The start of the day was like previous years, which was house visiting to my aunt’s place. Before that, we went to Burger King but changed our minds and visited the new MacDonald’s branch at Shenton Way instead. It was fantastically designed and I regretted not asking them to dine in instead.
We spent some time over my aunt’s house before going home. There was a gathering at Wilson’s place but I was waiting for my family to visit the River Ang Bao until quite late. After my younger brother reached home, we went off without my elder brother.
The event was hosted at the Floating platform where NDP had been conducted for the past two years. There was a big crowd at the entrance and we were quite turned off because the entire place was much smaller than the usual ones.
There was a stage where all the China people performed. Statue-like lanterns of the twelve animals were as per normal and there was an additional gigantic Chinese chess set. We left the platform very soon and walked around the small “Food Street”. Some of the stalls did not label price for the food, which was very cunning. We did not buy anything in the end.
It seemed that more than half of the patrons were China people. The only good thing about the place was that there were many sweet girls around.
I spent the long weekend better than previous weeks; more things were done although the efficiency level was still too low. I did not even know about the Deepavali’s holiday until Daniel told me on last Friday morning.
My upcoming directory site had moved to another era with the confirmation of the design and layout, such that I could go ahead with the remaining coding without fears of amendments.
I added four Chinese songs to my collection: 吴英仔 - 双手的温柔 (Wu Ying Zai - Shuang Shou De Wen Rou) 吴宗宪 - 留心 (Jacky Wu Zong Xian - Liu Xin) 李玖哲 - 想太多 (Li Jiu Zhe - Xiang Tai Duo) 薛之谦 - 黄色枫叶 (Xue Zhi Qian - Huang Se Feng Ye)
The meet-up with Irwin, including golfing, was great except for the fact that my flu and cough had not recovered.
I also managed to spend some time trying out the add-ons for Mozilla Firefox to enhance my surfing experience.
Chinese New Year Eve saw some packing of the house. Reunion dinner was as per normal. I was quite sick of the steamboat for it happened more than just once each year, and every time I had to feast on it for numerous continuous days.
My plan to comb down the pasar malam at Chinatown for cheap goodies was killed once again. It was quite stupid to go down early and thus I did not join my family members earlier. I went down at 3am but unfortunately, met them at the junction. Both my brothers wanted to go home but my mum decided to tag on to me.
I did not have much time and I would not want to waste any. I just wanted to speed up in all the crowded alleys and get whatever was cheap, in the shortest time. My pace was usually swift and far beyond your imagination, but this time, I knew I was grounded. I gave up on everything. Other than my preparation being trampled, I had to endure on the wastage of time and boring journey.
Basically, I allowed my mum to lead the way and she was basically far worse than any road idiot who had actually stayed near the place for more than twenty years. Alas, we reached the big field opposite Maxwell Market, besides the Fo Ya Shi. My mum bought some trays for placing utensils and I bought a shoes rack which looked more presentable than our neighbour’s, but everything was under my account.
First day of the New Year to my auntie’s house was the standard order by my mum. We got up late as usual and packed Burger King before approaching the bus-stop, where my mum flagged for the cab just before an approaching bus. That was really sudden and luckily the bus driver did not horn at us. However, it was really stupid to take a cab when we had already made our way to the bus-stop.
We met the usual gang of relatives who visited my auntie. We were all amazed by my toothless uncle who was chewing on hard food like nuts and bak kwa. It was the only occasion when this two non-working and sick couple would accept our money as a form of ang bao. Things turned a bit sour when my youngest uncle returned and we left soon. However, my mum forgot to take her phone along and my younger brother had to go back to retrieve it from the insane youngest uncle, who in his fifties, still acting like a less than ten years old kid, and his jokes were absolutely not funny at all.
At night, we went to春到河畔 and my mum’s main motive was to find the big fortune god’s statue to collect the “gold” from him. The pasar malam stalls were mostly rented by China people and some of the items were quite interesting. For some items, you probably needed to slash down the price a lot.
We walked to Lao Pa Sat for supper on the way home. It was an irritating experience as we were followed by the hawkers for ridiculously from one end of the food centre to the other end. If the government was not going to do something about this aggressive pulling of customers, Singapore’s reputation would certainly fall. That was not the end for the other hawkers were clinging to us. Luckily there were many empty tables and we could easily avoid all of them. We had twenty chicken satay, costing as expensive as sixty cents each. Four cups of tek tarrik proved to me that not all Indian tea stalls were good; that was the most awful tek tarrik we had ever tasted.
