Almost Famous

Merriest little christmas!

2006-12-25T18:28:00.000+08:00

It's the time of the year again! Shopping for gifts..downing all those yummy pastries and even more eating. Yep! It's Christmas day. Well, a quiet one for me at least. Maybe the christmas spirit is dampened by the fact that I need to return to camp tomorrow, bother, but still I had a wonderful little christmas nonetheless.

To start off, I haven't been blogging as you all have noticed so much so that i've even forgotten how blogger works! Anyhow, now that i've figured it out, I shall let my readers know, if there are still any out there, that I probably am in the process of creating a new blog if time permits.

Oh yes, Christmas... A very wet one this year. The weather has not been sparing at all! Town is even more crowded as before. I've been blessed by a long time friend whom I knew since the OI days. Yes..and it's a HER, apart from the usual all guy outings, this was a change. She's beautiful and in more ways than one. I seriously didn't dream that we'd meet up after such a long time but hey..what do you know. Been to the movies, had meals and I think she is just perfect.

I will be venturing into pro term as of tomorrow and I hope that all things will sail smoothly.

Once again, wishing all a Merriest Christmas! and stay tuned to a brand new blog..if I do come about to doing it that is. =) Cheers!

Life in OCS

2006-10-15T13:32:00.000+08:00

Haven't had the luxury time to blog for a long time now. So my sincere apologies to all who have been visiting my blog only to be turned down by outdated bloggerings. Anyway, i'm serving the country now for all those who still do not know, i'm already 20. Have been in OCS (Officer Command School) for 1 month now. Training is definitely tough but it can be really fun if you take it in positively. I've really lost touch of the outside world every since entering into army, really changes you totally. Now, I'm just aiming to proceed to my senior term which is in 2 months time. Please help me get in touch with the outside world again =P

Unclassified

2006-08-20T15:38:00.000+08:00

Us at Kranji war memorial

We will fight and die for our country

Band of brothers at Kranji war memorial ground

Our well deserved shower after 4 days

Some of my section buddies with our camo on

Surviving the outback

2006-08-19T08:07:00.000+08:00

Holla! I'm finally back after spending two weeks away from home sweet home. I just completed my seven day field camp and boy, what an experience! Once in a lifetime, sure not to forget, experience for keeps. I managed to scribble some of the accounts that took place into my little notebook even under rough conditions. It rained four out of the seven days when we were outfield. What luck but an experience nonetheless.

Day 1 & 2:
We started our 8km route march from Tekong base camp to our campsite with our over-sized field packs, literally bursting at the seams, they weighed a ton! The march was draining but we made it nonetheless. I made it with a blister on my heel. The weather wasn't kind. Yesterday, only 30 mins into our field camp and while we just erected our tents, digging the water trench around our tents, it started to pour with no mercy shown. Great start. Everything was drenched, down to our essential undies, including the notebook in which i'm writing in.

Managed to survive the first night with a pretty good sleep, not forgetting having to hug the rifle to sleep and amazingly there was no mosquito attacks!

Halfway through day 2 and spirits are still relatively high although a new change of clothes is welcomed.

Day 3:
The heavens must be playing with us. It kept raining on and off, periodically. And everytime it rains, we have to take refuge in our very small, barely enough for two men, basahs. The irritating part is that we have to bundle our ground sheets up everytime we leave the basah. So when it rainswe have to quickly crawl in, spread the ground sheet and lie in our so called "water proofed" basahs.

And it rained on and off 3 times in one day! Each time only lasting for 10 mins or so. Imagine having to crawl in and out, bundling up your items only to unbundle them again.

Day 4:
It's night time now and i'm writing with a cloth over my head. We have to practice field discipline and conceal any kinds of light source. Today was quite fun. We fired blank rounds to simulate some movement drills. I was given a chance to be the leader in one of the drills. We also had our technical break which enabled us to take a shower only after 4 days of which we had to perform a powder bath. We had to bath with our mass tins as water flowed from the tap. Powder baths makes everyone look like frosty the snowman.

Day 5:
Second last day of this field camp episode. I just woke up after a surprisingly good sleep considering having no shelter above my head. We broke camp from our old site yesterday and we witnessed the worst downpour of this fieldcamp thus far. It has rained 4 out of the 5 days so far. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. But I just spent that night sleepingin a new location. Quite the experience. One very big open field, your vision extends through the perimeter of the trees surrounding this open area. No vegetation except for the very long la lang grass on which we have to sleep on. When you lay down on your back, you really wonder what's beneath you. Anyway, it's quite a view, with the uninteruppted vision of the skyline, starry sky above, the half crest moon, super chilly breeze and of course the sounds of the crickets. It was a really good experience sleeping out in this big field but i'm damn hungry now, ready for breakfast but before that, I have to break camp again. We're heading for new grounds. 5:51am wednesday. I just saw a wild boar walk pass in the dark.

Half left down

2006-07-30T10:04:00.000+08:00

I'm down with a pretty severe cough. I was doing fine until I caught the coughing virus after the last book out. Actually, it started off as a harmless sore throat but somehow flared into a cough.

The past week was physically less strenuous because we were training for our live range which occured over thursday and friday. Therefore, the routine for monday to wednesday was basically spent in the air-conditioned computerised mock shooting range. You have to pass the eleven mock tests before you are able to proceed to the live range. The mock is really fun! Air-conditioned room, an M16 duplicate with it's actual features and weight. It's like playing counter-strike on computer only you are holding the gun and firing at the targets. The main purpose of the mock is to learn all the shooting positions, how to react to the different commands and what to do in an event of a technical error, should anything happen to the gun or what we call, "IAIA!", immediate attention!

However, the mock test can only train one for the handling procedures but definitely not for the shooting itself. For one, the computerised gun for the mock is zeroed automatically but for the real gun, it has to be zeroed manually by our commanders. The environment is different. You can litterally sweat buckets at the live range plus you have to endure different weather conditions, I was unlucky enough to have rain during one of my shoot. The night shoot was an experience. We had to wait in an open field for our turn and while I was waiting, I glanced up into the sky and it was filled with stars! Plus you have to wear earplugs so you can't really hear anything else except for your breathing and pounding heartbeat as your turn draws nearer. I passed my live range, hitting most of my targets during the day shoot.

Another strange sighting that I witnessed was during our routine order, whereby our commander will give the routine for the following day. We were seated on the track infront of our company barrack and I somehow looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star. At first, I taught it was a commercial plane since they frequent the airspace above Tekong every other ten minutes or so but it was flying across too quickly to be a plane and then it expanded into a bigger ball of light and then as quickly as it appeared, it vanished into nothing. Meteor?

As for the phrase, "Half left down!". It's the most feared phrase because it's only a nicer way of saying push up position down. I'm sure i'll be hearing alot more of this phrase as time goes on but I must say, army is pretty fun. You get to make new buddies, face new challenges, gain a whole load of experiences and the best thing is that we pull through together as buddies, as a section, as a platoon, as Taurus, as brothers in arms.

With my rifle and my buddy and me

2006-07-23T11:08:00.000+08:00

First glimpse of Tekong and its cookhouse food.

All my bags are packed and i'm ready to go. Parents say good-bye.

No turning back now. Where boys become men.

I'm back, finally! After my two week adjustment period in Tekong, which actually felt more like two months since we had to wake up so bloody early that one day seemed so bloody long. One day in Tekong is equivalent to three days, three dreaded long days. So if you are longing for expanded days, join the army and we welcome you to Tekong!

The training has been "shiok" so far. Shiok as in "shiok". I'm sure you've got a rough idea of army, enough so I need not explain in detail, the amount of physical training our bodies have to endure, marching be it rain or shine, shouting... You can list out all the shit and we've most probably been there done that.

Even in the army, I keep a small little log book in which I "try" to enter some entries before I sleep or sometimes even after lights out. Here are the entries in original context, typed as written. Read on...

11/7/2006 Tuesday:

5th day of army life. I'm writing with light only from my handphone since it's
pass lights out time. Training is already starting to get strenuous but i
suppose that's army life. I received my gun, the M16, today and sergent says to
treat the gun like your own wife. So i guess i'll start by thinking of a name
for it. Alright, i better get some rest. Training is only going to get more
tough or so they say, "progressive".

13/7/2006 Thursday:

Just woke up and my body is aching all over from yesterday's IPPT category test.
I managed to pass with silver because in the army, you have to do more than 10
pull ups, which I only did 8, to achieve gold and for the 2.4km run, we have to
complete it within 9.45mins, which is nearly impossible at this stage. I failed
my swimming because I don't know how to swim the breast stroke. I will
be having swimming lessons...woohoo but damn, no free admin time for
me.

14/7/2006 Friday:

Today we had our first 4km route march. The distance may sound short but we
had to mount our full battle order which includes the SBO, field pack with all
the items inside of course, rifle and helmet. Now my body is definitely getting
more accustomed to the training but I still suffer from the aches, blisters and
bruises. Army life has been good so far. We are starting to crave for our
weekend book out day.

