Time

Timing was critical. The minute we had been called upon, we were prepared and ready to go. Dressed totally in black, my partner and I were the main people in this operation. In terms of experience, we had the most; in terms of knowledge, we knew the most. So it was only logical that when information arrived that the bomb was found in the State Bank, we were called upon to deactivate it.

Unfortunately, from the description we received, the bomb seemed to be very different from the usual. It was box-like, not small, and attached to the ground. Some white fumes were seen coming from it. My guess -- concerntrated sulphuric acid and potassium metal.

Loading our equipment into the van, I fumbled with the mobile phone that was given to us. We set off. On the way, more information came in. It was at the basement of the building, just beside the elevator.

"This is going to be fun," commented my partner with a laugh. "If it blows up, hundreds of people will be killed. It'sd be more amazing than the Bali blast, with this at the centre of town." My partner, in order to hide his nervousness, becomes sarcastic in the face of danger. Not that he was timid, of course, but adrenaline does strange things to him.

Noticing my response, or rather the lack of it, he went down to business, packing and checking all the required equipment as the van sped past all the crowded areas of the city and to our destination.

Running out of the van and into the building, I was relieved to see that it had been totally evacuated. Taking the stairs, my partner and I reached the bomb, only to see that the digital timer was ticking away.

There was a minute left.

I paused, staring at the box.

"What are you waiting for?" my partner shouted anxiously.

"I have seen this somewhere before, and no one has ever detonated it. Luckily, the last time it was off in some deserted place. It is very potent." Opening up the left side of the box, I could the see classic features of a time bomb -- the three coloured wires. One was to activate the bomb, the other for the timer, and the last one to the battery that the timer was running on to set off the bomb.

"Thirty-five seconds left," reported my partner in an unnaturally monotone voice. Fumbling clumsily with the wires, I still could not figue out which was the wire to cut. My partner bent down, also struggling to figure out how the wires were related to one another. A solitary bead of sweat found its way down my temple.

"Twenty seconds," he said, his voice now slightly tensed. There was twenty seconds left. My brain screamed for me to work faster. Faster! The cutter was already out. It was just a matter of cutting the right one. But which was the right one? I doubt the terrorists would have stuck to the colour codes but what if they did? I tried to take a closer look at it.

'Ten seconds," he said, his voice trembling with fear. We still could not decide which wire to cut. Hands trembling, I held the cutter to one of the wires and then at the other, and then another.

"Five seconds! Bloody hell cut one! Any one!"

I chose red.

And the thing blew up in my face.

3

It's amazing how, in the space of a day, I came into contact with 3 of my best friends. We bonded very well in the institutions that we went to, and how much things have changed since then!

I went out with one of them for lunch at Raffles Place just before going to work. He always manages to tick me off by being later than me no matter how late I am, but that being the norm, has allowed me to get so used to it that after a mere 30 seconds I'm able to let it pass! Having lunch almost weekly is part of our effort to stay in touch. Of course we're planning something crazy - something along the lines of night cycling - but we're pretty sane in general. We looked around at some of the Fossil bags that were on display at their roadshow before having some juice at Boost. It was a great deal because he still had one-for-one coupons! I'm grateful for his company because although it certainly isn't as exciting as meeting once in a long time, the frequency makes sure we don't miss out on what's going on in each others' lives.

I was supposed to meet with this other friend who is leaving for Australia tomorrow for 10 months. We were supposed to meet after I finished work. However he SMS-ed to tell me that he was caught up by something and would only be able to meet me at 1130. I was relieved that I could squeeze time out for a shower and a short rest before meeting him. I popped in the DVD of the OC to entertain myself till it was about time to leave the house. Halfway through though, he called and told me that he couldn't make it. He was speaking in hushed tones and I couldn't really make out what he was saying but the gist was that he couldn't make it. I pretended that I wasn't bothered but my mind was thinking otherwise.

I'm the kind of guy who's selfish and afraid of rejection, especially when it comes to requesting for others' company. People ask me out, and I accept or decline. It has always been the case. I would rarely put myself up for rejection. I was still in disbelief as I wondered what to do with the DVD I bought during my lunch break which was supposed to double as a birthday cum going-away present.