On the second day of Chinese New Year, we were supposed to visit my dad’s youngest brother. He had repeatedly reminded us to go over for lunch but we all woke up with food on the table. My mum bought chay kuay teow for us to share and we had to finish the food before leaving the house. We managed to reach Hougang soon but were overwhelmed with the earlier food that we did not take lunch immediately. That was the second and last place to get ang bao every year. The red packets were not big but at least, better than nothing. It was fun playing with my nephews and nieces. We stayed till 10pm and left after watching the Kungfu Soccer on channel 8. My uncle drove us back home.
Anyway, I missed all the gatherings with my buddies.
For those who did not receive my SMS, just to let you know that Uncle Santa has instructed you to give me my present first. Later, he will put yours into your smelly socks. So, remember not to wash them first.
By the way, if you really never receive my SMS, probably I have sent to your old number. Please message me your latest number!
I began feeling worse and almost felt like dropping down onto the floor. The cough was irritating. However, as time passed by, I began to feel better.
I was waked up a number of times in the morning. Two hours after I dozed off at around 6am, my mum unintentionally and stupidly disturbed my sleep just to switch on the fan. Afterwards, my elder brother’s girlfriend came and they made so much noise and followed by phone calls.
I got up at around noon finally after Jingkun told me we were going to meet at 1.45pm. I could not finish my lunch and was eventually late for fifteen minutes. However, I had totally forgotten I was meeting the BMCC guys and I had to be late for an hour in order to match up with the latest comer. Jingkun’s girlfriend cocked up the day for us and eventually I went to Mingen’s house with only Meijun and Weitat.
Mingfa was already waiting there for us. Mingen’s house was big and nice and his mum was very friendly. I stayed until Wilson arrived and left with Mingfa to Hougang. Luckily I dropped Kaven a message for he thought the meeting was called off. Mingfa and I took bus to Choa Chu Kang MRT and finally reached Ang Mo Kio by train. Afterwards, we took bus 88 to Street 61.
Kaven reached there just before us and Suimin called me up when we were reaching. She was asking me about outputting Chinese in her computer. She was behaving weirdly like an insane somehow. This day, she turned into a tortoise.
This was the first time I experienced signing of OTP other than JTC flats’. Later on, I gave a call to Ruoci but she did not really sound like wanting to meet up and thus I followed Kaven home. I joined in the steamboat with his tenant and her friend. Then, I went for a swim with him and afterwards, got to meet up with his another two friends – Eric and Rina. By the side of the pool when I was shivering, I did not say many things and mainly it was because I did not want to say anything which Kaven did not want to announce yet.
Later on, he sent me to the Clementi MRT station and I managed to reach home at around 11pm.
I wake up in the morning in order to go for the viewing at early afternoon. It was the usual long way to Ang Mo Kio and I dragged on my feet when I was not feeling well. It was an unfortunate day indeed. I supposed I was the first agent who ever did not want to close a deal which I would make money.
I went straight to Buona Vista MRT and waited there for Meijun. Together, we walked to Ghim Moh to look for the rest and go up to Apple’s house. They started playing cards and I knew we would be late for the next appointment. We were supposed to meet the rest at 6.30pm at Queenstown MRT but they only planned to leave at the same time. I was quite nervous and kept looking into my watch for I did not like to be late. In the end, they only started packing up at 6.30pm and there were more things to drag about.
Weitat and I went downstairs to get some paper plates, spoons and forks. Mingen arrived with Tiffany and I was not sure what was wrong that Mingen seemed to be quite pissed off. Then I realised he was not joining us anymore.
Weitat, Apple and Meijun took a cab with me to Queenstown MRT. We were about half an hour late. Siewchin, Kok Chiang and Ruoci had already arrived, whereas Junrong had left to visit his friend meanwhile. Then, together we walked towards Anqi’s house. We met up with Mingfa and Wilson before going up together. They started playing cards but I did join in as usual. Suddenly Junrong called Weitat and since Weitat was not sure of the road, I was the best candidate to go to the bus-stop to fetch Junrong.
In fact, the gathering to me was quite a failure. Anqi was supposed to get her ex team-mates but none of them turned up. Whereas for my side, Mingli, Xinyi and Jinyang broke their promises last minute. Jinyang sent a message to the wrong number when he tried to explain to me that he was sick.
Brother met sister
My favorite picture (other than the one I took with her)
The dining room
The 3 girls
Weitat eating
Meijun and Apple (third shot and finally Meijun opened her eyes)
Wilson when he was about to mediate
SSB !
The mediation
Mingfa
Anqi
Ruoci
Pose for FHM
The grand winner
Biggest loser
Group photo 1
Group photo 2
Ren yao and babe
Anqi and Ruoci
They continued with the game while I entertained myself snapping around in the poor lighting. At times, I almost dozed off but Wilson outshone me more. We took group photos in the end and left at around 11pm.