Lights out now. The instructors and sergents are very strict on
discipline.

16/7/2006 Sunday:

I could not sleep last night. I was awoken afew times by some sounds in the
bunk. The sound was that of someone trying to fit his keyinto the lock and
trying to open the lock but failing to open the lock on the locker...banging
noises. It felt strange only because it was in the middle of the night. I didn't
open my eyes.

We are sitting in a first aid lecture now. Some of the rare few moments to
sit in a lecture room with air conditioning. It can get pretty hot here in
Tekong and marching around the camp makes you sweat even after a shower. I just
realised that 2 others from my section share the very same birthday as me!

18/7/2006 Tuesday:

We had another road march yesterday but this time, it was increased by another
2km which meant the total walking distance was 6km. Sleeping for the past couple
of days was easy since I was totally drained of all my energy. There's a NE
(national education) talk now but i'm super tired after lunch and after the run
this morning. They make us run for 15 mins without stopping, around the parade
square. I'm trying to stay awake.

19/7/2006 Wednesday:

It's already pass lights out but movement cut is not until 11pm which leaves me
abit of time left. The sunsets at Tekong are spectacular and I can see the jetty
from my bunk. Every other 10 mins, a commercial airliner will fly above us and
the sight of the plane gives me added hope and a glimpse of the outside world.
Only one more day before our first book out and we are all enthusiastic. Tmr, we
will be going for our computerised shooting range.

Those were some of the entries that I managed to log. I hope our Sirs and Sergents do not grow horns and tails over the weekend. Sigh... I will be booking in tonight.

"Show me the leader and I can tell you about the soldiers, show me the soldiers and I can tell you about the leader."

The last supper

2006-07-06T22:41:00.000+08:00

Army survival kit

2006-07-06T12:55:00.000+08:00

List of items:
1. Huge black bag, good for chucking in all my items without having to pack them neatly.
2. Important army documents.
3. Six clothes hangers to hang my uniforms and smelly wet PT attire.
4. Extra plastic bags nicely folded.
5. Clothes pegs and rubber bands in a plastic bag.
6. Washing detergent to do my own laundry. I hope nothing gets too muddy but who am I kidding.
7. My funky blue goggles.
8. Silver chain cross for me to wear when I go to bed.
9. Wooden cross to accompany me.
10. The good book.
11. Daily bread book for simple reads.
12. Pencil boxwith all the necessary stationary.
13. Small notebook for me to do daily logs or take notes in lectures. "Take notes".
14. Wallet containing my Identity Card, not too much cash and of course my EZ link card, awaiting to be used when I book out.
15. Watch and I need to get used to the 24hr mode.
16. Toiletries bag containing a small bottle of shampoo (not like i'll be needing it), shower foam, my toothbrush and tooth paste.
17. Facial foam, very important.
18. Small lock.
19. Nail clipper.
20. Spectacles hooks so that they don't slip of with all the sweat.
21. Torchlight so that my night will not be so dark.
22. Alarm clock.
23. Spare tissue wipes for emergencies.

Still to be added:
Slippers
Prickly heat powder
Electric shaver
Extra change of home clothes

One bold step for mankind

2006-07-06T09:25:00.000+08:00

I woke up pretty early today, considering the times I woke up for the past few days, to smell the beautiful breezy fresh air of my last remaining day before I head off for the much talked about, escape of lifetime, calm and unruffled off-shore island, Tekong. Actually, I was awoken by all your wonderful messages which turned my handphone into an alarm clock really.

I AM NOT OLD! I am just older. period.

I'm taking the bold step from the "teen" age into the "ty" age. You know, nineteen to twenty. As much as that sounds "old" to some, there's still undoubtfully a teen in me. So thank you again for all your messages. It will certainly play a part of making me feel a sense of nostalgia when i'm away in Tekong, serving the country.

Last night, Celest invited me to watch, "Just my luck" with the tickets that she had won from some magazine contest. Speak about lucky! Anyway, the movie was hmm... the gist of the story is when ever the couple kissed, they would switch each others luck which unfortunaely was good luck and bad luck. So it was hmm... then hmm... and ended hmm... but it was a feel good movie. We went to eat at Swensen's after the movie and she couldn't laugh enough after I said that it was my first time eating at Swenson's. Hey! Everything has a first time. I wasn't really expecting anything from Celest since I thought it was just one of those "catch a movie and have dinner" days. So when she pulled out a gift, I was really suprised. I also gave her a photo card gift, my promised "house warming" gift. Too bad, she had to meet up with her secondary school friends later which meant I couldn't catch the breath taking view at her house again for the last time. But I had fun nontheless. If only I had one of Adam Sandler's remotes, i'll go slow mo. Thanks for the present again.

My last day. I'll probably spend it getting the remaining items left on my packing list. My bags are packed and i'm all set for the adventure of a lifetime. This could pretty much be my last entry for a long while to come.

Nostalgia continues to fill my thoughts. Peace out.

Just my luck!

2006-07-06T01:00:00.000+08:00

Mezmorised. je l'aime.

Italians show their passion for the game

2006-07-05T11:22:00.000+08:00

The Italians are through to the World Cup finals! And I think I know why...

No, silly! It's because they won 2 - 0 over host team Germany and they have sealed their spot in the finals. Good for the Italians.

Blast! my favourite team Brazil is out of the tournament. Suddenly, the World Cup feels boring!

Just another slice of my life

2006-07-05T01:49:00.000+08:00

Just a few more items to purchase before completing my army checklist. Such as non-slip slippers as instructed by Joseph since he said we would be cleaning toilets quite often as well as "prickly heat" powder for powder baths. I'm actually looking forward to my enlistment date which is barely two days away now. Amidst all the packing and running about to purchase some of the items, it felt like preparing for a really fun camp like the Primary six camp, the Outward Bound combined camp, church camps, secondary school camps and all the other fun overnight stay outs that i've participated in. Except, this "camp" is for two years. I think green and black will be my favourite colors soon.

I managed to wake up in time for my morning run today. I visited Beach Road to purchase my bag and then to the departmental store to buy more undies. As for the flash, Celest insisted that she continued with the second half and insisted that I took a rest. Although, I feel a load off my back, now that I can relax and not spend so much time in front of the computer, but I feel bad too since I did promise that i'd help her to complete the presentation. Sigh. If only I did not have to enlist this friday. I would finish it, without a shadow of a doubt but now I can't because time does not permit me to. Anyway, she did insist on continuing. I also feel bad because I think she read my previous entry and might have misinterpreted my intensions. Anyway, hope you like the flash.

Okie, my birthday is tomorrow and I have no plans on going about to celebrate it. 6th July. What a beautiful day.

Very soon, I won't be able to blog as often or at all when I enter the army but I will try to post up some entries from time to time when i'm free. I will be back with more stories to share for sure! Stay tuned.

Just when you thought you knew

2006-07-03T20:36:00.000+08:00

Yes, the day is drawing nearer. Four days is all that seperates me from army life and what have I been doing? I've been cooped up in my room for the past three days trying to complete Celest's flash presentation. One thing I can tell you, as much as producing flash is fun, it's very boring having to sit in front of the computer for three days straight. It gets stuffy, your bottom starts to hurt, you start to feel irritated and you start thinking why you even decided to take up the call in the first place. Suddenly, the unforgettable sense of deja vous, trauma of rushing poly projects hits back. I'm not getting paid, i'm not getting anything in return and I could have easily have turned down the call for help as easily as I did accept it. But the decision still stands and, well, the option of rejecting celest is and will never be an option for me. So, the work i've started, I will see it completed and whatever I can offer, I will offer my best and nothing short of perfection.

Reality check. I'll be bound for army in less than four days and I haven't even packed a single thing yet! Not even the most essetial of them items, underwear and I don't even have a bag for that matter! Looks like I will be paying army market tomorrow. I don't see how i'm going to complete the flash if I keep procrastinating. Unfortunately, procrastinating army is not a choice I can make. Anyway, I will try to carry out my schedule as planned for tomorrow.

9:00am - Go for run and workout at Bishan Park (may be subject to change depending on time I wake up)

9:45am - Rest and wash up

10:15am - Continue with flash (looking forward to finishing it asap!)

11:30am - Lunch (about the time my stomach calls out for food)

12:00pm - Continue with flash whilst listening to "Allow us to be frank", westlife CD

1:30pm - Still working on flash whilst watching tele

2:30pm - Army market to buy black bag and other stuff

3:20pm - Departmental store to buy more undies

5:00pm - Head home and prepare for dinner

5:45pm - Continue with flash (when will it ever end)

6:30pm - Flashing

6:50pm - Short break and continue flashing

7:20pm - *Starts to get stuffy in room* Open window and continue flashing

9:00pm - Still flashing (till late)

As you can see, I have a very tight schedule tomorrow so please stop bugging me for any dates already! I must say, i'm a pretty good schedule planner. Maybe I should consider growing up to be some sort of a planner... Wedding planner... Activities planner... Personal planner. But that will have to wait. For now, I have two years to decide what I intend to do in life while struggling through muddy obstacles or while walking those grueling ten kilometers route marches.

