Blokus!

Met up with Shilei today and supposed to go down to Kim Seng CC to support her in a Blokus competition~ Blokus is this simple game that I've played a couple of times at Settler's cafe before.. Anyway, i ended up registering with Shilei as a team to join when she already joined with Qianhao as another!

Qualifiers are played and best score was taken out of 3 games. You can choose to play 1 game if u think ur score's good enuff to qualify. Top 8 teams enter for quarterfinals. And that's what we did when we won the first game! 158 to 134~ hee.. poor secondary sch boys... here's a pic of victory~

Me and Shilei (in pink) after our first victory

After that we went to explore other booths that showcased designer games. Designer games are different from designer goods okie! They are games that are created by locals! Tried Dividends and ended up buying it on the spot cos it was on offer and quite nice to play!

A pic of the game (not everything shown) and a pic of me, Qianhao's fren (dunno how to spell) and the game designers, Nick and Eve

After that, bad news came... Shilei and I qualified and so did Qianhao and Shilei. So the organisers asked that one team to step out... So sianz... They shld have restricted one person to only one team at the start... So I stepped out and got to participate in the lucky draw. And guess wat! I won something! A Mind Cafe $20 voucher! But strange considering that the organisers were from Settler's.. Hmm...

Qianhao and Shilei lost in the first quarterfinal so we went ard looking at other booths. I tried my hand at World of Warcraft Trading Card game, the cards looked v cool. I spent more time looking at the art design rather than hearing him explaining about the rules of the game.. Keke...

After that I played a few games of Blokus (lying around cos quarterfinals never used all and playing was for free..) with Qianhao's fren and 2 other girls that also joined the competition.

The four of us after an afternoon of Blokus~

After that I left for Orchard with the 2 girls who happened to be going to Orchard as well to meet GY for dinner at Taka. Had Ajisen Ramen and tried the super set that had a ramen, 3 dishes and a drink. Ramen always works for me. *Slurp!*

My all time favourite Miso Cha-Shu Ramen and the side dishes we ordered, starting from left clockwise California Maki, fried dumpling, fried prawn, salmon sashimi, fried dumpling (again) and shishamo yaki.

Looking forward to New Year's Eve Countdown tml!

Marche~

Joined some YCK ppl for dinner at Marche, to celebrate the success of the concert, although the concept of concert did come under fire recently...

Anyway, we all gathered at Marche @ Suntec and had a feast. Literally one. Bought loads of food and ended up not being able to finish all in the end.. think too many rosti le.. LOL

Hot topic of conversation was about why the cow became the mascot of Marche so we decided to ask a waiter for fun~ Cue stunned look! Hahaha...

Looking forward to the long weekend when I can have a good long rest!

Curse of the Golden Flower! 满城尽带黄金甲

Just caught the Curse of the Golden Flower with Law after work today. Gotta say it's a better show than the Banquet(夜宴). The movie could have been more enjoyable if not a couple of guys talking in front of me, a guy beside me narrating scene by scene to his gf as though his gf cannot watch the movie, and a kid sitting behind who kept asking his parents this and that... Now I know y ppl avoid the cinemas and rather get VCDs / DVDs (or pirated?)

Not going to reveal too much about the show or Gong Li's ample bosom (pun intended), but Jay Chou's a superhero, able to fell 10,000 with one halberd and avoiding possibly 1,000,000 arrows! Story's a little shaky but movie-goers won't be disappointed~ Worth the ticket price, i think!

Anyway, on another note, my manager had to go on emergency leave cos an accident happened to her daughter... Hope she recovers soon... *prays*

Pitstop!

Joined my frens to have a gaming session at Pitstop Cafe, only later to realise that one of the owners is my secondary schoolmate! Nice to see Eve after all this while! Seems like they started this boardgame cafe business for a year already and they;re doing pretty well!

Like the cosy environment and the great service of the owners too~ I've been a Settlers' fan and I must say that Pitstop is not bad, ya know? Even got myself a membership card also known as a Pitstop Mini~

Ppl interested can hop down to 14B Circular Road, Boat Quay to check it out. More information can be found at http://pitstopcafeinfo.blogspot.com/
Must go support my friend ah! Maybe can organise A07/08 or YCK outings there le~ LOL

Here's also wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year~ =)

A07/08 Xmas Party!

