XJ Portal

Where I speak with fervour.

Glee and the negligible

It has been about three months since I last touched this blog of mine, now it’s time for me to wipe off the dust and proceed with some necessary resuscitation.  It has been one and a half months since I shifted from what I call a workplace to this new area I dub “the end of the world”.  This huge relocation has not been enjoyable at all.  It felt like I was forcefully dragged down from the white fluffy clouds of heaven into the muddy depths of the piranha-infested Amazon River.  Oh well, at least it’s nowhere near hell.  I no longer advocate environmental conservation, in fact, I openly wish for all the rainforests (or at least those in Singapore) to be logged.  All those self-proclaimed environmentalists should experience subsisting in the jungle for a week or more regularly, before they open their supposedly altruistic mouths.  I thoroughly detest living in the forest and am completely unable to adapt to such unsanitary conditions.  Perhaps it is because I’m a Chinese and we, Chinese people, have been civilised for more than five thousand years.  Therefore, we have probably evolved to such a stage that we cannot withstand being thrown back into the wilderness with the other primitive animals.  Anyway, the end of the world operates somewhat like exile island and fortunately I only have 2 weeks remaining (or so I hope).  I have to break out from this nutshell before I blast some empty skulls into smithereens.

Enough of such destructive talk, I shall veer towards a happier direction now.

GLEE

I LOVE this show!  It’s my current favourite television series.  Although Gossip Girl has the ever-so-hot Leighton Meester and is still as bitchy as ever, Glee has become my number one show because of one simple reason:  it makes me happy.  If you’re exhausted from watching those depressing dramas, you should just turn to Glee.  It is bound to make you ecstatic with all the singing, humour and the little tugs at societal issues.  For those of you who don’t know, this series is about a show-choir and it’s assortment of members.  Give it a try, I promise you won’t regret it.  Unfortunately there isn’t a new episode this week and the next two weeks, all because Fox had to make the timeslot available for some pathetic thing called the World Series.  I mean who the hell watches baseball other than the Americans, Japanese, some Koreans and “citizens” of that “country” informally named Taiwan.  These people don’t even make up a billion.  Ok, I know Glee is an American show, but they could’ve put those stick-meets-ball games at another timeslot or shifted Glee to a different timeslot.  No wonder some people can’t stand Fox.  I can’t wait for that show to return.   By the way, you can find all my favourite American television shows at greatstufftv.com

November 1, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | | No Comments Yet

Narcoleptic

I have to admit that I’ve been too indolent to bother lifting up my fingers and racking my brains to produce decent blog entries.  After all, my life has not been immensely peculiar or fascinating and I don’t indulge in activities such as boring others with mundane proceedings of my nondescript existence unlike certain people who derive pleasure out of churning out material that is neither poetry nor prose and placing excessive emphasis on minor events that could put an owl to sleep.  Furthermore, I think I’m suffering from something I call “post-mc syndrome”.  If you don’t already know, I had four days of mc last week and it was rather dull.  I hardly went out and only met up with Fadhil and Konrad.  Fadhil wanted to enjoy his time here before he went off to Taiwan for three weeks of crap.  Before he left, he was telling us how he felt that going to Taiwan isn’t so bad even though it is a non-halal hell (for him) of tantalising delicacies and he had to navigate in a totally alien environment.  I bet he took back his words when he arrived there because I received two text messages from him last night bemoaning how he hates Taiwan, the food and the “annoyingly bloody hot weather”.  It wasn’t unexpected of him to complain about everything there and I was laughing when I read his messages.  I wonder how much each text costs and whether he managed to navigate his way out of the jungle.  On the day that he was to depart for Taiwan, we had dinner at Ichiban Boshi and sinful ice-cream at Udders.  I had one scoop of some hazelnut ice cream and a crazy scoop of whiskey dark choc (the girl at the counter claimed that two scoops of this was equal to a can of beer).

