Final Episode

important update: my flight back to Singapore is scheduled on 30th December 2006.

Flight No.: SQ67 / SIN Changi Terminal 2
E. Arrival Time: 1900 hrs

there you go. if you read this then good, if not then too bad.

now playing Literati on Yahoo! Games with Shirley, Stradford, Michelle and Umar.
heh. not bad. quite fun to kill time literally.
and since we are about to go back to Singapore, its fun unlike any other kind of fun. playing games in office rocks!!! hehe.

Minna no Nihongo Part III

life is just starting to turn into Better Street when it met with a dead end with a 'No U-Turn' sign pasted right smack in the middle of the road.

important update, i might and should be going back latest by 31st of December 2006 because of a new law by Thailand Immigration to have a work permit for training. this is called a 'loophole' and we are caught right in the middle. whoever knows this might happen? and i'm not saying this to anyone in MSN. heheh. well, maybe a few of my close friends.

i find it rather annoying when people come up to me and say, 'what sia, come home never tell.'
excuse me? do i need to tell the whole world? my God. not that i'm not being reasonable. its just the way i think. nothing personal.

i found the possibility of having a re-entry and possibility of extending our stay for another 30 days under the visitor/tourist stamp. but nonetheless i think the school rejected the idea. the fastest way was by air to KLIA since the surrounding countries around Thailand is deemed to be of danger for us. now we are instructed to return by 31st December by our Liaison Officer. the problem is now having seats for the flight back with the peak period of New Year looming round the corner.

what a letdown. that's the reason why i hate having contingencies. it gives me the feeling of unpreparedness and lack of confidence. i'm the type of person who knows what i want, when i want it and how i want to get it done. so there's no room for contingencies. a perfectionist somesort.

first was that coup d'état right before our departure to Bangkok which postponed our flight by 1 week. now, there's this unexpected law that some goon invented which just slapped our faces head on and reducing our stay here by 3 weeks!!! 3 WEEKS!!!! angry le. not only that, we still have to report back to IGroup's Singapore office at Kaki Bukit. Techlink Building. not that i'm complaining, its just a pain to get back home from Kaki Bukit.

right now, i have to plan out again on what to buy for all you evil people out there.

the worst thing is that i have to cancel my Pattaya trip and have to come back another time.

Cherries Make The World Go Round

good morning!

Google Earth is a pretty nice tool to start charting out landmarks if you're an avid adventurer or just starting out on carthography. the free version can be downloaded at the Google Earth Website.

just so that you know, i have a 5-day holiday for New Year's Day. not exactly 5 days. technically, its only 3 days and if include the 2 days of weekened, its 5 days. so its from Friday, 29th December 2006 to 2nd January 2007. and the best part is i'm going to Pattaya from 30th December to 2nd January!!! with the other 5 TP interns including Stradford and Zhencong. i already booked the hotel we are staying which is at Peace Resort, Pattaya. booked with my Platinum Mastercard since they need a guarantee for the booking i've made. actually i wanted to make use of the Platinum privileges at Aisawan Resort & Spa. check it out at Aisawan Resort & Spa. they have a 40% - 50% discount for Platinum Mastercard holders. but the thing is, a basic room costs about USD$172++ excluding tax and service charge. well, who can complain? it is a luxury resort.

the Peace Resort had us below 900 baht per pax for a good 3 nights including 7% VAT and 10% service charge. i also took a peek at Sheraton Pattaya. it costs a whopping 80,000++ baht for a 3-night stay for 3 person for a terrace suite with a garden villa with an oceanview. i would go here for my honeymoon or for a short holiday when i get married definitely. =D
i don't mind spending the money. really!

i booked the 'Standard non-poolside room' which is abit outrageous because after that i calculated that we would be only be paying SGD$1+ more for a deluxe room per night!! oh well.
anyway, i had called the travel agency up for the details so it should be okay i guess. the confirmation should be in my mailbox latest by today or tomorrow.

and in somewhat old-current news, 'wider income gaps among Singaporeans'
i found this article in Yahoo! Singapore News which read,
'Income gap tears at Singapore social fabric'.
there is without a doubt as explained in the article. people would then think, is this the life of an elite high-class family? if that is the case, then i wouldn't want my children to grow up in ignorance of other people's plight. this is not the kind of country i would want to live in. just because you can get to a good school and have a so called 'elite' education doesn't mean you can just dismiss or even have the right to ignorantly comment.
there's this saying, 'the more intelligent you get, the more dumb you will become.'

the truth is when you are out there in the world, no one really cares who you are or what you have done. it doesn't matter anymore.

oh oh oh! and guess who is Izumi Morimoto? i'm sure some of you have seen it in my MSN display name sometime. i will not tell who... wahahahaha.
no, i'm not in love with her don't worry. i just like her name very much.

anyway, in Bangkok for the past 2 days has had cool weather. whereas in Singapore i heard has been raining since Sunday. the cool breeze is oh-so-nice especially in the morning. oh well, i'm looking forward to the New Year Pattaya trip!!!

have a nice afternoon.

Mid-December Syndrome

weekend's almost over. in fact it already ended.

we had dinner downstairs at the Orchard Restaurant and i ate spaghetti carbonara with chicken. and...i think i'm beginning to like playing table tennis. all thanks to Stradford. i'm able to fairly well do some top spins and i kinda like it very much!!!! maybe i should play table tennis more often!! hahahahahaa...

so anyway, we didn't go anywhere for the weekend. just only some grocery shopping yesterday at Tesco Lotus. bought some frozen stuff and the sorts. seems i have been eating some 'rubbish' food all week. now i understand why too much potato chips are bad for health. so starting from tomorrow, i will live healthily and dedicate 30 minutes daily to run on the treadmill!! man, i seriously need to exercise more. just that i don't exercise enough and not that i don't exercise.

yesterday night, i found out how painful it was to sleep on the floor. Umar slept on the bed, Michelle didn't sleep, Shirley slept at around 4am, Stradford around 4am too, Zhencong slept at 6am i think. me, Shirley and Stradford slept on the floor. hahahahahah!!

i'm so tired now. exhausted i think. better get some rest or else i'm going to look like an ape tomorrow at work folding my arms and sleeping. i did some weights today and some 50 jumping jacks so i'll be pretty much going to do more next week.

good night everyone, and tomorrow is the start of the new week. cheers. =)

Over The Sea Part III

more insight on yesterday's visit to Suan Dusit University.

the 7 of us sat around this rectangular-ish table drinking cold Milo, when khun Kittipong, the General Manager of IGroup, opened up small talk with us about getting Thai girlfriends. he said getting girlfriends is just like a business; need to know what are the market trends and the sorts. what are 'marketing' strategies needed, etc. he's a nice guy for a General Manager. hehz.

the school itself is quite huge with a school of culinary all by its own building. there's also an arts school. though i'm not very sure how many schools there are but Suan Dusit University is for those who wants to become teachers. so it is pretty self-explanatory why they have the best and modern technologies in their sprawling campus.

so much for adventures, the next couple of meetings have been postponed again at a later announced date. well, i'm left with like 5 more weekends to enjoy. its been a blast but i'm looking forward to coming home.

and by the way. i love you. mwah!
haha.

Arai-na?

vices and virtues. the unique defining traits of each and every living soul which spans the entire galaxy from the simple micro-organism to the vast cities infested with...humans.

Homo sapiens.

the 2 most important things we thrive and live on.

today was the much awaited second visit to Suan Dusit Rajabhat University located off west of Bangkok. A fine University provided you could speak and write well in Thai. doh~ =P
we went to work dressed up in formal and we went off from the office at about 9.15am. me, Umar and phee Chok took a cab which took the toll-ed expressway to west bangkok. Michelle and Shirley followed phee Kwan and khun Kittipong in khun Kittipong's car.

we arrived at the Suan Dusit about 30 minutes later. went to the library which is only about 4 storeys high. waited for the rest and found out they were having drinks at a nearby kiosk downstairs. me and Umar bought some drinks too then we all headed up to the Conference Room. the three of them had to present the powerpoint to the staff of ARIT of Suan Dusit Uni which was rather long i think. i just sat in the middle and i was the only one sitting in the middle. felt good a while there imagining i was the president somewhat. hahahaha... =P

even the glass had the logo of Suan Dusit. we had iced water and coffee with some bread during the meeting. the meeting was mainly in Thai which i had really no idea what they were talking. seriously i felt like.................. -_-"

finally at lunch, everyone brightened up a bit and i ate this yellow rice with chicken in some gravy which was nice!!! for about 25 baht. and they used a swiping card system for purchases. in fact, its a trend here in Thailand. you exchange some money like value in a card then you can buy whatever you want as long as the card has value in it. its a pretty nice way of eliminating cash-handling.

and i 'hijacked' Shirley's camera to take some photos of Suan Dusit because my camera was in my laptop bag which was inside khun Kittipong's car. nice going. oh well, i did take some pictures with Shirley's camera.

and here i am back in the office wasting the day away. i'm doing some quizzes to just pass my day really. maybe i'll post some links in the next post.

till then. make the world a better place and be thankful that you always have someone to count on.

and by the way, let's watch a movie together some time eh? or maybe sit down somewhere by the beach. i haven't seen the sea for like 2 months already you know.

byeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Single is Good, Double is Better, Triple is 'Da Bomb'

its been really a while since i've updated. and i have an explanation!!

my D: drive of my laptop well, it had a broken partition while i was transferring some free space back to C: drive. but my Windows is working fine. just that my oh-so-precious data had been partially lost. i managed to save 6GB of my music but lost 4GB of music. but i had saved all my pictures and some files. whew. so that was a big relief. though heartbroken.
that was last Friday.

last Saturday, me, Umar, Stradford, Zhencong, Shirley and Michelle went to Siam Paragon!!!! the first time the 6 of us went out together in town to catch a movie. we took 2 cabs to town and we'll be meeting at Siam Paragon's Burger King. me, Stradford and Zhencong took the same cab and got off at about 100 odd baht. and which we had walked to Siam Paragon because of the lousy traffic. we reached first and messaged the rest to give us a ring when they reached.

so it was the 3 of us walking around Paragon first. when the other 3 had reached, we had lunch where i had bought a 234 baht meal of a Triple Whopper!!!! heheh. the burger is so humongous that i have to really give is a good pressing before i could fit it into my mouth. hahahahahaha!!

for about a SGD$9 worth of a meal. why not eh? that would last me the entire day without eating anything. hehz.

after we had lunch, we bought the tickets for the show; Death Note 2: The Last Name. and the best thing its not even out in Singapore yet!! haha. oh, nevermind. i didn't see the first part anyway.

the theaters were at the 5th level of Siam Paragon. so we got on the lift and we actually got off at the other end of the level 5 concourse and had to walk to the other side where the theaters were. we walked through this super huge convention hall with an another one even larger inside through the large doors. think of like a super grand ballroom about the size of 3 halls at the Singapore Expo.

we got to the theaters which the entrance looked like.....this.

mind you this is only the entrance and not the theaters yet. Siam Paragon; for your info, hosts a staggering 14 theaters on its 5th and 6th floor. largest i've seen so far and it is pretty impressive.