Inside the lift
Kok Chiang's cool pose
Act cute and ren yao
Straight
With my girl friend
I forget she's attached...
I took the same path as Siewchin, Kok Chiang and Ruoci. I finally got to take photos with Ruoci after so long. Together with her and Kok Chiang, we shared a cab.
My second day of “bai nian” was actually at my father’s side - at my small uncle’s house which was located at Hougang.
I spent the early morning doing my website and chatting with Suimin. I was expecting very little sleep because my mum would wake me up for the house visiting but I woke up at around 11am by myself. My elder brother was not even home from his soccer game yet and I almost thought we were not going out anymore. After my brother returned and his girlfriend came to join us before we left for Hougang.
My youngest niece
Her sister
Through familiar paths, we were able to get there. The house was still as beautiful as two years ago; everything was well-kept. Atmosphere was good with all the jokes around and we did some catch up. The most entertaining part was when my eldest cousin came with her daughters, the kids started to play hide-and-seek. Kids were so naïve that they tended to forget who were the people they were supposed to search sometimes. One of my nieces was sitting besides my mum and the rest of them searched all over the house for as long as five minutes.
She wanted to leave with us
We did not stay for dinner despite the temptation of KFC and pizza delivery. After reaching the MRT station, my younger brother went to his friend’s friend while the remaining four of us went to Marina Square. I was busy messaging everyone to ask if they wanted to go to Anqi’s house to “bai nian”. After walking around, my elder brother finally decided on the restaurant “Azabu Sabo”. I was quite turned off for it seemed expensive and my elder brother did not seem to hesitate at all.
My mum's teriyaki
My elder brother's curry
My cold plate
The food
Again
Elder brother and his girlfriend
Showing off my younger brother's favorite - prawn
Desert
With mango and ice-cream
My elder brother and his girlfriend again
We started taking photos when the food arrived so that we could show them off to my younger brother for not joining us. My food was the cold plate and the taste was special. The dessert was fantastic as well but not the price. The meal cost around $77, which was a big bomb for me but luckily the money-shaking-tree was around.
God of wealth
Crazy people with umbrellas
Elder brother's girlfriend
My mum
Then, we set off to River Ang Bao once again. My mother’s main purpose was to visit the god of wealth sculpture as usual. There were two words for the brainy inventor – f*ck you. My mum stood there for very long time with those aunties and uncles who had brought their umbrellas along and their arms were so strong that they could hold the umbrella up for more than fifteen minutes. We did not stay there for long after the sculpture shot some golden tiny papers out which resembled wealth. Soon, we took the bus home.
Before I could rest enough in front of the computer before going to bathe, Suimin was asking me to find songs for her. Then, Anqi suddenly told me she was not free on Friday and I started messaging everyone again to change it to Sunday.
Alone in the living room, that was how I spent my first moment of the Chinese New Year. I could not even be bothered to look at the television. My brothers each occupied a room while my mum started offering prayers to the heaven and then went to the temple.
The bonus was the phone call from Suimin. It was fun to chat with girls who spoke English most of the time and had weird but sexy Chinese accent. Usually I would try my best to fool them into using Chinese. Nevertheless, it was good enough to chat with sweet girls. We did not chat for long again.
I also received a greeting SMS from Sherry. How weird it could be for such a busy girl to do this? We used to chat a lot during the IRC days but time eventually got us separated. She moved on fast with the pace of this society but I was still straying and losing my way at the very beginning. Almost seven years of friendship and we had not taken any photo together, but I trusted her to keep her promise, unlike other friends.
After two o’clock, my mum returned home and gathered my siblings and I to invade Chinatown. Weirdly, this was the first year that I had visited Chinatown only during the last day of the pasar malam. We met up with my younger brother’s friends and started walking around. The place was still very crowded at three plus. Many people were partially blinded and had to bang into me even at spots where it was not so dense with people.
I hated the sticky floors. Uncivilised people had thrown wrappers all over the floor at their convenience, trying to turn down the title of the garden city. It was very boring for all the stalls were selling almost similar items like the previous year except there was this party gun which was cool but expensive. At around 4am, most of the stalls at the streets were already closing. A couple who just got there mistook that business was good, but actually, the owners were on curfew and had to stop operation around that time by law.
We went to Maxwell market. I was quite hungry but there were not many stalls left. All of us had bean curd type of dessert, which was quite fulfilling. Then, we strolled back to Tanjong pagar and waited for my younger brother’s friends to flag a cab home. We waited quite long and were entertained by two half drunk westerners.