Shortly after the show ended, I received a call from another friend, whom I haven't been in touch with. The frequency that we meet up is terribly erratic. Since we've graduated from which was about 5 years ago, there were a couple of years I didn't hear from him and all, and other times when we would go out in a group. He asked if he was being a bastard by calling when he needed someone to talk to, to which I replied that he wasn't, and I haven't gotten in touch with him either. The most ironic thing was that he felt I was the one who knws him best when all those years ago I actually took offense when he said no one understood him.

We talked about the usual kind of stuff - girls, money, job, future plans - all very briefly for about 30 minutes, and ended the conversation with promises to meet up soon for a real chat.

It's funny how people who were close once managed to make such a huge impact on a simple day, and how different they each turned out from the seeds of friendship.

Ni Guang

Being the crazy fan of Sun Yan Zi as he is, Ryan acquired her CD on the day it was released in Singapore. And I must say I had some very slight doubts about our listening party, because I like Sun Yan Zi edgy, noisy, and different - Dong Shi, Lu Guang, Zhi Lai Zhi Wang, Man Man Lai, Di Yi Tian and Shen Qi are the few misfits that I can name off the top of my head. They stand out amongst her vast repertoire of ballads and represent a fun side of her that's not well represented by her songs.

Thus, after dinner, we made our way to the library at the Esplanade and with the backdrop of the dazzling hotel "The Oriental" behind us, we popped in the CD and had our first listen of the entire album.



We discussed lyrics and gave individual songs marks. Most of the time though, it was silent other than for the music that was coming out of the earphones. It's a freaking library afterall!



A couple of songs caught my attention, despite being ballads, which I usually fall asleep to. I like something dramatic and complicated; basically songs that require technique and are dark. Which is why it repulses me reminded of the fact that songs like Lao Shu Ai Da Mi and Tong Hua made it big. My Top 5 from the album are Ni Guang, Xu Yao Ni, Wo Huai Nian De, Piao Zhe and Gu Ji Gu Ji, which turned out to be another outstanding misfit.

I like them so much I've been listening to them everyday before going to work.



And so after you've seen Ryan's version of against the light, this is mine! Haha...

Another Haircut

To me, it looks like a scene straight out of one of those Jay Chou movies. And it's not a sight I see often anyway, at least not in Singapore. Nowadays, it's foodcourt, foodcourt, foodcourt.

Wee Lee and I went to Malaysia to get our hair cut. We stopped by at this place for lunch.



The food, was delicious, but by no means not expensive. We headed to City Square and I was quite surprised that Thomas and Guys had no customers! Wee Lee reminded me when we last came, it was just before Chinese New Year and everyone wanted to look their best. It's great that this time round we could just walk in there without having to wait, and not know when it'd be our turn.

The haircut was as great as the last time. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot. I think getting a haircut should be one of the great pleasures of life. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating but after getting my hair washed and all, in that moment, it felt like all my troubles were washed away too. A cliche metaphor, but that's exactly how I felt then! Ben gave me a rather good hair cut once again, but he kept hinting that I had more white hair than the previous time I came to visit, which of course couldn't be true (and I've asked almost everyone else). I think he wants me to dye my hair there. I've told him that I would, just before I enter Uni.



Feeling very satisfied with our hair, we went to buy tickets for the movie Stomp the Yard before going to Sweet Receipes for a quick drink. Wee Lee went to fix his specs and we went to catch the movie at Cathay Cineplexes. The seats were real high and comfy. Kinda like a throne! Haha...

The movie was good, more on it next time if I have the chance. It's better than the average dance movie.



And this is what we saw on the way back. I was wondering how troublesome it would be if you had your bike parked right smack in the middle. There doesn't even seem to be enough room to get the thing out of there!

Also, we almost got mugged. But I'm in a rush... so I want to do the story justice. Another time! Haha!

New Day

I rub my eyes before opening them to a brand new day
I hesitate, before typing what I want to say
As much as I want everday to be a blast
And live like each one was my last
I am trapped in my schedule
The relentless routine.

