went over to clarence's place on sunday night to watch the chelsea-manutd match, which turned out to be a really fast-paced one... didn't even realize when 90minutes were up...
played dota with clarence/ET prior to that, and we won our first match on the 6.38b map, high five...
didn't sleep till about 3plus in the afternoon on monday, woke up at 6plus and kept ET company before leaving with him so that it won't be too awkward...

that's my weekend.

for a lonely soul you're having such a nice time,
john.

my 2 weeks of attachment have been successfully halved! x)
so i've finished this internship only mildly scarred...
its a rather long story, but the short of is that filing and data entry as an everyday activity is so brainless that it was all i could do not to go insane after an hour every morning...
the raffles medical group finance department is generally nice, 90% female accountants, and the office is this really open area that is surrounded by the IT wing and the CEO's office...
they have really really nice bathrooms, which has nice soothing music playing all the time, so i spent a good amount of time there, averaging 2-digit visits everyday in between accounting tasks...
thankfully i had a coffee bean downstairs to satisfy my cranberry muffin cravings, and since we're in bugis, there's no shortage of places to go for lunch...
3 good things came out of this week, where i was basically shut out of the social world and sent headfirst into the career world for the 44-hour work week...
first was that i had tonnes of time to think, so i planned my Christmas shopping and spent post-work hours looking at displays in the nearby malls...
the second was having lunch at 5 different locations each day, sakae (ok i knew i promised never to go there again, but i did had the bento), BK, bugis street, Mos and Breko's in that order...
finally, i caught up with all the new music that's not on iTunes coz i listened to the radio a lot...
fave tracks now, new or otherwise include Nelly & Christina Aguilera's Tilt Ya Head Back and Keane's Nothing In My Way
the highlight of the week was dinner at Hanabi King's Arcade with javier/yewjin/sean...
was a hilarious night, just talking about stupid stuff that happened in the few years in AC...
the food's really not that great, and i got sick of salmon sashimi after a while, so won't be having that anytime soon...
went to macs serene centre to exchange files and whatever...
oh and i've played dota every night this week, which was a form of reprieve...
last night after worship pract came back and played from 1030 to 430 this morning before going to sleep...
was just me/clarence/xinquan, coz xq was staying at clarence's place (i didn't coz i might be going tomorrow night already)
we all slept at 5 plus, and he called me at 10 to go play again!
at first i was like huh mad arh, let me sleep, then he called me again at 12plus, so i got out of bed to play another 4 games before lunching at promptly going back to sleep... x)
oh but watched DH S4E09 first...
woke up for dinner, then finally finished Pokemon Crystal by beating Ash of RBY...
now can start on emarld... =P

all i need,
john.

so i've gotta go to work for 2 weeks...
10 days doing finance...
i really hope it isn't a chore/bore/whore...

STEP UP really is the movie of this generation, a the ad touts, and i'm so glad i caught it...
bought the awesome soundtrack too! its like one of the first few albums i bought this year...
oh and ET showed up at our movie/manhattan fish market lunch outing with a seriously overhauled new look, brown contacts and all... very in vogue...
saw pet in church today (welcome back pet, hope you read this!), though didn't get talk...

have been playing dotA and merv's game way too much, but its ultra addictive, albeit a tad embarassing...x)

super-effective,
john.

i'm back in singapore!
i was just saying yesterday after we disembarked from the ferry that i don't wanna get back to real life... its the same feeling after every good trip...
then yewjin pointed out that it'd only be fun if we had an unlimited supply of funds, which is kinda the feeling we had through the last 4 days... x)

so how was the trip?
it was AMAZING!
granted i had my reservations about the nitty gritty logistical issues and whatever, but it was the excitement that made it such a success...
hollerback to ron for a great holiday organization!!
but more importantly, i shouldn't have worried about the food/accommodation issues, coz there weren't any at all...
plus the company was the best, hands down!

i may be jumping ahead of myself in this post coz ppl know i've just shifted house, and my priorities might be a little misguided if i post about the trip instead of my new permanent residence first, so here:
moved on saturday, though i'd already packed and moved lots of my stuff over in the week prior... so spent my time watching ONE TREE HILL season 4, episode 6, Desperate Housewives Season 3, Episode 7 (twice!!) and SMALLVILLE season 6, episodes 5 and 6...
slept about one hour that night coz i'm ultra sensitive to new environments, so got out of bed at 4plus to look for Grey's Anatomy Season 3, Episode 7 to no avail...