Finally had the party at WY's place and it went pretty well I guess~ Lotsa food, games galore and the xmas present exchange! Thank you all who came! The photo album's below at the link. Enjoy!


by janzer81

Thanks to TF and JW for the Nike Drifit Tee! *beams*

I hate...

Being alone for lunch, dinner, my bdae, Christmas, New Year, and possibly the rest of my life...

Bought myself a new bag!

Had lunch with Elaine at Han's today and chatted about lotsa stuff. It's good I can confide in her and the same goes for her too..

After work, met Ivan for dinner at Bugis Junction. Had dinner at Ajisen Ramen and the Pork Curry Ramen I ordered tasted like Myojo's curry noodles. Ivan agreed as well! We went to shop for Xmas presents. Ivan bought a new pair of Nike shoes as his previous ones were going to KO pretty soon... I admit they do look quite nice! And I bought a FX Creations bag for myself! Hee.. Going to use it tml!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Super Tired after MINDS Camp over the weekend.. had only 1 hour of sleep due to preparation for the mini-concert on Sunday and ppl bugging me to play card games with them at 4am. >.<

Thank you all to the 18 ppl who wished me Happy Birthday by SMS + 1 who wished me in person! The number of ppl is a personal record broken cos ppl usually forgets my bdae or can't be bothered about it. Haha~ You know who you are! Finally a year older, can't cheat by saying i'm 24 anymore... Pics of presents coming soon!

And today's my first day of work at Deutsche Bank! Reached there super early but HR directed me to the wrong storey making me ask ppl for someone who isn't on that particular floor... Grr...

So I found out I shld be working on the 14th floor rather than the 8th floor. Not too bad for today, spent the good half of the morning, getting started up at my desk, computer, pantry orienteering, miscellaneous stuff.. Nice of my colleague to give me a helping hand. She's only been there for 3 months, but she's a nice and patient lady who never frowns when I ask her questions (so far). Tml my manager shld be back so things may turn out different.. Supposed to meet Elaine (yes yes, if u guessed it correctly, the +1 is her) for lunch but something cropped up for her the last minute, so I had lunch alone at Lau Pa Sat, which was kinda sucky. It was raining and I forgot to bring my brolly too! Sucky X 2...

And I was already super busy from Day 1 already! Which is good in a sense that time passes rather quickly instead of slacking, watching time crawl to six pm...

Looking forward to tml! (^-^)>

Bad news~

UEFA Champions League Knockout stages draw are out.. and Liverpool is facing former champions Barcelona! That's bad... If Liverpool can make it past this round, then it's not too bad after that... Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal have relatively easier oppoonents though, shouldn't be a prob...

On another note, thanks to ZJ, KY and WY for the adidas cap!

T-3 days (^-^)>

Into the sky, to win or die! (-_-)|||

Caught eragon together with Ivan, GY and Law at PS today. Practically wolfed down our dinner at Manhattan Fish Express cos we only had like 15 mins before show time at 7. In the end, the show actually STARTED at 7.20! Argh~ Aside from that, met Huiru at the Manhattan Fish Express. She's one of my former colleagues at IRAS back then and she looked lovely as ever. Hehe.

Predictable story, cheesy one-liners (refer to title of post), a few laughable scenes are the drawbacks of the show but luckily there are heavyweights who save the show from being a total disaster. Jeremy Irons is the young protagonist's master, Brom and John Malkovich rules as the evil King Galbatorix.

According to people who read the book, it's a total letdown. So morale of the story: Do either one and you'll be contented. Read or Watch. Do not try both unless prescribed by the doctor... Lol

T-3 days (^-^)>

All done and deal!

Finally went down to sign appt letter with Deutsche Bank, title: ID administrator. I know, doesn't sound impressive, but at least I get a chance to use Japanese and communicate frequently with colleagues over in Japan. How's that?

Well, I'll be working at DBS Building Tower 2 which is just beside Elaine's workplace. She just said finally got lunch kaki le! Haha. Also looking forward to meet her for lunch in the near future too!