When every page of the story seems to look the same
I wonder if my life deserves to be this plain
Drowing in the pursuit of materialistic wants
When all I wanna do is dance
I am trapped by society's views
Having to work by its rules

I wish I could tell myself that every day I wake up to is magical
And that every moment alive and breathing is one to be cherished
But there's no escape from the monotony of all our busy lives
And that some moments are just passing time
As I struggle to hold on to good moments that come to me
And the special ones that I help to create for myself
The unpredictable things that happen and try to bring me down
Sometimes get the better of me, like now

I try to make sense of all the little disappointments
Learn from them, and brush them off
Don't expect to much, surprises will come your way
I wish that you'll have your share of it today

Discipline

"Sit down. Sit down. No! Not that! Try again. Sit down. Sit down! Oh," I sighed. Shouting commands like that had made my throat dry, my voice hoarse. Yet, I was determined to instill discipline upon it.

"Come on, be a good boy. Sit down. Sit," I said, trying my hardest to be patient with the stupid animal. Frustrated, I barked the command at the white and fat dog, but it continued walking around in circles. What was the stupid dog thinking?

The owners had complained that their dog excreted around their bungalow, causing nuisance, barking at night and amongst other things, stealing their dinner. The owners had decided to give the dog another change and sent it to me. I disciplined dogs.

Never had I, throughout my entire career which has spanned over the last ten years, met another dog which was as ill-disciplined or as stupid as this one. Extremely stubborn, dumber than average and uglier than most, this dog was hopeless.

In spite of the hopelessness of the situation, I tried again.

"Okay, boy. Here's a biscuit. If you could just sit down once. Once," I said, emphasizing on the last word. The snow-coloured dog stared at the tan biscuit; its longing for the biscuit obvious.

"Sit!"

The dog turned away from me, with its nose up in the air, its butt towards me. It trotted to a shady corner under a tree, and settled itself on the ground. Staring lazily at me for a second, it yawned and put its head on its paws.

Despite the lushness of the garden and the calming atmposphere, nothing stopped me from venting the bottled anger that had built up in me since this morning. I cursed and swore.

Every exposed part of my skin was covered in sweat. I could have given almost anything to be relaxing on the beach on this sunny day, drinking a glass of cold ice lemon tea...

Walking towards a nearby vending machine, I punched the buttons, inserted coins and received a bottle of mineral water. I walked to the tree where the dog was napping and sat down beside it. I took a deep breath, trying to cool myself down on this very hot day. I opened the cap of the mineral water bottle and dumped the contents over the unsuspecting dog's head.

Leaping up into the air, startled, spluttering, the dog gave a yelp of distress. It shook its head wildly, trying to get of all the water which was on its head. It looked at me pitifully and whined.

I looked at the dog, and laughed.

This dog needed some discipline.

Fountain and Coffee

It was the first time I got to use my T-10 after purchasing it and I must say, it takes pretty good pictures. Other than the few times I stupidly set it to High ISO, which resulted in very noisy photos. And I forgot to turn on the bloody Red Eye Reduction, which cost me an hour of sleep to paint the pupils back to black! Anyway, it's the first time I'm taking it out at night (Sony Gallery is never dark enough to test the night shots), so I'm still trying to find the optimum modes for night shots. Yeah.

Anyway I met Zhenhui and Shuming yesterday and on the way to our destination, we were met with the magnificent sight of (one of) the most efficient ports in the world.



This led to a story about how a major company shifted its operations to Malaysia, but returned after three months at a cost of about 3 million. I must say we have something to be proud of. No wonder there was a TV drama based on it on Channel 8 recently!

It was the first time that the three of us went to Sentosa together. I should really consider getting that Islander card. We wanted to have a picnic, and there was no better place than the seats at the Musical Fountain. Thus we got down at the stop just before the beach and walked there.



We started snapping away furiously. This merlion is certainly the most iconic one that we have, compared to the little one that stands near the Esplanade. Shuming also took a photo at the sundial. It was at about 6PM that we got to settle down and have our dinner.



Good view.



Initially we had wanted to eat KFC, but for some warped reason, the Harbourfront Centre and Vivocity just didn't have it. I don't know if any of the all-powerful people of the above-mentioned fastfood chain are reading this, but it's rather embarrassing for KFC to not have any restaurants in that area! We each ate something different. I had Subway, Shuming had Yoshinoya and Zhenhui had Pastamania. It's the first time that I knew that Pastamania did take outs!

