"You are paying me in book vouchers?!?"

Last Tuesday was my last day at work and here are the farewell gifts that I got. Hmmm...yah, the flowers was a kinda gag gift that we gave to both guys and gals leaving the place, so it was my turn to walk home with a bouquet this time. We also had a pretty good dim sum lunch that day. They also got some brownies and blueberry cheesecake ice-cream to go with it, and book vouchers from Kinokuniya. So right now, let me geek out with some pix of them.

"Brownies!"

"Guess what I'm having my morning cereal with."

"Here is your fee, Boba Fett."

"You are paying me in book vouchers?!?"



"Sentinel detects giant mutant flower."

"Think of it as an early Xmas present"

Yah, I know its been awhile since I blogged. Its been one big housekeeping, shelfcleaning, drawerclearing month so far. I'm playing Frenchmaid at not one, not two but three different locations. There's my apartment, my folks' old apartment and my old office.

Everything, all of it is coming back to my place so that means I gotta get rid of existing stuff from my current apartment. As I was tidying my cupboards, I found a ton of movie postcards that I used to collect. I figured I'll give them to anyone of you out there who's reading this! I'm serious, I'll pay the postage. Just send me an email and the kind of movie genre that you like, I'll see what I got. Think of it as an early Xmas present.

Anyway, my folks' old apartment got off to a slightly rocky start. The first guy that was supposed to fix things up didn't return my phone calls and kinda 'disappeared' so I got another guy in. And that's gonna push the deadline back at least a couple of weeks.

"Make that cab my toilet"

When I was a kid, most of the cars especially public buses and cabs don't have air-con like every vehicle today. I would just love to sit right next to the window and have the wind beating into my face while speeding down the road. My dad loves to speed so when he drove me to school like 7am in the morning, we would sometimes get stopped by the traffic cop. Back then, I remember being a little worried sitting in the front seat, keeping an eye out for the cops but now, it's kinda funny.

I sure miss taking those long bus rides, sitting next to the window with the wind blowing really loud in my ears. I think the last time I rode in a cab with the window down was a couple of years ago, when I was 'kinda drunk' and I knew I had to have the window down otherwise I was gonna make that cab my toilet if I didn't get any fresh air.

"Those were the days before email"

Was back at the old empty apartment clearing my stuff that’s been there for like, over a year. Just been too lazy to move them out but now, I gotta do it since meeting the contractor and real estate agent.


Here’s an old stack of letters from long lost friends, relatives, forgotten ex-girlfriends and old colleagues. Ahh … those were the days before email! It’s a strange feeling reading love letters from people who obviously don’t feel the same way they did when they first wrote them. I threw all of them out, keeping only some letters from my relatives. Like I said, you read those old love letters and you can’t wait to get rid of them, not because you feel mad or anything like that. But I just see no point in keeping them and I do have to clear stuff out, so really what’s the point of bringing all back to my apartment?


My old fencing gear and archery stuff are all still there. I’ll be keeping the mask and the arrows (strictly for sentimental reasons) but throwing away the other stuff. Other 'junk' I found, 5 broken old Swatches in the drawer, lots of trading cards and movie postcards.

"Better than sweaty palms"

Ah, here’s another meme I got! Niki tagged me with a pretty interesting one here.

Five things in my bag. Well, I have a weekend bag and an old weekday backpack that I carry to work, I’ll go with the backpack for this one.

• My keypouch/coin pouch.
• 1G thumbdrive with my portfolio
• Digital camera
• Glasses for watching movies
• My pass for getting into the office

Five things in my wallet. Opps, I don’t carry a wallet. I got a money clip and a card holder. Think I’ll just go with the card holder for this one.

• Bus and subway card
• ATM card
• ID
• Kinokuniya member/discount card
• Pokka member/discount card

Five things in my room. Again, I got my computer/study room with my computer, beanbag and action figure displays. And then there’s my bedroom. Since I don’t wanna geek out bout my action figure collection, I’ll go with the bedroom.

