Post-Pageant Week

This is my first week without having to worry about pageant and I must say it feels kind of different, in a good way! It's great to have the pressure of performing and being on stage behind me, despite liking the feeling a lot! On Monday Wei Fang and I made our way to Ikea to meet Kelvin and Daniel, who were there about an hour before us! We had their iconic meatballs for dinner... fantastic stuff.

I think photos of Ikea meatballs have been done to death though, so I'll have none of that!



We went shopping for some all important stuff that'll add some life to our hall rooms. There were some very practical objects going for below 5 dollars and we grabbed quite a lot of things. I got a red dustbin and a doormat, while the rest of them bought bowls and soft toys and clothes stands.



We took a cab back to hall, but I alighted at JP to join the DnD people. I managed to reach in time for dessert - ice-cream was fantastic.

When I went back I went to Kelvin's room to collect all my Ikea stuff and he had a display of his soft toys...



I don't know what's the purpose but they were really cute to look at. That green bowl was also bought from Ikea! I've managed to remember all their names already - Sealion, Doggy Dog, Piggy and Mr On! It did take awhile though... I always get scolded for not getting their names right.



And I went to Daniel's room to take a photo with his newly-acquired dragon Full Moon. I don't know how he comes up with the names but they stick. Haha... Xuans and Daniel also had photos with Full Moon, so maybe you can bug them for theirs too!

I think I'm crazy.

Anyway, after the Publications subcomm meeting on Tuesday, I'm now the group manager of Writeups & Newsletters. Okay, so I volunteered, but that doesn't mean that other people don't think I'm good enough for the job! I'll prove myself! Haha... anyway, so if you guys feel that there should be a writeup on anything in hall at all, feel free to give me some ideas, after all it's the audience that matters most! It'll be great if people could contribute some writeups as well, but I'll have to iron out the details with the boss before it can actually happen.

Hmmm, ooh, and a lot of people crashed my room on Wednesday, which is quite rare considering that my room is usually quite quiet!



And after we talked for awhile, Daniel, Kristle and I had a cup noodle party in my room (again), and Jing Ying came down for a chat after her Roti Prata.

Hmmm, other random things that happened this week - I ran two rounds around NTU for the first time with my old man last night! Haha... I'm tired as hell but I enjoyed it a lot. The good part was that there was milo and instant noodles with crab sticks and hotdogs after that! Shiok!

Oh and in case you don't know yet (which is kind of hard considering I was one of the last to know when Jing Ying told me yesterday), there are a couple thousand of Hall 12's FOC photos at http://hall12photos.multiply.com/. Check it out if you have the time! (Ignore ugly/unglam photos of me.)

Hectic Week

This is another entry of ranting with not much purpose, in fact none at all till I get to watch Spiderman 3. Everybody's talking about. I'll be watching it tomorrow, so... what the hell.

On Monday I went for lunch with Jie Yu and we couldn't help but notice how the public has been bombarded with advertisements for the new Spiderman 3. We went for lunch at the BK at Raffles Place, and we the cups and the holder for the fries had Spiderman printed on them. And I upsized my meal because I wanted to acquire a Spiderman card. Childish I know, but it's once in awhile! I'm a big fan of Spiderman. Ooh, and we had a drink from Boost. That never fails to make me happy. It tastes so good, yet it's healthy!

At night, I met up with Ryan and Shermaine, who had tickets for a Harmonica performance at the Esplanade Recital Hall. I enjoyed myself a lot. I think it's times when you watch other people perform that you relight your passion for music. I was really stunned at how good the second half of the concert was. The first half was performed by a group which was more interested in being technically challenged than actually making music that touches the heart. Not that they succeeded very well in being technically-challenged either. They had one thing going for them though - the pieces they played were rather famous Mozart pieces. The second-half was packed with unique performances. Harmonica with piano backing, harmonica with CD-"orchestra" backing, amazing solos, and tight, small groups of three, each wielding a different harmonica. It's been a long time since I've seen a harmonica performance, so I really have to thank Shermaine for offering me tickets to watch it.

On Tuesday I went for for a haircut with Guo Fei at Kimage. I kinda like my hair but I thought 30 bucks for the it was a little steep.



