Making the most of the situation! My to do list...

it's been another week of staying at home and applying for jobs online to no avail. okok, maybe i didn't really stay at home the entire week but in essence it felt like a pretty long week. being jobless and having to stay at home eventually gets to you. i somehow i felt pretty emo last night. It's the compound kind of problem of not having a job leading to not having any mood to shop and the nmnhnblm part of me starts acting up. sigh sigh. but eventually i got over it and decided there are some things i ought to do during this period of waiting for a job offer. but, before that, how about briefly touching on how i spent my day?

well i woke up as usual and surfed my usual forums. after lunch i got quite emo but a friend on the forum suggested i should just go to gym (which i was planning to anyway) and work my emo-ness away. well i guess it kinda worked. did some running and focused mainly on my core today. met some of my gym buddies. the thing is the gym plays class 95 and the theme they had for this weekend is hits from the 80's. as you can imagine mambo hits such as "together forever", "venus" and "don't you want me" started popping up. my natural mambo instinct was to start dancing mambo but fortunately there was enough sanity in me to stop myself from doing so and embarassing myself in the gym. haha. it was hard but i survived. lmao. after that went to meet ed at amk and we played jubeat at the arcade. it's really good for destressing. had dinner then went back for more. managed to get a few more S's. heh heh.

oh yeah, i realized something about songs in the 80's. apparently the hottest words to use in lyrics from that time are "yeah~", "baby" and "c'mon". haha. just a random comment.

okok, time to get to the to do list. as mentioned i hope to accomplish these tasks before i start my new job. so here goes:
1) apply for my BTT at the kovan branch office of the driving centre
2) change my old bank passbook for a new one (because the old one is all filled up)
3) get whey protein and a shaker (probably going down to the TSW warehouse at toa payoh. save on delivery charges)
4) get a new wallet and some more uhh....inner wear (probably from robinsons)
5) get new gym gear (since there's a sale and i have discount coupon)

besides this maybe i'll try to squeeze in a session of swimming between my gym schedule. probably visit the arcade to play jubeat and level up. and i'll continue looking for a job.

okok, time to go now. so until next time, bye bye~

Uneventful...*Cough Cough*

alll i can say is that i managed to survive the first full week of unemployment. somehow being unemployed totally kills the shopping mood. what is happening to me? chinese new year is like only 2 weeks away! and i haven't even bought anything. totally can't feel the cny mood this year.

been down with the flu bug from wednesday to friday so i was pretty much out of any gym action. it has been an extremely boring and uneventful week. no new episode of gundam 00 this week, no manga releases from weekly shounen jump like bleach or naruto or reborn or psyren, heroes is on break till february, ugly betty returns only next week. sheesh. i wonder how i survived the past week. well, ed found a temp job so helping him find his office wear did help a bit. (his first office job so we had to start from scratch.) well, the good thing is that a lot of girls are in the cny shopping mood so we got quite a bit of eye candy to look at. heh heh.

most of my time spent at home was spent looking for jobs on websites and in the classified ads or surfing forums like hardwarezone.com . hmmm...is asking for my previous pay too much? i really don't know. i really hope to find a job by this week. hmm...i will probably be needing a haircut by next week before cny. see how lor. since the salon i usually go to is so close to the gym and considering i go there thrice a week.

yawnz~ hardwarezone is so lag at this time....sigh~ bored~ been thinking abt some stuff. ok la, until next time. bye bye~

New year, new beginnings! Retrospection and expectations

hmmm...before we get to the more chunky part let's start the post with something more light-hearted?

let's have a look at my last kills for 2008.

took a walk around town the other day because of all the year end sales going around hoping to get some steals. got this tee from zara. saw it a while ago but wanted to wait till it got on sale which it did. yay!

then i went to fox and saw that the tees were going at 30% off. managed to pick out 2 tees with rather simple designs, but the cutting is pretty comfy. then before i went to pay, the salesperson i could get an additional 15% off if i paid using a dbs credit/debit card. woohoo~

went for countdown yesterday with ed at zouk. we tried to get company but the girls wanted to have their own little gathering at shuyi's house and we were pretty set on going because it happens to be mambo nite.but never mind, in the end we saw quite a few of our friends there. the dancing started around 11plus with mostly random songs with a few mambo hits here and there. surprisingly the crowd isn't THAT bad as expected. we counted down and the dancing continued. it got to a point where the music totally didn't match our taste so we went over to phuture for a while. when we got to phuture the music is pretty ok but the crowd was horrible. it was mostly young bengs and lians there. we got ourselves some drinks and went back to zouk. we chilled out at for a while until the mambo hits starting playing at around 3.30am? that's when the real deal got going. the mambo regulars who were looking damn bored on the podium suddenly burst into life and the "synchronized dancing" started. we were moving our bodies and doing hand signs all the way till 6.15am when the lights came on. it was fun but really tiring. i came home, took a shower and concussed until 3pm.

after last night i have come to make 3 conclusions:

1) drinking sucks. and it is possible to have fun in the club without drinking alcohol (especially if it's mambo) but do try to stay hydrated

2) 80% of the girls that club are either too chui (cannot make it) or too old. the other 20% come with their boyfriends. so, never go to a club and hope to find a decent(-looking) girl.