We had a rather long wait as the first show started only at 1945. Time passed quickly as we talked about girlfriend/boyfriend issues, which seems to be the most talked about topic whenever there's a good get-together. Now I know why there's such a hoo-ha over which celebrity celebrities are dating.



It became dark and just before the show started the spotlights were turned off. We were pretty much blanketed by the darkness, the only bright spots being the Merlion's eyes. And that Sentosa logo.



It wasn't as interesting as the previous time I saw it. Surprisingly enough, I think it was a little different. The problem with growing up is that you lose your innocence and mere water, light and fire tricks weren't exactly that amusing any more. What would've made me happy would be a little variation of what we have - put a stage in front of all the wizardry (and multiply the set up of the fountain by about a hundredfold) and get a slave to do her thing.

Now that would be a spectacle.

The kids did a good job of gasping and cheering at all the right moments. Well, it's nice to know that at least they were really into the whole thing. So that was cool.



We made our way to the Beach Station to have Coffee Bean. It seems that a cup of Iced Mocha doesn't seem that satisfying as it did all those years ago. It's funny that when I finally have the money to enjoy it, the novelty wore off. Shuming was busy listening to her Ipod and singing songs like Tian Tian Ye Ye and What Goes Around (Comes Around). We were in such a singing mood that we've decided the next time we'll be going out to sing KTV. I can't wait.

Anyway, I spotted flames and pyrotechnics from where I was sitting, which was kind of strange because I was facing the sea. It can't possibly be that the Musical Fountain shifted there because it was behind us (even though Shuming and Zhenhui thought otherwise!). Being as crazy as I was, I went to investigate and it seems that there's going to be a second Musical Fountain. I had to climb the gates to get in (only because I saw other people do it), and the setting was really magical. The seats were facing the sea, which was partially cordoned off by the Kelong to project all the 3D images! I don't know if you can imagine that, but I left my camera back at the Coffee Bean with the guys and so I couldn't take a photo of it.

By the time I managed to drag the two of them there to see the magical view, there was security getting everyone out of there.

Boo.



Next time when she has a house, Shuming wants these in her room. The pictures would have came out better without flash, but that requires very steady hands. Maybe I should get a freaking tripod, but then it'd defeat the purpose of having such a small camera.

We walked towards the other end of Siloso beach and Cafe del Mar was having a private party titled Arabian Nights. After that we managed to grab a minibus ride back to the station. We made our way up this castle thing (which kept changing colours), and was greeted by this huge, winding... I'm at a lost of words as to how to describe it. Crazily enough we went in, waded in the water, crawled through the "tunnels" and risked getting sprayed by random jets of water.



Basically we were behaving like monkeys.



Ahh, yeah, it was something like that! Zhenhui didn't want to get wet so he took ridiculous videos of us going through the "obstacle course". When I came home to look at that I was rather amused and at the same time repulsed that I sound the way I do.

I shall not elaborate.



It was kind of late when we went down the "castle" but halfway down Shuming said she needed a rest and we stopped and chatted. Somehow we managed to talk about another meaty subject (a short lesson about how guys can become playas) and we were on either sides of the narrow sidewalk, which pissed quite a few people who had to walk past us on their way up!

This entry is another un-entertaining narrative. But I can't help myself. I'm not feeling inspired when faced with another 10-hour work day! Haha... till next time!

Rush Hour

I work as a coroner. My job is simply to examine dead bodies in the 'pit' and find out how these people died. Changing from my scrub clothes to my street clothes, my mind was still thinking about the last case I had completed. It was a headless floater, meaning that the head of the deceased was removed after death, and the body had been found in the sea. It was already 6 PM and I was ready to leave for home. Dressed in a sleeveless black shirt and jeans, I said goodbye to my colleagues and headed for the carpark which was at the basement of the building.

I whistled and walked past various rows of BMWs, Jaguars, Mercedes, Porches, Toyotas and Rolls Royces. From a distance, I spotted my own pride and joy leaning against the wall. I quickened my steps and stood in front of it for awhile, admiring it. Unlocking it, I got on my new 314-hundred bicycle and started cycling out of the building.