Soon, all i'll hear everyday is, "LEFT.. LEFT.. LEFT.. RIGHT!"

Anyway, here's the lo down of what happened for the past week. Friday, 30th June, was my last day working as a Spageddies employee. No, I wasn't fired but I wanted to spend my remaining week resting and doing the things that I wanted to do before I entered the army. Like "flashing". I was also given a Spageddies polo tee shirt which is actually only meant for regulars or full-timers and the boss also said that I was the first staff to receive the polo tee, working at Spageddies for the shortest amount of time. Although, three months isn't exactly short. The shirt has my name sewn on it! Cool! I'll like to thank Seeto for the "Know your bible" book and the photos and of course how could I forget all the peeps who made my time there memorable. It was really an experience i'll remember. All the fun-loving staff, awaiting the staff meals, the long split shift waiting hours, the striped uniform and green apron, i'll miss all those times and i'll surely miss hearing the word, "broccoli".

As always, "Servizio Favoloso".

Those damned pigeons

2006-06-29T23:50:00.000+08:00

My morning could not have been made any better! I was the unsuspecting victim of a bloody bird, peerched happily atop one of the bigger trees along Bishan Park. Thankfully, we had already completed our run around the park and was now heading back home when the bird decided that it should poop on me! At first, when I felt something drop on my shoulder, a leaf or twig, I had imagined, my natural reaction was to brush my shoulder with my hand. And what followed, I'll leave to your imagination but I found the nearest leaf on the floor and wiped the bird poop off my shoulder. Gross.

Coincidentally, Jianyun and Yingting were just talking about something about being "heng suay". I showed them my shoulder and I went, "Talk about suay!".

Someone please shoot those damned pigeons already! All they do is eat, sleep and poop everywhere!

I have a new found respect for blogs. I always thought that blogs were for the sole purpose of somewhat senseless rantings and what not. Anyway, that thought has been changed now since yesterday when I was enlightened on some of the grey areas which occured in the past. Note, I said past. Sometimes, I really wonder if what I blog might mean anything to anybody or if anybody actually takes my blog seriously at all. In the past, blogs were the cause of jealousy, rivalry, hatred and i'm not saying mine but it was the cause of more harm than good or so it seemed throughout the past. Some things just never fail to baffle me.

Recently, I've been helping Celest with her godsister's child care's orientation presentation. For the last couple of days, i've been glued infront of my computer, trying to complete the flash presentation since I thought the presentation date was near as in "next week" near but now Celest says it's not until the following week so I can relax and take my time to do it which is a major relief.

Okie, this is probably the part that will cause some the "jealousy" as mentioned above so I shall just make it brief. We went to eat at "Sushi Tei". We went to her place, just her apartment's corridoors. She brought me to the top level for the view. While in the lift, halfway up, the lift bell sounded, signalling that the door was going to open. The lift stopped for a moment but the doors did not open! Then it continued to ascend. The view was amazing. The company was great. We said our goodbyes and that was it.

Speak about jealousy, I learnt something today from one of my favourite local dramas, "Lightyears". What's the use of being jealous? "Would you rather have a boyfriend who is jealous or have a boyfriend that has faith and trust in you...". I think that is a good lesson that we all should pick up. I just love that show.

Good and bad, happy or sad, this blog will continue.

Some of the world's sexiest people

2006-06-27T19:24:00.000+08:00

Let your wallpaper tell a story

2006-06-27T12:01:00.000+08:00

How to grab the wallpapers? Easy peasy! Just three simple steps as follows...

Step 1: Choose the prefered wallpaper.
Step 2: Click on the image and it will lead you to another window with the same image.
Step 3: Right click on the image and select, "Set as Background".

Movie critics give it 3 thumbs up

2006-06-25T11:59:00.000+08:00

We had the pleasure of attending and celebrating Valerie's 21st birthday last night at the East Coast 'Costa Sands' chalet. However, our journey to the chalet would be likened to that of Harold's and Kumar's as they try to find "White Castle" in the hilariously nonsensical movie, "Harold and Kumar goes to White Castle". You would understand what i'm trying to get across if you've watched that movie and if you haven't, I would recommend it if you really need a "I really want to laugh at ultimate lameness" movie. But instead of Harold and Kumar it would be "Yingting and Joel goes to Costa Sands". It all starts mid-day on a saturday...

Joel pulled up along the road shoulder in his spacious and slick, polished white coated Mercedes with intricately detailed decals bearing a name of distinguished reputation, "SBS TRANSIT". Joel clucthed his "Airwalk", camping size bag pack and mounted it fimrly back on his broad shoulders. As he stepped out of his ride, he felt an ease of tension and was satisfied with the feeling of his two feet reaching steady ground again. Joel always had the fear of cars ever since he was a kid, he had accidentally fallen of his bed and had crashed onto his red pedal car. The impact was so great that it had caused the glass mirrors to shatter under his weight, causing a deep gash from the underside of his thigh to knee. Ever since that horiffic incident, Joel could not get onto a vehicle without the same fear that plagued him throughout his childhood.

Joel flashed his yellow modernized card which gained him access pass the gantry and he headed down into the open-aired Bishan mrt station concept, he pulled out his communicating device and typed, "Hey you better not let me wait for you!...because I am the king... HAHAH...". With that, Joel stepped off the platform and into the six-tubed metro.

"You can be late for work, just don't be later than your boss!", was what one of Joel's friends had joked about before. But punctuality was always the number one item on his list and for that, he had arrived fifteen minutes ahead of the proposed timing. The usual saturday crowd was building up in the mrt station as he found a snug little corner to rest his now growing tired feet.

While sitting comfortably, Joel was approached a couple of times by strangers for donations for an organization that was unclear to him. In total he would have been appraoched four times of which three were from the same organization. For fear that it might be another un authorized charity "scam", as many have been spotted, Joel donated some cash only when he was first approached and had turned down the others, nicely.

Finally, after ten minutes, Yingting arrived at the station. At first, they could not locate each other even in the small but crowded station until alas they bumped into each other in the thick of the crowd. Now that they had met up, they had the next objective to accomplish and that goal was to get a present for Valerie within the next couple of remaining hours before the party commenced.

For the next thirty minutes, both Yingting and Joel were wandering aimlessly, without a clue of what to buy or what their birthday girl needed. Many ideas sprung up. ~~"Surfer Babe" bikinis?~~ ~~Nike sports bra or jacket?~~ ~~"Flash and Splash" apparel or slippers?~~ ~~Lacoste?~~ ~~"Samuel and Kelvin" crumpled shirt?~~ The list was endless...

Finally, they chanced upon a shop. "Pepper Plus". Good and ~~cheap~~ not so expensive! So they snapped up a skirt which was black and elegant. Perfect for a casual working outfit. With their purchase, they headed back to where they had started, the bustling mrt station, one thing on their minds as they said in unison, 'How do we get to East Coast Costa Sands chalet from here?'.

They had decided that it would be a smart idea to call the birthday girl to ask for the best way to get there. Unsure herself, Valerie had given a vague solution of alighting at the "Kallang" mrt station and taking a taxi. For a better guide, Joel approached the current station's "Passenger Enquiry" booth to ask for directions and the results were different.

"Get off at Paya Lebar and take a bus", was the words of the control officer, whom they knew they could trust. And they did.

"Paya Lebar", the voice over the intercom rung out as the train came to a gradual halt and both briskly walked down the stairs to ask the "Pessenger Enquiry" as to which bus number would take them to East Coast Costa Sands chalet. The reply was simple yet both Yingting and Joel had hidden their enrage and pulled off a smile of thanks. "Take the train to Bedok and there is a bus that will take you to the chalet", was what the officer had instructed a moment earlier. It just wasn't their best of days. Not knowing what to buy, not knowing where to go, not knowing how to get there and now they were lost almost in a land foreign to them both. They continued.

As the both of them arrived at the Bedok mrt station, a sense of achievement filled their thoughts and their spirits were lifted again. They arrived at the station and to their surprise, it was like entering a time capsule, the station was not air-conditioned, it wasn't an open-aired concept but there were ten mounted huge over-head hanging fans on either side of the walls. It was like entering a secondary school's sports hall and the atmosphere was dusk and dank. The both had agreed to wait at the station for a couple of friends to go together.

Finally, after waiting for at least forty-five minutes, Jianyun and his girlfriend, Li Zhen, came strolling through the gantry. They gathered their things and headed for East Coast Costa Sands. However, their journey did not end as yet. After they had asked the directions from the bus driver, who was also unclear as to where the chalets were located, the four alighted from the bus into park grounds. Which was where they reluctantly continued on foot.

They had to flag down bicyclist and roller bladders to seek directions and after a moderate period of walking, they caught a slight glimps of a chalet possibility. Alas! They had wandered through the park and had found the chalet by a stroke of luck and some misguided directions.