Umar,Stradford and me queued for the tickets which costs around 160 baht for the middle seats and 200 baht for the back seats. translates to about SGD$6 and SGD$8 respectively.


....and here they are!!!!

6 tickets for the show Death Note 2: The Last Name.
we're seated on the 'F' row.







oh and we bought popcorn and drinks too! and me, Shirley and Michelle decided to share the 120 baht combo. for the popcorn there was the classic type, the sweet type, the cheese type and the salmon-flavoured type. which i found out later the latter two to be extremely weird. i still preferred the sweet type because i think i am a sweet person. hehz. okay, that's extremely random. but you get the idea. =P

i wonder how one could forget all their sorrows while watching a good movie with a bunch of good friends with some good popcorn and drink. eat, drink and be cherry. we don't live young for long before we get old eh?


oops. i meant 'merry'. ahahaha. okay, i'm just messing around with rhymes again. oh and i'm so bad. i know. sorry Miss Cherry!!!! gomen ne hontou ni.




so far, we had a pretty good and interesting weekend here on the 10th week of OSIP. now its the 11th week and we only have about 5 weeks left. we usually don't go anywhere on Sunday because we would be resting at home and do some laundry. YES! i do my own laundry, i wash them by hand, hang them up to dry and i would iron them out. so to you people out there who haven't invented something, this is a good time to design a portable washing machine!!!! maybe you could make travelling a whole lot easier. and to think i 'kena' travel from Ramkhamhaeng 36/1 (Ramkampeng sahm-sip-hok) to Sukhumvit 21 (Sukhumwit yee-sip-et) to Serm-mit Tower to the NEC service centre. its a bit of a pain in the neck during cab rides because the roads here made me have motion sickness just two days ago. what was i thinking? the NEC service centre couldn't even backup or restore my hard drive!!! and Sukhumvit isn't just next door, its bad enough i went there 3 times costing me 600 baht of taxi fare to and fro. and the best thing this week is i've had some mixed dreams of bad and good. man. and about the same person for 3 consecutive nights!!! what is the world coming to. no, its not the world, i think its me.

and, i got to meet Thailand's top table-tennis player last Monday!!!!!!!!
woohooo!! she competed with Li Jiawei of Singapore too.
she's good; i meant the Thai player. saw her training intensively for a competition next week. they have like young players from as young as 7 years old to start playing the sport full-time.
they have lots of talent that even i at that kind of age was still learning how to write a full proper sentence on a straight line. hopefully, i'll see them on TV someday.

yesterday, we went to The Mall to have dinner at KFC. again. but this time with a greater purpose of buying Michelle's MMC phone memory card. i ate a 3-piece Original chicken with 2 pieces of Zabb chicken drumlets a.k.a spiced chicken, 1 large glass of Pepsi and a box of fries. after which we went to the electronics shop to buy the 1GB Kingston MMC card after which we went to Auntie Anne's to buy some Almond pretzels. Umar and Michelle went to Chester's Grill to get his burger. i waited with Shirley for the pretzels. and i noticed some Uni girls walk in to the non-partitioned shop; Baskin Robbins. the girls went to sit at the back of the shop at first.

i, for once, unknowingly stared at one of the girls. not surprisingly as she's quite attractive. then they started to move out to move closer and closer to where i'm sitting. i dismissed it casually. and again, they moved again this time about one table away. then that girl i was staring at before sat facing away but the friend kept looking at me and giggling something to her. the other friend was buying some ice-cream. then they stood up. giggle some more, and whispered and whispered and kept looking at me. i was like, 'uh-oh.'

Shirley picked up the pretzels a while later and i got up to walk to Chester's Grill and gave a last look at the girl. she was like, kinda waving and smiling from ear to ear. which i shrugged off. and i know!!!! wasted a chance to get her number!!!! but its okay, i won't be here for long for her to remember my name. in any case which i already have a darling back in Singapore. ahahahahahaha. i wonder eh?

okay, time to end this. its going to be lunch time soon.

Minna no Nihongo Part II

i have absolutely no idea why i have been coughing lately.

i don't think its the food i eat or the drinks i had. the weather? or the time i sleep?
this week was a super-tiring week with most days having to sleep at 2am and waking up at 8am. fatigue has overtaken my sense of time and judgement. i fell asleep in front of the computer several times for the past 3 or so days. and i'm getting sick of sitting in front of the computer all day.

and purple is a gay colour. and i think i'm beginning to behave more and more like a girl.
because i..... i......... shall not say it!!! hahahahahaha!!!

i wanna have a pet kitty cat. kawaii. but training and maintaining would be a problem because my mum and sisters don't like cats.

and also i've been having bad dreams lately. just this morning i woke up with my heart racing like mad. i could feel some adrenaline rush. and just yesterday, when i fell asleep in the office, i dreamt i had leaped off a 13-storey building!!!!! when i landed, i woke up shouting like, "Ahh!!!". you get the idea. and had my head spinning for the next 10 minutes. imagine that. but somehow, i managed to put all those bad dreams aside and continue with the day.

my current favourite music tracks:
Tata Young - Call Him Mine
Paris Hilton - Nothing In This World
Mariah Carey - Dreamlover
M2M - Pretty Boy
M2M - The Day You Went Away
Nobuo Uematsu - Vamo' Alla Flamenco
----------------------------------------

trust my taste for once. okay?
they're easy listening songs.

today, actually we all planned to go and watch Death Note 2. well, its postponed to tomorrow since we would we going to the Thailand Games Festival at Siam Paragon. then we can watch the movie there too. ticket costs around SGD$5 and they have something called 'Movie Buffet'. for a mere 500 Baht (SGD$20+-), you can watch any movie at any time for 1 week. yes. you can watch as many movies as you want, when you want and where you want as long as its operated by the same theater company. now that's style. though i doubt i could watch the movies all week. i've got work! i wouldn't mind if i'm on holiday here for 3 months though. heh.

anyway, i'm left with 6 more weeks here. excited to go back home. excited to tell my family and friends about my adventures here. and i'm longing for my bed back home. i think i missed Filet-O-Fish. lost count how many times i said that.

oh oh!! and yesterday night i was talking to Yoko. after so long. talked to her till about 2am. lots to talk about. and she told me something i didn't understand. wait wait, let me get the message.


本当 に 面白い人 だね!! 超良い人♪ 笑い がとまらない ょ。

hontou ni omoshiroi hito dane!! chou ryoui hito warai gatomaranai yo.

Yoko is very cheeky. wahahaha. she said to study it myself. and i did!!
but i don't know the meaning of the second part.

first part means, 'you are really an interesting person.' then the second part is quite fuzzy, i picked out, 'good, person, laugh' or something. help me translate!!!!!! but i think i got the idea.

see? japanese isn't that hard. once you've spent about SGD$1,000+ learning it over a period of about 1 year, its quite amazing i think. nothing's impossible if you do it right.

and now the wireless connection kicked me out!! sian sian. have to use the LAN connection. don't know whether the router kicked me or my wireless card ran out on me. either which i simply can't connect back. luckily its nearing the end of the day. later on, Stradford and Zhencong will be coming over again for the weekend.

so this entry marks the end of weekdays and start of weekends in this lovely country called Thailand. enjoy your weekends people!!! and eat as much Filet-O-Fish as you can before the fish runs out in 50 years. its true! =)

さよなら。

Te Dijo Te Amo. Cereza Dijo Te Amo.

male chauvinism.
as defined in Wikipedia,

start quote.

" Male chauvinism is the term used to describe the belief that males are undeniably superior to females. The word "chauvinist" was originally used to describe someone who has a fanatical loyalty in one's country. The word was later applied by the "women's liberation movement" in the 1960s and used to describe men who uphold the belief of female inferiority.
The slur "male chauvinist pig" has been reclaimed by some men as a jocular personal rebuttal or tolerance of such accusations. "

end quote.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_chauvinism

no no, i'm not a male chauvinist pig. ermmm....no i'm not. humpf!
why am i talking about it anyway?!

i was looking through some articles in wikipedia when i stumbled upon the word "chauvinist".
now i know something more to it. well in any case, it does remind me of 'male chauvinist pig'. i wonder why.

yesterday, i bought myself a Futsal black t-shirt jersey together with a pair of track pants. it costed me about nearly 800 baht. which is around SGD$32. and thinking i bought new arrivals apparels, i guess it was worth it. the brand was a national sponsor of Thailand's national athletes. it has this nice set of Mazda-like logo of a 'bird'. and the theme of the event was, "Cheer Thailand!!!" which is self-explanatory and considering they've done quite well in the recent Doha Asian Games 2006, they have taken pride in what they have achieved.

Singapore on the other hand, leaves me quite disappointed in their performance. and that is all there is to it.

during lunch, i ate seafood kway teow. and basically that has been my diet practically every week. chicken, seafood, beef and rarely fish. then i would add some 'chili padi' which i found to be pretty spicy but still it adds some taste to the otherwise very bland mee.

usually the food here costs around what? 20 - 35 baht. because i usually have a sunny-side up egg added on. on several occasions, i would have a bottle of Pepsi which adds another 10 baht or so which isn't so bad. i miss Singaporean food!!! Nasi Lemak, Mee Rebus!!! wahahhah. and especially McDonald's Filet-O-Fish!!!!!!
is there someone who wants to FedEx to me here?? please......?
haha.

in any case, life here is good. i'm very well thank you very much. =)

alright i'm logging off now.
stay happy, be happy and make the world a better place.

