their menu outside before u enter.

Stomp turns 1

Stomp turns 1, and thanks to its Bday, i get a pair of free tix to Ocean's 13. Watched it at Vivo with Colin juz now, not only that, there's complimentary popcorns, drinks and goody bag for both of us. These days i'm really lucky with such contest, won these pair of tix and another pair to Stomp's party bash at St James this Sat and also the 1 in 8 chance of winning 6 ndp tix. What luck man!

Anyway Ocean's 13 is really not bad but there's some part i dun get it, like the part where the FBI arrest the guy who tampers with the card dispenser. The cop is part of them (Matt Damon's dad) but why the card dispenser with the fingerprints is brought to the real FBI?? And 13 lacks some suspense unlike 12 where at some point in time they looked like their plan failed but its actually all part of it. Still overall its quite gd, worth watching.

Met Mr Fun after the show at Vivo, to be honest i'm rather surprised he still remembers mi name cos i haven't met him for about 3-4 years and teachers have so many students each year, so i'm really glad he still remembers me.

My female colleagues constant unpunctuality to work finally got caught, red handed by our boss who turned up at the exhibition at 10 only to find no one there. Their behaviour and attitude has been getting worse, attire starting to get from office wear to casual, people starting to turn up later but leaving earlier and all their frens(incl bfs) turning up at the exhibition and they just 'entertain' their frens at the sofas at the back. Young gals who haven been taught the importance of responsibility i would say.

I was exploring the areas around Bugis yesterday with one of my colleague as we went for dinner and i realise that there's a lot of interesting places. For one there's plenty of ma la steamboat shops around and on a Sat evening the crowd is disbelieving, definitely able to challenge those in the marina south area plus they seem to offer a more variety in their menu though the price is more too but i guess its a price u pay for the accessibility and its central area. The arcade area in Bugis junction seems to be a nice gathering place for ignorant secondary sch punks to hang out, i must say i really detest the kind of behaviour they portray, thinking they look very cool but it just makes them look all the more ignorant abt reality. Despite some ppl commenting i'm a bit 'Beng' but in reality i really detest such ppl to the maxx, maybe its becoz there's a lot of such ppl in mi sec sch last time. But not to worry, mi level of tolerance of increased tremendously since mi lower sec sch times, so i wouldn't do anything stupid as to picking a fight with them, but if i ever catch them harassing others or stuff like that, i'll be the 1st one to call the police.

Anyway i'm starting to get frustrated when ppl always mistaken me as the librarian, how stupid can these ppl get man.... Librarians wear a certain uniform and i certainly dun wear them, how many times have u seen male librarian anyway. I've realised that the National Lib is actually a lousy place, first they dun have mi fav BBC Focus magazine in the Central Lending Library when i work(Tamp Lib have) and their Bookdrop always breaks down. How lame is that man, the National Lib is more lousy than the the regional ones. But i always say most of the librarians there are very courteous and their customer service is very gd, though there's a particular bitch. U seldom see me criticizing ppl liddat but she really get on mi nerves sometimes.