I had to drain my bank account once again for my mum wanted us to contribute hundred bucks each for my auntie who was taking care of my sick uncle. Government did not offer enough help for the childless old couple who could not work for they still owned the 3-room flat even though their savings had almost depleted. In fact, I was not in any better situation.
Back at home, it took me quite a long time to settle my stuffs before going to bed. It was as early as 11am, I was waked up by my mum and younger brother. My younger brother seemed to be grumbling about either my elder brother or me, or both of us for bugging on the bed. I was very irritated.
We set off for my auntie’s house. Breakfast was chicken rice from the stall at the nearest bus-stop. The owner rented that stall for one day only once every year and that explained the quality of food. Anyway, we had takeaways and dined at my auntie’s house.
After eating, I dozed off as usual until a few visitors arrived and I was waked up by the noise. All the familiar faces I saw only once every year gave me a weird feeling, especially when receiving the red packets from them. Anyway, these were the only pathetic few small red packets from my mum’s side of relatives. In fact I was so used to it already and would be glad enough if friends were to believe my “income” was so low.
On the way home, my mum’s feet were giving her big problems again. I was not positive about how long she could still hold with such poor health condition. I expected my health to be worse than hers when I was as old as her for my injuries incurred.
It was a very sunny day but rain soon swept over areas in Singapore to welcome us into the new year of the lunar calendar. I spent my late afternoon playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 after abandoning it for so long until dinner time. My younger brother wanted to dine out at Marina Square but my elder brother and mum decided to finish up the leftover food and thus we had steamboat again. The idea of making my whole body and work area stink turned me off so much.
Steamboat and BBQ
Since the barbecue platform was nearer to me, I did a lot of cooking for my mum and elder brother and was attacked by the flying oil many times as well.
The day began with dining with Weitat and Kailin at Geylang. We had our supper at Wang Jiao Dian Xin instead of You Tiao Da Wan for the latter shop was closed for the festival. Food was just alright but service was terrible.
While we were walking back to the car park, my mum called and when she heard a girl’s (Kailin’s) voice besides me, she just assumed that was Vivi. At this moment I did not know how I should feel. I did tell my mum before we were through already but somehow she did not get it or she refused to get it. Perhaps, she did not get to see Vivi often since long ago and that was why she was used to it, like me, that she did not realise it was history already.
Kailin drove me home and followed by Weitat. I was sleepy but energetic somehow, however, did not lead the route well enough that Kailin had to make a big round at Chinatown.
I continued with the clicking of the “hug” website for Suimin, and that was very time-consuming and dull. My elder brother was packing his house and finally there was some space for me to stand in front of the walk-in wardrobe to pack the stuffs. The room was so dusty that I had a few rounds of sneezing.
Afterwards was discussion with Irwin about his new website for the new product, the CLY phone charger. I continued to do my stuffs until daylight.
Having slept less than four hours, I was waked up by an agent enquiring about the Ang Mo Kio flat. I had by then totally forgotten about block 610 and only knew it was on the third level. So, it was another awkward time on the phone again.
I did not go back to sleep. I spent the afternoon more wisely on updating of my websites. My affiliation with Adsense was improving but still far from ideal case. It was however very frustrating that given the amount of page impressions, I could get more money from other advertisements source.
I started some packing of my work area. Then, I continued with a little cleaning up of the house in the late afternoon. My mum was doing quite dangerous chores in the kitchen. My elder brother was asleep the whole afternoon while my younger brother was out with his friends. I felt frustrated that I actually needed more sleep than my elder brother but I did not want to leave everything to my mum. She packed the living room’s table as well, which none of the rubbish on top belonged to me – that was why I could not and did not know how to pack it.
My younger brother returned during evening to add on extra shoes to the messy living room floor. I called him to come out from the bedroom later and questioned him about how many pairs of shoes wears he had on the floor but he did not care about the mess. Believe me it was impossible and that was why I had given up on the condition of the house since long ago.
The reason why I hated reunion dinner returned again. The big table was pulled nearer to my computer and there was so limited space. During dinner, the oily gas would fly to the computer with the fan blowing from the front. I quickly moved my webcam backwards in case it would be harmed.
My elder brother continued to sleep and my younger brother joined him soon but in the other room. The sleepiness and backache pinned me on the bed as well and when my mum started calling out for dinner, I tried so hard to ignore her. Eventually, I was the first to go to the living room, feeling so irritated that my siblings were not very bothered with the dinner.
My mum started two cooking sources, one for soup and another for steamboat. The dinner was quite alright for we were always helping each other to prevent the food from being burnt. I hated the oily smell on my body after steamboat but that could not be helped.