Also went down to Republic Plaza for my medical exam for the job. Suaku me had to call my sis and asked for directions cos I'm still a Shenton Way / Raffles Place newbie! In the end, dunno by what arcane intuition, I managed to find my way there. Usual tests performed like urine, blood, x-ray, eyesight and the likes. And turned out I was FIT for work!

So starting work next Monday, which happens to be on my bdae. Wanted to delay by one day but nobody actually celebs my bdae on a weekday, so might as well start work loh.. I always think of Monday as a good day to start anything. It's like an tradition for me..

Ok~ Will keep you guys updated soon but i'll be away during the weekend. Will be at the annual MINDS Camp. Hopefully I can take a couple of good pics to post it up here. That's all!

T-4 days. (^-^)>

Do I look like a Japanese?

Went to Taka today to collect my Liverpool Home Kit jersey from adidas and played pool with GY till Law came down later to join us~ Finally after the long wait, the S size jersey is in town and thanks to my sis for reserving it for me! :) Also thanks to GY, Law, YY, BZ and JJB for sponsoring the jersey too!

Decided on the impromptu to catch Open Season at the Cathay during dinner time. On the way to the Cathay, I gave directions a group of Japanese tourists to Raffles Hotel from Hotel Rendevous (which is quite a long walk away) The nice obaasan (auntie) then asked me whether I was living in Singapore and my dad was working in Singapore... Haha! She thought I was Japanese! I told her that I'm a Singaporean to her disbelief... Hee~ I took that as a compliment to my Japanese language skills then or maybe I looked like a Japanese according to Law... :)

Now looking at the nice Goldlion dress shirt (bought from Tangs this week) and my Liverpool jersey hung on my cupboard~ *beams*

Btw, my birthday's in a week's time! Wanted to prepare a wish list but not many things I want anyway and most ppl dun bother about my bdae in the first place as well.. So just keep it short and simple...

1) Liverpool Home Kit Jersey (done)
2) adidas cap
3) adidas jacket
4) a pair of cufflinks

Pics to come soon, I hope... :)

Good news come in pairs?

Decided to take up the offer from Deutsche Bank AG instead of Panasonic. Luckily haven't signed Panasonic that side. Think that guy must have been damn pissed with me. Delay liaoz, said want to sign already then last minute 'chu' pattern.. No choice lah, gotta see which one offers better mah.. Both sides offer the same pay but Deutsche Bank is nearer compared to Panasonic, so...

If all goes well, I shld be starting work on my bdae! i.e. 18th December! People pls remember! Haha! yet to upload my wishlist but coming soon...

Another piece of good news is that adidas (note no caps) has M size liverpool home kit jersey! My dear sis just called me to say she reserved it for me liaoz! Gotta go down to Taka tml and collect! :)

Good news come in pairs?

After This Our Exile (父子)

Just caught the show with GY after dinner. Wasn't really expecting to catch a show today but agreed anyway cos it's supposed to be nice and it's a award-winning show (Best Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor in the 43rd Golden Horse Awards) , with one of my favourite actresses, Charlie Yeung!

In a nutshell, it revolves around the lives of father (Aaron Kwok) and his son. How they cope with their mother leaving them and making ends meet in Malaysia... A touch of comedy, tragedy and heart-wrenching scenes. The show's rated M18 according to GY, cos of "intimate scenes". That's for sure with scenes involving Aaron and Charlie... The show's ending kinda abrupt too, which I dun like it (remember Casino Royale?) but overall, the movie's ok, but wouldn't recommend watching it over the weekend at that price...

A random search at Google revealed that the phrase "After This Our Exile" is part of a prayer one says after praying the rosary. It goes like this:

"HAIL, HOLY QUEEN, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!"

Which kinda leaves me much to think about... Anyway, good news for me, Deutsche Bank AG has offered me a position as a network ID administrator! Should be taking that up instead of Panasonic~ :)

Also, going to organise a Xmas party for A07/08 peeps on 23rd Dec, so do let me know whether you'll available after reading this post, either by MSN, SMS or tagboard in my blog! Thanks!

Cheers!

*gasp* after looking at clock for time of post... Addictive Neverwinter Nights 2...