3) beware of drunk OLs who might try to take advantage of you (don't ask.)

ok after all the fun and excitement, it's time to get to some serious stuff.

honestly, 2008 wasn't that bad of a year. for most of the year i was in the army. went to taiwan for an overseas exercise. got introduced to a new church. came out of army. went on holiday. got a job. made some pretty great friends along the way.

well, there were emo and sucky times too. like how my current predicament has made me think a lot recently. the company decided to fix headcount because of the financial situation so they are letting all the temps go. yup that means as of now, i'm jobless (again). i got pretty distressed when i heard this. no more income? is this the end for me and my newly befriended colleagues? i have to stay at home looking for a job and just stone again? and now i have to compete for jobs with those who ORD-ed in december? i'm back at square one? the feeling of sliding back was terrible. after days of mulling around, a flash of insight hit me. i'm not exactly back at square one. the one month plus of working wasn't for nothing. there were things i've gained without knowing. i've made some money. i've gained some job experience. i've got to know some gym buddies. and i've probably gained many other things i don't know yet.

oh well, so i guess i'm back to looking for a decent paying job. i've contacted job agencies and just gotta wait and hope they will contact me soon as i continue to plow through the classified ads. actually i think it won't be that bad since the all the students have to get back to school so any positions they were holding would be open.

i have high expectations for what is to come this year. hopefully i'll find a temp job that i'll like so i can earn some money before uni and to keep me occupied lest i might just go crazy staying at home. hopefully i'll manage to meet someone this year when the time is right. hopefully i'll enjoy myself at the university when it starts in august. and i'm looking foward to meet more people as i go through the various phases in my life.

well, that's all the time i have for now. until next time then. bye bye~

Jingle bells~ Pre-christmas outing!

haha i wanted to do a post on my zoukout experience but my friend hasn't sent me the photos and i didn't get much on my camera so i guess that will have to wait. in the meantime, i'll do a feature on last night! it's some kind of tradition for the few of us since secondary school times to have a christmas outing. doens't have to be exactly on christmas day but ya you get the idea. alright let's start form the top.

ok, yesterday was my dad's birthday so i took him out for breakfast, or rather brunch. it wasn't anything fancy but i guess it's the thought that counts? hee hee. after that i went to hit the gym at hougang. ran on the treadmill and did some training with jac when he came (my colleague and my new gym buddy. haha). aching all over by the time we were done. (for some reason my lats are still aching.) went home to shower before heading down to raffles city.

so i managed to reach raffles city early. (trust me, this doesn't happen very often. lmao.) when everyone (except shuyi who was late) arrived, we went into our dinner destination: shokudo food bazaar. honestly i'd say the food is a little pricey (especially the drinks) but the quality still ok la. (at least it's more edible than the shokudo pasta at cineleisure) we waited for shuyi before we went to get our food, so by the time we got our stuff we were obviously famished. the girls left us in awe when they ordered hordes of food (i think they ate more than us guys). when they saw our faces, they said something like "it's christmas. it's ok to eat more once in a while" wow, ok.

something more interesting about the place than the food and the seating areas with different themes were the people who cleared the dishes. they were like ninjas. nope i don't mean they dressed like ninjas but they are sure trained like ninjas. they lurked in the shadows when we are eating and once you finish, *poof*, they appear and ask if they could clear your dishes almost instantly. we came to the conclusion that this is part of the restaurant's strategy to make you lose track of how much you've eaten so you'll order more food than you know it. smart right? anyway, after we finished our food, we decided to hang around a bit more to camwhore.

alright, it's time to finally show some faces on this blog so people won't say it looks like a blogshop anymore. haha. so here goes! (warning! large pictures!)


that's momo with his oyakodon (rice with chicken and egg)


aileen showing off her 自拍 skills.


hungry simin (i'll have to say it's a very nice shot by ed)


the girls


the guys


guess who won?

haha. so after feeling all stuffed we went to have a look at the christmas tree outside raffles city.



then we walked over to the esplanade. they had some of those white balls which you could write your new year wishes so we shared one. they will put the balls into the river so u can see hundreds of white balls floating on the singapore river when they are done. quite a wonderous sight i can imagine.