The rest of the night was spent with close friends and classmates and of course celebrating Valerie's 21th birthday. Those who already entered into national service came back with many stories to share. The kind of stories one should't hear if he was entering into army in two weeks time. But it was fun nonetheless. As for Yingting and Joel, they arrived at East Coast Costa Sands chalet as did Harold and Kumar reach White Castle in the end. It doesn't matter how you get there or what you took to get there as long as you got there in the end is all that counts.

"Yingting and Joel goes to Costa Sands" a movie coming to a theatre near you soon! A block buster hit that cannot be missed! From six of the four writers that brought you scary movie.

Happy birthday brain!

Note: The pedal car incident was real but the fear was made up for the story. Haha.

Asian hopes for world cup glory shattered

2006-06-24T11:57:00.000+08:00

Above: Korean players hang their heads low after the 2-0 deafeat by the Swiss.

It is the end of the road for Asia in the race for World Cup gold. Just this morning, Korea, our one and only remaining asian team left in the tournament was displaced by the Swiss in group G's table standings. Not only do they produce precision time pieces and yummy Swiss made chocolates but apparently they play good football as well. Switzerland beat Korea two goals to none. Although, none of the asian teams made it to the final sixteen, we all have to stand and applaud their efforts in getting this far, any team that has made it to this stage should be proud of their achievements.

Better luck in the next World Cup asia!

Top 10 recently played

2006-06-24T11:54:00.000+08:00

Here's the list of my top ten most recently played audio files on my media player, streaming crisply through my platinum JBL series speakers on either side of the monitor. Okie, so maybe I did download these songs off the net. Legally or illegally, I don't know but I never really understood why downloading songs became illegal. I know there are the piracy laws, paper work rights, song rights, artist's rights and the list goes on...but come to think of it, the artists themselves are already filthy friggin rich. I used to joke about how some of them could be so rich that they could roll up dollar notes to be used for tush wipes. And i'm pretty sure it could be the case for some rather than a joke anymore. I'm sure you get what I mean and you agree too. I mean my wealth compared to theirs is probably but a mere point-one of a percent. But don't get me wrong! I'm not bad-mouthing music artist in anyway. In fact i'm really a huge fan of all music artists and their music and it would be hard to imagine a world without music. It would be colourless, tasteless, my God it would be deaf!

Anyway, I was sourcing for some of the songs that were played on my graduation day which took place four days back. Whao! Yet again proves how time flys! So while I was at that, I stumbbled on the other music titles.

Top 10 most recently played:
1) Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me - Clay Aiken
2) You Raise Me Up - Josh Groban
3) Reach Higher - Gloria Estefan
4) It's Like That - Mariah Carey feat. JD and Fatman Scoop
5) Shake It Off - Mariah Carey
6) You've Got a Friend - Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain and Carol King
7) The Prayer - Charlotte Church and Josh Groban
8) What a Girl Wants - Christina Aguilera
9) When I Fall In Love - Celine Dion and Julio Iglesias
10) When I Fall In Love - Linda Rostandt

I just love those duet songs!

Surrealism at its best

2006-06-23T01:14:00.000+08:00

I abhor people who do not respect others and their feelings. I have utter repugnance towards individuals such as this. No one is perfect. No one should think they are even close to perfect. Why oh why then do you blurt out words as though you are. Don't you know the good Lord provided ears for his beautiful people to hear. And don't think for one second that because the targeted doesn't react to your silly insults, the targeted doesn't know you are talking about him/her. This is to slap you back into your place. Don't think that speaking as such will make you sound like you're in control or that you are the king. In fact, you are really the least of the least, the pauper! Ugly! This is a short paragraph dedicated to you because you really deserve less.

On a lighter note, someone came to pay me a visit today while I was at work. The unexpected visit by Celest was, although short, really sweet. Apparently, she was heading for the MNG or Mango sale. The only way I can put across how abrupt the meeting was is like in one of those korean love movies when, touch wood, one of the lovers dies heroically *queue "I Believe" music* and the surviving lover is sobbing away uncontrollably and all of a sudden, he/she see the other lover at the corner of his/her eye but when he/she turns around, it was only a vision. ARGH, You get what I mean. Anyway, i'm saying it's really thoughtful to have popped by and I don't look cute in an apron! Come by more often and i'll treat you to desert! Deal?

What if dreams do come true. What if everything you ever wanted showed up at your doorstep. Would you grasp it? Leave it behind, let it go? What if...

P.S. Kai Feng's friend is cute!

Crooners in motion

2006-06-21T23:43:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to the class of 2006!

2006-06-20T21:48:00.000+08:00

I'm in speechless admiration, in constant awe of the fact that I have just graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic. Wow...yay...no big deal, yes, but if you think of it as three years of your life spent in this institution, it will dawn on you just how much you've picked up and grown from the experiences. Just last night, rather, "so late that it is early", quoted by Sir Leigh Teabing from Da Vinci's Code, we were chatting online talking about what else but the graduation, the somewhat long three years, the happy and not so happy (when she was always sick) memories, just recollecting all the memories from past till present and while we were at that, the funny thing was that every quirk and event suddenly seemed to fall into place chronologically in order. Even how we met in the first place, an unconventional but funny way and that's our little secret. And it will remain a secret! Right?! Thinking back, school was actually fun! Something I thought would never even cross my thoughts, not even in a million thoughts away!

The graduation ceremony was like any other with the guest-of-honour, his long speech about something which went "va va voom" in and then "va va voom" out the other, consecutively, really. Although, there was one speech by Kelly, a Business/IT student who was also a graduant. Her delivery was superb! Crisp clear pronunciation with a slight hint of an english accent and to top things off, she was cute, sweet and really petit. Then the moment arrived, ascending onto stage infront of a clapping audience, probably a thousand strong, to receive the one single sheet of paper you've worked so hard for for the past three years. The diploma.

I felt weak, my heart throbbing at my chest uncontrollably, why did they have to make the walk so long! Everything around was oblivious and I swear it seemed like it took forever to reach the guest-of-honour who was waiting with an outsteched welcoming hand and smile with your diploma cert. I did, however, get there eventually. I've graduated! such simple words to say yet a load too hard to dismiss. I've come this far in life and what will happen next? Only heaven knows.

It didn't end there, we headed for the reception and we went around taking photos like we never did before in the three years. It's sad that most of the happy memories will only be remembered in photos and sketchy images crafted in our minds and as Kelly put it, "It's going to be a bitter sweet ending...". I couldn't agree more but life continues on and we should progress on than to dwell in the past.

Once again, i'll like to shout out to all my friends who've made my experience in Nanyang Polytechnic light, fun and entertaining. The crazy chalets, clubbing, the class outings, winning second place in the SIT soccer tournament, running about school to lectures, Wilson's ever so handy van (the van that saved many of our lazy legs to get to eating destinations and even to exotic places when we got bored. Not forgetting having group study sessions at the various McDonalds outlets such as Bishan, Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio and school of course. Whao! We actually studied alot! =P And of course my special thanks does not only limit to my class peeps but to the other peeps in the lecture groups and beyond as well, for making un-boring the lectures and for making me a little more enthusiastic to attend lessons. You know who you are. Anyway, life won't be complete without the lecturers! So this is a sincere thanks going out to all my lecturers who've had the 'not so fun' experience of having me in their class. If only my hands were long enough to wrap around all the mentioned, i'll extend a big, juicy, warm hug. THANK YOU!

I'll always remember this day, 20/06/06 or more coincidentally, 2006 2006! What a day, what a date. Well, I have to congratulate the reader for reading this far too. Either you've got nothing to do and have no life or you love me. I'm sure you're thinking the second option too. Cheers!

For your viewing pleasure, i've got a short clip below from my parents video camera which i've managed to upload.
Directions:
1)Press the big "play" button in the middle of the screen.
2)Immediately press the "pause" button so as to let the video buffer awhile before playing. If not the video will not stream smoothly and keep stopping.
3)Once the video has buffered a fair bit or has buffered completely, press "play" again and enjoy the show.

BRASIL! Ole..old-leh!

2006-06-19T16:12:00.000+08:00

Just to let all you Brazilian soccer fans and supporters know before you start hurling swear words and turning my blog into a literal verbal battle field, I too am a fan of team Brazil. Not only for this current World Cup but ever since I was a kid! Okie, maybe not when I was a kid since I always rooted for the team which won eventually but I enjoyed watching the Brazilian team play. Their team spirit, the way they are able to move through the opponents with ease, the way they dribble, the simple yet sneaky tricks they perform or some might call, "Samba" soccer because they really look more like their dancing than running with the ball. I liked everything about them! Don't get me wrong. I still do.

However, lately, it seems that the team has lost its sting, it's potency to attack their opponents and to score beautifully crafted goals like they always do. Maybe they are holding back their talents for the later stages or they want to play it safe, whatever, they just seem to be a different team.