日本語能力試験

やっと来てくれたよ！能力検定試験だ！今朝三級を受けて、いい結果がほしい！９０パセント以上でもいいと思うよ～　はは～　８時４５分ごろ日本学校に着いたら、多くの人々が並んでいた！びっくりした！試験をするのに全部３時１５分かかって、休憩時間が２つある。１つは２０分ぐらいだ。試験をしたら、大体易しかったと思った。結果はいつ届くか、またわからないので、知ってることになったら、皆に知らせるよ！

(Translation)
The Japanese Language Proficiency test (JLPT) is finally here! I sat for Level 3 this morning and hoping to get a good result for the test! Any score is fine but above 90% would be nice though.. Haha! Reached the school at about 8.45am and a lot of people were already queuing outside the gates! Was really surprised to see the crowd! The whole exam lasted for 3 hours and 15 mins, with 2 intervals of 20 mins in between. After sitting for the test, I found it to be pretty easy though.. Not sure when the results will come but I'll inform everyone once I receive them!
(End of Translation)

After that had lunch with Jacelin, Adeline and Qinghai at Bedok Market before going off to Expo to meet GY to go see SITEX. Nothing in mind to buy in particular, just went there to walk around.. later moved on to the BIG BOYZ TOYZ exhibition that shows cars, bikes, even a yacht, and girls with skimpy clothing on too. Everything to attract guys by the hordes (me included)!

Had dinner with GY and Law and played a couple of games of Settlers of Catan at my place afterwards. Haha, tml going to reply to Panasonic about the offer. Most prob shld be taking it even if it means waking up at 545 every morning and travelling to Bedok...

Cya!

Great weekend (again)!

So busy over the weekend, until now then i blog about it.. Lotsa stuff to blog about, so I shall do it in chronological order~ :)

1) Last day at IRAS!

Last Sat, my colleagues gave me a nice card with well-wishes inside, wishing me the best in my future job at Panasonic (or Microsoft? *prays*) and my manager gave me and another colleague a treat cos he also leaving soon this coming Wed. Had a hearty lunch at Fish and Co and you can check out the pics below~

My baked Salmon with mushroom sauce~

My manager, Lijun and I

Fellow colleague, Fauzi and I

2) Primary sch fren gathering

Looking forward to another gathering that same day, this time with a couple of my primary school friends! Only got four of us, GY, me, Ruizhi and Sharon! Just met Ruizhi on the train a few days ago but for Sharon, wah~ Last time I saw her was back in Sec 1, when we came back to visit our dear form teacher, Mr Chong back in Peixin Pri..

So we had dinner at Spageddies @ Paragon and caught up with each other, actually most of the time, Sharon and I did most of the talking~ LOL

Then kena arrowed by Sharon to organise a pri sch frens gathering next time. T_T Possible idea would be @ Settlers' Cafe? Haha... Here's a pic we took that day~

Me, Sharon, Ruizhi and Guangyu

3) Pool and Movie on Sunday

Felt a bit bored on Sunday, so asked the guys out for a game of pool at our usual pool haunt. Too bad cannot take pic in there. V nice ambience, nice tables and nice cue balls~ In fact, I bought my cue stick from there a couple of years ago. Yy came along too, which was a surprise cos usually he's not free one~ Hehe But anyway, we enjoyed playing pool till about 7-8 (YY had to leave early cos he needed to ta-bao dinner back for his 老婆)

Had chicken rice for dinner at a nearby diner and was about to head back home. We were walking past The Cathay when I just expressed my suggestion of watching a Battle of Wits. To my surprise (twice today), GY and Law were game for it! Ended up watching at PS cos the showtime at The Cathay was pretty late.

Not bad a movie, in my opinion. With a mixture of comedy, drama, romance and war. All the right elements to a great show~ Andy Lau stars as Ge Li, a man invited to help defend a city of 4,000 ppl against an army of 100,000! He supposedly follows teachings that preaches Love All, Serve All, kinda like Hard Rock Cafe~ and he rejected Fan Bingbing's advances! Fan Bingbing's role is of a cavalry general in the city of Liang and Nicky Wu's also in it as an archery officer-promoted to general. I'm quite a sucker for war movies where tactics are involved. Think Gladiator (opening sequence), Troy, Lord of the Rings, etc... And Fan Bingbing is so pretty in the show~ *starry eyes*

That kinda wraps up my weekend, one of the best I had so far~

*To Ashlyn, if you're reading this, Happy Birthday once again! :) *

Don't give a damn whether it's shaken or stirred!