5 hours later, i was at tanah merah ferry terminal, where ron, daniel and i were the uber early folk just chatting/playing PSP/listening to iPod...
wes and his sister came, followed by mervyn and his 2 huge cartons of MILK (which i drank the most of, probably 2 packets out of 12 in the 4 days), and yewjin/elendrus/xinquan/sean/joel/elden...
the ferry ride there was ok for the first half of the trip, coz yewjin/daniel/sean and i were playing bridge on the floor of the upper deck, but then i got motion sick and nearly hurled in the bathroom, but thankfully i didn't after all...
most of us were a little woozy from the choppy waters, but arrived in one piece...

the villas we rented were really good, equivalent of 4star hotel rooms, clean, white and big...
we only had 1 for the first day/night, but it was probably the most fun night coz lots of us squeezed into the largest bedroom... i was sleeping on the floor in front of the bed next to ET and xinquan, merv/yj/ron were on the bed, sean was next to the bed and joel was nearest to the door, and was accidentally stepped on...
lay around for 6 hours without sleeping coz i'm sensitive to new environments (see above), so had lots of time to think, and they hundreds of songs i heard through the day (we had MTV!!) seemed to play in my in the order i heard them... x)
unknown to me, ET couldn't sleep as well, so his stretching and whatever, which i attributed to great subconscious coordination skills, were actually just him trying to get rid of cramps while he was still awake...
the first day, we had lunch at the golf club house cafe and dinner in bintan town, where i satisfied my craving for a starbucks frapp...

with 2 hours of sleep in 48 hours, we went to play pingpong...
then it was to the beach where joel/yewjin/sean and i went walking on the sand/finding seashells/burying hermit crabs...
went to the big rocks to sit in a natural environment and played with hermit crabs before going to swim at the 2 hotel pools... they have slides!
stayed in the jacuzzi for an hour or so before heading back to the villas to shower and have dinner...
slept in the new chalet with merv/yj/kevin (who arrived earlier that day)/sean, so had lots of room and had 8 solid hours of sleep...
yj and i did our domestic part of the trip after lunch x)

pingpong again on the third day, lunch at the golf cafe, carom at the rec centre and then more beach activities - but this time they were of a different nature...
suffice to say, ET lost his new 500dollar gold specs (which i must say do wonders to highlight his brown hair) in one of the larger waves, so we spent close to 3 hours searching for it... many times he was like nvm just go back, but i think the rest of us wanted to just look that much more, and it payed off, coz just before sunset, ET chanced upon it in the sand... really a miracle...
dinner at the hotel's restaurant buffet was my fav meal of the trip, really tasty =)

started playing mahjong with xinquan/ET/sean at 1030, and didn't stop till 530am the next morning, when everyone had already gone to sleep...
we played our fastest game (20 turns in about 3 minutes), which was our last, so we could run out to the beach to see the sunrise...
returned to the villa to sleep for about 4 hours before playing more mahjong until checkout time...
went to the lunch buffet this time, which wasn't as great as the night before, then talked about pokemon (!!) till we had to leave for the ferry...
took a motion sickness pill and some photos with a large eagle before hopping on the ferry, falling asleep and arriving in singapore half an hour later...

so i rushed home to change and freshen up and hurried down to vivo to meet sam/sean/paul for the premiere of CASINO ROYALE...
though its scale was not as large as STAR WARS EP3, the glam factor was up a few notches...
there was no president nathan, but minister PMO came down...
saw hady mirza, jonathan leong and his gf, jasmine tye, (apparently paul twohill was there too, but didn't catch him), allan wu (without li lin), may and choy, cousin chua en-lai, and tonnes of axn ppl whose names i cannot remember...
the reception was uber chic coz it was made to look like a mini-casino, and we were given chips which we could use to play blackjack, roulette and whatever, and the highest winner got loads of prizes...
sam/me/sean lost our winnings at the blackjack table coz the dealer's hand was just too good...
the movie itself is one of the better ones this year, complicated, not too intense, better acting and less gadgets... the followup is sure to come soon..

sped off to holland v's crystal jade for supper (first time not paying extreme amounts for meals in 4 days, everything in bintan is so expensive) before heading to sam's place to spend the night...
just woke up at 11 to help merv arrange the class lunch/movie (STEP UP!!) for tomorrow, and now i'm leaving for home...

it's Christmas ppl, ready for the season yet?

reality can be quite the kick,
john.

bintan today!