あいしてる。でしょう？

hello all.

well technically, tuesday was yesterday. i did go out but only to The Mall. ermm, actually..... i wanted to go and see fireworks can?
the rest was lazy. i sian-ed.
saying the place is far and crowded is just a lame excuse.
i mean, c'mon!!! how often do you get to see fireworks overseas?! i was just too disappointed lah. if given the fact i was alone, i could've just taken the cab myself. but well, i'm just way too disappointed. but on a bright note, New Year's coming so i will make sure i go. alone if need be. just because i love fireworks. =]

so just now i had to just keep myself contented sitting at my couch watching it from a not-so-nice angle in the balcony. i kept saying things like, "This is pathetic, if we were out there, it would've been much better."
okay, you could say i was quite pissed. i was actually.

on early Tuesday, or rather at 4am, there was a fire opposite my apartment at the side of the road. it was in a slum. the slum apparently caught fire and well, burnt the nearby greeney as well as destroying about two power posts. i took some photos but my memory card died on me yesterday saying there was card error. i was like......'errrr, i didn't do anything wrong!!!'. so i had to reformat the card. so all the data i took was gone and i can't remember what was on the card. but i know it was also recently reformatted. just that i had none of the pictures of the fire. but Shirley took some also.

oh well, its getting late. guess i should sleep.
nite. おやすみなさい。

あなたに会えなくてとても寂しい。

Miss, May I Have This Dance?

its a curse to know everything but yet its a shame not to know anything.

i feel today is like a slumber day having to wake up at 8am. maybe its the sleep i'm getting. having to sleep about 5 - 6 hours of sleep everyday is already bad enough.

anyway, we had Stradford and Zhencong over at our place again during the weekends. we didn't go out as we usually would but it was high-time for gaming. seemingly, it was rather boring sitting in the apartment all day. it was quite depressing really. i'm a person who could not sit still in one place doing nothing for a good ten minutes. though sometimes i can be pretty quiet. but that's not my point...

oh ya! yesterday night, we were having dinner among the 6 of us down at the restaurant below, the CEO and founder of Igroup who is known as Mr Lee, the company i'm attached to, was there having drinks with some people. we waved to him while entering and eventually settling down at a long corner table. and we were talking...talking...talking when the CEO went up to our table to say hi and everything. and well, before that, we were joking if he was going to treat us again like the previous 2 times we were there. and guess what!? he did really pay for our dinner. all of our dinner!!! he's a friendly guy and to think on first glance, he didn't look like any wealthy man. never saw him with a shirt on. always saw him in Polo t-shirt and smart trousers.

we went up to him to thank him afterwards.
guess it was our lucky day.

anyway, i'm starting to get really homesick. and i miss......McDonald's Filet-O-Fish student meal. i can't eat the McDonald's here. crap.
and i miss school. those who ever said that working is better than studying is totally mistaken. maybe its office work that i don't like. i don't like sitting in an office the whole day just to sit in front of the computer. i just can't stand sitting down. hehz.
get it?....stand while sitting down....?

and today, guess what? i absent-mindedly have forgotten to bring my earpiece!!!!
and that means no music for one whole day! urgh!!
but i can live with it. =D

tomorrow, the 5th of December, would be the King's birthday. 79th birthday if i'm not mistaken. there would be fireworks and i really do look forward to it.
i love fireworks!! they're the most beautiful thing on earth besides a flower. =]
はなび。

i'm sure to get lots of photos. =D
till then, i just want to say...
i miss Filet-O-Fish.
and school. hahahahahaha.

Cherries Don't Blossom in December Too

sweet, sweet December.

and yesterday morning, i had cut myself whilst shaving my moustache.

literally, it ripped off the flesh on my lower-right portion of my left cheek. the 3-blade Mach 3 Turbo took a bit of my flesh. it had sliced the wound wide open and though now it doesn't hurt as much.
first it sliced my flesh, i could feel the pain ripping through the nerves up to my brain. then about 10 seconds or so, blood started to drip. i just mumbled a, "Hmmmmm.........." thinking why it took so long for the blood to drip out.

this morning, it rained lightly but well it stopped before 9 so we made our way to work. while on the way, i saw a little toddler girl donning a red kindergarten uniform walking with her mother. kawaii. haha. i wonder how long more i could get my own daughter. hahahahahahaha!!! long way to go.

and so anyway, i had a rather disturbing dream last night. but all's well. i think.
slept quite late yesterday and this bloody zit above my lip is killing me.
i think, i should start sleeping early. as early as 11pm.
a little more sleep goes a long way to be healthy. and surprisingly i was awake since 6am. from then on, my sleep was on and off until 8am. what time i slept? 2am.

thinking of new solutions to current problems.
Ultra-Short Term: Return safely to Singapore
Very-Short Term: Think of a Flash solution
Short Term: Finish Polytechnic education

Long-Term: Get into a University
Very-Long Term: Establish an aviation career
Ultra-Long Term: Live overseas with family
-------------------------------------------------

in other words, i want a happy life. =)
who wouldn't?

i'm looking at scholarships or study opportunities abroad.
well, the possibilities are in France, Germany, Japan, US, Canada and Australia.

Minna no Nihongo

i'm not really sure why nowadays i have this craving for chocolate.

i used to hate chocolate back in secondary school. haha. really.
its not like me to have a craving. it doesn't happen often. in fact, it rarely happens.
the last time i had a craving was when i wanted to eat grilled salmon.

the next time i'm going for grocery shopping, i'm going to buy myself one whole cart of chocolate!!...or more!!! or maybe i'm just thinking too much.

and the office is super freezing now.

ohh and my eyes feel so tired i caught some 5 minutes sleep.

and the office is still freezing!!!
this is bad. my body reaction to super cold air-con temperature is to shut down to sleep mode.
my mind will go to a state of mental freeze. really.

and i think... i'm logging off soon.
i can't seem to connect to the wireless connection and thus have no access to MSN today.

bleargh.

Shirley Whirly In ShirleyLand

oh, it's already Tuesday. 28th of November 2006.

i'm doing some research for the FlashPaper's API. its just way out of my ability. i'm used to like Object-Oriented Programming for games. now i'm doing on interfaces which i suck at. but, i will try my best, rest assured. =)

oh yes, and in last 2 previous entries, i asked, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
the answer is very straightforward; because there were no cars.
simple right??

yesterday night, we went to the Mall, Bangkapi to meet up with Stradford and Zhencong. Stradford and me went to look for Happyland Soi for his table tennis stuff. its kinda weird if someone named a street, Happyland. the irony was when we got there after asking directions from a street hawker, we got chased away by about 5 agitated dogs. i started to turn and tried to run but Stradford told me not to run. the dog could've imagine bacon running away. *phew*

so anyway, it was a about one kilometre north of The Mall. for the first time in months i had sweat running down my back. and we took a cab back to The Mall. walked around abit before settling down at KFC. and we had our dinner there.

last Saturday, remember i went to Seacon Square?
well, we stopped over at a CD shop. and there was this over-friendly guy tending the shop. i was like minding my own business. then he asked me whether i had a girlfriend. i replied a curt, "No". then after a while, he asked me again, whether i have a Thai girlfriend. well, i don't want to sound rude so i replied, "No." while smiling. bad move.

so the guy asked me again, whether i wanted to get to know a Thai girl. i was like, "Uhh, nah, its okay. really. i'm fine."
then after a short while, he called 2 girls over. and he called me again to the counter.
the guy asked me again, "Want to know Thai girls? here... this one is pretty."
the girl was already like laughing.
i was like, "Uhh... nonononono.... i'm fine really."
the thing is, i don't really mind knowing them.
but obviously, the two of them are just average-looking and were probably high school or Uni students.
and again, i don't want to be caught with my pants down and end up somewhere in the red-light district and land myself into a whole lot of trouble. so i refused politely, saying i need to go off to Tesco and buy some stuff.

morally correct. and again, some despo guys would say to me that i'm crazy to refuse to accept such good offer.

indeed, some things are too good to be true. that's how it goes.

oh and yesterday, me and Umar were standing at the entrance of The Mall, waiting for Stradford. we just couldn't comprehend the fact that Bangkok has a ratio of 3:1 of women to men. for every man i see, i could expect to see 3 women. maji de kawaii daro!!

in my office itself, there's like 6 men and 10 women. not exactly a ratio, but you get the idea. Bangkok is a nice place to live in, if you don't mind the traffic's air pollution and traffic jams to town.

i'm so sleepy today. knocked off a few times today.

and it seems weird reading a Japanese book, listening to French music while talking in English.

Because We Are The Best Of The Best Of The Best, Sir!!

i had a bad dream last night. it was just surreal. it was fused with Mario, the game. its not that funny and that's for sure. and i had overslept till 8.50am.

i think i drooled while sleeping this morning. my pillow was like abit wet. frankly, it was a nice change from sleeping on the floor during the weekends!! but well, i was abit late for work though and that was that.

i'm beginning to forget things quite periodically now. i don't know if its the food diet i'm having now. but it seems to have quite affected my mood lately. i don't have mood swings but the surroundings will affect me. i haven't been eating fish i think. fish is good for the brain especially those containing Omega-3 fatty acids. i shall play more Sudoku!!!

seriously, i have no mood to talk today.

maybe its because i miss someone?
heheh. think so. must be la!!

alright then, have a nice afternoon.

Two's A Company, Five's A Party

last Friday, Stradford and Zhencong came over to stay in my apartment. finally, we have some Singaporean company. we met them at The Mall's KFC. we had KFC for dinner.

Shirley was abandoned. poor thing. so we kinda 'adopted' her for the weekend. we had bought some stuff and munchies and a pack of poker cards. guess how much the poker cards cost at 7-Eleven? 8(eight) Singapore dollars!!!! EIGHT FREAKING DOLLARS!!!!! oh wells, Stradford had paid for the cards.

imagine 4 guys and a girl living in 1, 100 or so square metres of space. we moved the living room table to the side, i still had my TV table. Zhencong had the sofa and the rest had the floor all to themselves. we had such a good time. didn't sleep the whole night till about 5am. we played a 4-player N64 Mario Kart racing game on 1 laptop and i was the winner of 7 of the 16 races. and we also played poker with peanut currency which i sucked at. and we played Blackjack. again with peanut currency and i got in total 63 of 65 peanuts which made me a winner again!!! i think it was just beginner's luck or whatever. well, the rest was kinda down when i won most of the time. so.....we played Heart Attack. hehz. Heart Attack is this game of Jacks, Queens and Kings cards. a person has to get like 4 of the same kind to freak out, 'Heart Attack!!!'. then we compiled our hands on top of the winner's hand and the winner would smack the hands through. if you got hit, then you would have to reshuffle and redistribute the cards.

at 5am local time, we've had enough fun. so we slept on the floor while Umar got the sofa. me, Zhencong and Stradford got the floor all to ourselves.

