May I Win $37

Yesterday it was World Cup at Qiqi's place. Netherlands bullied Team Slovakia, who played spiritedly. I was quite angry with Netherlands for that. We had McDelivery as planned and waiting for the next match was a bit of a torture. Brazil went up against Chile which was also a rather disgusting match.

Just finished watching Paraguay and Japan and I'm sad that Japan lost. But both these teams are terrible and they will get eaten alive by either Portugal or Spain. Both Portugal and Spain are performing very well - tactics and formation are clearly in play. I am of course rooting for Portugal but I will be sad to see David Villa leave this World Cup.

As usual Portugal is playing very very well. They are getting better. They just need to score cos thus far, they've only scored against North Korea.

May Portugal get through this round and this will allow me to collect $37 from the Singapore Pools tomorrow.

Tea Ceremony At The In-Laws

Team Portugal

I've caught the World Cup fever. This is of course, all thanks to my army mates, who watched soccer with me in camp and taught me how to bet. 4 years later I'm betting on my own and I am thankful that my dad has no qualms about throwing money at Starhub to watch the matches.



I am such a fake soccer fan. Also for the life of me, I cannot find a decent Team Portugal photo to include in this post (other than this one that's too wide that I had to cut some people out).

Last night's match for Brazil vs Portugal was not as exciting but I really enjoyed watching Portugal play. They did really well although towards the back both teams were dancing with the ball, banking on a draw to inch them into the final 16. The bad news is that Portugal's playing Spain next. But I have faith!

If they get through I might buy the jersey. $99! Gah.

The Top 16 starts tonight! I've just placed my bets for 4 matches (I've missed out some big ones so I guess I'll be visiting Singapore Pools very soon.) and they are:

Urugauy vs Korea Republic - Korea to win - Bet Amt: $5 Return $20.50
Germany vs England - Germany to win - Bet Amt: $5 Return $11.25
Argentina vs Mexico - Argentina to win - Bet Amt: $5 Return $6.75 (retarded I know)
Spain vs Portugal - Portugal to win - Bet Amt: $10 Return $37

I've won about $25 bucks so far from the first match Japan played in the group stages although I think I lost the bet I placed for Portugal to win in their game against Ivory Coast. Other side bets include one with Qiqi as to whether Holland or Portugal will get further this World Cup.

I'm excited and hyped as the real stuff begins tonight!

First Time In Jakarta

I had a bit of a culture shock when I got there.

More often than not, I travel budget. I take the budget airlines and do the cheapest stuff. This time around though, it was somewhat fantastic because I was going there for my cousin's wedding and he had made all the necessary arrangements - from transport to accommodation - for us. We stayed in this penthouse with a gorgeous view. The only problem though was that it was inaccessible. However my cousin's wife arranged for drivers to pick us up whenever we needed transport out of the place. I consider it a real luxury. The roads were crazy and the drivers were insane. There were hardly any traffic lights. Everyone drove like their lives depended on it and they were really skilled!

My cousin and his wife took us to great places for food. We had a bit of a tea break where there was this awesome dish that was banana with cheese and chocolate stuff sprinkled on top. It is possibly my favourite dish there. The satay was good too. In the evening we went to this Chinese restaurant and they had mouth-watering chinese food. The most impressive thing we had all night was this fruit juice mix that was served out of test-tubes. It was not the first time I'd seen something like this but it is decidedly novel.

I enjoyed hanging around and the shopping, except that for most part, the people there spoke Bahasa and it was somewhat challenging to communicate with them sometimes. Singapore is such an anomaly this way! Despite being in the heart of Southeast-Asia, English is our working language.

More on the luxury wedding next entry!

Jakarta: The Preview

I Would Like To Say

I am disgusted with myself as I have no time to update my blog recently so I have decided to do everything in point form because it forces me to be concise and thus, sexier.

1. Tomorrow is my last day of internship.

2. The World Cup has been epic. Melvin, Qiqi, Lyon, Joachim and Qiao Ping have been pivotal to my enjoyment of these great games.

3. I won $20.75 from betting on Japan to win and lost $5 in my bet for Portugal to win against the Ivory Coast.

4. I haven't been exercising for the past week but I have been getting more sleep. However my eye bags are more terrifying than ever.

5. I am leaving for Jakarta on Friday to attend a mega-awesome church wedding. Which is sad because I will miss World Cup matches and will not be able to update my blog. It is however good because I am still the groomsman and there will be many photos for future posts.

6. I want to buy books to read. My intern pay for last month has come in and I'm going to submit the time sheet for this month tomorrow.

7. I have promised many people many activities after I come back from Jakarta. Hold on to your seats ladies and gentlemen, I will fulfill these promises and we will meet up, get drunk, watch soccer, go overseas, sing karaoke, play mahjong etc. etc.

8. I have yet to pack my luggage. My flight on Friday is 740AM. I have tuition tomorrow till 10PM. I need a robot.

9. Of all the strange things that I am thinking of doing after graduation, I want to become a writer for magazines. This is after two consecutive issues of August Man.

10. I super dread reservist and it is coming up in a couple of weeks. Also the World Cup final starts at 230AM and will end at around 430AM and then I have to book in at 730AM.

Also, I plan to move to a new blog by the end of this year. If there is anyone willing to volunteer your blog-design skills I would welcome it. I would possibly be going to wordpress.

Thank you and many good years ahead.

Thomas' Wedding

The entire event was wonderful and I was glad to be part of it. It was a great opportunity to be part of such a defining moment of my cousin's life. It was tiring to wake up so early and be in a blazer for most of the day but it was really fun rushing around and going through the wedding traditions. The food was fantastic. I also relished being on stage during the wedding. I was quite nervous at the beginning but as it went on, inhibitions were shed and I became myself.

Which is of course not always a good thing. Some people thought I was a bit informal. And I did say, "Oh shit!" at one point. On the whole it was good though because the audience was rather supportive, lending their hands to rapturous applause whenever I requested for some (now I understand why MC = Master of Ceremony). The wedding toast was fantastic too. First time I ever led Yam Seng! Hahaha... I think I did rather well for a first timer.

I hope to get hired as an MC one day.

My family and relatives made it a really special event. It was really great to know everyone around and to have a group of people working fervently towards making the whole event happen smoothly. I was the groomsman so special shoutout to my fellow bridesmaid, Shirley, my fellow MC, Felicia and everybody else who had a hand in making everything awesome.

Lastly a huge congratulations to Thomas and Irene. Looking forward to the Jakarta wedding next week!