So far, they've only managed to pull off a 1 - 0 win against croatia and a 2 - 0 win against Australia, which on the contrary, I thought should have won instead since they had most of the scoring chances. Although, it's good that they have not conceited a goal, they haven't been convincing either. There has been a controversial question asked by the tabloids, "Is Ronaldo fit or fat?". As a matter of fact, Ronaldo looks like he has put on a few extra pounds and he doesn't seem to be as agile as when he was younger and slimmer. Maybe he has passed his peak now and should make way for the younger talents in the Brazilian squad. You can't blame him either. He has contributed much for his country and has achieved victory with it but I think age has caught up with him too.

But even with all that said, I'm still rooted for Brazil to take it all the way to the finals again this World Cup and of course to win! Show your flaire already! Bring out the "Samba"! Bring out team Brasil!

Made famous in a blink

2006-06-18T14:15:00.000+08:00

So it seems that the two latest topics circulating around the blogosphere is on dawn yang, Singapore's hottest blog, or so they say and Tammy's new shower scene. Apparently, there's a new video of "Tammy" from NYP, if that helps to ring any bells, posing for the camera as she takes a shower. Not that I know how tammy looks like in person or even how she looks like in video since I haven't seen her videos...yet. Anyway, my sound judgement would like to suggest that it's a hoax. It just can't be her! If she is smart enough to realize all the trouble she faced for her first unfortunate video leak, she wouldn't! The discrimination, receiving fame for all the wrong reasons and very nearly getting expelled from school, i'm sure that would be enough to deter her from releasing another video. I'm sure the culprits only want to further scar her reputation and cause another upstir in the growing blogosphere. I don't know much about Tammy to say anything further since I cared less about the hype of her first "TAMMY SEX VIDEO" but i'm sure she's come to her senses now, to keep such videos in her handphone.

To be honest, I didn't even know about Dawn Yang being Singapore's hottest blogger, either self-professed or a title given by her fan base, i'm not really sure but one thing I can definately assure. SHE IS HOT! To me that is.

As I've said, I didn't know about Dawn until I read the papers just the other day, a clip about how some bloggers in Singapore can stand a chance to win a car...etcetera...etcetera...and that was when I read of the name Dawn Yang and her possessing the title of Singapore's hotest blog. So I checked her up.

WHAO! If only I had a girlfriend with half her looks! Or better all her looks, I would be on cloud nine. She looks like the "Ang-moh" version of Fiona Xie, whom I admire heaps too. However, there are speculations from other bloggers around the web saying that she under went the knife for her astoundingly good looks. But who cares! I don't discriminate those who've had plastic surgery. There's nothing wrong with it as long as you have the money and courage to perform it, I say good luck and God bless. Although, I'm not jumping into conclusions that Dawn actually went for plastic surgery to obtain her looks because i'm well aware that people do mature and change as they grow older. One can look completely different from their younger visage or appearance for that matter.

Dawn...DAWN..DAWN DAWN!!

Anyway, all that matters now is that she looks stunning! Okie...I shall stop before you start bombing me of being a sick deprived pervert.

Oh, and if you happen to stumble upon my blog, dawn, just to let you know that I borrowed your song too. =) Love it. Do leave a hit!

Snap me up!

2006-06-17T13:08:00.000+08:00

Scored! Big time!

2006-06-13T12:48:00.000+08:00

Even as I type this entry on my computer, there's two aerial legs sprawled across in front of me, one horizontally stretched out at full width across the keyboard and the other shooting upwards at an awkward 45 degree angle. Worldcup. My dad managed to tune into Indonesian television stations and they show all the worldcup matches! Live! Can you imagine...Indonesia is showing all the live matches while Singapore's coverage is only of the first and last two matches out of a total of 64 matches. Good grief. Anyway, that explains the aerial's awkward positioning and quite amazingly, it's pretty darn clear for a signal that's coming all the way from Indonesia! Although I can't enjoy the full clarity of SCV quality, i'm not complaining since something is better than nothing at all.

This you got to see! Utt came to eat at Spageddies again yesterday with the same woman whom he came with his previous visit. At first, It didn't occur to me that they were standing at the entrance waiting to be seated and when I heard someone shout, "Man on!", meaning someone's at the door waiting, since I was nearby, I looked up and was like...hey isn't that Utt.

I brought them to their seats, they offered to sit right at the back of our restaurant only because we were out of booth seats. And since they were seated at where I was stationed at, I also had the privilege of taking their orders and later taking their bill. Some of us may get the chance to meet and see stars out on the streets but very rarely ever get the chance for an autograph, unable to get close enough, too shy to ask...All the time I glanced at them eating and sitting at the corner, I recited, This is a chance I cannot miss!

I would be stopping work at the end of the month and how often will Utt come by again so I plucked up enough courage and went to ask him for his autograph while I presented them their bill. He was more than willing! In fact, I had offered him the paper on which we take orders on for him to sign on but instead he took out a pouch and gave me a personalized postcard! Even more than I had expected and he was really nice! This is it below.

This is the front of the postcard:

This is the back of the postcard:

It reads, "To Joel, Take care man! Utt". He also said that the service here was excellent. So that's two thumbs up!

Oh and this is outrageous! I think Utt has my pen! HAHA. I gave him my pen to sign the autograph and after they had left, I could not find my pen in my apron pouch anymore. Oh well, I hope he manages to sign more autographs with my pen then!

Believe it or not, this is the first autogragh I got apart from the autographs of Singapore's former unbeatable, football dream team. During the days of the Malaysia cup, Singapore had the perfect team put together, Fandi Ahmad, Abbas Saad, Steven Tan, David Lee were just some of the men who did Singapore's football proud back in those days. The whole team was superb, every individual with his own qualities. I believe I have their autographs kept away somewhere in a photo album but that was when I was very young! Like very young! Anyway, all I remember was that my family was going on route for a holiday and we happened to bump into the full squad at the airport who apparently were also leaving the country for a tournament maybe. So we wasted no time and started shooting away. No! Not shooting them but taking pictures with them! The stars of Singapore and I have photo proof!

Blast! It's about to rain again! Nothing out of the ordinary since it's been raining thunder storms for the whole week round but I hope the sun will be out real soon! Not that I enjoy the heat either. Hah.

Service scouted

2006-06-08T13:23:00.000+08:00

Today I woke up feeling less than well throughout my body and soul. I had a dry lump in my throat which gradually manifested to a minor sore throat and an excruciating pain in my stomach which plagued me for most of the morning. And now, i'm drained, weak and restless. It seems like the effects of working in the public service, 'Food and Beverage' field is finally taking its toll on me, slowly but indisputably.

However, going all out to show good service does pay. Just yesterday, during my dinner shift, I was service scouted by two customers who apparently owned the restaurant 'Outback Steakhouse'! HAHA. They called me to their table and asked me afew questions like if I was still studying, how long have I worked in Spageddies and told me about their restaurant. At first, I was a little lost as to why they were asking me all these questions and what their aim was, if there was any at all. Later it dawned on me that they were actually asking me to consider working at their restaurant. Apparently, they had approached QH too, another girl working at Spageddies since they had called the two of us back to their table and had given us a tip each. How nice but I'm quite sure i'll be staying with Spageddies until I enlist into the army.

So much for being service scouted.

Spag's guys night out

2006-06-06T12:24:00.000+08:00

All of us or rather most of us decided that Woodlands mrt station would be our gathering point before heading into JB. The seven of us who met at Woodlands consisted of Adam, Gilbert, Muang Tat, Subhas, Seetoh, Anthony and myself. Two were "late". Alvin and Ben.

Time: 5pm
Subhas called Ben
Subhas: Eh where are you?!
Ben: I still at Orchard mrt waiting for train
All: What?!?

Time: 5.30pm
Subhas called Ben
Subhas: Where you now?!
Ben: I still waiting for Alvin
All: WHAT?!?

Apparently, Alvin was held back at the 'SIR' immigration building because his passport was outdated and he was requesting for a temporary pass which he managed to achieve in the end, after much discussions and pleading with a head personnel I suppose. The pass that he managed to get was was merely a slip of paper which instead of the usual procedure of collecting the various stamps on your passport, he had his stamps collected all over that paper! HAHA! And it was priced at an unreasonable, to me, $15 for that slip of paper! When $15 can get you a whole new paper stack or more!

Meanwhile, the rest of us decided to advance without the both of them and had made plans to meet up in JB instead which was a very good decision since they only got to JB at 9pm thereabouts. The rest of us who went in earlier wasted no time and headed for 'City Square', a well known shopping mall, because its the only decent one there?, for shopping of course!

The main reason to why we had decided to come to JB was actually to have a dinner and to hang out with Subhas since his days as a normal civilian are numbered, 4 more days to be exact. So by the time Alvin and Ben arrived, we were all already ready to eat a feast! Hunger pangs had set in, grumbling tummys and it didn't help that they came at 9pm! We headed down to some eating place cum outdoor restraunt which was quite "cool" due to the fact that they had countless number of gargantua overhead fans which, I swear, could have been the cause of serveral typhoons. HAH. There was also a huge projector screen but it didn't help that we were sitting directly under the screen so it wasn't really for "our viewing pleasure".