Shirley slept in the bedroom alone. doh~

we often joked with her, "eh, its a record that you are sleeping with 4 guys in the same apartment."

she will just laugh. hahahaa.

Saturday morning, we went to Seacon Square. i was making a debut wearing my colourful Doraemon t-shirt. and i saw like 5 or 6 people too wearing Doraemon t-shirts. but the thing is, all of them wearing are girls.

we took a look at the upper levels of Seacon Square. there was a huge tutoring centre, a huge mini children's playland. or whatever it's called. a taekwondo learning centre, a music school and an arcade. the 4th floor has a enormous, spacious cinema. its like, WOW!!!!

take a guess what this shop sells?
kawaii deshou?





the shop to the left sells almost all the lovely plushies that would otherwise be super-difficult to get a hold of in Singapore.


here is all the 5 of us. took a while before we started the fun.
on a bright note, i was glad that we had company over the weekend. from the top left, me, Shirley and Umar. the bottom two are from left, Zhencong and Stradford.

i can see Zhencong closing his eyes when the photo was taken!!! hahahahahahahaa.

today, we slept earlier; at about 2am. we played billiard at the billiard room and we ate late lunch at the restaurant below. and that was it. tomorrow starts a new week. how dreadful but i'm always looking forward to a new week. =)

have a pleasant evening everyone!! =)

Boys Rule, Girls Drool...

and all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me.
for all the ghosts that are never gonna catch me.

today as we got to know is one of the company's employee's birthday. so we went to have lunch at the previously-i-did-not visit place to eat. it was like, further away from the office about 2.5 clicks. and could you imagine what i ate. i ate crispy duck's mouth. wahahahahah!!

there were some other dishes, it was like MK. steamboat and all. and during lunch. and i'm still hungry. though there were mostly vegetable.

we took 'phee miao's boyfriend's car. the three of us excluding Michelle. the rest took a taxi. lunch was on 'phee miao. because its her birthday. ahaha. 10 days away from my birthday but 10 years older. its amazing most people i know their birthday is in November. November babies!!!!!

we came back the same way we went. they dropped us in front of our office. and we're back! =D
though not that full. but its fine. at least we got to eat "Thai style".






the dish on the left is called, 'soon thum'. frankly, i don't know how to spell it. but honestly, its spicy, sweet and sour at the same time. it has sliced onion, cucumber, chilli, cashew nuts and carrot. not bad.



another one. don't have to explain. the picture below is self-explanatory. for layman people. its a fish coated with some peanut sauce. i'm not sure what fish though. but its nice in a class of its own. cheh!
oh well. looks enticing. no?













and i think. that's all the pics i can post. you know me, i know you. and i'm just plain lazy to post up more. hehz. right, so in an awkward way to end an entry. have a nice afternoon! =D


oh! and here's a sidenote, look at the cat lazing below Shirley's chair when we were eating.














oh oh oh!! and another thing. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
the answer i shall post up tomorrow. the true answer. =D

わたし に むすめ の ３人 が ほしい。

its been a rough night. so bear with me on this one.

yesterday evening, we ordered Chester's Grill for the umpteenth time and i totally lost count of the deliveries made to us. i had my standard option, Spicy Grilled Chicken with Rice, 2 Chicken Burgers and 2 Hotdogs. well, it was for the upcoming 2.30am next-morning match between Werder Bremen and Chelsea in the Group Stages of the Champions League. and i thought it would be great. but ended up ugly. i slept when the match started!!! that's like 3.30am Singapore time.

and guess what time i woke up for work? 8.50am. nice~
and what time do i start work? 9.00am. nice~

***--- waltzed off to lunch ---***

but we made it to work safe and sound. we saw Michelle and Shirley coming from the BPS main building; told us that we need to sign some bills. so we headed out to see Chana. i signed the 3 bills and we headed back to our office. we had a mini presentation for what we have done so far to Dr. Aung. (initially i thought it was Ong!! paiseh.)

just now after coming back from lunch and 7-eleven, the parked truck was getting ready to move off when a dog squealed loudly. the truck's tires went over the dog. actually just its tail. but its like what the heck!? it was so loud lah! all the surrounding people were looking. by then, the truck driver got out and drove off. and we thought the dog was dead!!

i know i'm a bad storyteller. just for today okay pumpkin?

but it was still alive. it was like not moving its limbs but was shivering in shock. i mean, who wouldn't be? if a seven-ton truck ran over your leg while you're chomping down on your lunch, would you even dare to stand up and say, "i'm okay mates!, no worries!". i doubt so.

fine. so we walked off, occasionally looking back to see if the dog's okay. well, it seemed okay. after a while it moved off from the spot. i think it broke the bones at last bit of its tail because it seemed to be like bent. dang, even though i'm not a dog fan, surely i felt sorry for it.

and i'm still waiting for my baby daughter. i want a baby daughter.
its just random. hahaha.
but i want a daughter. daughters.

if i had 3 daughters, i will send one to a martial arts school to become a master martial artiste. the second one to become an academician. and the last one to military school become an officer in the army. and 1 more optional to become a professional gamer. i think it will create a co-prosperity sphere. and thus eliminates comparison between results. which will lead to unhealthy competition and rivalry. just a thought i think instead of all being academicians and like all common folk; will compare amongst the siblings.

i don't like comparing. i don't like to be compared. that's why i fail my Social Studies comparison questions. heh.

honestly, 1 son is enough. just for the sake of carrying on the generation. an alpha male would suffice. and i'm like light years away from these sort of things. oh well, there's no harm in long-term planning. everyone's got to have some goals they want to achieve right?

i think. i would wanna live in Monaco. its a relatively peaceful state south of France adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.

My Title Is Totally Random

a lovely and wet morning in Thailand.

i saw 3 vans from UBC TV making some footage down at the street below this morning. all were wearing red which i can't figure out why. maybe its because they were filming the slum nearby. but why red? because.......red....is.....fierce.

in view of the recent GST hike to 7% back in Singapore. frankly speaking, i don't give a good cent about it. if PM LHL wants to make PAP a family business; fine. that's his problem. but to make the people of Singapore pay extra tax to upkeep his dynasty, that's morally wrong but then again, politically sound. what do i mean by political sound? look at it this way, economy is rising. so what it means generally is, some smart alec in Parliament says, 'Hey look, why not make the people pay more tax to support our children's studies abroad and to give out more scholarships to "Foreign Talent"?'.

honestly, i don't care if they bring these so-called, 'foreign talent'. but what impact does it have on local taxpayers? one would think, 'I pay 7% of tax everyday for my bread just so the Government can bring some 'unknown' sports player from somewhere just to win a bloody gold medal in the Doha Asian Games?!'. this just doesn't justify that expense. its just absurd and ludicrous. or ridiculous or however you call it!!

i mean, c'mon!! give us Singaporeans a damn bloody break!! that's like another 20 cents for just a plain prata. and another 15 cents for a 'kopi'. i'm not making a fuss out of nothing, this is simply just too absurd. a 40% increase from 5% to 7%. my god. if my memory serves me well, in the early 90s, when GST was first introduced, there were plans for the GST to hike till 10%. i'm saying were because at that time there was yet an economy boom and way before the 'dot com' boom. i was in primary 3 back then. as you might've guessed, i'm not an ordinary kid on the block eh? heheh. (sidetracking....but who cares?)

of course, i wouldn't really mind that extra 2%, because as far as i'm concerned, by the time i finish my graduate studies in my late 20s, most probably i would live somewhere else. for your information, i'm not being ignorant, i love my country and to see it grow up from nothing is just amazing. but its the entity making it grow will be the cause for its downfall.

---*** stomped off for lunch ***---

right....so i just got back from lunch and guess what? i think i'm attracted to the girl at the stall we went to eat just now. okay, my fault. i shouldn't have gawked at her so much. and to think she shouldn't have flaunted her hair like that. call it staring or whatever you'd like. she served my fried egg and that's all there was to it. okay, fine, i'm attracted to girls who like to flaunt their hair. =D

ey! its not my fault Thai girls are pretty! oh whatever. quit whining.

heh.

right now.

oh dammit, i can't stop thinking about her.

stop it! okay bye!!...

C-Ch-Che-Cher-Cherr-Cherry!!!

good morning Thailand!

for those of you who didn't know. today, is the 21st of November 2006, with a bright and lovely morning but hey, life isn't always a bed of roses. i almost certainly didn't want to wake up today for sure. not that i'm not a morning person, the room looked so stark and dark that made it unknown whether the Sun was shining or not.

Thai children are almost and most of the time are very adorable indeed. they're not like Singaporean tykes as i know of. Thai children, from what i see are well-behaved, hardworking and are full of courtesy. not that i'm saying they are perfect. almost. once or twice i saw children assisting diligently which i presume is their parent's business. the ones i saw are helping out in the alternative F&B business; 'side-street hawkers' are a little bit too rough a word in a country where this have become a family livelihood. so let's get back to my point!!

i will spend the next 2 months here. 8 more weeks to go. and this week, my visa is due for renewal. so are the rest of the Thailand OSIP-ians. found the place in Google Earth, i'm like a sailor or air navigator, plotting landmarks and marking them with names.

oh, Stradford and Zhencong have already reached Bangkok last evening. i received a call from Stradford saying that he already reached his apartment. so, like and that was it. he was in the far south of Bangkok which could take about an hour or so to reach from where i am staying. and to think their living is just a single room. like, wow, consider myself lucky to have a full-sized apartment, a room and a kitchenette.

okay, somebody just farted in the room and it smells like........rotten egg!!! don't know who's the culprit. damn smelly. phuuuuwwweeeeeesssshhhhh!!...

oh well, then have a nice afternoon and day. =)

and i think i wanna adopt a Thai girl as my daughter! they're so adorable! no really. i think.