writing on the ball with shuyi


my new year wish. do pardon my poor grammar (or lack thereof. lol)

after that, we went over to cafe cartel because it was after 9pm and the cakes were at 50% off (such sinful indulgence. gotta work extra hard at the gym tomorrow)


waiting for the cakes to be served


ed going in for the kill!


trying to look like i don't like cakes (who am i kidding?)


mmmmmmmmmmm.......

then we did our usual christmas gift exchange. the girls unwrapped their presents with lots of anticipation as usual. after that we had one more surprise!
.
.
.
.

there's one for everyone! supposed to put it on your keys.





and finally.....a group photo!


yup so that's how we spent our sunday evening.

whoa it's getting late. gotta work and gym tomorrow. hope to update soon. until then, bye~

Realization. Putting a Foot Foward...

before i get to the gist of the post just want to share a movie i caught today:



it's a movie called cape no.7 (海角七號). it's a taiwanese movie and apparently it was quite a big hit there. well the cinema was quite full so i guess the response here isn't too bad as well. watched it at the cathay with ed and momo (a.k.a sheng chao. another of my buddies). it's pretty hard to describe. the spine of the story is that there's going to be a concert at the beach by a japanese star (kousuke atari), but one of the resident committee heads kicks a big fuss and manages to convince the organisers to put in some local acts. and so an audtition was held and a make-shift band was formed, led by the committee head's son, Aga (portrayed by van fan). but the true nature of the movie is romance. whilst there were many different situations faced by the different characters in the movie the main ones were the blossoming romance between Aga and Tomoko (portrayed by tanaka chie), interlaced with the love story between an unnamed teacher and yet another Tomoko which took place in 1945. the 1945 story is cleverly unravelled through 7 letters the teacher wrote to kojima tomoko during the 7 days he spent on the ship home to japan.

i wouldn't exactly say it's a movie that tugs at your heartstrings and make you want to cry like 881, but it is a beautiful movie. the scenery of the beach is very beautiful, the local taiwan flair makes it very beautiful. the movie ends with no particular endings to certain characters' situations. but i guess there's perfection in imperfection. sometimes things are beautiful because there are flaws. sometimes in life, things are like that. they may get better or they don't. at least for that moment in time. and there's still room for imagination. very nice movie.

....okok time to get to the gist of my post but before i say anything else, i want to say what i have got to say from this point on has nothign to do with the movie. it just happened to dawn upon me today ok.

i had a realization today. there's really no point in being so 花痴 (if you don't understand i also don't know how to rephrase. chee hong? despo?). i mean, romance will come when it comes. it's not something you go around looking for. i guess the person will just appear when the time is right. no point pining for it and wasting your energy just longing for it. there are better things to do with that energy and by not focusing on just that one thing, you can actually appreciate the other things you have around you.

i don't know, recently i've just been making quite a few different realizations causing different parts of me to change. i feel that i've been growing a lot recently. kind of like a growth spurt. not physically la, not like i've been getting much taller since secondary school. more of me as a person. it's not something that others can see but it's something that i can feel and that i know. i guess this is part of growing up? i'm not saying i'm totally matured as a man now but i know i'm taking one step at a time. i know i'm slowly leaving some of my childish thoughts and behaviour and wilful ways behind.

at this point of my life i've come to understand that there are certain things that you've just got to figure out yourself. some things just can't be told to you by others and you have just got to explore your own views and principles in order to reach the next level.

i want to be less self-indulgent. i really mean it. take things slow la. don't expect me to change totally tomorrow but bit by bit i want to change. looking back, i have come a long way from the shy little boy i was. slowly gaining experience, slowly getting more confident. but i don't just want to stop here, i hope to continue growing. overcoming my own insecurities.

haha, also don't know why i'm so philosophical today. maybe it's the cool breeze getting to my head. oh well, that's all the time i have tonight, still got work tomorrow. looking foward to another day at work. though the work may not be really interesting, the people are and i do enjoy their company even though i don't really talk to some of them (some female co-workers). and tomorrow is gym day! haha. if you guys haven't realized, i love going to the gym. the familiar smell of the air freshener just puts my mind at ease for some reason. okok, really got to go already. nitez~

Surprise! I'm Back~

haha bet you guys didn't expect me to be back with updates so soon eh? well, neither did i but i had some time and the mood got to me so here we go!

ok i'll start with some of the stuff i bought from my trip!

got this from....you guessed it, hk disneyland. haha. wanted to get a souvenir that i will actually wear when i saw this. hmm...i think it goes better with lighter coloured bottoms....

next, a pretty basic abercrombie polo?:



hmm...got this shirt and cardigan seperately but thought it looks nice together. the shirt was really a steal. managed to get it at a really unbelievable price. haha.



remember the pair of jeans i mentioned in the earlier post? well, here it is. the shop i got it is a HK brand called Chocolate which has 2 lines, black chocolate and white chocolate. white chocolate has a more retro feel whereas black chcolate is more of casual wear. the jeans is from the black chocolate line.



ok la really got too much stuff from the trip. i think i'll feature more as time goes by if got the chance.
how about some stuff i got in Singapore?

actually got this pair of shorts before the trip. it's the kind that ends around your knees and has a skinny cut. got it at far east so it was quite affordable.