Rush hour -- the time of day when the roads are atrociously crowded with vehicles. I took my bicycle to the road. The air was filled with the terrible noises of rush hour traffic. Frequent ear-drum busting horns were heard amidst the constant rumblings of the motor vehicles. There was also plenty of headache-inducing squabbling of the Indian taxi-drivers, white Americans in their posh cars and the truck-driving blacks.

The backdrop of the busy New York City streets was the blood-red sky. The sun was setting with uncharacteristic slowness. I wasted no time in manoeuvring my slim vehicle between the other bulky ones which dominated the street. As I got around all those cars and toward the traffic light, I could smell that the air was a thick soup of poisonously pungent hydrocarbons, wastes of fuel combustion and dust from the roads. Stepping up the pace, I got to the traffice light and rode as fast as I could the moment it turned green.

By now, my eyes were already red and sore with dryness. My leg muscles ached fiercely as I forced myself to go along with the mad speed of traffic. My hands were throbbing uncontrollably as I tightened my already firm grip on the handle bars in order not to lose control of the bicycle.

Cars swerved around me, while I tried to keep myself alive on the road. My colleagues have always thought I was crazy to be riding a bicyble through the insanely congested streets of the concrete jungle of New York City. They half-joked and half-threatened me by saying that one day I might be the one on the autopsy table instead of carrying out the autopsy! Part of me did it for the thrill, while the other part of me was not afraid to die. I have lost my wife and three children in a plane crash, and deep inside, I wanted God to allow me to join them in Heaven.

The traffic lights turned red all of a sudden and I was forced to brake immediately. I was almost thrown off the bicycle, not only because of inertia, but also because a white Mercedes bumped the back wheel of my bicycle. I waited patiently for a few seconds for the traffic light to turn green. Then, without hesitation, I turned around and gave the driver the finger before pumping furiously on the pedals of my bicycle and escaping from that junction.

I took a turn to a relatively quiet lane and rode up to my house. My shirt was soaked in sweat and my jeans clumped uncomfortably on my legs.

I laughed to myself.

Another day had passed and I escaped the claws of death once again. And, it looked like I would not be entering my workplace feet-first anytime soon.

I cringed while reading this because of how childish the tone is. However it is with regret that I look back and realise that I'm not as good as I was 5 years ago.

Hey You

One of the reasons why I took the job, despite all the standing and crappy hours, was that I'd get to interact with people from all walks of life.

There's was a Spanish couple who came in to buy a Vaio initially but got a T-50 as the Vaio was going for the same price in Spain. The guy exuded charm in his his newspaper boy cap, and looked like Orlando Bloom, while his other half had very pointy boobs. Will I get sued for writing that? Anyway, they were really polite and very nice.

There was also this Singaporean couple in their early twenties who dropped by to get a Vaio. The small 11" one that took forever to start up. At the time they bought it, the shop was about to closed, so they stayed on well after closing time. When it was done the girl actually said, "Thank you for your patience.". A small gesture, but the specificity of the comment actually meant a lot to a guy who had been standing for the past 10 hours and dying to end his work day!

Of course I've had my share of crappy experiences like this lady who bought a Vaio from me in the morning and banged it up a couple of hours later. I was stunned when she came back, instinctively knowing that it coudn't have been good news. Luckily we had the service centre and they were able to fix it for her almost instantly. That was awkward.

I've been watching a lot of TV dramas recently. I've finished off The OC, getting into Grey's Anatomy and trying to track down the rest of Desperate Housewives. On the musical front, I'm quite impressed with my self-proclaimed motherfucking princess Avril Lavigne. Her new single, Girlfriend, debuted at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and she's released the single with the chorus in 8 different languages. She does sound weird in Chinese, but listen for the hell of it!

So Superficial

Whoever thought of installments must be a freaking genius because he certainly know how to get people to part with large sums of money in the least painful way.

I got myself a T-10 yesterday. Not at the bleeding IT Fair I'll have you know! It's the best deal that I've ever seen. On top of that, we were lacking customers in the morning. The staff to customer ratio was overwhelming. And my colleagues didn't have anyone else to psycho, and so they did their salestalk on me! Being one of them, I was of course not that easily persuaded, but logic won out. A GPS system? A photo-printer? Another 10 bucks for a 1GB Memory Stick? The price of the camera fell by a hundred bucks and they've bundled it together with so many freebies to make the offer irresistible. Throw in the fact that they were willing to use their credit cards to pay for me in installments and I was sold. I got the black one.