S-E-A-C-O-N!!

give me a S-E-A-C-O-N! what does it say? SEACON!!!!

saturday out to a shopping mall south of Kanary House which is about 5 times bigger than Plaza Singapura. and guess what? on the way there, i read something that said, "Seacon Square Cheerleading Competition" which i vaguely dismiss.

and yes. we were heading to the mall named, 'Seacon Square'.

and coincidentally, that day was the cheerleading competition in Seacon Square. wrong day to go sightseeing. why?

there were hordes of people swarming the place!! literally i mean.

it was like equivalent to a stadium when the crowd cheers!! there were like elevated seats and all. with people all over the side railings across all floors and they even have live telecasts on the TV sets in the shops!! how cool!!

and personally i think. the cheerleaders performing rocks and still rocked! the best i've seen. well, although most of the time we spent was walking around and eating at KFC. but nevertheless, i couldn't have explained it better, it was breathtaking. hehz. get what i mean?















so anyway, we walked around just 2 floors of the place and we were already tired. took a bunch of pictures of the place. it was nice!!!! really.

before we went back, shopped a while at Tesco Lotus. and we saw another KFC. there were like 3 KFC outlets itself in the building!! imagine that. but we went for Dairy Queen's Oreo ice cream. we took more pictures of Seacon. when we outside, we stumbled upon some side stalls on the overhead bridge and one of the stalls sells my-guess are unsharpened swords. from the full-range length of a katana to the mini-sized wazakashi. or is it wakazashi. or whatever lah. haha.

we caught a cab back to our apartment. and that was that. fun day it was.

and i believe its going to rain today. woooohhooooo!!! finally!!!!! it hasn't been raining much here except when the 4 of us just arrived in Thailand.


and just to update on myself, i got a new haircut. actually just a trim. okay fine, a haircut.
what more, oh and i can play Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. =D

ima, hora, chotto mite kudasai kono shashin wa.

it looks a bit odd in the picture. but you get the idea.

in any case, i think, i need to slim down abit....sukoshi sukoshi.
and.....have a very good afternoon. looks like a nice day to go for a stroll.

Best Years Of My Life...

5.....4......3......2.......1........

Happy 19th Birthday, Muhammad Ruzaini Bin Abdul Razak!!!!!

first and foremost, I, the sole author and owner of this blog, would like to thank the people who have wished me and going to wish me within the next couple of hours before 14th of November expires. you have my sincere-est of the sincere-est of gratefulness and appreciation.

from personal messages on the handphone and MSN to birthday e-cards.

well, what the heck, i'll just list down all the people who wished me. *taking my time.....*
they are in no particular order, so....here goes;

my parents & 2 younger sisters - Abdul Razak Bin Chichik & Rohayah Binte Abdul Rahman, Nur Diyana & Nur Rasyiqah

my cousins & relatives - Hizam and Syaheeda & family and Cik E!!!!!!! =D

my OSIP-mates - Umar, Michelle and Shirley,
my fellow same birthday-mates - Elvira, Mr. Joshua Liew,
my 2 lovely sakuras - Ms. Cherry and Yoko by e-card greeting; Cherry's funny, Yoko's cute,
and last but not least, my miscellaneous'; (no i'm just joking!!), my humble friends;
Lemuel, Miguel, Anujot, Raymond, Hadi, Wee Chong, Nurul Huda, Nurul Huda(2), Marlina, Sharon Yeo, Felicia and Rashidah.

PS: if your name is not on the list but insist that you wished me, by all means complain. and i'm sorry. =)
and as you can imagine, what's a birthday without a bash? me and my OSIP-mates decided to give me a treat somewhere. at The Mall, Bangkapi. at first it was Swensen's but they have no main course food menu so we decided to head to 'The Pizza Company' in all its glorious funky in-restaurant music. we were seated next to the window overlooking a live band playing on the ground floor. it was some sort of an open type of bar. since we got the free coupon for a large pizza, we decided, 'Hey, why not, order 20 pieces of chicken, a jug of pepsi and 1 medium pizza?'. and i was stuffed to the limits. i got rid of my fork and knife and ate with my 2 good 'ol hands halfway. to make it not-so-obvious i've been stuffing myself, i held my breath for as long as i got to the nearest restroom to wash my hands.

i was dragging myself into the taxi and back into the apartment. and since i promised or rather i said i would buy Michelle a chocolate cake, i took the liberty of buying a slice of the Tiramisu cake down at the apartment's Orchard Restaurant for her. and since i'm not the type of person who likes to back on my words. maybe not today, but i will get it done somehow.

once i got back to my apartment. Yoko was so sweet waiting for me in MSN!!!! awwww...~ so sweet..~
actually i overshot the time to meet her by like 1 hour. i lost hope when we were still at The Mall by 10pm. because in Japan, it would've been like 12am. wow, i was....utterless but grateful nonetheless. thanks Yoko!!! love you!! hahahahaaa. =P

no. really.

hahaha.

i spent the next 2 hours webcaming with her.

so in all, it was the best overseas birthday i have ever had and this being my first. i am...really grateful.

どおも　ありがとう　ございました　みんな！！

Happy 19th Birthday to myself, last year of my teenage life.

を　たんじょうび　おめでと。
o tanjoubi omedeto.

and if you have a very keen eye, this entry is rigged to 19:19. =)

Return Of The Kung(Shrimp) Heroes

okay, first order of entry. i know its been a while since the last update and i am fully aware of it. thanks for your concern.

last week: Umar's dad and 2nd brother came to Bangkok, Thailand for a short holiday. they arrived on Thursday and stayed through to Sunday.

we went to The Mall, Bangkapi again at night after work. on Saturday, we went to Chatuchak weekend market; see my link somewhere within the past few entries. pronounced as 'ja-tu-jak'. however fortunate or unfortunate, it was so hot that you could ermmm.... bake a cookie without an oven? yes, it was that hot. in any case, we took 2 different taxis. me, Shirley and Michelle in 1 taxi and Umar and his family in the other.

here's the good part; upon reaching. i realised we ended up alighting at the far west of the meeting point. and damn, the meeting point was quite a distance. with all the people in the bargaining-heaven. i would've known it would be impossible to reach the meeting place in 10 minutes. so i sent an SMS to Umar that we would do our own shopping. i bought some souvenirs and also.....a Doraemon t-shirt!!!!!! =D
well, its supposedly a 'jammy'(pyjamas).

finally under pressure from the super sweltering and blistering heat, i was like sweating like crazy. 1 rule of thumb when going outdoor shopping; never under any circumstances follow 2 girls shopping. of course, no pun intended. =]
at around 2pm, i 'surrendered'. i cannot take the heat. really. to add to the injury table, i was wearing jeans and shoes.

i was groaning like over a hundred times before the girls agreed to get back to the apartment. not that i was complaining, i was violating the dress code of outdoor flea market shopping. not forgetting i was carrying the bags. that weekend market is just too big to finish within 1 or 2 days.

later on at night, we were due to go grocery shopping at Tesco Lotus. bought some foodstuff and groceries. there and that, it should probably keep me with food at least until the end of the month. very interestingly, when Shirley and me reached Tesco, there was this group of people doing aerobics to beats of some music. the thing is, they weren't even following the music beats. Umar's dad sponsored to purchase a rice cooker for us. so like, we can cook rice now!! well, at least we tried and burned the bottom of the pot. not like we are unskilled, we were chatting on MSN when we smelled something burning in the kitchenette. hahahahahahahaha!!! =P

while we were getting ready to separate into 2 cabs again, one stationwagon cab allowed us to squeeze 5 of us into the cab. and mind you, me and Umar could take up a 3 seats altogether. and including Shirley and Umar's brother, it brings a whole new meaning of 'jam-packed canned sardines'.

today, we will stay at the Kanary House's Executive Lounge. well, it looks like another long, long week ahead. eh?

cheerios.

Over The Sea Part II

halfway through the week. and week 6 at that for my OSIP.

i woke up this morning feeling abit happy. i talked to a few people yesterday. so felt fine. suddenly felt a need for speed. wait till i get my driver's license. when i reach back home in Singapore. first thing i'll do is find a driving instructor.

well, anyway i've been playing around with this Japanese social site called, Mixi. its a nice little website; with over 5 million subscribers. i registered through a friend and registration is only by invitation. well, almost 99% of the site is in Japanese and even i have trouble getting around the site. it has quite an impressive Japanese-speaking community and is full-featured site including music charts by genre, community news, blogs etc. just to name a few. anyone who wants to give it a shot, do leave me a message. overall on 10, i would give a 7. reason being there's no substantial English support for users like me. but then again, its targeted for Japanese users.
current news also report of a Japanese MySpace coming soon. so watch out for it.

oh and another thing, that little red G2 Ipod Nano. yes red! damn it looks good. but it wouldn't match my white PSP. and as of current, my PSP has become more of an MP3 player rather than a gaming gadget. i could've gotten a Creative Zen Microphoto instead but at that point in time, the PSP looks so sleek in white.

in other news, life here have been so quiet. been watching World Pool 9-ball championships in Manila on ESPN at night. its either TV or MSN. maybe i'll go swimming later. maybe. i'm just sick of sitting in front of the computer that i'll just fall asleep just looking at the screen. not common of me to do that. recently, i've been wanting to play sports or at the very least be active in some sport. maybe swimming. i'll still need to train my running and pull-ups.

have a nice afternoon.
この　を　てんき　は　いいですね。　じゃまた。

Sometimes The Grass Is Not Always Greener On The Other Side

sunday was dramatic, monday was 'dang, was it monday?'.

sunday; went to the Loy Krathong festival at Rama VIII Bridge. well, initially we didn't know how to describe to the taxi driver, so the bell-man or rather the security guard caught us a cab and went on to tell the direction of where we are going. a long taxi ride to the west of Bangkok approximately 1+ hour. didn't take long to realise that i had my PSP and started to listen to music.

so anyway, the taxi fare was about 155 Baht which brought us to the foot of the Bridge. we saw like piles of people selling the floating 'cakes' as i would like to visualise them. sold at different prices according to the decorations that were adorned. cheapest i saw was about more or less 29 Baht. seemingly, we ended up at the 'not-so-happening' part of the bridge. there were people but there were even more people across the river and they had like a 'Tampines Expressway-long bazaar selling assorted goods ranging from second-hand shoes to local food to clothing. and as the night kept on aging, it seemed like more and more people thronged the already-cramped place. compared to Geylang, this has got to be much better, except they were selling pork-balls for munchies. and we walked around, squeezing through every inch possible. at around 9pm, we got a cab back to our apartments and had dinner down at the restaurant and out of hope that other places were closed. and for once it seemed that skipping breakfast and lunch was a bad idea; it wouldn't gotten any more worse.

