[Wednesday, 9 February, 2011]
I went to bed at 4am but I could not doze off as usual. Eventually I fell asleep but woke up as many as ten times, before finally getting up after 12 noon.
I met down to meet Mike near the usual “cai fan” but the place was crowded. We went around the hawker centre but we decided to have our lunch at the second storey where we lost and found our “emperor seal” previously. We took noodle. After a quick shopping at the NTUC, we took a cab to office.
I continued with my SEO work until dinner time. We walked to Pinnacle Duxton’s Kopi Tiam and had our “cai fan” with Mike’s herbal soup. He was a great eater for the evening. We strolled back to office and had ice-cream from the mama shop besides.
Mike was ready to train me with some nailing job but the wall above the door was harder than he had expected. I had some difficulties with the small hammer and nail, and Mike took over to show me that he was well-trained. We finally hung up the motion sensor air-freshener.
I continued with scripting for the tuition agency’s administration pages.
Sinful Dinner at Anchor Point Hong Kong Cafe
[Thursday, 20 January, 2011]
I made some amendment for the tuition agency website’s design. Then, I continued with SEO until 5am.
Mike woke me up after 10am to tell me that he had forgotten to bring his office keys along. I rushed down to the office at 11am and we dined at the canteen. We had the Chinese mixed vegetable rice for the second time. However, we were the first customer this time. The food was much more expensive than other places.
I continued with SEO and we also exchanged ideas on it. I started working on the new article Private Tutor Singapore when Mike suggested going to IKEA for early dinner. We called for a cab and alighted at Anchor Point before crossing over to IKEA. Mike changed his mind after seeing the menu and we went back to Anchor Point and had a feast at the Hong Kong café. Mike ordered extra side dish and I felt sinned because I could hardly finish my plate of chicken chop.
We went back to IKEA to walk around. Mike bought his new lighting for his house before we started eating the famous IKEA ice-cream. The DJs from FM 97.2 were there to conduct a game and they tried to find topics using Mike’s lighting. After a while, we decided to take bus back to office. The taste of ice-cream was bad for I was having a stomachache. Eventually, we flagged for a cab.
After releasing my waste, I started working till after 11pm. We walked back to Tanjong Pagar while Mike went to Amara hotel’s taxi stand to get a cab home.
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The Expensive Shopping at IKEA
[Wednesday, 8 December, 2010]
After receiving a great guidance from Mike, I started revamping one of my blogs. I had a great challenge trying to work on the Blogger’s Layout. Eventually, I dozed off at around 1pm.
I woke up an hour later to meet up with Mike. I did not take the noodle that my mum bought and left on the table since I was running late. Together, we took cab down to Raeburn Park. We met up with David at the canteen. I had a “lor mai gai”. David started explaining the terms and conditions to us before we went up to Linda’s office to get the paper work done. Mike had a harsh time signing on more than hundred copies of paper.
Since David helped Mike to return the payment first using his cheque book, we went to the ATM machine at Tanjong Pagar to cash out some money to return him. It was pouring heavily again and David dropped us at Bukit Merah. We took a cab over to IKEA after that and thus we were not drenched like the previous time.
The first thing we did was to get an ice-cream each before we started shopping. Since we had already been there to plan what we wanted to get, it was an easier task. We had our dinner at the canteen before we continued with the shopping work.
Since the furniture exceeded $2000, I chipped in my ATM card as well. After paying up at the cashier, we went to the delivery department where we hit our high and low morale within the short time queuing up. We noticed on the wall that wrote postponement of delivery would cause $5 per day for storage purpose. We were so turned off for after trying so hard to save up, we had to foot an extra $50. Then, we looked carefully to realise that the first three days were not counted. Mike was worried that the bright green carpets that we took might not fit our design but we knew that IKEA allowed returning of items to exchange for other items. However, we looked carefully and saw the terms that the items had to be returned in original condition and packaging.
The lady gave us the latest date possible, which was exactly the next Thursday, which was our initial planned date. When we went over to another counter to ask, the staffs ensured us that we could return the carpets if they were not suitable, in order to exchange for other items. Everything went smoothly eventually.
We had an ice-cream each before taking bus 195 to Queenstown MRT station and going home.
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Lucky to Hot Dog for Nails Trimming
[Saturday, 6 November, 2010]
I spent quite some time blogging before going to bed at 6am.
Eventually, I woke up at 2pm and had my lunch. After that, I followed my brothers and my elder brother’s girlfriend to bring Lucky to trim his nails at “Hot Dog”, which was near River Valley. We took cab over.
Lucky was excited to be at the pet shop. After trimming his nails, he pooed on the floor right behind an ah moh who was footing her bill at the counter. My elder brother bought a spraying conditioner for him. Then, we had a long walk towards Clarke Quay. After passing by Riverside Point, we bought two ice-creams and boarded a cab at South Bridge Road. Upon alighting at Tanjong Pagar, I bought a cup of Slurpee to share.