The food was okie. We ordered double orders of satay, some fried tau pok dish, different styles of fried rice for everyone, tom yam soup, oxtail soup but the main highlight for them was the funny looking device which was said to relief stress when you smoke it? and it came in different fruity flavours. They call it the "Shisha". I thought the tall, weird looking device was kind of hilarious at first and I suppose it must be quite addictive since they were literally fighting over the tube for a puff. I didn't try it since there was tobacco involved.

After we settled the bill for our dinner, we decided to head for the theme park which was a walking distance away, made visible by its towering ferris wheel and the other high flying, thrilling rides. It was amusing as much fun to relive the past. We were like kids all over again. We got banged up pretty good in our short bumper car session and we couldn't give the ferris wheel a miss either.

It was a day well spent with the guys. People may come and go but memories will always be carved in our hearts. I got home early this morning at 1am due to some delay at the Singapore customs when arriving back which unfortunately involved Alvin again. We had to wait for him for about 20 minutes until he was released after some minor interrogation and double checking of his temporary, one slip paper passport for the day. All in all, we were tired but we had one heck of a fun day! I'm still waiting for the pictures from the other guys so that I can post some up.

Food for thought

2006-05-15T21:53:00.000+08:00

This first half was meant for yesterday, Mother's Day, but since I was too physically drained to push the start button to turn on my computer and so mentally dead to blog an entry, I shall do it just now. OKIE! Fine. I was just lazy and had decided to procrastinate until the beautiful today! Today was just wonderful because it's a monday and I didn't have to go to work! Not that I don't like working at Spageddies already but it's just good to have a well deserved rest after having to run around serving people and taking orders. Phew!

We, referring to my family, did not celebrate Mother's Day yesterday only beacause my parents were out of town and although they were set to return yesterday, they only reached back in the middle of the night probably after 1 am and I was already fast asleep by then. Hence, we have planned a family dinner for this wednesday instead.

I had a haircut today, I dyed my hair today and I even went to the supermart with my parents to shop for groceries today! Oh you just have got to try this out! I tried a new cereal by Kellogs called Mueslix filled with small diced up dried apples, papayas, sultanas and I mixed peach/mango yogurt, which I had also bought, together and it's a perfect meal! My favourite formulation thus far and that will be my breakfast diet for a long while to come.

Away from food, there's two movies coming up which I must catch! One being the hilarious, 3D animated film, "Over the Hedge" and the other being my all time favourite movie ever since I was just a little kid, "X-Men 3".

"Over the Hedge"

"X-Men 3"

Desperate times call for desperate measures

2006-05-14T02:41:00.000+08:00

Rotisserie cacciatore! Since we were able to meet our sales target for the day, we could choose any dish from the menu for our staff meal and the rotisserie cacciatore was what I chose. Half of a yummy, tender whole chicken complete with pasta. I'm stuffed!

Today was, like every other normal saturday, busy as usual.

Why are they "suaning" me and Casie?! What did we do?! We just happen to take the bus from the same bus stop that's all and now they are suaning us. HAHA. What the..but..who..err..?!?

But one thing's for sure that I know! As Cynthia would say, "QH and Ben are together!".

SLAM!

2006-05-12T01:30:00.000+08:00

Over at Spageddies, we have different terms or short forms, if you will, to describe different situations or things. For example, "86" means that we are out of that particular item. So if we say, "86 cheese sticks!", meaning we are out of cheese sticks. In the event of a "slam", it means that Spageddies is filled to capacity and even more so if there is a queue outside! Which was case today! Even up till 9.30pm, which is supposedly the timing for our last orders, there was a queue waiting to be seated outside and by right, our restaurant closes at 10pm! It was chaotic today since we were running out of cutlery, running out of side plates, running out of mugs and even running out of ice! Actually we ran out of ice and for a period, we were serving room temperature water for "ice water". It was busy today!

After the hard day's work of serving the customers and closing our stations, we were treated to a staff meal! Staff meals are by right meant for fridays and saturdays only, which means that the sales for today was outstanding. We had three different pizzas, chicken cannelloni, crayfish parmigiana, softshell crab arrabiata to feast on.

What makes a Singaporean a Singaporean? The common everyday phrases, "Everything also must be cheap!", "Got discount here anot?". Since today is the eve of a public holiday, Vesak day, we did not have any set lunch offers, promotions or discounts. Here were some of the responses from the customers..

Customer 1:
*After hearing that there were no set lunch offers or promotions*
Lady: "Aiyo..it's not a good day to come eat here today..should talk to your management."

Customers 2 and 3:
Wife: "Excuse me..do you have the menu for the set lunch?
*After hearing that there were no set lunch offers*
Wife: "Oh I see..." (couple continues to look at menu and were about to order when..)
*After hearing that there were no 50% off promotions*
Husband: "Oh in that case.. (he starts to close the menu and edges out of his seat)
Husband: "Goodbye"
Me: "Excuse me ma'am, you left your water bottle behind.."

I don't know about you but to me that is quite rude to say the least. At least come up with some excuse, maybe your pet cat is dying at home so you have to go home immediately or be like the previous customers who said that they were halal and could not eat the food at Spageddies when we actually provide halal food. Anyway, the day goes on with countless number of customers asking for the set lunch menu and the promotions.

I'm having an outbreak and i'm falling sick! Sigh.

Comepletely; absolutely; entirely, UTT-erly!

2006-05-09T23:44:00.000+08:00

UTTSADA! The name alone says it all. Gosh, he looks charming in his photos online but even more so in person! He came to dine in at Spageddies today and he came with another woman, not known, but she's rather "horizontally blessed", to put it in a nice way, if you know what I mean.

First it was Annabelle Francis, then Mark Lee, now Uttsada! It just gets better! Anyway, it isn't always sunshine, cherry blossoms, happiness and all smiles during work. Why? Casue from time to time, we do get irritating, stuck-up, thinking i'm the "O so big customer", customers! O so big customer my O so big *beep*! I shall share my encounter and this is how I shall begin..

On a DARN sour note, there was this ~~man~~ *beep* (I don't even want to associate him with "man" since it will disgrace the entire male population) with his wife and two kids who came to dine in for lunch. I took their order.

FYI: A Margherita pizza is a pizza with tomato slices for it's topping.

*beep*: Can I please have one kiddy Margherita pizza..blah blah (other orders and so on)
Me: Is that all? *repeats orders* One kids Magherita pizza..blah blah
*beep*: Yes, that's right. Thank you!

So i'm thinking to myself, whao this guy really knows the menu well since the kids menu only states, "kiddy pizza" and not "kiddy Margherita pizza". However, the Margherita pizza is stated on the main menu with the description of the pizza and all of it's toppings included. Since the kids pizza comes with a free topping, I went ahead to key in, "Add tomato slices". The fact that he even told me that he wanted a Magherita pizza meant that he knew what the toppings were already! I settled the orders and went on as usual.

Later on, when the pizza was served, I saw the man talking with my manager, I hate it whenever customers talk with the managers. It's either the service is too good that the customers wish to praise the managers (which is seldom the case) or that there is something terribly wrong.

I later find out that the *beep* claims that he did not want tomato slices on his pizza. I was like lost for words. Com'on, I take your orders and deliver your orders! Don't expect me to read your mind and the fact that you asked for a Magherita pizza SO CONFIDENTLY, and obliged when I repeated your orders, suggests that you knew what was coming. If you ask for a Magherita pizza, I GIVE YOU A MAGHERITA PIZZA! This is bull! You know, if I could read minds, so God help me, I would be playing the lottery every week or better still become a food consultant for everybody since I already know what they will like to eat or dislike and make big money.

It's like going to McDonald's and ordering a cheese burger and when it is served to you, you complain, "Eh why is there a beef patty in my cheese burger?!". As lame as it may sound but that is the situation!

And if that wasn't enough..

He called me after his meal and asked me, "doesn't the set meal come with a tea?" (as though trying to find other issues to whine about)

Me: I'm sorry sir but you opted for the diet coke (which was already served) instead of the tea
*beep*: oh yah yah..yes, that's right!

Lucky for him, I seldom get into angry fits and I was still nice enough to address him as "sir". Sigh. What a sad world this is. I really wanted to speak my mind out to him there and then but to maintain the good service and uphold the name of Spageddies, I decided to keep it all in. Thankfully, there are blogs like this!

Utt made my day.

Two's a date. Twenty's a crowd-out date

2006-05-08T23:37:00.000+08:00

There was going to be a big birthday celebration or occasion happening at Spageddies, or so I thought, since we had to combine five tables together at 1-4. It later turned out to be something which I had least expected it to be! A table filled with single men and women! Yes! It was a mass dating affair. It was quite strange seeing the women sitting across the men and the funny thing was because there were more men than women, which is ALWAYS the case, there were some men sitting with other men. Poor chaps.