• Little bottle of Tea Tree Oil. Swear to Gawd, it's some miracle oil, takes care of almost anything from mozzy bites to my occasional sinus
• Tube of handcream cos I get dry hands sometimes (hey, its better than sweaty palms!)
• Coaster on my bedside table for my drinks
• Currently reading World War Hulk: Gamma Files
• Bunch of ‘Do Not Disturb’ and morning breakfast menu door handlers that I took from hotels during my travels, hanging on my bedroom doorknob. Man, those breakfast menus really look good on a weekend morning!

"Just background music"

I was tagged a meme by b but I been a little too busy job hunting to sit down, think bout it and write something bout it. Sorry bout that b!

Let’s see, the stuff I been listening to … hmmm … been going slow rock lately. Hysteria from Def Leppard. Some Aerosmith numbers. Then there was that nite when I was doing my PowerPoint portfolio, I remember listening to the Grease soundtrack as always. Some Hans Zimmer soundtracks too. In the office’s itunes network, there’s Good Charlotte, Latino heat courtesy of Tito Puente and a couple of anime soundtracks. It's just the background music. something familiar that I need while I write.

Now that I got some free time on my hands, had a talk with my folks and I’ll be renting out our old vacant apartment. It’s a 3-bedroom apartment in the Novena/Newton area, near town. Since we all moved out a couple of years ago, its been empty and well, kinda neglected. So starting later this month, I’ll be meeting up with aircon guys, contractors, painters etc. Set aside about 20 grand for the whole thing.




That's part of the living room and the one below is the kitchen. Ok. I am pretty excited, in a way, bout being a landlord and all. Guess I’ll be talking to a real estate agent or a lawyer to get the legal stuff outta the way. But I'll still be looking for a regular job too!

"5 hours of Martha Stewart"

Goodbye Soundtrack Channel, hello History Channel!

I am so seriously into the History Channel and the Crime and Investigation Channel right now. My love affair with history revolves around ancient history and with a major hard on for the late 19th century right up to WWII. Really, I’m always like spellbound by them old black and white footage! Usually after watching an episode, I’ll go read up bout it more in Wiki. When I was a kid, I bought tons of hardcover history books that were going like really cheap at Popular (that’s the shop's name) bookstores, and weekly/monthly WWII military magazines. I still got some of the books but the magazines are long gone now. Caught the 2-hour documentary, Last Secrets of the Axis over the weekend, that was really something.

The Crime and Investigation Channel is almost like the History Channel cept its all bout the history of crime in the 20th century, well, at least that’s how I see it. Lots of cool old footage too! Hah. I saw Gangbusters last week, which was bout the heroin trade in the US, how it started waaay back in the late 19th century with the Tongs in Chinatown.

And with the Tivo-like features, 60 hours of recording time I believe, I been doing lots of taping too. It’s amazing how I can go through 5 hours of Martha Stewart in bout an hour! After taping the weekday episodes, I simply fast forward past all the non-food demos and yakking-with-the-guests segments, and just watch the baking/cooking ones! Hah!

I’m also a sucker for old movies. Taped Peter Lorre’s Beast with Five Fingers the other nite but have yet to watch it. And of cos, I still need my regular sitcoms like The Office, Two and A Half Men, How I Met Your Mother and The Simpsons.

"Take the piss out of it"

Geez ... it's a Saturday nite and I'm at home? Oh yah! This pretty much sums up how I feel since losing my job ... heh ... that is the complete pix. You gotta admit, it looks cool and it does mean something to me as in it's how I feel right now. Even though it feels like I got a broadsword running through me, I am still trying to take the piss out of it, with a smirk or two.

"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?

"It comes with the territory"

To be honest, work hasn't been that ...er... 'good' in the office. There's gonna be some layoffs later in the year, which means I probably go back to freelancing again. Yah, I know I promised not to write bout work here and to write bout the stuff that makes me happy. Don't get the wrong idea, my work does make me happy it's just the current doom and gloom atmosphere in the office that's getting me down.