Went for interview this morning at PWC Building for DBS-POSB for the position of Personal Financial Consultant. (And just received a reply through email saying that I was not selected for further interviews T_T ) Anyway, after that, I had lunch with Princess Ang near her workplace in City area. It's been a while since I met up with her. We chatted quite a bit before both of us needed to return to work..

Met up with GY and Law for dinner and went to catch Casino Royale at GV Yishun. It's pretty long! 144 minutes to be exact. Was pretty much looking forward to the show cos I'm a Bond fan! The guns, cars, gadgets (almost none in the show) and the girls! Also the demeanor and style of Bond too! Anyway, the show was an ad fest too! Ford, Aston Martin, Ford, Sony-Ericsson, Sony, etc... Somemore closeup shot of product as well. Best scene I liked was when the bartender asked Bond how he would like his vodka martini shaken or stirred. Reply: Don't give a damn about that! LOL Priceless!

But then, kinda lost about how Bond moved from clue to clue and the ending was abrupt. I was like "huh????" and recovered from initial shock after 1,2 minutes later.. "Liddat called ending?" But I gotta say Daniel Craig's one of the best Bonds in the business as yet, followed close by Sean Connery then by Pierce Brosnan~

That's all for now! Tml's my last day at IRAS! *beams*

I got a job offer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally after 4 months of waiting and interview-going, I finally got a job offer from Panasonic! Applied for this job on my own at the Job Fair I mentioned in my earlier post. Surprisingly, the offer din come with the help from 2 of the job agencies that I've registered with.. Hmm..

But then again, I'm in a dilemna... Both POSB-DBS and Microsoft are going to get back to me soon about the success of my interviews soon.. WY advised me to take up the Panasonic offer first and if DBS or Microsoft offers me, then I'll be able to quit during my probation period and head off to my new employer! Thanks WY for the advice!

Anyway, the shop I usually go to get my figurines, La Tendo, had a 30% sale over the weekend and I got for myself a Mia Campbell figurine from Gundam Seed Destiny! *beams* Pics to come soon!



And lazy me finally uploaded my Gundam pics up to community webshots... The link to the album's below~ Just click on the small pic below to get to the album. Take a look if you want please, gotta say some of the shots din turn out that nice but I uploaded it anyway~

Great weekend!

Finally got my hands on Neverwinter Nights 2 on Friday! Pre-ordered it a couple of months ago together with my cousin and his friend and finally I was informed (by my cousin) that it's here!

Super excited. So went to collect it after my interview at Panasonic at Bedok. So here am I trying out the official campaign with my character, a warlock. Warlocks are a new base class included in this series together with the original classes like fighter, wizard, rogue, etc. Hopefully I'll post 1-2 pics of my warlock in action soon.

That followed with an outing to Settler's Cafe with the usual gang on Saturday! Me, Zj, TF, KY, JW and WY. We played Guesstures, Taboo (twice) and Cranium. Hehe. Loved these games cos they require a lot of interaction with people in the group which ups the fun factor. Here's a pic taken that night.

Hopefully can get more ppl to join us in the next outing, possibly to WY's place? Heard it's HUGE... Hohoho..

Then just joined my buddies for dinner and Law finally "claimed" his bdae present from us. Long overdue since Aug loh.. He bought a Sony-Ericsson K800i (I think) It's more of a camera than a phone, IMHO (In My Honest Opinion, for the mis-informed once again.. ^_^) But I was spending more time checking out Law's new HP than he did. LOL. Just can't get my grubby hands off his phone, you see... :P

That's all for now! Coming soon, my Gundam gallery!

The hunt goes on...

Took a day of leave from work today to go for 2 job interviews. Morning 9.30 am at J.S.T Components (Japanese electronics sales office) at Aljunied and Microsoft Regional Sales at Alexendra Technopark @ 2pm.