Which of course means I'm in debt of 509.

I don't think I can ever trust myself with money.

In other news, I've been so bored with whatever I've been up to (working, mainly) that I dyed my hair with the help of my sister last night. I was out till late, so we did it from 1 to 2 AM. The pungent smell of ammonia filled the house, but it's so worth it. Okay, it was also for vanity reasons - now I don't see any white hair any more! There isn't any drastic change, just a slight tinge of brown if you look carefully enough. I love it!

I realise that the older I get, the more superficial I become. Despite being taught the right values and believing in them when I was younger, I'm caught up in the race of looking good and the importance of mere skin-deep beauty. It's the quickest way to judge and be judged, which is probably why I'm so obsessed about it.

Or I'd be wearing spectacles, going to the Malay barber and wearing my 1-year-old Nikes.

Ooh, dammit.

Empty

It's been kind of quiet at the battle front recently, and it's all due to the IT Fair. The top question currently is whether the promotion/prices that we are offering are the same as the ones in Suntec. To which I have to give some politically-correct answer. Nowadays I spend more time staring into space than talking because there are much fewer customers (I dread to go to work today) and those who actually come in are weird (if they were normal they'd go to the IT fair). The hype and excitement that's there makes me want to go over and do some real sales! If only the pace picked up a little! I haven't sold a Vaio in 3 days, when usually I manage at least one a day. Boring.

If there's one thing I've learned about myself through work it's how unsociable I am. I like the process of making new friends but I hate being the one to initiate. I've tried very hard to change but that's just the way I am! Everyone's first impression of me is that I'm some stuck up bastard until they try to talk to me, and they discover that I'm a different person altogether. I'm still trying to find out why I'm so unfriendly. From a selfish perspective I get to be the one doing the rejection, and choosing which friendships to accept, and whom I'd like to stay away from (nasty!). On the other hand, sometimes I'd be the one totally left out of everything.

And this is not the kind of attitude I'd like to take to NTU. Speaking of which, my medical is coming up on the 27th of March, and I'm going to get my student card soon! I really can't wait to go to school again, probably for the last time. To mingle with people of the same age and getting to know more people... Everything about it is cool. Staying hall as well!

Everything's looking fine and dandy, except that I've got some money issues to sort out. That sucks.

Swensons

"Teaming up with the distinguished Carl Zeiss lens, every details is reproduced with astonishing clarity."

Anyone who has laid eyes on that line and approved it should be sent back to Primary School.

I've got 15 minutes to finish this blog entry before I go for my run and meet Jie Yu for lunch, and then to work, so let's get it started.

On Monday Isetan was having Dinner and Dance at Sentosa and so the shop closed at 1730. We left the place at 6 and the full-timers had to attend something at Paragon and so we went to Ah Mei for a huge cup of coffee/tea each. We sat there for about half an hour while discussing how much we had to work to earn the money for a cup of tea (10 minutes of standing for a dollar's worth of tea), which was kind of frustrating. Money's kind of bothering me nowadays!



We went around shopped around Paragon before going out to take some photos! As you can tell we were really bored. Wee Hong brought his semi-professional camera, the Sony V1. I like the fact that the camera gives really good field of depth. We cam-whored a lot, but Wee Hong's not in the photos because he prefers taking them!



At 1930 we went in to Swensons to secure 14 seats while the rest of them were still at Paragon doing their stuff. We talked a lot of rubbish and I must've drank about 3 cups of water while waiting. I had to visit the toilet of the Crown Prince Hotel too! Not that I've never stayed over there though! I got quite tired of talking because that's what we've been doing the whole day during work, so after awhile I became quite stoned.



By 2000, we went from this, to that. I think I've never cam-whored more in my life, but I couldn't help it - I was bored. Everyone else was too! Luckily Cassandra came down and she told us a lot of stories about her office life since leaving the gallery and there's a hilarious video of her talking about the consequences of the guys coming down so late for dinner. It's kind of amazing how she can rattle on while forming her thoughts at that very moment.



Another hour passed.