Fruits
At HDB
The Tan family
My neighbour, Tan Kok Hin came over with his daughter. He wanted to test his DVD but realised he could only use his burner to watch it. After that, my younger brother and I followed him back to his mum’s house. Actually I did not really want to go over in case they thought I was just greedy for ang bao. Luckily I received none.
We spent most of the time watching television there.
I received my first Chinese New Year card after so many years. The deliveryman was not from Singpost but my neighbour. The very inefficient postman had delivered letter to wrong unit again and luckily my neighbour took the trouble to pass it to me.
The card was from Huiying.
Anyway, she had promised to address her two younger sisters as her elder sisters “jie jie” so that I would address her as “mei mei”. Cool right?
The countdown began and we started playing sparkles but as usual, I was taping down the happy memory and thus did not join in the fun. It was too bad I did not become a commentator for my throat feeling unwell. They had some dangerous games like throwing the sparkles into the tree branches and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves greatly.
We continued with the game to finish up the fried rice but switched to playing of dice and drinking up. There was a refrain for myself from drinking but somehow I did not want to spoil the fun or perhaps, I was not in good mood.
Khong Wee, Kailun, Junxian, Pamela
Breaks during the Murderer game
Since Junrong was besides me and he had strongly forbidden himself from drinking, I took a glass of mixed alcohol in his place, which was very saturated. I realised I turn red soon for pouring it into my throat within a second. It got boring soon and we started playing Murderer. Some brilliants suggested going back to play inside the room and finally got everyone more comfortable. Eventually the air conditioner played a prank on us.
Twister affairs
Felix and Pamela
Outing at Old Changi Hospital
The internal
Pharmacy?
It was as late as four plus in the morning, we decided to visit the Old Changi Hospital. It was my first visit to that place and I did not expect it to be so near to our terrace house. Since it was a tourist’s attraction, there was no fear with so many strangers around and we basically banged into another group every few steps we took. Some people had even lighted candles around. In the end, we walked down towards the old commando camp and finally back to the chalet.
Twister again
Huimin
Everyone was waiting for the bathrooms while I kept myself occupied with the show “The Ghost and the Darkness”. I was waiting for the ghost to appear but the extremely smart lions were taking his place instead. During commercial breaks, I went to the back to play with the cat. At first he was behaving well and stayed near the drain but at my next visit, he followed me into the house. I managed to fool him out of the house before Huimin ranted at me for the second time.
Hardworking Huimin
Khong Wee and Pamela late at night
After I finished bathing, Pamela was still chatting with Khong Wee while Huimin did her calculation for the money spent. Then, I realised the amount food was quite well planned, unlike my own chalet that I wasted so much food. In the end, Khong Wee, Pamela and I shared the queen size bed while Huimin went up to the girls’ room.
Leaving the place
Rabbit aka Joceyln on the bus
It was around 10am when I regained conscious. Since they had packed up most of the stuffs before going to bed, checking out went smoothly. We took bus 29 to Tampiness and had our breakfast at the food court before boarding the train.
It was the beginning of a new year, but I did not feel good somehow.
During Christmas Eve, I had started to receive wishes through SMS. I began flooding my friends’ phones as well. The following list was by order of the earliest person who sent me greeting messages…
Ah Boon, Ivan Ng, Tze Siang, Peh, Sichun, Siu Hang, Andy, Da Zhang, Gan, Chee Keong, Guoxin, Guoxiong, Guanhong, Chong Guan Sheng, Davin, Joshua, Jianhao, James Tan, Hwi Keng, Lim Kian Hwee, Li Jie, Benny, Lynn Tan, Nicholas, Nelson, Reuben, Paul, Rehan, Clement, Meijuan shi gu, Wanling, Terry, Kok Chiang, Peixian, Wenhao, Wencai, Wah chuan, XX Liang, Weiqiang, Zhengfang, Wanying, Zong Yi, Chris, Nyan, Vernye, Kenny, Yongming, Pang (2SIG), Zongda, Anthony, Weijian, Yanling, Thiam Huat, Wenchang, Wanxin, Phua Kian Ann, Tze Khit, Giel, Hafeez, Shilin, Gin Seng, Gilberto, Kachua, Jason Lim, Yuan Le, Zhirong, Baha, Mingli, Gina, Bianhong, Sem Chi, Chunlin, Jielin, Yingying, Kelly, Sherry, Yuxing, Davian, Yiwei.
Thanks for the greeting. I feel so good somehow to have friends who still remember me. At least it makes me realise your number is still in use. By the way, if you do not receive any message from me, I doubt your latest number is in my list anymore - please drop me a message somehow to update me.