Casie and myself were joking with each other as to who we would choose if we were in that group. Seems like it was a tough choice for her, not because there were too many good looking guys to choose from but because there were NO CHOICES at all! So she decided to pick a girl and become lesbian! HAH!

I saw Mark Lee yesterday after work. In fact I was standing right next to him! I was this close to him, imagine the distance from one end of your computer screen the the other end. That's how close I was to him! I was at the POSB kiosk withdrawing money when I noticed an extremely familiar figure standing beside me withdrawing money from the next kiosk. I took a peek over my shoulder and instantly recognised him even when he was in a sporty outfit with a pair of striking boardshorts and a cap. It's weird when you meet stars outside in public esspeacially when you get lucky and get this close. You don't know whether to say hi or just to mind your own business. I was like, "Should I say hi?! Your acting is good! You're very funny." In the end, he left before I could say anything. However, if it were the super babelicious Fiona Xie, then it would have been a totally different story.

Speaking of babelicious, there was this girl at Spageddies today. She was super cute and pretty! A Caucasian with a tint of chinese blood, she looked like a young Kristen Kruek! Subhas and myself agreed that she would grow up to be super pretty! Unfortunately, she's probably only twelve now.

"Stomp away!"

2006-05-05T23:38:00.000+08:00

We were stomping the night away for youth cell today, litterally stomping on plastic bottles, tin cans, sticks, shakers and on anything that made a sound. It was an activity planned by the fellowship and evangelism committee for the youths to enjoy since our recent conclusion of yet another book from the series, titled "Evangelism". So anyway, we came in fourth! Sounds good? Out of a possible of four places! Yes. If you really want me to say it, we came in last but it isn't the position that matters. All that matters is that we had fun as a cell group and the process of bonding together, even though the practice was messy and the time given for the practice session was so short, i'm proud of my group even if we didn't sound as good as the other groups but ultimately, I'm just proud of my cell.

We are back in fondue business! Today, I sold a cheese fondue to a eurasian couple and when I went to clear their plates, they told me that the fondue was lovely and all the cheese in the fondue pot was scrapped clean, even to the last drop of cheese! I don't know, i'm caught in the middle, standing on the fence. If you haven't got a clue to what i'm talking about, read my previous post.

It's scary to think that i'm left with only a couple of months before I enter into NS. The last month passed by so fast! Too fast! So much so that I want to scream at the time to "FREEZE!". Come to think of it, i've already worked at Spageddies for one whole month already!

Cheese fond-euww

2006-05-04T23:40:00.000+08:00

I was ever ready and enthusiastic of up-selling the Spageddies cheese fondue up till today. To date, I think i've sold about 18 cheese fondues but today, I was called back for an unpleasant remark of the fondue. This group of 4 girls came to dine in and as usual, I took their orders and told them about our promotional item which, of course, is the cheese fondue. Later on, they called me while I was walking by and one of the girls said..

Lady: "Excuse me.."
Me: "Yes ma'am can I help you?"
Lady: "What is in your cheese fondue?"
Me: "We have three types of cheese in the fondue pot..ma'am (and I go on to name the three cheeses)
Lady: "And what else?" (as though she already knew the answer)
Me: "And what else? and abit of white wine?"
Lady: "Yah..THE CHEESE FONDUE IS NOT NICE AT ALL!"
Me: "Oh..so sorry about that ma'am but the three types of cheese and wine comes in a package."
Lady: "The white wine is too overwhelming!"
Me: "Okie i'll let them know..so sorry about that.."

Actually, it can't really be helped because the cheese fondue really comes as a package so we can't individually exclude any of the three cheeses or the wine since it comes as a solid form. I feel sorry for them, if they felt cheated in anyway but for me, i'm now a little reluctant to upsell the fondue. Personally, i've not tried the fondue before so I can't really tell what it tastes like but i've managed to sell so many without any feedback of it being not nice. Although, I can't totally eliminate that "fact". But what if it is really that unpleasant tasting?! All those people whom i've sold it to must have been going like, "That bugger of a boy sold us this cheese fond-euww". I've got wild imaginations. So now you know how I feel about going on to sell more fondues?

During our break, Casie and myself ordered the garlic bread from Spageddies since we were quite hungry and there were only the both of us left. We were too tired to go out to find food so we just ordered and anchored ourselves onto the cushioned booth seats and talked about chocolates and other stuff. Casie is mad over chocolates. She can go on and on about almost any and every chocolate there is! From koko crunch to chocolates that cost $10 per nugget. Just yesterday, during our break, we walked over to the Mcdonalds outlet at Pacific plaza to try their chocolate milkshake and I also bought a hazelnut gelato from outside lido which tasted like eating ferrero rocheas but only in ice-cream form.

When enough is really enough

2006-05-03T23:51:00.000+08:00

Tired.

Tip of the day

2006-05-03T00:21:00.000+08:00

I followed my conscious, I know that I did the right thing and I have no regrets whatsoever. This will be up to the reader to decide, to each his own conclusion. I was working at Spageddies during lunch and three folks in their 60's, I suspect, came to settle at where I was stationed at. Anyway, all I did was to serve them their dessert after their main course. That was it. I continued to go about doing the usual duties and when they footed the bill, ready to leave, Michelle, one of the managers, came up to me and handed me the bill holder "book" and she said, "Here..for you". Benjamin was right behind her saying, "Go ahead! Take it..you'll find something good inside!". At first, I thought it was some prank, knowing that I would open the "book" to find nothing inside but to my surprise, there was about five dollars plus inside. Michelle said that the customer wanted to tip me. I was overwhelmed since this would be my first tip I ever received. I went to thank the customers for their generosity.

In the end, feeling that it was the right thing to do, I did not keep the tip but instead gave it back to Michelle to count it together as the tips for Spageddies. I know you must be going like, "What the beep! Are you a dumb beep or what?!" As I mentioned earlier, to each his on conclusion but to me, Spageddies is already giving me a salary and good service and hospitality towards our customers should be our main priorities. So, to me, taking a tip isn't really right since Spageddies is the one providing the ambience, comfort, excellent food and on my part, good service is something which I SHOULD be doing. As long as my services are appreciated, that's enough for me.

During dinner, I went back to being a "runner", something which i've not done for a very long time! A runner's job is to maintain the station as well as to serve the food out from the kitchen. Now that i've had experience as a runner and a server, I very much prefer to be a server although, as a runner, You have your own space and you're like your own boss but as the name implies, you literally have to run sometimes since you have to serve out all the food to all the customers. Exhausting but fun!

One theory proven

2006-05-01T23:22:00.000+08:00

So the saying goes, "A hungry man is an angry man". I just proved this theory right today and remind me never to go to work with an empty stomach ever again! Not that I was angry but I wasn't in my best of working moods. I could not concentrate on the things I was doing, like opening the fridge when I needed soup bowls, spilling some soup onto the saucer, reaching out to grab a soup spoon when I needed a coffee stirrer, continuing to hold onto the cheese fondue sign even after cleaning the cheese fondue table, were just some of the mistakes which I encountered today.

Working at Spageddies has really opened my eyes to the wide array of different types of people and their characters. There are some chracters whom are tolerable and there are some whom are just repugnant. For example, there was this woman customer demanding for her receipt and her take away order but since there was some complications and errors in the printing of the receipt, it had to be sorted out and reprinted. When Siok Chuan asked the woman to take a seat first, the woman just stood at the entrance and said, "No..no, Where is my order? I want it now..I'm in a rush!" She said it in a very annoyed tone!

This kind of behaviour really disgusts me. A big turn off. I mean, its not like we want errors to occur, well definately not on purpose! And acting in a rash and inconsiderate manner definately dosn't help to solve the problem so one should just be calm and understanding. The word is to be understanding! I like those who will respond kindly to the situation like, "Oh that's alright!". Instead of those who will go like, "Eh..why like that..who ask for that?!". Well at least I will want to grow up being kind to others and understanding towards any situation.

As far as i'm concerned, one should put others need before his own and to always be humble at all times, act justly and respect others.

And yes, for those who were asking, using the Lord's name in vain is a sin. It is stated as the third commandment of the ten in the bible, "Thou shall not swear falsely by the name of the LORD...".

Do not pass "GO", do not collect $200

2006-05-01T13:42:00.000+08:00

I just received my first pay check from Spageddies and my account is now richer by $170.50! What?! Only $170.50 after 1 month?!

I did the math, $170.50 divided by $5.50 (hourly pay) equals 31 hours that I clocked. 31 hours divided by an average of 3 hours per shift equals 10 days. I'm certainly, absolutely, definately sure I worked more than 10 days last month. Perhaps this is one of the two payslips that I will receive since I'm new and they retained my first salary payment and would give it to me later on, i'm hoping.

Please wait to be seated

2006-04-30T23:52:00.000+08:00

Today would be the first time at work that I experienced a queue of hungry people waiting eagerly outside Spageddies. It would also mean that it was super busy today! Taking orders, rushing to key in the customer's orders, serving the customers, clearing plates, setting the tables for new customer! One word, Jiu ming ar! Okie it is one word in english, "HELP!" and just when you thought the crowd had subsided, another queue starts to form outside!