Eventually we were starved and ordered some calamari rings and fries, which tasted damn good. Haha... They finally arrived and we took a group photo...



... before chomping down the food that was served. I think we left at about 2230 and coincidentally, I met my parents on the train, and we went home together.

Yesterday I went out with Sequeena and Si Hua, my closest Secondary School friends. We never fail to have fun when we're with each other. It's just that now the three of us are working, it's become really difficult for us to fit each other into our schedules. One's a nurse, the other sells liquor at Changi Airport and is something like a supervisor at Rocky Master.

I have a 6-day work week. Enough said.

Si Hua and I went to the airport to look for Sequeena and she looked astonishingly different. It was the first time that we've seen her since her 10+ kg weight loss. It makes me feel that I need more determination to work on my body. Gosh.



We went for a meal at this Jap/Korean restaurant before taking a bus down to Suntec where we shopped for awhile. We walked through Marina and rented a couple of umbrellas from Hang Ten which didn't come in to use as the rain stopped the moment we stepped out of the building. We took a long walk to Lau Pa Sat and had dinner for 3 hours. When you haven't met in 3 months, you've got a lot to catch up on. We talked about our love lives (for me, the lack of one), our jobs, and money.

I think I've become a little bit obsessed with the topic. The only other thing I ever think about as much is how to get back the bod I had in army.

We left the place at 11 or so, feeling really tired from an entire day of activities. The time passed incredibly fast though, which always happens when I'm with them.

After half day of work and another day of off, it's time to get back to work again!

Wonderful

Ooh, just had to share a photo which was taken during TWJ's birthday last week. I got it a couple of days ago. Anyway, a big happy birthday to him (although a bit belated). He had a hand in shaping my life in JC, without whom I'd never get crazy hairstyles, perform in a band, and drink alcohol.

A good run in the early morning makes everything feel better. Not that I'm feeling bad to begin with, but yeah, the pump of endorphins from exercise makes me feel great.

Alright, off to work!

Focus

I haven't been able to write anything interesting because I haven't gotten my focus right. Sometimes I sit down and I feel like jotting down some of my thoughts, but I've got absolutely no inspiration. When inspiration strikes, it's a very magical moment. Even during exams, I can spend half the time day dreaming till I get hit by that elusively exclusive idea and the other half rushing out the essay. More often than not, the moment when I put a full stop to the last sentence of the last paragraph, the invigilator announces that it's time to put the pen down.

I have no idea if it's due to me being tired most of the time or the monotony of life taking its toll on me. Either way, I don't feel inspired to write anything these days! Most of the things that I'm doing have been talked about. Most of those that I haven't mentioned aren't worth the time to do so.

If I have to be forced to talk about something though, I'd like to complain. How very Singaporean of me.

First of all, there's this line on the advertisement for Sony camera pouches which read, "No unsightly scratches. No unwanted damages. Just desired safety." I don't mean to insult the retard who wrote it, but what kind of damages can be described as "wanted"? Logically speaking, you can have scratches which are unnoticeable, and you can have scratches which are big and unsightly. Fine. But are there damages that are "wanted"? Including the word just for the sake of it doesn't make it sound professional nor poetic, it just sounds retarded. And it irks me to see such rubbish being printed on a huge, expensive-looking poster.

They could've paid me and I'd have come up with something better!

As terrible as it is, most of Sony's adverts are written in that tone of voice and resort to using equally cringe-worthy choice of words. I just need to gather more proof. I'm bringing that SDW course booklet home tomorrow.

People who come from countries with high population densities are usually (but not always) vulgar. I've been convince myself that it's not right to judge people from where they come from. It's only fair to approach customers without any preconceived notions and deal with who they are, and not their nationality. However that's all a bunch of bullshit and if you come into contact with enough of them you'll realise that they fit into that mould and it becomes only natural to categorise them as such.

Just like the fact that Indonesian Chinese, who almost always go for the most expensive SZ VAIO, are easy-going and polite.

This has got to be my bitchiest entry to date.

In the meantime, the titles of the library books I've borrowed today quite accrately reflects on what I've been pondering about.

1. Personal Finances for Dummies
2. Absolutely Perfect Plan for a Flatter Stomache (you're allowed to laugh if you have a 6-pack)
3. Toxin by Robin Cook