After that we met Samuel at Paragon for some top-secret thing that I'm not supposed to reveal. We had our dinner at Lucky Plaza, where I'd used to have lunch so often when I was working at Wisma. I stopped by my former workplace to say hi to a couple of people before heading over to Wheelock place, where Samuel got a laptop case (actually it'll fit A4 papers too) from Crumpler. Our last stop was Lido where we took a chance and actually went to see if there were any Spiderman 3 tickets left. If there were, we'd watch it straightaway. As expected, there wasn't any, and they even had an A4 printout just before the queue for the tickets that said "Spiderman 3 tickets SOLD OUT". Guo Fei left for home while Samuel and I had a chat about his job that I was going to take over.

On Wednesday night I met Wee Lee after tuition for a drink and a little chat. It's also been some time since I stopped by Causeway Point. I suppose it's due to the place being in such close proximity to mine that I've always ignored it. To me it's like heading to the coffee shop downstairs. Anyway, we had iced tea at Mos Burger and talked about lives. Actually more of his, because he was stuck in a rather interesting predicament, but it'm sure it'll be rewarding in the long run.

On Thursday was my first day of work. More on that later! After my tuition at Sengkang which ended at 9PM, my family went to this coffee shop at Merdien LRT station for dinner in celebration of Mothers' Day! Haha, it's really way in advance but it's kind of cool. I enjoyed stuffing myself with black pepper crab. It was amazing.

I met Zhenhui on Friday, when Shuming became MIA all of sudden after informing us of her trip to Sentosa. We went to return the car that was rented at Punggol, took a bus to his place where he went to get his Ikea Friends Card (while I went to use the toilet at Compasspoint and listened to Thnks Fr Th Mmrs on repeat). It was another bus ride to Tampiness Ikea, which I went for the first time. It was very spacious. I guess the land on which it was built was cheap, and this Courts, Ikea and Giant each had their own buildings with lots of free parking lots! The layout made it look a whole lot like Malaysia! The meatballs at Ikea were tasty as usual and we started shopping.



I actually bought clothes hangers again. They were going for 5 at $1.50, when I discinctly remember getting them for a tad more money. So according to a certain warped logic of mine of averages, I just had to get them. (After a quick search on my blog I just realised that I got them for the same price! Oops!)

Saturday was a KBox session with Ryan. It was one of the best sessions I've had, probably because we went crazier this time around, and there weren't any expectations of what we were going to sing. I'm wondering whether I should put up my version of Everytime. It does sound a bit forced at some places though. Hmmm.

I should really cut down on meeting people because it seems like it's the only way to save money! I don't know yet, but I've only got 2 more months to save for Uni and I've only got a measly amount of money in the bank. To add to that, I've got a trip to Taiwan in July. Gosh. It's quite a headache. I'm considering working at the upcoming PC show, but it starts on a Thursday, which I have work commitments. I've just been struck by the painful realisation that it's probably never going to be enough.

Alright, time for tuition!

Drive By

I did an insane amount of shopping yesterday but it was probably due to the company that I had.

Shuming.

We went for lunch at Yoshinoya after she arrived fashionably late (thankfully I had my mp3 player, I need to give it a name!). After that we went to shop mostly at The Heeran. They've got some really good stuff there, and I think I'll be doing something to my wardrobe just before I enter Uni. I can't wait to get my ass in there really! We picked out a pair of slippers from Flash and Splash, and I got one for myself because I was wearing really ugly sandles! I think going shopping with Shuming actually brings focus to the shopping. That's how amazing it is. We then received a call from Zhenhui, who was renting a car at Ang Mo Kio. Shuming and I walked to Dhoby Gaut and took the train to Harbour Front, where we got Green Tea before taking a bus to PGP.

On the bus I acutally took out my wallet, and it was right there in my hand, but I forgot to scan my EZ-Link card. The bus driver actually barked viciously at me, and all I could do was to look back apologetically and scan my bloody card.

Zhenhui at PGP but parked at the wrong end of the car park so I helped to drive it out and brought it to a potential parking lot! Yeah, I haven't drove in too long, and it's really cool for Zhenhui have so much faith in my driving skills. Which is notorious, by the way.

After a bit of chit-chat, we left for dinner and made it in time for the last order.



