"I just wolfed it down"

I been trying to get some of my stuff scanned into jpegs for my portfolio yesterday Friday. Running around looking for a cheap scanning shop at Bras Basah. Was really surprised at how much difference the shops are charging for an A3 color scan. You got from S$30 to S$1 for one! Needless to say, I took the S$1 scans. They turned out just fine, anyway I didn't need such high-res scans in the first place.

So from now till Monday, I'll be attempting to organise them into something remotely presentable I hope...

Hey, I haven't forgotten bout making this a semi-food blog so here are some pix of a friend's lunch taken a few hours ago at Ricciotti at Riverwalk. To be honest, I much prefer their other outlet Menotti at Raffles City for their set lunch menu. Menotti has a wider selection if I'm correct. The penne pasta I had at Ricciotti wasn't that great but I was pretty hungry (waiting for everyone to arrive) so I just wolfed it down real fast!

The dessert selection was exactly the same as Menotti, I had the tiramisu (as usual), wasn't that adventerous after the lacklustre main course. I wonder if they have the same half price off desserts like Menotti does every nite?

"Why didn't I head to a sleazy bar"

Well, I got my last day, laid off notice on Friday. It won't be till a couple of weeks maybe a month cos the contract with the client doesn't just end yet. I was ok in the office talking to the other guys who got laid off too and those who were lucky enough to stay. It was only when I was alone like on my way home and then home alone that you start thinking all kinds of negative thoughts. Started feeling down and all that when I was alone. Damn, why didn't I head to a sleazy bar like any normal guy who's feeling down on a Friday nite?

Anyway, started working on my resume over the weekend. Going though all my stuff over the years and deciding which ones to convert into digital format. Finally signed on to Facebook, seeing how almost every other media person here is in it. Good way to keep in touch with people in the biz. And I tried looking up some ex-girlfriends on it but couldn't find any, well, at least the ones whose names I remember.

"Draw them back on their heads"

Something I noticed recently ... seems like more young women are shaving their eyebrows and redrawing them also known as tattooing eyebrows. Why in the world are they doing this?! Only little old ladies do that. Someone said cos it looks better, redrawing them to the style you want looks nicer. Are you kidding me? They look weird. By that same logic, guys should just shave all their hair and draw them back on their heads with a black marker pen!

So what have I been up to? Well, I been getting together all my stuff that I did for the last couple of years into a portfolio. Getting jpegs, files etc. and thinking of doing a PowerPoint/PDF file. I been going through some of my files and I found a couple of more shots from my Japan working trip that I haven't posted.

The one-and-only Mt. Fuji in all its glory. Was pretty lucky to get a shot since it can get super cloudy almost instantly.

More shots of the country side near Mt. Fuji.

And here's where we stopped for lunch. A little roadside soba place. They were very generous with their portions. A full bowl of brown rice and a full serving of soba! Usually in Singapore, it's just one or the other, man, it was great, I was so stuffed.

Here's a shot of the place and a farm (I think) that's just round the corner, I thought it looked kinda cool, in a misty spooky kinda way. Heh.

"Sway with me"

Another earthquake struck Indonesia last evening and we felt it here again in Singapore just like earlier this year. Well, I didn’t feel anything this time cos it was in the evening about 7pm and I was outdoors, on my way home. Got a call from my folks bout it at around 8pm when I was already home alone eating my MOS cheeseburger.

Now the one I felt was this morning at bout 8am while having breakfast. The ceiling lamp moved, the water in the pitcher moved, the rows of t-shirts on the moved. Same nauseous feeling like the last time. All that was missing of the Pussycat Dolls doing "Sway with me" in the background.

First thought, should I change out of my boxers and old Army t-shirt and into my work clothes and immediately leave for work or should I just continue eating my breakfast?

Second thought, can I use this as an excuse to call in sick?

I was calm but I got a little worried cos the tremors lasted more than a couple of minutes.

Anyway, tremor no. 2 for the day hit us at about 11.30am in the office. By now, almost everyone was pretty much immune to it.

I also bought a mango swiss roll from the famous "Rich and Good Cake Shop" along Kandahar Street yesterday. It was the last mango roll in the fridge, at S$12 for about a foot long. Also bought two kaya swiss rolls for everyone in the office. As you can see, there are little sweet chunks of mango in there, it is as good as it looks.

"Who wants to be my pastry lab rat"

*Ouch* what a way to start my birthday. Bit my lip durig breakfast. Been doing some thinking last couplea days.

One good thing (and so far it’s the only thing) bout knowing you’ll be out of a job soon is making plans on what to do with all that upcoming free time. It’s different from taking vacation time from work, cos with that it’s usually traveling or chilling out at home and doing next to nothing.

To be honest, I do have enough chores to do around not one, not two but three apartments. My own, my folk’s and the another old apartment where we used to stay together, before we all moved out. Seriously, it would take at least a whole month to spring clean them all.

Then there’s also the urge of doing some more baking, been itching to do that again but just too tired on weekdays after work, and on weekends I just wanna rest, play games and eat my comfort food. Maybe now, we’ll see. So who wants to be my pastry lab rat?

Someone did suggest taking Japanese or Spanish lessons. One of those intensive day classes, like 3 or more days a week in the morning or something like that I think. Also need to catch up on all those DVDs, new games like this with great reviews and been dying to try it, work out, hit the library for books, meet-up with old friends and stuff like that. Of cos, I'll be looking for job and all that too.

Anyway, back to my birthday. Here's what I had for lunch. Made it to Pasta de Waraku in the afternoon and it was already pretty full at 12.30pm. Had the Hokkaido Crab in Wufu Cream Sauce and the Choco-Banana Pudding for dessert. Figured since I won't be heading to Hokkaido this year of the job(less) situation, why not have it now? Hah! Not as great as it looks but still, I was satisfied. The place was quite small and not in a cosy way. Bad acoustics maybe? The noise, people talking really loud, it all kinda seems trapped in there.

Speaking of people talking, we had a very interesting conversation with our American expat in the office the other day. Was bout dating habits here and the West. The American was quite suprised when we locals told him that it's NOT normal for us (Asians) to hold hands on a first date, let alone make out. He said it's perfectly normal for folks back home in the US to do all that on a first date. So I said, if I dated a girl there and I really like her but I don't make a move on the first date, she'll think I'm not interested, right?