i was so starved that i ordered a Hawaiian Cheese Burger, which had a thick almost 2cm thick of cow beef, and a plate of Spaghetti Carbonara which i requested to put chicken instead. a hearty meal i suppose but well, suffering the effects of skipping meals; extreme hunger. not that i'm being a critic, but living healthily does affect daily moods. i'm a skeptic, not a critic...credentially.

so, have you done anything to hurt someone's feelings lately?
well well, now's the right time to say that forgiving but almost cliche word, 'sorry'. it does work most of the time. guaranteed 98% fool-proof. well, as most commonly used words tend to make a person quite agitated, maybe i'll emphasise on the word 'apologise'. doesn't take much guts or wrong-doing to even mention the word.

my my. yesterday's problem was the past. 'today is yesterday's tomorrow. tomorrow is today's future.' so let's start each day with a smile and make the world a better place. okay pumpkin? =)
its not a fortunate matter now that i have full control of my temper. no worries now.

play nice and everyone would be grateful.
which reminds me, 'when the cat is away, the mice will play.'

on a bright note somehow, TP got some new matriculation cards for students enrolled before 2006. and somehow or rather i don't even see the point. and to make matters worse, those collected after 14th December would be charged $15. like damn them!!!! how about OSIP students? i'll have to bring up this matter somehow. bright note my ass.

i know this is seemingly old news, but Google Inc.'s acquisition of online video-sharing site, YouTube Video, seemed very disturbing. 65(sixty-five) employees and 1(one) website worth roughly about USD$1.65 billion.
to make clear of how much that is worth, i could buy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, stock it up with about a base full of USD$35(thirty-five) million per piece of 60(sixty) F-35 jet fighters and a crew of 300 to staff the aircraft carrier for at least 1 year.

i would've used that money to build 10 spanking-new spacescrapers in Dubai. talk about spending power. sheesh.

guess i'll have a more formal update when i have the time and mood. MSN's been pretty quite with what the 'O' levels and school term.

and last but not least, i'll want to wish my sister a Happy 17th Birthday!!!! =)
mine's coming on the 14th. i wonder how am i going to spend the day. it'll be in office i guess.

talk about extreme birthday celebrations. does mine count?
oh, there goes 1 year of my youth.
have a nice afternoon. =)

Cherries Don't Blossom in November

in an age where nowadays its not surprising you can pilot a space shuttle with an MP3 player, i guess we are due past the atomic age. its a world ruled by silicon. in layman terms, silicon wrapped in cheap plastic which is stamped, 'Made In China'. welcome to the post-atomic digital age. =)

i have a plan. and i plan to go swimming at the pool downstairs later in the morning. i have been itching to go since after i finished playing badminton last evening. was playing badminton with one of the company staff and her boyfriend. then we only had 3 players including me, so Umar had to join in. Shirley and Michelle just sat down at the bench.

the people in Thailand lead quite a simplistic life here. unlike Singapore. of course, i could not base or disclose my judgement on just the way of living or the status quo between the two countries. Over here, its still a 'second-world' developing country. Singapore is a 'second-world' developed country. which reminds me, i haven't seen much cats around here. most of the animals roaming about are dogs. i've so far seen only 2 cats throughout my 5 weeks here!!

everytime after lunch, the 4 of us would go to the 7-eleven around the corner to buy some 'munchies' to bring back to the office. usually, i would buy a pack of butter bread, some bottled water, some chocolate and maybe sweets. all these cost more or less 60+ baht. which is most definitely less than $4 SGD.

i've run out of local cash but still have some Singapore dollars. well, not to worry though, i'll be changing them to local currency soon. its just weird. its not like i'm not adapting to the environment, life here is just slow. adaptibility is not a problem to me. oh swells. life is good.

last night for dinner, i had tom yum maggi (that's all the flavour they have) and i fried some seaweed chicken which was nice!!!! yummies!... =P

i guess, i must be losing my cooking touches. used to like and do well in cooking. but now sucked. but nevertheless!!! the chicken i fried was 'oishii'. though i still have some eggs in the fridge. some chocolate and a bag of chips in the cupboard. all in all, but no water! oh swells.

on a bright note, this coming Sunday, the Thais will celebrate 'Loy Krathong'. there will be some celebration at Rama VIII bridge. the 4 of us are going to see the sights and sounds of west suburb of Bangkok. whoooopeeeeee~~~~~
taxi's fare not that expensive if the 4 of us share the cost. my guess is about 150 Baht. and considering that on Sundays, the traffic here is less hectic than other days; public holidays included! i wonder why.

that's that i suppose. on a closing note, i would like to wish babies born on November a 'Happy Birthday!!!!'. my November calendar is packed with birthday alarms; mine included. my birthday? 1411. go figure. =)

that said, good night everyone.

Cherry Amino OK! (Its A Drink)

i don't know why i don't really often blog nowadays.

so anyways, the usual updates. last week was in office throughout the whole week. hari raya and all. it was good altogether. webcam-ed with a lot of people. it was nice. =)

last saturday morning, we went to the 2nd floor to go to the pool to go swimming; thinking there was sunlight so can sun-tan as according to Michelle. ended up the pool was blocked from sunlight! oh swells, i jumped in the pool first. then Michelle joined. Umar and Shirley went to the gym to run and do weights. i swam a couple of laps. there was no one else around. its as though it was a private pool. ahahaha... =P
after a while we went to the jacuzzi nearby with air jet outlets. lied down a while and it was super nice!!!!

okay so enough of swimming already!!!! next, we went downtown to 'Fortune Town', so called the IT Mall of Bangkok. we were looking at the prices comparing with Sim Lim back in Singapore. prices here vary actually. some cheap, some abit more expensive. not to say waywardly expensive, they're just priced a bit more like as in SGD$10 more. i was hunting for BF2142 and saw the Thai version which sold for roughly 799 Baht. which was about SGD$32. much much cheaper than the English version import. sadly i couldn't find the imported English version.

Umar was looking for games, Michelle was looking for laptop cooler. the IT Mall is actually the last 3 or 2 floors of the whole complex. the complex itself is a long complex by length. its shaped like a rectangle. so anyway, i was looking for cables for my laptop's S-Video port or VGA port to RGB cables. and i bought the audio convertor/ splitter to enable my laptop to play audio on the stereo speakers in the living room. the audio worked fine but the video didn't work; so sad!!. i suspected the TV doesnt support digital format because it is rather an outdated model; it still had an RCA port for the antenna. but well, it just didn't work out.

we had KFC for dinner but we 'ta-pao'-ed some Chester's Grill back. we took the cab back to our apartment. the taxi driver took the alternate routes back to Ramkamhaeng 42, Bangkapi. it was full of turns until i couldn't stand the sways. i had motion sickness for a while there. so while Michelle was talking to me, my head was spinning. round n round i go.

i felt better when we had reached the apartment. so, it was straight to MSN then sleep!!! for sunday. we just went to the Resident's Executive Lounge to just chill out the whole day. =)

and today, went to the office. did some Flash stuff and research. did the FlashPaper preloader and capturing of mouse positions. time flew a bit faster when we have work to do. except in the morning, i watched Doraemon The Movie 2006 on YouTube with Michelle on her laptop. =P

so.....today's thought about Bangkok. its a vibrant and lively city especially downtown. but as far as the city's outskirts are concerned, there are still slums and shelters for the homeless. like for example, the one where my apartment is overlooking across the street. in a bad situation like a thunderstorm about 2 weeks ago, electricity is cut off and they had to create a fire to keep themselves warm. do they have electricity to begin with? they don't even have a proper shelter!!! so, i'm pretty glad or feel so relieved i have a proper home here as well as back home.
kinda miss home actually. the frequent ez-links taps down in the stopping buses with alighting passengers. my ears are by now, already attuned to the different sounds they make by the different bus services.

i think i'll go read up on my Thai. ordering food is so hard here! humpf!!! XP

good night. oyasumi.

Happy ThaiRaya

Okay, tagboard is up again. Tag whatever.

in any case, i haven't been really updating. i'm having too much fun here. okay i'll summarise up just last week. office work 9am to 5.30pm. monday to friday. eat Chester's Grill, and more bread. and more bread. usually at 5.30pm here we would be going back to our apartment. stopping by 7-Eleven to buy some stuff. snacks? on Thursday, we had the dinner buffet down at the Orchard Retaurant. Though just to be safe, i only eat what i could eat. fried rice with garlic bread and ghoulash which is just cow meat with gravy, in other words, a Mediterranean dish. then come dessert, i ate 4 scoops of ice cream!!! 3 scoops of strawberry and 1 scoop of chocoloate. then on the top was caramel dessert. oohhh nice!! too bad i didn't have my camera with me. oh wells. i think i've been eating more than what i could lose. stress stress. i think now especially after finishing puasa, can start going to the gym and go swimming. maybe at the end of the week. =D on Saturday, i had promised to Michelle to accompany her go curl her hair at the salon nearby. i ended up oversleeping the promised meeting time. wahaaaaaa. i'm so bad. then she kept calling me bad boy!!! wahaaaahaaaaa. so apologise lor! i say sorry already. then stayed at the apartment's lounge the whole day. and we ordered home delivery from Chester's Grill through the reception counter below and went to the girls' apartment to have our dinner.

the next day, we planned to go to 'Chatuchak Weekend Market'. Uncle Gary, who is Michelle's father's friend who stays in Bangkok will drive us there in his car. whooopeee!!!! got transport, so no need to pay taxi. hahahahaha. i'm an 'el cheapo' dude here. besides, it would be great to have someone speak Thai and Uncle Gary's Thai language skills is very impressive. to think he is a Singaporean. =D

so anyway, we went early that morning at about 9.30am. Michelle went to the hair salon to have her hair re-curled and she was late!!! uncle gary was sitting in the lounge with Shirley. so then after Michelle came back, we went off to the weekend market in the pearlish-beige-brown Nissan Cefiro. the car ride was not that long. about from Tampines to Jurong not by expressway mind you. upon reaching, we had the car parked about 5 minutes away from the market. nearby was a market; a very expensive market but there was good enough quality seen in Singapore markets. so we 'strolled' down to Chatuchak under the superly blazing unbelievable hot sun beating down our necks. it was that hot okay!! until it became so unbearably hot that i was not able to endure the blazing hot sun and my throat was extremely dry. no choice, broke fast at noon. i gulped down almost 2 bottles of water including coffee and an isotonic drink and an ice lolli. as if that wasn't enough!!!!! it wasn't; truthfully speaking. it was hot, but not humid. it did feel as if i was sweating but it evaporated fast enough unlike in Singapore.

so anyway, i bought myself a semi-pirated number 13 Ballack Germany home jersey. it was 170 baht. so i suppose it was ok. then walked and walked and walked and walked for 3 full hours!!!! wooooooo~!! imagine that. so anyway, we headed back to the car, bypassing the market to buy some stuff, i bought desserts.