Oh yeah, it's as good as it looks! We were the last ones left in the place, and there were so many people waiting for us to leave so that they could clean up the place. When we went downstairs, we saw the infamous Ikea toy snake priced at $1.90 (originally $7.60, the guy told us that they ordered too many!). And Shuming felt that she had to have it. So I came up with a dollar while Zhenhui dug out 90 cents. Ecstatic about our value-for-money purchase, we went down to the basement and camwhored with it.



Yeah, there was this nice little set up too. Obviously we took a whole lot more.



Did I mention that the camera's a T10, and Shuming owns it? The photos are fantastic... totally unlike the display set that we have! Shuming then drove us back to PGP. We had another good look around her room and uploaded the photos. And then we were bored so we started to play bimbo songs, and take videos of us lip-synching with the snake. I'm fearful that it'll appear on youtube in the near future. Yeah. Zhenhui drove me back home, and by the time I reached my doorstep it was already 1AM! Haha...

Oh yeah, and here's a sign that hangs in Shuming's room. So which one do you think you are?

Post Ikea

I forgot to bring my camera out yesterday, but then again I didn't look too good (but the food did, and you won't get to see it!) so I guess it's a good thing afterall! Both of us met at Redhill and took a bus to Ikea. I love going there because it reminds me of the times that I was studying with Jie Yu and then there's always the fantastic, affordable furniture. You get weird ideas about sprucing your living environment, and then tempted to get a few affordable bits of furniture.

Anyway, the first thing we got down to was lunch. Zhenhui had this Ikea friends card (which you can only get if you spend 300 bucks in one purchase, boo!) and so there was a discount on the meal of the day which happened to be the meatballs! I can't believe that although I've been there a couple of times already, I don't ever remember guzzling the meatballs. While I was eating, Edmund messaged me to remind me to try them, to which I replied that I already gotten a couple of those delicious things down my throat! The sauce is just fantastic. And I never knew you could eat potatoes with jam - a fantastic combination.

After that the both of us spent almost two hours shopping. My mom called and as usual, whenever she realised I was in Ikea, she'd ask me to buy a few things back for her. This time it wasn't so bad, only about 4 tea towels! Zhenhui got a chill-out table lamp, and a the bulb, and a lot of cupboard boxes. I didn't get anything much, just batteries (which are really cheap there and come in tens in this sunflower-yellow box) for 3 bucks and 15 hangers! I've decided to start doing something to my wardrobe and what better way than to start standardising the hangers, rather than using those random hangers which sometimes have pointy ends and spoil my shirts!

Anyway, I've got a tonne of furnishing ideas after the checking the place out, but even though I don't mind spending money on them, it makes me wonder about the permanence of my living space. I think I'll be staying in hall in NTU, and then I don't know what age I will be when I move out of my house. It made me realise how old I am already, and that I'd be facing plenty of turning points in my life faster than I can adapt to the changes that they bring.

After that, I pigged out on the curry chicken, which was the dish of the day or something! It didn't taste that good, but then again, there isn't much there that's comparable to the meatballs! Zhenhui and I chatted about our lives and a lot of other stuff. I realised that I'm very comfortable with him and it's amazing how we were only in the same class for 3 mere months, yet he's one of the people I'm in contact with outside an institution. He's a really cool dude. I think we'll be meeting up next week along with Shuming, provided the busy woman can spare some time for us!

I fell asleep on the train ride home because I was exhausted. I'm glad I was good company in the short time I was together with Zhenhui because I was getting by on 4 hours of sleep. Mock me but I'm a guy who needs my minimum number of hours of sleep, but I don't go on after 7-8 hours. Because of that, I'm not really a party animal! Anyway, I came online for awhile before deciding to satisfy that burning desire to exericise and thus, went for a swim. For the first time in my life, swimming was a good cardio workout for me (probably because the guy swimming beside me was swimming twice my speed) and I finished the swim panting and aching all over. Satisfying.

And I had a bit of alcohol with my dinner when I got back. That's how happy I was with my day. Today I'll probably be rotting till I book in tomorrow! I was damn bored too, so I took a photo (alright, 3!) with my new purchases. They come in bundles of 5 for $1.50! As for the classy wooden ones which Zhenhui got, they're 8 for $4.90 or something. I can't wait to see the new Ikea at Tampines, although it's bloody far from my place. Argh. Such a cam whore.