It ain't something you look forward to but in this line of work, it comes with the territory. I'll still be working till another month or two. Then maybe take a little break, no I don't think I'll be leaving the country, gotta save money! I guess I'll catch up with my friends, games with them, clean up the apartment, more homecooked meals at my folks. Will I be blogging more? I dunno. But I do know that being jobless ain't gonna stop me from contributing to this. No matter how fucked up my life is or will be, there are others who need help more than I do.

"I sure wouldn't have this problem with porn"

Was going through my stuff the other day and realized that I got a whole pile of DVD sets that I bought but have yet to watch. No time, no mood etc. Geez, I sure wouldn't have this problem with porn! Hah!

Here's the bunch I got from Amazon at a discount, I forgot the price but they were a lot cheaper than buying here at a local DVD store. Animanics Vol. 1 and 2, Pinky and The Brain Vol. 1 and 2, Martha Stewart's Baking Favorites, Homemade Holidays and Favorite Cookies. Oh, you definitely can't find Martha's stuff here.

These (fortnightly) Star Trek file/folder sets I got from Japan, one of my earlier trips, it's from the bookstore Kinokuniya, can't remember if it's Tokyo or Osaka. There's a DVD in each of them, 3 random episodes from either Next Generation, Voyager or Deep Space Nine. And a lot of articles in Japanese too. Totally impulse buy cos it looked cool and I'm a sci-fi nut. I didn't even check the price, Set 1 was cheap but Sets 2 and 3 were like double the price!

"Skinny monkey was on a leash"

Can you believe it, the fruit stall near the office upped their prices by at least 10 cents last month. Its cos of the recent local 7% goods and services tax increase (from 5%). My usual afternoon fresh slice of papaya and a banana is no longer a dollar but S$1.20. A 10 cents jump from 50 cents to 60 cents for a slice of fruit is not equal to 2%.

Yah, I know prices of fresh fruits around the world is a lot more than here, that’s what my expat colleagues tell me. Well, at least the price of a cup of fruit juice is still the same S$2. Kinda strange huh?

Oh yah, another leftover tale from my recent Japan trip. I saw a guy walking his pet monkey down a street in Harajuku at nite! The skinny monkey was on a leash and the guy was walking it nonchalantly like a dog. Oh well, I thought that was pretty cool.

Also managed to finally catch Blades of Glory for the in-flight movie. I also, also was lucky enough to stumble upon the best of album by Japanese R&B duo Chemistry, All The Best, while searching through the in-flight entertainment menu. I didn’t even know it was out. So I plugged in, and it sounds good.

Anyway, I was introduced to their music by an ex-colleague a few years ago. I liked their easy R&B style but Japanese CDs here were very, very expensive back then. So after I touched down, I headed to a local CD shop Gramophone and found the set at 20% discount! A double CD plus a concert DVD set! That’s like from S$38 reduced to about S$32.

"Me? Mr. Nice Guy?"

This was certainly a pleasant surprise. Niki gave my blog a little Nice Matters Award. Reckon it's for the "nice and pleasant" stuff around here. Me? Mr. Nice Guy? Hee hee. Thanks a lot Niki!

All right, so here's what I gotta do. So I'm supposed to give a few Nice Matters Awards out too, sounds like a vicious cycle, doesn't it? This is a bunch of blogs that I read whenever I can and yah, they are NICE! Ha!

1. Imp and her Faerie Land. Always makes me smile, even for all the wrong reasons!

2. Lunch is served. Some of BEST damn local food/desert pix around.

3. Skinny Epicurean. Great food reviews and dessert recipes.

4. World according to b. One of the most inspiring blogs around.

5. Forbidden Planet. I usually learn something new whenever I drop by.

"I remember everything"

When I was in Japan last month, our host brought us to this little cafe by the roadside near Mt. Fuji called Cafe M. He brought one of my colleagues there earlier in the month and they all raved about how cosy the place is and how great the food is. So when I was there, we headed there again after our photo shoot. But the place was closed! I could only get this shot. I never got the chance to step in!