Thai dessert, glutinous rice with coconut milk and fresh mango














it looks nice and tastes nice too!!! then i also bought ruby red dessert. initially i wanted to buy just bananas but well, it didn't work it. =(

so we headed back to the apartment to have our dinner at the Orchard Restaurant down at the apartment's lobby area. we were the ones supposed to treat Uncle Gary his meal. it ended up with Uncle Gary paying by his credit card for all our meals. so nice of him. wahaha. that's not the best part yet. after that we went back to our apartments.

yesterday, Monday, we decided not to go out as it was a kind of a lazy day since its a public holiday. called Chulalongkorn day, commemorating the death of the previous King. kind of something like that. in the evening, the iGroup's company CEO, Mr Lee, invited us for dinner. well, the 4 of us were sitting in the lounge quietly sipping coffee and happily chatting on our laptops when he came in. "you all want to have dinner? come let's open table! c'mon, don't be shy, let's have dinner....", he said. we were enthralled at the invitation!!!! wuahahahahaaa. CEO inviting interns from Singapore for dinner. well, when we entered the restaurant, Mr Lee was sitting with other people, most probably Board of Directors of iGroup. then we chose a seat a table away from where they were sitting. Mr Lee introduced us to the rest sitting at the table. we sat down shortly and Mr Lee signalled to the manager of the restaurant to put our bill under his tab. cool!!!!

but we ended up eating Fried Rice with the sorts. i had crab meat. literally crab meat; not the cheapo factory mass-produced. after finishing our meal, we sat there aimlessly. so Michelle asked Mr Lee to excuse us to leave. he came over to our table and i shook hands with him thanking him for the meal.

all because Michelle wanted to curl her back because she ignorantly used hair-straightening shampoo when her hair was curled!!!! wahahaha. so okay, i accompanied her to make up for last Saturday's miss. she ran all the way to the nearby salon. me and Shirley walked slowly. Umar went back to the lounge. so when i entered the salon, the hairdresser was talking to Michelle, well kind of giving sign language in English. she couldn't comprehend our English and we couldn't comprehend their Thai. all i know was 'Medai, medai....' which means 'Cannot, cannot....' but it was the same salon Michelle went a few days back.

when we walked out of the shop, it already had rained. i bought some bread from the 7-eleven store adjacent to the salon. then we went to the next hair salon nearer to the apartment down the road. 'Nee Beauty' hair salon. this was much better because she wrote down what we wanted to know. the price to curl was 1,000 - 1,500 baht. the price depends on whichever brand of perm lotion that you wanted to use. so the lousy lotion was 1,000 baht and the more expensive ones had the Schwarzkopf brand. same brand among the two salons we went. so Michelle decided what she wanted to use and the kind of cur hairstyle she wanted.

and so begins the curling process which roughly took about 1.5 hours. in between, i took some photos of Michelle curling hair. wahahahah. she looks so funny. =P

after finished everything, we went back to the apartment.

in any case, today is HARI RAYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *cough* later going King's Palace for green ang pao *cough*. i'm webcam-ing with my family back in Singapore now as i'm typing. too bad this year no collection. oh wells. not a problem considering i might get at least $1,200 worth of internship salary. who says being overseas is not enjoyable?! you get pay and you are paid to enjoy the country. =P

now in the office surfing the Internet.

for lunch, we went down the street further along the main road. there was so much to see!!! and since it was my first time out for lunch since the end of puasa. i had kway teow with chicken. it tasted much like Mee Soto. seriously. the soup was thin and light. though there was no Halal sign. but what do you expect eh?

i also received some SMS and MSN messages too from my friends back in Singapore. and well,
thanks for the message guys, though not as much. but who cares. its the thought that counts. =D

happy festivities everyone. enjoy, eat, drink and be merry. you deserve it.

She Sells Seashells By The Seashore

now i know why i dislike office work.

when you have nothing to do, you really have nothing to do. 9am-5pm work can kill.

last Tuesday, we had a meeting at Suan Dusit Rajabhat University. we were assigned to design and implement a Knowledge Management portal. the University itself is quite big. with a farm, a bakery consuming nearly 100,000 eggs per day. that's about 3 million eggs in a month!! imagine giving each Singaporean 1 egg each.

so anyway, we bought some bread and cakes back. it has been raining ever so often here. very erratic weather. sometimes hot, sometimes cool. not as hot as Singapore i'm sure.

the past week is quite bored. didn't go out on weekdays. didn't go out last Saturday but we did go out yesterday. went to Carrefour to buy 2 weeks of groceries. spent nearly 850 baht. bought mostly foodstuff. come to think of it, most of the money spent is on foodstuff. compared to Singapore where we would spend money on taxi equivalent to what we spend on groceries in a month.

anyway, today i'm taking MC. wahahaha. got abit sick yesterday. everyone getting sick. Michelle got cough, Umar got nearly no voice, i got a slight fever and don't know about Shirley. wahahaha. but we are okay. i should be getting back to work tomorrow. =D

Thailand Also Don't Have Cherry-Flavoured Ice Cream

long awaited visit-to-MBK day.

we were delayed about 1 hour because we thought Michelle was still sleeping. well, so am i.

we took a cab there. it was like ok....take for example, Far East Plaza and Lucky Plaza and first 2 floors of Tampines Mall. add them all up together and roughly times 10(ten). we literally walked the whole complex within the day. just stopping to look at jeans since its first priority to buy some jeans. about 7 levels with the top level being a cineplex. they also have this deparmental store named, 'Tokyu'. its like Metro and Isetan selling the sorts. nothing much.

well, in the evening, we decided to eat at Chester's Grill. which has no 'Muu' a.k.a pork. so we ate and joked and eat again. after dinner, we had Dairy Queen's ice cream. i had Coffee Oreo which was okay i think. the ice cream was great!! and we went back to the apartment. so we headed back to the taxi stand.

what horrified us was that the cabs had their meters turned off!!! damn, we had to agree for a fixed price of 200 baht which was waywardly expensive!! their reason, in case of severe traffic jam. which was rather a stupid reason because we believed that there was no traffic jam. so okay, we went down the line of taxis waiting but none had working meters. it was drizzling slightly so we uninamously decided to just 'chin cai' take any cab to get back fast. 200 baht. damn expensive. reached the roads, and we realized that there was no traffic jam. On Sundays, there are rarely severe traffic jams. so, we were cheated. damn. luckily there were 4 of us. so it wasn't that bad.

went back and came online. i'll wash my clothes and after that play games till i sleep. so good night!!

Minsk, Volvograd, Ural Mountains

today is another rest day. just to save up energy for tomorrow's visit to MBK. shopping centre for 'el cheapos' for such tourists like us Singaporeans. well, not just Singaporeans lah, in a better way, for those with a tight budget.

anyway, today is a super slacking Saturday with clear skies. not bad. its just hot. but not humid, unlike Singapore. today, i think i will spend most of the time in the apartment and online. now, i'm thinking of what to buy as souvenirs. for myself only! see lah, never come to the airport to send me off. some people still say want 'something'. 'something' my foot ah! ok la, those who got talk to me in MSN, i might consider. "cheese fries"

so there. today is a nothing-gained day. i did read up on my Japanese and Thai. so, just to sharpen up abit.

D n D; Do Not Disturb

Friday, another slacking day. seriously nothing to do. well, i did some reading though.

today, we spent the whole day simply rotting at the office. from 9am - 5.30pm. forgot to wake up to eat at 4am. so was starving the whole day. even Michelle and Shirley were reluctant to eat lunch at the roadside stalls.

we also ate dinner at the apartment. cooked up some curry chicken and my mum's peanut sauce. wahahahahah. finally. eat with bread. ok la. can slim down.

so anyway, i will spend the night playing games. nevertheless, you won't see me online for a couple of hours. =P

bye!

Password Swordfish

Office-closed day.

today Shirley and Michelle came up to our apartment to compile our resumes. until evening time, and actually we wanted to go to the steakhouse opposite to have dinner but it was like pouring outside. we ended up eating at the restaurant down at the lobby. i ate just Chicken and Crab Fried Rice. we spent the whole evening eating and taking some pictures. laughed at Michelle and Shirley's funny photo we took last Monday.

we didn't go out today. we all felt tired and wanted to sleep. so after we went back to our apartment. and we were online throughout the night. nothingness seems good for a while.
nothing much to write about today. except i woke up at about 1pm local time. Bangkok is an hour behind of Singapore. so there.

Cherry Mobile Inc.

i installed Medieval: Total War to play on my laptop. and Warcraft III: FT.

2nd day of work and we had a meeting at 10am. we were briefed on the project we were assigned to. it ended promptly just in time for lunch. but we just stayed in the office. just surfing the web. and doing nothing, again.

from that point onwards, we stoned all the way. but we were told to submit our computer skills list to Phi-Kwan tomorrow. but then she said that the office would be closed tomorrow for electrical maintenance, so there was no work, then we would submit to her on Friday afternoon.

today, we went to Big C, which was somewhat similar to Carrefour. but we went only for groceries. on the way back home, there was like a major and huge traffic jam. Thais were like patient in times like this. if in Singapore, the taxi drivers would be grinning with glee. the jam was super long, minimum time was like 45 minutes. it was about 190 baht shared among 4 people. so it was ok. in Singapore, it could've been like $20+. damn those Singapore taxis for having that $2 surcharge.

so anyway, reached the apartment and went online. webcam-ed a while then wanted to sleep or rather i think want to play some games because there is no work tomorrow. hehz. but i think i will stay in the apartment tomorrow.

numero uno

2nd day in Bangkok,Thailand.