(haha i know it kinda blends into the background)

hmm...i decided i should pick up a new scent. the first one i thought of is Hilfiger from Tommy Hilfiger which i managed to get a whiff from the november issue of men's health. (they are really smart nowadays and the advert actually has a flap where they binded some of the perfume into the glue. i know it's pretty hard to visualize) but when i got to the shop i found it a little to musky for my liking. so after taking a few samples, i decided on this:





it is slightly lighter and has nice citrus notes.

there was this grey nike polo that i saw a while ago at starthreesixty once but never saw it again. then yesterday when i went to the nike by B.I.R.D at cine i took a little dip into their sale section and voila! i fished out the same polo only that it's in red. it's still nice and i've haven't got anything in bright colours in a while so i bought it.





apparently it's made from organic materials. wow i thought organic foods were good enough. now fabrics must also be made from organic plants? hardcore~~ oh ya in case you haven't noticed i've made my photos bigger than before so you can see it more clearly, thanks for the feedback.

hmm...recently been in the mood to listen to some retro songs. anything ranging from dancey- songs to jazzy tunes, from the 70's to just a couple of years ago.
speaking of which, i wanna go mambo~~~ but now that i'm working it's practically impossible. sigh. oh ya, it's zoukout next saturday! it's gonna be partying throughout the night!! i even got my tickets. thing is...i don't know who to go with. or rather, to be put more bluntly, i have no one to go with...(like totally what the.........) how?? it's only 6 days away and i haven't found my kakis. help~~~

which reminds me....today i was so lonely and hungry...*sob* i tried to find people for dinner but they either had wedding dinners, already had plans or just stayed too far. so i went to the gym in the afternoon and i came back still determined to find some dinner kaki but to no avail. the best ones were those who totally ignored my sms and did not even reply. (if you people are here reading this you ought to be ashamed of yourself. can't even be bothered to say not free/not interested?) ended up going to the kopitiam nearby for dinner by myself. got very annoyed because the auntie refused to come take my drink order despite me purporsely making eye contact a few times. obviously i wanted a drink la, if not i want to seduce her ar. in the end i finished my fried rice without any drinks. bleah~~

sigh~~ it's christmas season and i've been listening to this song "my only wish" by britney spears. it's from a couple of years back when she was still (appeared) pretty innocent and sane. the lyrics really speaks for me.

oh yeah yeah...Last night i took a walk in the snow,
Couples holdin hands, places to go,
Seems like everyone but me is in love
Santa can you hear me?
...
I want my baby, baby
I want someone to love me, someone to hold,
Maybe maybe, she'll be all my own in a big red bow
Santa can you hear me?
I have been so good this year
And all i want is one thing,
Tell me my true love is here
she's all i want, just for me
Underneath my christmas tree
I'll be waiting here
Santa that's my only wish this year
...

(i took the liberty to change all instances of "he" into "she" for accuracy. ok la, no snow la, took a walk down orchard road can?)
sigh~ when will someone special appear in my life? the other day i was just telling yu chuan (a.k.a ed, edwin or chuan. for those who don't know, he's my 死党) how i'm actually quite happy with the current state of my life. working is actually spending time rather constructively rather than rotting at home doing nothing. i get to earn money and time really passes faster. getting to know more people too. and i still have time for the gym. also have friends i can count on (or so i thought the other day). only thing missing is somebody to take that place in my life. sigh~ longing to love and be loved. it sucks to be a helpess romantic.

anyway, my mum and bro just came back from yet another holiday (3rd one recently including the one i went?) and brought some mini sized tau sar pia from penang. pandan flavour one. quite nice. but, nah, i won't gorge myself to distract myself from my woes. ok la i don't really believe in santa so i hope God can answer my christmas wish instead. haha. guess i'll have to keep looking harder.

oh well, until next time. do wish me luck in my love life. bye bye~~

Busy Busy Busy

oh man been really busy with work. barely have any time left other than work and gym. sorry for the lack of updates ar. so far work has been pretty good though. definitely a more constructive way to spend my time rather than rot at home doing nothing. my colleagues are very friendly too. getting along very well especially with the guys. the only thing is i'm probably the youngest there....alright give me some time to regroup and i'll be back with more updates? sorry sorry. haha, do continue to expect more exciting updates ok?