4 days,
john.

since i just found out that weiliang reads my blog, here's a shoutout to this year's CT REP of 05IP04 -
HEY WEILIANG!!

went to visit the class at their chalet in changi, the same location as class chalet last year...
when i got there, ppl were playing mahjong (so our game) and/or sleeping...
got shocked by joel chan's hair...
once again, take it from me, an objective observer: DO SOMETHING TO YOUR HAIR!!!

yingting/mel/lou/celle/mer/tis/jade/jolynn/nat/jiayi climbed over the gate next to the golf course to get to east coast, coz we wanted to rent bikes...
on the walk there, 4.17 rode pass us, and i yelled LAU HAN AN! =)
so we walked..
and walked..
and walked...
for ONE HOUR!!!
nearly collapsed, but it was fun...
in the end we just went for lunch at the east coast hawker centre...
had the famous duck rice/noodle which was just featured on coffe talk & hawker woks...
wasn't all that big a hurrah...
so then we cabbed back...

played some mahjong, and won my last game before going to bowl with weiliang/joel/colin/tony/johnson...
the first game wasn't too bad, but i deteriorated so much that i had a 70 for the second...
they decided to bowl more and play some pool, so i went for my fill of marvel vs. capcom...
there was this guy that was like obsessed with the game, and he deliberately stopped me halfway through one of my stages to beat me... so annoying!
(but actually its kinda fair coz i took the game away from him when he went to get more tokens)
so played one round of daytona, coming in a bad 15th out of 40...
spent an hour or so catching up with joel (its amazing how we love to talk about the same things) coz it was raining like mad...
went back to the chalet to play bridge/hearts till 7, then left...

to 05ip04, if ya'll read this:
thanks for a great time!!!

4/11's chalet in a few days!!!!

a bunch of cool ppl,
john.

after being stuck at home for two days, i finally got myself out of the house for some action...
played pingpong/badminton with yewjin/clarence/clarence'ssisters at his club today...
but the exciting part of the day was not playing itself, though there was 3andahallf hours of that to satisfy...
it was GETTING there that's a tale worth recounting...

first off, i woke up at like 830, went online for a while, waiting for clarence's call so we could leave and meet yewjin at boonlay at 10am as we'd discussed in the conference call last night...
he didn't call, so i left the house at 920 and gave him a ring on all 5 of his numbers, and he finally answered one...
it was then that i was he was not ready, and that we were gonna be deathly late, and yewjin didn't know!
so i went to have breakfast at macs, and a little before 10, yewjin called and patched clarence in so we could discuss what to do...
suffice to say that yewjin was left waiting for an hour and 20 mins while we rushed down...
taxi drivers really don't like taking 5 ppl...

upon reaching boonlay, yewjin abandoned his arcade games halfway to meet us to take bus 182 to the club, which is probably the most outlandish route for any bus, it practically travels the northenmost tip of singapore, without actually leaving the island..
so we stopped 14 stops later, and decided to walk across 6 lanes of expressway!
nearly died, but thankfully we didn't get run over by some proton-carrying 18-wheeler on the way over...

and then it was pingpong/badminton =)

confessions,
john.

FIRST mag this month is pretty comprehensive, and it should be considering it was late in publication...
however, there aren't that many good movies to look forward to this holiday season...
most of the good shows open in november, of which i'm anticipating
STEP UP - Nov 9
MATERIAL GIRLS - Nov 9
CASINO ROYALE - Nov 16

Delirious? quietly released a new LIVE album titled NOW IS THE TIME: LIVE AT WILLOW CREEK...
it features great versions of their best songs, hopefully it comes out in singapore soon...

tonight's SYTYCD was the best! loved almost all the routines, and i thought MARTHA&TRAVIS were better than BENJI&DONYELLE...
on the AMAZING RACE 10, alabama finally got eliminated after all this time...
go tyler&james!!
furonda got booted out of ANTM cycle 6...
i prefer sara & joanie, as jade's too whatever and danielle is so un-pretty...

i learned from you,
john.