We had dinner at Chinatown an hour later after my mum returned from work. We had eleven small bowls of chicken rice and the thrill was the trying out of cheap fruit juices at a dollar each. My stomach was bloated and thus I took only two bowls of rice and little meat.
After reaching home, we were surprised that Lucky did not make a mess out of the kitchen. I started working on my website by submitting it to directories and also created banners to place inside.
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Project BOE (Birds on Estacy) – Green Parrot Escaped
[Friday, 21 May, 2010]
Before my mum went to sleep, she placed her passport on the table and asked me to help her fill up the declaration card for visiting Malaysia.
My butts started aching after the previous night’s gym. I continued with my work after clearing up my email. My mum returned in the afternoon and told me to help her friend to fill up the declaration card as well.
While continuing with my work alone in the house, I turned to the kitchen and saw the yellow parrot in an unusual view for it seemed to appear clearer. After a while, I sensed something was wrong and walked to the kitchen to my most astonishing moment of the year that the yellow parrot was clinging at the outside of the cage while the green parrot flew out from the bathroom.
I quickly checked the windows of the bathroom and toilets to make sure they were closed. The green bird flew into the living room and I proceeded to close the windows in the kitchen and by then, the green bird was at the door and soon, disappeared.
I did not know how the birds managed to escape from the cage and thus I simply closed the door between the kitchen and living room to keep the yellow bird inside the kitchen. I quickly went up and down two storeys to search for the stupid green parrot but it was not around. My mum returned home to get ready for her Johor trip and when I opened the kitchen’s door, I was amazed that the yellow parrot had gone back into the cage by herself. My mum could easily find the hole that was meant for the food container, which my brother did not secure properly after removing the container.
I crossed over to the opposite block and tried to look over for the parrot’s movement but I could not see anything. I returned and went to the top storey of my block, and walked down the stairs to every storey in my muscle aching legs but my effort was reward-less.
The green parrot could have flown into other people’s house and the greedy new owner would never expect that it would peck on human beings, including my elder brother. In another scenario, it would be attacked by other birds in my neighbourhood.
I finally had a game of Command and Conquer ever since before my elder brother’s Thailand trip, but I played it alone to release stress. Soon, my mum called and told me that she had changed her plan and would stay overnight at Johor.
My dinner and supper included a bowl instant noodle, followed by a cup of Vitagen, an ice-cream stick, the leftover breads that my mum forgot to eat and cereal.
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Farewell Lunch for Zaki, Magdalene and Felina
[Friday, 12 March, 2010]
My elder brother was helping me to upgrade my Windows before I dozed off. I woke up in the shock of my life for my files in the data drive were all gone. After some time, I discovered a new created folder inside the data drive and my files were found inside. Copying them out required hours and thus I left the laptop on.
Initially I wanted to visit the Chinese physician but I received an SMS to wreck my plan. It was supposed to be a peaceful Friday, which turned out that I had to do the thing I had most, especially for rotten student who did not appreciate.
Lunch was a bit tight again. It was supposed to be farewell lunch for Magdalene, Zaki and Felina at 11.30am but some people were busy. I went back to the office at noon and they were just about to leave. I took Daniel’s car together with Felina. We met up the rest at Holland Village. It was a comfortable lunch but food was just average. After that, we had ice-cream at Cold Rock and Hagen Das before heading back.
I took the afternoon off from boss because of my eyes. However, by the time I reached home, it was quite late to visit the Chinese physician and I did not want the counter staff to nag at me again. I spent the afternoon resting on the bed.
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Injured – Finally Physically Again
Yesterday morning, it rained heavily, just like my mood. I was drenched badly and my entire pant was soaked. It was an uncomfortable morning.
Weitat left for his Exams, Dorothy and Daniel went for Healthy Lifestyle program at Simei, whereas Mei Hoe took her lunch with Vivian. Jingkun and I met up with Zaki, Eunice and Christine for lunch. Joy was joining us but she changed her mind on the way. We were waiting at the carpark, worrying for her as it was raining heavily.
It was a good lunch. I had the dory fish meal and the mashed potato was fantastic. After that, I took a daring try on the soft ice-cream at the level one when I was already sick.
During the afternoon’s meeting, my boss amazingly cut down many unnecessary works on the new website and also simplified it. We had great laugh over it but I was quite worried of the tight schedule. I would have visited the doctor if not for the meeting.
I was the last man to leave the office. I made way for the Indian man to close everything, moving myself down to the canteen to continue with my work while feeding the mosquitoes. I almost finished off the main components of a love story but it could be too sensitive and “dark” to be uploaded into my website.
The MPH was crowded. The Philippinos, Wong Engineering, Jurong Central CSC and the uncles made four teams; whereas, my side could almost form two teams.