1st day of work.

today, was much more of an introduction day of the 2 offices. nothing much. we were shown our desks on the 2nd floor. 4 of us are sitting adjacent of each other. like 4 in a row. Shirley, sitting on the extreme left, then Michelle, then me, and extreme right is Umar. we didn't bring anything. just my PSP.

we went to the various departments introducing ourselves. and apparently they couldn't pronounce my name, "Ruzaini". so, they called me "Muhammad" instead. so back to our desks. we had nothing but a Ethernet LAN cable. absolute nothingness on the table!!

but we were told of the nature of the project we were assigned. tomorrow, there would be an official meeting with Mr Somsak.

so basically, we did nothing for the whole day, 4 of us were joking around, taking funny pictures with Umar's and my camera. then just 'stoned' the whole day.

in the evening, me and Umar broke fast and then we went to Siam Paragon for sightseeing with Michelle's mum and went to MK. heh. "MAK KAU". hahahahahahahah!!! no, i'm joking. Siam Paragon is a place which can conquer Singapore's Paragon times 100(one hundred). the place is damn huge!! but its a place where most foreigners would flock to. so anyway, we walked around the place. then went back to the apartment. Michelle's dad's friend, Uncle Jerry, sent us home in his car. he also showed us Carrefour. which was literally down the street of Ramkamhaeng.

reached apartment, and went online. nothing much. then slept. =)
おやすみなさい。

over the sea

flight day for OSIP Thailand.

woke up at 4am to eat breakfast and did final checking on the things to bring. well, actually there's nothing much i can check since i already checked a few times last night.

i got ready to go to the airport at about 6.30am. took 2 cabs there. my dad and me in the first and my sisters and my mum in the other. reached airport at around 7.30am. then went to row 12, Malaysian Airlines' check-in counters to have a sit. my 2 aunts came shortly after to see me off through the gates.

waited for Shirley, Umar and Michelle to have our baggages checked in. some of our MWC coursemates went to see us off. Auji, Marlina, Peiling, Hui Shan and Anna. the rest all.....Missing In Action? so disappointed. but nevertheless i'm grateful to those who came. thanks guys.

so anyway, we checked in our luggage at around 8.40am, talked abit. went around talking till 9:40am. took pictures and everything. then it was time to go into the departure gates. after immigration, we waved a final goodbye. all the family members got swelling eyes already. so ok, i cannot bear to look. so waved and just walked off. walked to gate F58, which was like way FAR. so took the Travelator. or was it. a moving platform in other words. waited a while before boarding the plane. had our hand luggage checked before entering the holding area. my aunt was still with me until i was inside the holding room. flight number SQ62.

when we did boarded the plane, we quickly found our seats. i had the window seat so life was good. i took some pictures inside the plane too. i shall post them up at a separate location soon this weekend. watched the movie 'Click'. and the last 5 minutes during landing, i was playing Nintendo Pokemon Yellow Version on the KrisWorld entertainment system.

after the plane had docked, we 'deboarded'/'alighted' from the plane, we had to walk quite distance at the new Bangkok International airport. the new airport is way bigger. its HUGE!! the decor was pretty nice. the immigration was quite a long wait for foreign passports but it was okay, not too long. after we passed Thai immigration, we claimed our luggage from the belt. no delay though because i think the immigration process took away much of the waiting time. so collected the luggage and went out to the greeting crowd. there was a hell of a crowd. like superstar. well, considering there was only 1 exit out of the Arrival Hall. we found our liaison called 'Doraemon'!! hehz. he's a funny guy.

there was this circular swiveling door encased in a compartment. it was transparent. but when we entered, for some reason, the swiveling door jammed with about 6 of us with our luggage inside. damn suay. we were stuck in for like 5 full minutes. then the officials we like trying helplessly to get it working again. we waited for van to take us to our apartments.

we had to sign several documents before entering our apartments. it was a 1-bedroom type with 1 living room, 1 dining area, 1 kitchenette with 1 attached bathroom in the room. it was pretty big for 2 occupants. today was our free day before work tomorrow. so we decided that, since we had nothing to do and the internet was only available at the lobby lounge and the room internet was not yet activated, the 4 of us decided to go out to Carrefour to get groceries. we had to ask for directions from the reception desk. so we took a cab. and.......we ended up at 'The Mall", Bangkapi because the taxi driver apparently got confused. taxi fare was 35 Baht. $1+ SGD. for a 2 km ride. "The Mall", they don't name it like that for no reason. take for example, Tampines Mall, comparing it to "The Mall", the latter is like 10 times? if not 15 times bigger. take my word for it. its big. we ate KFC which sells only chicken in any case. kind of weird ordering in English to the cashier. so i used sign language instead.

earlier on, we went to buy some groceries from Home Fresh Mart. kind of like NTUC. prices were cheaper by a small margin. but still cheaper. then after eating dinner, me and Umar went around to find 3 pin adapter plugs. all our plugs were 3 pin and all the AC sockets here are 2 pin. even the TV is 2 pin!! without the adapter, we couldn't charge our laptops, phones. 2 vital equipments when overseas.

we went back to our apartments to use the wireless at the lobby for a while before our battery ran out. and we went to sleep for work next day.

Air Service Medal

"Hornet Lead, clear to taxi."
"Hornet Lead, you are cleared for takeoff, switch to burners."

off from the USS Ronald Reagan in an F/A-18E Super Hornet.

if totalled the hours i played aircraft simulation since Primary 4, i would've clocked more hours than a 2nd year Air Force pilot.

planes i flew: (in no particular order)
F-22 Raptor
F-16 Viper/Fighting Falcon
F/A-18 Hornet
Fokker 50
AV-8B Harrier Jump Jet
MiG-29 Fulcrum
Su-24 Fencer
F-15 Eagle
F-35 JSF
Tu-22 Tupolev
Boeing Concorde
Boeing 747
Boeing 777
Boeing 767
Eurofighter Typhoon
Supermarine Spitfire
A-10 Thunderbolt

helicopters i flew: (in no particular order)
RAH-66 Comanche
AH1D-Cobra
AH1Z-Cobra
AH64-Apache Longbow
UH-1 Huey
KA-50 Hokum
Mi-25 Hind D

so there. anyway, i've stopped flying like 2 years ago. but i still dream of piloting that coveted plane of all. the USAF SR-71 Blackbird.

now there's that Airbus A380. ohh, so sleek. then there's that roar of the F-15 Eagle's engines.

i'm soooooooo sleepy now. 4:00am. time to eat soon..........

Crown Prince Zainio Bond Montgomery Hidotoshi Charles II

*important update on my OSIP departure. please skip if you're not interested. thanks. it'll help save some bandwidth. really.

is it just me, or is it time just travels too fast. anybody knows how fast time travels? no, i don't want the calculations. just tell me in kilometres. how fast does time travel in an hour. go figure the maths people!!

27th September 2006, is the day, that i went home by bus alone. how uncool. but that's not the point. anyway, on the 26th, Monday, as i was riding on the bus back home, i noticed a lady walking and having a hunch on her back. then, walking opposite of her direction, was a bright, brilliant, cheerful, young careerwoman probably around 25, walking jubilantly and the way she walked was......so elegant. well, my point is, its quite sad really when i compare the two. it bothers me so much. i don't know why till today, its still bothering me. its not like i'm related or anything. i just have this thing for aged people.

what lies on the beach ahead is immortality, take it, ITS YOURS!!!!!!

the problem is, we age too fast. the tagline of life, you can never be good in everything. sometimes in order to do something good, you have to do something bad.

oh yea, i didn't know where i heard that latter phrase. it came from a movie. anyone knows? please put a comment below. thanks. much appreciated.

3 more days till my departure day. 2nd Oct 2006. flight time is 10.40am, SQ 62, Terminal 2. that's all. come if you want to come. well, if you don't, then at least send me some regards!!! no, i'm not joking, i'm serious. some just don't know the value of friendship.

its like from a speech i remembered, all-weather Singaporeans, sunny Singaporeans. or something like that. go figure. seriously, some people just try to push their luck on friends. i abhor that for your information and....i repeat...and i will not hesitate to take the necessary precautions. if i hadn't straightened my thinking, it would be like this, if i lose 1 friend, i have 6.5 billion more friends that i can make around the world so who cares? go figure. its like that. so, please. don't try to make things difficult. these kind of things are best settled by unarmed combat.

so anyway!! on a brighter note, today's the 4th day of puasa. Empat haribulan Ramadhan. its a good time to test yourself on perseverence, selflessness and moral courage. above other things i'm sure. some people may think, are they crazy starving themselves for a full day?. i assure you that this is not craziness, its a test of our faith to OUR religion and above else the Creator of this world. i shall not condemn the people because, that's not what I believe in. therefore, trivial matters like this are best not to be discussed openly and publicly. i have my principles, and i have my priorities. so good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. that's that.

today's a hot and humid day if you ask me. i was woken up by those kids from the primary school nearby at the bus stop making such a ruckus! it feels as if i was sleeping at a night market seriously. if only i had a recording. then, about a few donkey minutes later, the rain poured down!! woooo!! was that heaven helping me or what. it quietened down a bit. maybe about 5 - 15 decibels. it IS that loud okay. i can't even hear the vacuum cleaner in the next room. i was just so......frustrated? well, in any case, i gave up closing my eyes a while later. so i got up, and went to the kitchen to see what my mum was cooking.

i realised that. my mum is the best cook in the world!!! i'll make sure that when i get married, i'll have my wife learn cooking from my mum. wahaha. i don't care whether japanese, chinese, korean, malay, thai or caucasian. must learn cooking from my mum!!!!!! but well, i don't really like to force people, so that's really fine. apart from that, maybe i want twin daughters. hehehee. this evening when breaking fast, after that dinner, there was a comb of bananas on the side table. well, most interestingly, there were 2 twin bananas. 2!! its like 2 bananas somehow they were combined into 1 skin and 1 stem. my mum said, old beliefs states that whoever ate twin bananas, they would get twin children. well, i'm not really into these kind of stuff but what the heck right. they're just bananas. not saying that i don't believe it. well, but there are some precaution though. never under any circumstances eat both the twin bananas at once. well, old belief states that your child might become 'enjoined'(if there was such a word) just like the bananas. you have to split it into 2 then eat it.

well, my mum ate the last time, but she said now, 'where got twins?, don't have!!'. ahahahaha. funny la she. then my sisters all laughed. =P

so anyway, from that moment on, i watched some TV. wanted to go for a haircut. but the barbers' close at 9pm. then i realised it was 9.30pm. i thought it was still 8pm. i'm so bad at tracking time. but i'm good at telling time. cool eh?

that's all for today. time to get some sleep before 4am. then next morning, i'm going to trim my hair abit. its kinda messy. its good for the OSIP trip too. FIRST IMPRESSION COUNTS! damn to whoever created that phrase. oops!! can't curse. have a good night to you, reader.