The OC Season 4 premiered yesterday, and it is BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!
the first episode, THE AVENGERS, has an overwhelming feel of sadness, and all the characters are darker than before...
summer is a hippie with memories to suppress
ryan's in fight-club with a score to settle with volchok
julie's becoming OCD due to grief
neil's having an affair
kaitlin's a black-mailing slut
eric&brad are pervs
taylor's lying about being in france
kirsten&sandy are desperate to have ryan back
seth's still the same old... he's the lead character now, linking everyone...
but in the opening credits, its kirsten&sandy who appear first, not sure why...

just came back from THE PARACHUTE BAND worship concert, and it was so refreshing! =)
love their album ALL THE EARTH, its one of the wisest music purchases i've ever made...
they played songs from michael w. smith, chris tomlin and delirious as well..

forget what we're told,
john.

left clarence's house after the matches early this morning at 540am...
manU was really horrid, and lost 1-0 to copenhagen...
aresenal's match was so much more exciting, with many unconverted chances, and ended 0-0..
ET was sleeping through the entire thing while i was doing some work on my iBook and dozing off in between exciting moments in the games... clarence actually stayed up the entire time...
UPDATE!!
ET says he was awake for 15 minutes, so there... x)

anyways, walking about at 5plus in the morning is quite cool, very quiet, just you and your thoughts...
i wasn't too sleepy coz i think i was into my second wave, so just kept thinking about stuff on the trainride/walk back...
read the papers, had breakfast and finished up some stuff before going to sleep at 7...
woke up at 11ish to look for a song i heard in the morning on power98 while walking back home -
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART by D.H.T is just so amazing!!
had lunch before heading out to meet ET/clarence on the 153 to maplewoods...

met up with merv/yewjin/ryan to play squash/pingpong/tennis, though i didn't do the later...
kevin/xinquan/sean came later...
played 2 games with kevin, who's really too good, lost 9-2, 9-4
then finished up the THIRD meeting with mervyn...
he beat me 3-1 3-1 in the last two meetings, and we'd stopped with me having won one set at sean's club...
merv won the next set 9-7, then we fought to deuce in the thrid set and i finally broke that 3-1 curse!
but i lost the last set 9-6, so he's still beat me all 3 times...
played 2 games with xinquan who claims he's only played squash twice (yeah right!!)
lost both times, but we had a really long deuce game the second time round....
i guess if you're singapore's top badminton player, holding any kind of racket and hitting a ball becomes second nature...
but kevin absolutely outclassed him in their only set, winning 9-0...

tried teaching ET to play squash, and i must say to a certain degree of success... x)
played power doubles pingpong after like dunno how many months, probably since march...
paired up with yewjin again after all this time against our usual opponents xinquan/clarence...
won our first to 3 sets challenge after 2 deuce games and the last one 21-12...
yay us still unbeaten!!

spent the rest of the time lounging by the pool with kevin/sean/yewjin while the other 5 jumped into the pool...
went into the sauna with xinquan/ET/clarence/ryan for a bit before showering for dinner...

bussed down to 6th avenue to eat at PASTA FRESCA DA SALVATORE...
had PIZZA PARMA HAM, while my other pizza-eater yewjin had PIZZA REGINA!
traded slices too!
and mervyn totally believed us when we told him yellow bell peppers were italian mangoes!!

took a cab home with ET/clarence, and i'm just winding down from an amazing day...
thanks ya'll!

four.eleven,
john.

spent yesterday at home coz no one was free for a movie outing...
met yewjin/sean/merv/ET/xinquan/ryan/jit for lunch at plaza sing's CARL'S JR...
haven't been there for so long, totally missed the huge burgers...
tried the portabello mushroom burger, so that leaves only the chilli burger and the new pastrami burger the things i've not tried...

went to X-zone for a dose of tapz, where i followed up on the Sol Caliber fix at yewjin's place...
and daytona of course!

then it was off to the Cathay to watch THE COVENANT -
it's A REALLY GOOD SHOW!!
i'm super impressed by the acting and the soundtrack, particularly the second last track during the ending scene...
very trance-european with a gothic twist...
GO WATCH!

came over to clarence's place with ET to spend the night...
have been playing 5plus hours worth of cards, now watching the manU-copenhagen match...
my non-existent interest in soccer is perked everytime i come over...
can't help but get some of that spark for goals rubbed off on you...

oh and i got warcraftIII from ET, not sure if i plan to start playing though...

wind it up,
john.