Managed to reach the J.S.T office about 15 minutes before the appointed time. Phew~ Scared cannot find the place early in the morning. About 10 minutes walk from Aljunied MRT in long sleeved shirt and I'm almost sweating it out... Someone did mention to me before that it's important that you shouldn't be LATE for an interivew and also said that cannot be too EARLY for one as well. The interviewer might think that you have no concept of time (时间观念）or something liddat...

The J.S.T interview went pretty well, I guessed. Interviewed by 2 native Japanese speakers, an attractive lady and a serious-looking guy, entirely in Japanese. Woot! They were rather surprised at my conversational ability despite not having any certification. But it's all thanks to my Japanese senseis (teachers) in NUS, I said. :) Managed to catch most of the stuff said by the guy, but there were a few funny moments when I asked about the welfare benefits. The lady was also an assistant engineer and the guy was the manager, I think. They were surprised when they found that the benefits differ by a huge marginfor the both of them when trying to explain to me. Haha! Only thing that got me worried was that i was told I had no previous working experience in an engineering firm.. (But I'm a fresh grad for goodness's sake!)

Left about 10.50am and took the train from Aljunied to Queenstown. Decided to have lunch at Anchorage point and head down to Queensway shopping centre later in hopes of finding the oh-so-elusive-sold out-you-got-money-also-cannot-buy Liverpool 2006/2007 season SHORT SLEEVED jersey!

Spent about an hour walking around the WHOLE Queensway shopping centre, but only left L and XL sizes.. WTF! Other bigwigs like Man U, Arsenal and that stinking Chelsea still got S and M sizes available woah... This goes to show that Liverpool damn popular in Singapore sia! *beams* but damn sad cos now cannot find in Singapore le... the shop guy also said jersey not coming in anymore, maybe the red zipper jacket (only available in L and XL sizes >_<) might! Took a short bus ride to Alexandra Technopark to Microsoft for my next interview, which looks to be promising... Lucky I went there before to send my HP laptop for repair. if not newbies sure cannot find the blasted underpass to get to the technopark. Difference now that I had to find Blk B (Microsoft) rather than Blk A (HP repair centre)... Reached there damn early about 1pm! And remembered what my fren said about reaching too early... So I hung around the food court (which I found only accessible by elevator...) till about 1.30pm before I made my way over. Normally when u register at the recep, it's always a form or book you gotta fill in, but at Microsoft, you gotta fill in at the computer terminal! So cool~ Then the terminal will print a sticker which you proudly stick it on your shirt/blouse. The form also required you to declare whether you were down with running nose or cough, and since I was still having a cough from my flu last week, I noted yes for cough. ---> which turned out that the sticker on you would say "Health: Bad" I was like WTF!

Whenever people walked past me and stared at my sticker, they moved away hastily. No prizes for guessing y, yah? Anyway, the interview started at 2.30pm (so much for being early. *grumbles*) and I was amazed at the office at Microsoft! Tall ceiling with spacious cubicles. No. They should be called workstations instead. And posh sofas here and there for staff to work on their lappies. Even saw a futsal (table soccer) table too! *double beams*

Interview went on fine, was asked the usual questions, but answered them with a dash of my own spice. hee. Which got me thinking, if I get the job at Microsoft, does it mean I can use MSN messenger at work? Microsoft mah.. :P

Finished about 3.40pm and took a bus down to ViVocity where the mountain tortoise called Jaron hasn't set foot upon so far...

First impression: Rather huge interior, spacious walking areas for shoppers. Think might go again to visit all the artworks scattered around the complex inside and outside. Headed for Red 2 to see how my uncle's new outlet was doing. i dare say, it's doing pretty well. My aunt didn't have time to chat with me.. Then headed down to the adidas boutique to hope that they might have stock of M size liverpool jersey or zipper jacket. A cute salesgirl approached me and I explained to her my predicament. She only said it's all sold out and asked me to try a specific shop at Queensway instead, which I told her "I just come from Queensway leh..." Haha! In the end, I walked around and spotted some potential buys like a newly brought in cap, a zipper jacket that says "I LOVE TOKYO". Hmm....

After a tiring day of hunting jobs and jerseys, I finally headed back home by train... Phew!