On the day of the second visit to see the fireworks, Gilberto and I were supposed to get there earlier to find and book decent place. However, we did not do as planned, but only to go there slightly earlier than the previous time.
We had Burger King meal at Raffles City before meeting up with Reuben. Ivan soon arrived, followed by Louis. After buying food back at Burger King, we set off for a picnic near Esplanade.
We were joined up by Yuqing, Siu Hang and one of Gilberto’s female friends. Ivan was delighted with the “scenery” during his journey from camp.
Gilberto caught 断手 again
Gilberto on phone
A camera on tripod stand, ready for the fireworks
Gilberto and Ivan
Xiao Hong pledging loyalty to the country
Gilberto putting his hand on Ivan's knee *obscene*
I was surprised over how we could camp there from around six till nine o’clock. I had some fun playing with Yuqing’s camera, which certainly cost a bomb. The auto focus speed was fast.
Fireworks. I love this picture a lot with the excited people on the bottom
Fireworks
Fireworks
The fireworks were beautiful, however being destroyed by a cupboard out of nowhere in the park. The absence of the lover degraded the romantic night.
There were babes everywhere, sweeties in uniforms and “Ah Lians” in all kinds of strange clothes with funny gestures. I was filled with courage to take pictures with the cute girls but realising the photo was nothing great a show-off to having a sweet girlfriend, which I was blessed with already.
The last station was after a long walk to Plaza Singapura at the Starbucks. The few of us had a little gossiping and discussion about Quek’s party.
If you have been hearing about “ugly Singaporeans”, I am sad to inform you that it is still not the end. These people are continuing to ruin Singaporeans’ image.
The problem of watching fireworks arouses everyday during this National Day season.
It is good to know that the population is getting wealthier and are willing to fork out more money for the art of photography; many of them even have tripod stands with them, looking like professional photographers.
Fascinated viewers have been camping as early as six o’clock or earlier near the Esplanade to catch the grand displays. You can see mats on the floor and families having picnics with lunchboxes on their hands and even couples chilling side by side.
Since places like the side of the river do not have seats like the national stadium, there was no rule on how each spectator should assemble on the flat grounds. There is a choice of the crowds sitting down or standing up in order to accommodate everyone’s sightline. Whereas for most people, they would rather choose to sit down and enjoy the night.
However, this night, Uncle Deaf-ears made a different decision to upset everyone who was stationing further away from the river.
As the fireworks began to light up the sky in rejoice, some people had tried to stand up but were jeered by the tens of angry people behind. It was at the open area behind the famous DXO clubbing place, where there was a little pause to the stretches of trees along the river.
There were screaming of people of different races and ages, and eventually the enlightened blockheads sat down, except for Uncle Deaf-ears. He was besides a plump and unfortunate lady, and holding a small camera, standing upright to challenge the power of typhoon.
The beautiful picture without perfection
There was no difference for him to sit or stand since the display was at a certain height where he could easily take good shots of them. In fact, he had blocked the views of so many cameramen who were eager to take down the magnificent exhibit to share with their families or friends, or even to foreigners to share the joyful and magnificent celebration of Singaporeans.
The hissing and jeering sound lasted for more than a minute but they did not take effect on him; he won the innocent crowds as their voices could not bring him down no matter what.
He was standing there while everyone was sitting down
So much for my patience, I could not hold it any longer and finally lost my calm and quietness, straight behind this uncivilised brat I realised my curiosity, “Who placed the cupboard there!”
There were laughers at the surrounding where people were in furious moods. Immediately, someone behind me shouted to urge me to give a louder voice but I felt it was enough for Uncle Deaf-ears to hear the assurance. He did not back off or even look back.
The shameless couple
I was a hero for a moment, not enough to beat the arrogance of the bully, but still managed to cheer the sweet folks up for a few seconds.
The crucial matter is how behaviours of Singaporeans have improved over the past ten or twenty years, whether have the years of courtesy campaign taken any effect on ignorant and selfish Singaporeans.
Is it fair for some black sheep to spoil the whole image of Singaporeans especially during this period of time when the international visitors are coming for the upcoming Singapore 2006 (S2006) event?
On the last working day of mine, we decided to go and catch the first day of fireworks at Marina.
Since it was only confirmed on the day itself, most of us did not bring home clothes again and everyone was already stink after the morning run, we went home first to wash up.
The meeting time was changed from 1830h to 1900h, which was still quite unrealistic. Gilbert himself was late and whereas the rest, other than Ivan and I, reached so much later like near 2000h.