During my second set of game, while saving a ball at position one, I thrust diagonally upwards to the maximum. I managed to save the ball but could not land well and both my right elbow and upper thigh was injured. There was an immediate swollen on the elbow near the joint, whereas I could feel weakness on my leg. The game did not stop but I started using underarm serving and surprisingly managed to score many points. I did not get to touch the ball many times after that and we lost the game.
It was a very long wait outside the court. They could not confirm whether they wanted to have supper together after the game and thus, I stayed on. I had my last game but my team’s strength was extremely weaker than the Jurong Central CSC side. We started losing points very early. Since winning was never on my mind, I was able to play freely, giving the opponent the best I could. I was able to give a couple of good spike in my injuries and tiredness from the past few days’ workouts.
Alas, they decided not having dinner and I left home by myself before 11pm, staggering my way towards the MRT station. My dinner was instant bowl noodle.
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Busy Long Lunch Break
Tuesday’s lunch was at ABC market. I toured the entire hawker centre to find a long queued western food stall. The auntie was in a mess due to the overwhelming business and when I told her I did not know my table number, she was impatiently frustrated. I told her that I could wait there for my food and her distort brain added appended words through her ears and she thought I wanted to cut queue; my little kindness to save up the far trip for her colleague or maybe employee had not only gone into waste, but also put myself in a bad position.
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My chicken chop arrived when Jingkun was having his second serving. To my disappointment, the crowds had actually misled me to choose the wrong lunch; and so much for the time spent in waiting, the meat was overcooked and too tough for slicing, let alone chewing.
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Weitat drove to Holland Village and I made my first step into the shop called “Cold Rock”. Four-fifty for two scopes of ice-cream was a rare purchase for me but the wastage was good enough to compensate for the possible awkward situation of me watching the rest of them enjoying the dessert; peer pressure – that was.
Next destination was the bank at Clementi. Weitat was trying to apply for credit card so that he could get some privileges during clubbing. I took the chance to get my ATM card replaced but the queue hesitated me until it was near my turn. I was quite embarrassed to make the three of them wait for me. Anyway, the bank teller who served me was a very polite and friendly lady. I rejected her offer to change my normal ATM card into “Go” card. Then, I got her to help me to check whether why my purchase limit was so little and she told me because I had opened the account before I was sixteen years old and then she helped me to reopen another account.
I had an unpleasant afternoon after I got back to work. I brought my stuffs for volleyball since I thought Mingfa was going down, but he was going to see Kok Chiang’s players. After a small meeting which lasted for nearly an hour, I was planning to put aside my work to go down for some exercises but things cropped up. The usual gang of pests made it so difficult for volleyball. Since I had to wait for replies, I decided to continue with my work instead of joining in the fun.
Is the Iced Lemon Tea Cold or Hot one?
Yesterday, I joined my gang to IMM after work. It was a last minute decision and in fact, it was a weird one. I had some work which Justin sought my help to assist him with and furthermore, the slow progress of updating my websites filled my mind. Upon arriving at IMM, I was quite disappointed with myself for not making the right choice because my mum had informed me that she would be cooking; and I would feel guilty for wasting my mum’s effort again.
We went to the MacDonald’s and shared some nuggets, French fries and Mc chicken wings. Later on, Weitat allured me to have ice-cream. My lust would be more satisfied if only MacDonald’s were to sell chocolate cone ice-cream. After all, I had been so sinned because I was not supposed to take too much ice-cream for my body was weak and would fall sick easily.
The stay at the MacDonald’s was quite carefree for me but maybe not for everyone. I hoped things would get back to like in the past even though most people would have less attention for me since they might be too close and occupied to bother with too many people.
Anyway, after Mingfa arrived, we moved on to the Hutchison (not sure of the spelling) Japanese restaurant for dinner. I was determined to have a hunger strike till reaching home so that I would not feel bad. However, Mingli did not seem to like her teriyaki chicken rice and thus I shared with her.
Mingfa made an ultimate enquiry when we were ordering the food “Is the iced lemon tea cold or hot one?” We almost dropped after the waiter replied in a teasing tone. Actually, anyone could easily make the same mistake somehow.
After that, we stopped by an air-conditioner shop before moving on to Daiso. I bought a packet of the grains which the pests would stay away from, because my house had been invaded by the tiny smelly ants since long ago. Weitat and I bought a same design but different colour belt each.
After reaching home, I was not hungry at all. Both relieving and disappointment battled in my mind for the fact that my mum seemed to have gone crazy suddenly again that her cooking was disastrous. I could only taste ginger in her soup and the chicken were covered with lots of garlic. My brothers and I complained but she claimed that she had only put in a piece of ginger into the soup and had already removed it. Obviously, if she was not lying, that piece of ginger must be gigantic. I had only very little rice, and managed to finish them with just a few sticks of vegetables and a small piece of chicken.
Luckily, I had taken some food at IMM before reaching home.