But guess what. I found the official website here! Even though I can't read it, the outdoors pix match what I saw and the little glimpses I took while peering through the window. It all looks so neat!


Well, the English football season starts tomorrow I believe and its been a year since I placed a bet. I have mentioned before that I have a wee bit of a gambling problem, I didn't place any bets last season so I'm pretty proud of that. Wish me luck this year! ;)

Remember that watch I got from Japan a couple of weeks ago? Damn! Setting an analog and digital watch together to match the time is a BITCH! I'm trying to get the minute hand to match the digital time exactly!

Saw The Bourne Ultimatium the other nite at the Heineken preview. Kinda enjoyed it. If you are a comic book fan, you would know what I mean when I say the whole thing reads like a movie version of Wolverine's (Weapon X) origin. Especially now that Wolverine has also recently regained all his memories, he even utters the same words, "I remember everything." in the comics. And he goes on this looooong hunt of everyone (and goverment) around the world who messed with his mind and turned him into a killer.

Alright, I need some help here. Can anyone tell me what this green leaf that you usually find in your sashimi is called? When I was in Japan recently, my host told me that it's edible. I never knew that. I tried it and it's kinda little minty and it's supposed to clear the palate. I been trying to find it online but no such luck. This pix is another shot I took while I was there.

"I'm not an ass man"

Now I'm really tempted to enter one of my flower pix in any local amateur photo contest. Just gotta find one somewhere I guess.

Anyway, got tagged by Niki with this little meme. Gotta come up with 8 random facts bout myself. Let's see, did something almost the same here. So whoever wants to give it a shot, go right ahead. All right, here we go ...

1. I always place a glass of water by my bedside when I go to sleep cos I usually wake up in the middle of the night thirsty.

2. I need to shave every morning otherwise (according to women I know) I'll look like some junkie.

3. I was once stalked by a beautiful but crazy woman.

4. I still get a kick whenever someone asks me if I'm Chinese or Singaporean, my mom's half Chinese. Doesn't happen that often now but it used to happen more frequently when I was a kid.

5. I'm not an ass man nor am I a legs man. I'm more of a pretty face kinda guy. I'll look at her face and front first, more than anything else.

6. I set all my clocks and watches at least a couple of minutes faster than the 'real', official time.

7. I like big breakfasts!

8. I can't drink alcohol on an empty stomach. I need to eat before I drink.

Now its gonna be our National Day real soon and guess what ... a year ago, I saw this wash pole flag hanging next to some laundry and this year on my way to work, the wash pole patriot strikes again!

"That's a pig's head in front"

It's an early Sunday afternoon and I have just finished vacuuming and mopping the apartment. Figured I'll post the last few pix from my Japan work trip now. Read that the weather in Japan got pretty rainy again after we left so I guess we were lucky.

Well, one minor crummy fact about the whole trip was the coming home to an empty apartment at 2am in the morning part. It would had been nice if there was someone waiting that I could share everything with, right there and then.

Ok, back to what else I did in Japan. I finally tried a bottle of Coke Zero. Didn't take any pix of it. Awww man, it wasn't that good at all. Just another bland carbonated drink with some carmalized taste to it. Will difinitely not buy when it's launched here. Now here's a big ass coffee vending machine I saw in the airport, complete with a little video screen too.

A couple of other vending machines here.

Now here's another great view from my countryside hotel room. This shot was taken at about 5.30am in the morning. I kid you not. Yah, sleep was not an option.


This is a cool duo that was playing outside Shinjuku station. Didn't understand the lyrics but it had a real melody and she's a pretty girl with a great voice, what more could a guy ask for? Was almost tempted to buy the CD.

I don't know what the hell this is but it sure looked real cute. That's a pig's head in front. See the little tail at the back?