Cityhall was badly packed and it was very difficult to even move around, needless to say, to meet up with them. It reminded me of situations like in Chinatown during Chinese New Year. We were astonished of course and it was a total turn-off. Ivan and I could not stand the crowd and left immediately to Marina Square once we met up with Gilbert.
The food outlets were all filled with people, even for fast food like MacDonald’s and Long John Silver’s had queue from the counters till outside the shops. It was a terrible sign for the viewing of fireworks might be obstructed by people. The only pro was that there were definitely more beauties on the road among the big crowds.
It was quite a disappointing night for me as Vivi was supposed to join us but her siblings once again had foiled our romantic plan. It was a teaching to me that in future, as parent, not to over-dote on any child or neglect any child’s feeling. Luckily my parents used to be very reasonable when I was young.
Kwang Han lying on the slope wall
Kengster acting cool
Simster, Gilberto, Xiao Hong
Kwang Han and Ivan
Gilberto, Xiao Hong, Kengster, Simster
Xiao Hong and Kengster
The moon taken with free hand
Kengster acting cool again
As the rest joined us at the camping spot right opposite the Esplanade, everyone was starving. We had a total strength of seven people, inclusive of Kengster, Simster, Kwang Han and Siu Hang. Some of them wanted to take their dinner despite the expense and timing, but Ivan and I decided to stay put since it was almost time for the excitement.
The two girls in front of us, having more than average looks
Kwang Han resting
Xiao Hong revealing his true colours
Ivan, Gilberto, Kengster, Simster
Slowly, we started to occupy the down sloping wall by the side of the ultra wide stairs, talking craps. There were three girls further down, who had unintentionally stopped us from occupying the better positions, we teased about them as well.
The crowds at the wide stairs
Little part of the fireworks
As the fireworks started, we saw to our disappointment. One building was blocking our views totally and my tripod stand was useless. I gave up and stayed at the same position to view the little part of the fireworks, whereas some of them went to another side to have a better view.
Ivan and Kwang Han
Kwang Han at JustNoodle
Kengster
The only me because I was holding camera almost all of the time, looking still as ugly with spectacle on
Kwang Han, Ivan, Gilberto with Simster at the back
Xiao Hong and Kengster looking ugly
After that, we walked to Suntec City and decided on dining at Just Noodle again. I was not sure whose idea it was but I loved the free flow of drinks though we did not stay for long.
Followed by the late dinner, Vivi called me and we started chatting over the phone. I felt bad actually since everyone was wondering what to do next and I did not suggest anything or talk to them. As we went up to level one, Gilbert was lost and we wasted some time searching for him as his phone’s battery had almost dried up we could not contact him.
Do you know how much I hate you? But every year you just refuse to submit to my threat. You insist to come and you claim that you are bringing joys to every lover; you are just being selfish. I'm too a lover, just without a lover, and you cruelly set me aside.
How I wish I could tie you up and bash you like a punching bag; how I wish I can scratch your enormous freaking face and kick your balls like how I break nuts.
Chua was a freak. He SMSed me at two plus yesterday morning to ask if I had given 007 the photos taken at Rehan's house. I didn't expect he still remember after so long and I thought it was all settled.
I answered him "yes" with a "goodnight" immediately but suddenly I remembered I had passed him the CD the day he came to camp to collect his pink I/C (identification card) and told him to do it on my behalf since I didn't want to see 007.
For now it would depend on my mood to do 007 the favour. He is on long leave for his new born child and recently work has been a hectic in camp, which he will never realise the effort my team has been putting in (of course not everyone). Recently he has been smiling a lot and sound friendly but I realise our backs are always bleeding, so, I really have to consider wasting my time for him; unless if he asks me in person, I might be too soft to be mean.
Anyway, I haven't updated on the outing on 23rd December 2005, due to time constraint. I keep dragging it as more things pile up as there are just too many things to work on; and since I've been quite anti-social for the past few years, it also increases the unspoken thoughts in mind. Inspiration can be gone very soon, and therefore sometimes I just allow stories of events to be delayed.
This outing was one of the greatest I had in my one year plus of army life; it was so because we could officially skip a day of camp life. Although not the entire group of people are very welcoming, almost all are my good buddies in camp. I didn't know how much budget the camp had given, but it wasn't the money that counts.
Meeting at Commonwealth MRT, quite a number of them were late and expected. It took us a long walk before we reached there, a condominium with badminton and tennis courts, as well as two small swimming pools.
We had only around an hour of time to use the facilities before lunch and I tried playing tennis for the first time in my life. I realised I was more suited to play golf. While some of them were playing badminton, the shuttle cock got struck at the branches and they had fun trying to get it down.