I will love work tomorrow! Why? Because it's May day, meaning that pay will be about $8 compared to the usual $5.50. I know it still sounds little but woohoo! Feel my joy! Too bad I only got the 6 - 10pm shift for tomorrow, 4 hours worth of work equals $32 for tomorrow. Yeah! I'm on route to making my first million and no one can stop me! *evil laugh* Muahahah!

Check this out! Someone was hitting on Zeque today! Zeque is a guy and guess what?! A guy customer was hitting on him today! He even borrowed Zeque's pen to write him a message on the freaking serviet. This was what the "hitman" said..

"Hi...urm..I would like to get to know you.
Could you give me an sms.
-phone number-.
Cedric."

We called him back and Ben did the honest. It was funny! The whole group of us Spageddies staff cramped into the tiny office and we had the phone on loud speaker. Gosh! Humor me somebody!

The schedule is out and yet again, i've been scheduled to work everyday except on sat.

If you're happy and gay

2006-04-29T21:27:00.000+08:00

I spent the day at home today watching "TransAmerica", a transverstite (male that has had a sex change) found out that she had a son while she was still a man. Hence, he is now the father of the child but has become a woman. Complicated?! Check this out, the son is gay! He sleeps with guys and he wanted to sleep with his very own she male father since he had no clue that was his own dad until later on. Personally, I did not really enjoy the movie but I guess it was meant to touch on some very real, life like issues. Scary as it may sound but these issues do, unfortunately, occur to some families and it's quite saddening.

Still on this topic, I checked my Myspace account and lo and behold I had one unread message. I will post up the message here for you to read and decide. At first, I was kinda taken aback and disturbed by the writing but I thought it was a rather touching story nonetheless. All text are in its original context and I did not alter it in any way.

Juz ignore tis msg! It's someone who bladdering when he's is drunk!
browsing annoymously, bounce on your profiles... Was stun when I look
into your pics, I thought you were someone whom I had a bad crushed,
during my NS time...
But I look at your age, can't be, he's should be late 30's by now.... Well, when
you really like someone, just let her/him knows, or else you never know, whether
you might have let someone valubale out of your life... I know you're str8, but
tat doesn't matter, I'm closet for all tis years, I'm not going to know or meet
you...intend to bring my identity to my coffin... Your pics let my hearts ache
once again, juz when I thought I would have forgotten him... That niz it was
drizzling, we juz met a few times in ours ORD range... He was all wet, no.4 soap
in rain after nitz shoot, he was standing there in front of me, against the
light, rain droplet running from his hair, down to his cheek, and drop
on my hand, he look deep into my eyes, but I was too weak to face his glare...He did not utter a word, but in his eyes I saw saddness, I wana hold him into my
arm, but I don't have the couage to do so... The rain droplet keep dripping on my
hand, he stand there for 5 mins or more, and I make no response, That nitz was
in the year 1988 nearing the end of Dec...Raining season keep raining and
raining... I thought I have forgotten...But until I saw your pics... On second
look, you maybe more good looking, confident, he's juz a boy next door kinda
look...But to me, he's my one and only... If you read this far thanks you, if
not I got nothing to lose... It's just reminds me when I should have
forgotten... The rain droplet, drip from your hair, onto your cheek, and down to
my hand holding my M16, how I wish I would have tell you that
nitz, Hey, I wana know you, can we be frens...Maybe you and I the ending
would never be the same again...
Sorry I tot you're him... God bless you...

Jackpot! Cheesepot!

2006-04-29T15:41:00.000+08:00

The main headline topic of today's post will be that Annabelle Francis came to dine at Spageddies today and I served her not once but twice! For those who do not know who Annabelle is, she was the one who starred in the hit police series then, "Triple nine".

She is also the wife of the well renowned DJ/VJ, Sheik Haikel. Anyway, she came with a couple of adorable but rowdy kids and her maid I presumed and I had the privilege to serve the food to her table since there weren't any runners available at that moment. She looked stunningly gorgeous! Smooth, flawless, tanned skin complexion with glittering, piercing eyes. Gosh, she looks as good in real life than on tv back then. I heard from the other staff that quite a handful of stars would come and dine or walk by the restaurant so i'm hoping to bump into afew while i'm still at Spageddies.

Cheesepot! I managed to sell 4 cheese fondues today but I feel kinda bad for the last customer who ordered the cheese fondue. These two women from overseas, spain i'm guessing, since they were speaking espanol, had agreed to try the cheese fondue. When they ate it, one of the women called me to ask if there was any alcohol content in it. Not knowing that there is a small amount of white wine content in it, I merely said that there were a mixture of 3 types of cheese in it and the reason they asked was because one of the women was pregnant. Later on, I asked the manager if there was any alcohol contents in the fondue and he said that there is white wine in it. So i'm feeling a little bad and sorry for the woman and I hope the baby is fine.

Something else funny happened at work today. This time I was going around topping up water when I encountered this customer. As usual, I would ask if the customer wanted his/her water to be topped up and this young lady customer agreed. Usually, I would just pick the cup off the table but when I reached out to grab the cup, she also reached out to grab the cup to pass it to me so she ended up grabing my hand and I drew back my hand and so did she. It happened for 3 times over! The situation is exactly the same when you bump into someone and when you move left, the other person also moves the same direction with you and ARGHH! You get what I mean. HAHA. Her friends started laughing and I heard one of her friends saying, "haha..I saw that", to the girl.

Today's saturday. Decided to stay home to catch up on some rest after working everyday for the past week. It's quite saddening that my flash which I spent so much time on can't seem to work! Or it's taking forever to load! I shall attempt to create another one. Sigh.

Spageddies cheese fondue

2006-04-28T00:07:00.000+08:00

The first hour of work today was awfully slow and a drag to say the least. I looked to the left where there's a small japanese restaurant and there were already customers filling up the seats, I looked towards "Din Tai Fung" and as expected it was already filled to capacity and then I glance around Spageddies and there wasn't one single soul at all! AT ALL! Luckily, people started streaming in after 12pm and it became a little busier as time went by. I don't know why this is true but whenever customers come, they always come all at once! It's like they have planned up some scheme to make us busy all at once. HEH.

Today I managed to upsell 2 cheese fondue portions. The thing with this promotion is that if any server is able to upsell 3 portions, he/she will be rewarded with a free dessert-of-the-day cake. No! I'm not trying to sell cheese fondues just to eat the cake! Com'on i'm not that "cheap" besides I can buy one myself although a free one won't hurt but i'm really doing it to help Spageddies to upsell their festive promotion items. Therefore, if you happen to pop by Spageddies anytime soon, come try the cheese fondue!

I spent quite alot of time on my computer today, trying to figure out some of blogspots coding so that I could edit the layout like i've done. The layout isn't really the nicest layout but it will do for now until I can figure out how to edit more of the codes.

A blog discovered

2006-04-26T20:15:00.000+08:00

I admit to having numerous blogs over the last decade or so but if you've somehow managed to find this blog out, this one is my latest. I've decided to create a personal blogspot account, apart from the http://www.sa-youths-unite.blogspot.com one since that blog, which was supposed to be a somewhat personal blog has evolved to becoming a group blog for the Salvation Army youths. So here I am!

I've been working for Spageddies for a little over 4 weeks now and I can safely say that I have become accustomed to the routines and people there. I will not go on to describe the friends that i've made since i've already done that in my other blog entry which you can read here.

So what's the funniest thing that has happened at work so far?

There was once a customer waiting at the main door to be seated and as I
was walking towards the customer, I saw a dish on the counter and this dish
happens to be called "sizzlelini". So when I greeted the customer, I said, "Hi..welcome to sizzlelini! erm..sorry Spageddies!"

Thank goodness the customer wasn't really paying much attention anyway but that's by far the most embarrassing and funniest thing that i've done at work.

There's going to be an interesting documentary on tv tonight. it's about a real life encounter of a shark attack! A girl was swimming in the sea and emerging from right behind her was an enormous shark fin and the people on the boats trying to save her were shouting, "it's got her leg..it's got her leg!". Now that is scary! With a shark bite imminent and an escape almost impossible. Poor girl.

I'll be working the lunch shift tomorrow again. No doubt it's physically and mentally draining but I enjoy doing this job and at least I won't have to rot my time away doing nothing at all. Earn some extra pocket money, meet new friends before going into army, that's not a bad deal! I'm starting to dread the 7th of July. Big sigh!

Have I already mention that I totally abhor mosquitos! It's bad enough that they bite and suck your blood in the day but what's even worse is when they buzz about your ear and bite you while you're trying to sleep! Why of all pests did God have to create the blooming mosquito! What good does it serve?! Yes, they feed the lizards but THEY'RE FEEDING ON ME first! God if you do happen to read blogs too, PLEASE! Let there be no mosquitos 10 meters from me. Amen.

Alright, It's time for some grueling shark action. Check back the chronicles of joel for more updates!