Chua and I decided to go for a swim and too bad none of them wanted to join us except for Shep's son - Joshua. Since he was looking for swimming companion earlier on, I called Chen De who was at the house and he was brought down. This boy was very cute and started to abuse Chua who almost got angry with all the violent kicking and punching. To me, it was really a fun period of time.
We took many photos and then went up for lunch and Rehan's maid made it a splendid one and everyone was filled to gain extra weights. We had spaghetti, salad, mushroom soup, Sri Lanka fruit juice, pizza and some other food. The best attract was the massaging chair which gave an almost total body massage. Everyone didn't want to get up and I didn't mind going there again for the massage, especially after a tiring swim.
In the gift exchange, I got back a useless large pen which I didn't mind throwing away. It was so super duper useless and uninteresting for a mature adult like me. However, I was surprised by 007 who gave each of us a present, which was a t-shirt.
Since there wasn't any plan for the afternoon or evening, I stayed there even though we were officially "dismissed" after lunch. It started to rain as well but soon began to drizzle. In the end, Rehan drove some of us in his Jeep to Commonwealth MRT and that was the last err of our outing.
It was my busiest Chinese New Year Eve ever. I got home near 5pm and then tried to contact everyone for outing at night, clear all my emails and read up all my friends' updated blogs. I almost forgot my haircut appointment at 6pm. I nodded at least thrice but luckily nothing went wrong with my hair.
After bathing, I started to do spring cleaning. Crazy it might sound like but it was the fact, on the very last moment just before the reunion dinner when my two brothers were enjoying their sleep. Alone, I made it happen, such that the living room was so much better than before (lasted for less than a night only).
I was waiting for Guoxin to come and weirdly there was no news from him. I started my reunion dinner near 9pm and he finally called when he was already at Buona Vista MRT. So, I quickly took up my first round of BBQ food and left them on the bowl to turn cold (better than being overcooked).
I brought him home and left him inside the room to burn the "仙剑奇侠传" show into CD. He was so lucky that the burner worked. I quickly took my dinner but he hadn't finished the task; and he left the remaining job to me. Together, we left for Cityhall to meet the rest.
Kailin was the earliest, who almost had a heart-attack as I was still at home at the meeting time, but eventually I was only late for around fifteen minutes. My ou xiang (idol), Peifeng, arrived with her cousin and then followed by Siew Chin (人妖) who brought my "girlfriend" along. Together, we went to the River Ang Bao to look for Tze Khit and his mum.
We took many photos. Tze Khit's mum was so funny that she posed looking at the other side when we asked her and Tze Khit to have a shot together. Though many friends did not go, I was still quite lucky to have the ratio of number boys to girls at 1:2 before Anqi arrived.
The vending machines sold drinks at two bucks per can, which was insane (similar to stalls at Haw Par Villa and Sentosa). The stalls were quite boring since they sold items almost the same as the previous years.
Anqi reached before twelve but she could not find us. As the fireworks started, I tried to shoot video; Olympus C-750 was not a good camera for video filming since the sound detector was not good. (Can get the video clip from me)
In the search of us, she went to Fullerton hotel and enjoyed the seats there comfortably and almost didn't want to leave. We managed to persuade her to get her butts off and come over. By the time she found us, ou xiang and her cousin, Tze Khit and his mum had left. I met Sergeant Kenny and insisted him to take a photo with me.
We continued to tour around and buy some stuffs to eat. Then, we slacked by the roadside besides a foundation which wasn't in operation. It was after two that they decided to go home. They took night riders and as for Kailin, she was lucky that her family member came to pick her up. I walked to the main road, walked towards Chinatown alone.
Chinatown was still quick packed at three in the morning. The floors were sticky but I continued to finish combing almost the whole place. After which, I called my mum and joined them up and left at around four.
The holidays of Chinese New Year were fast over and every year it seemed to be getting worse.
There were little contacts with my father's side's relatives and with the death of my grandma a few years back, there was no gathering at the Bedok house.
For the last two years, my uncle hosted invitations for everyone to gather at his house, thus I was still able to get some ang bao. My relatives didn't care about the rational behind giving ang bao - to give blessing; and therefore I wouldn't get any if I didn't barge into them; unlike other people who would deliver to you no matter through how many hands.
As this year my uncle didn't organise any gathering, my most important source of getting ang bao was gone. But eventually I saved a day.
I thought it was going to be a great holidays for me to buck up on my work but it was never as planned; nevertheless I was able to catch up with my friends.
Long weekends were never enough. I pushed myself too hard that I could never have enough rest to start off the days.
One thing weird about this New Year was that I received more greeting than my birthday.