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Thus, I spent the whole of last week sleeping and waking up late.  I think this has resulted in a malfunction of my biological clock and my lethargy during the day at my workplace.  This week is definitely going to be more eventful since it’s the national day long weekend and my parents are flying overseas and their annoying presence would not be felt.  I had my weekly meet-up with Terence, Vernon and Xuehu last night, tuition just now, GI Joe tomorrow and Up! with Ian & company on Friday.  I’ll also be having a sleepover on Saturday and clubbing on national day!  So many activities lined up, I’m getting excited already.  I hope you’ll be having a lovely weekend too.

August 5, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | | No Comments Yet

Pitter Patter, it’s raining

It’s been aeons since I last updated and so many things have occured though many were insignificant.  I think I’ve unofficially retired from the clubbing scene.  The last time I went was with Terence to Zirca and he had a terrible hang over the morning after and vowed never to drink more than a glass of housepour ever again (like that will happen).  I don’t have the urge to go clubbing anymore and it just isn’t as fun as it used to be.

I’m currently holding an 8am to 5pm appointment, so I’ve been really free these past few weeks and this will continue all the way till September.  I can go out on weeknights while most of my poor peers are behind fences with barbed wire atop.  On Monday, I had dinner with Vernon, Xuehu and Terence at The Soup Spoon and some drinks at Starbaucks thereafter.  Terence was in a bad mood because he had to recourse and he wented to release his frustration.  Haha.  He’s still complaining about his Medical Officer.  I don’t think he’s going to stop until he gets posted out of his course.  Tuesday, I went to the movies with Jing Cheng, Carol and Kum Boon to watch The Taking of Pelham 123.  It’s the best show I’ve watched in these two months.  There seems to be a lack of quality films in the theatre this summer.  Yesterday, I met up with Vernon and Terence to keep Xuehu company while waiting for his bridges to return after the National Day Parade rehearsal so that he can dismantle them.  It’s quite retarded to think that he had to spend the whole day there just to assemble the bridges and dismantle them after the rehearsal.  We had ice cream and talked a whole lot of rubbish.  After that, Terence and I went to Vivocity to have dinner with Ian at Modestos.  His wonderful parents treated us.  We watched Transformers after dinner and Ian’s mum was so kind to send me home as the movie ended near midnight.  I think the movie was not as bad as I expected it to be, but I still insist that it is highly over-rated.  The plot is weak and the movie is only getting this much attention because of its huge budget, Megan Fox, people’s childhood memories of watching the Transformers cartoon and Steven Spielberg.

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Today, I lazed around in the morning and got irritated by my Indian neighbours playing their Indian music and singing.  Do they think they’re in Bollywood?!  I celebrated Chia Hao’s birthday together with Wilson at Swensen’s and we had ice cream cake and ice cream.  I think I’m going to become obese soon.  I’ve been eating and munching without doing much exercise and this reminds me of the number of durians I ate on Friday.  I better start jogging every day.

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There’s a thunderstorm going on just outside my window, yet I feel so calm and warm in my room.  I love it when it rains (of course only when I’m indoors).  This reminds me of that dreadful time when my tent was flooded due to a torrential downpour and I was completely drenched.  I think I’m being totally random.  I have put up a few photos in this post, the rest are on facebook.

July 5, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | | No Comments Yet

Pensive

Recently or rather these three days, I’ve been quite lucky.  I won a substantial amount of money the past two days playing mahjong which is more than enough to buy that River Island shirt I was eyeing the other day.  I decided not to play mahjong today because it seems excessive that one should spend his time gambling for three consecutive days. Luck came in the form of a mobile phone on the ground.  That was the beginning of a series of actions in which I am currently evaluating within the capacity of my skull.  To be precise, that was not the actual beginning.  I had seen the phone fall out of the pocket of the poor boy’s pants.  I was walking across the road when I saw two boys riding a bicycle towards my direction on the opposite end of the road.  I noticed clearly with my very own eyes the phone dropping out of the Malay boy’s back pocket.  My first reaction was to continue walking and observe if the boy had realised what had happened.  I felt that it would be silly of me to attempt to stop a bicycle cycling  halfway across the road.  I crossed to the other side of the road and halted as I approached the phone on the ground.  I was hesitant, wondering what to do next.  I looked around me and discovered that the people who had crossed the road together with me did not notice the phone and the two boys had already cycled too far a distance for me to call out to them.  Furthermore, that would look stupid.  I cautiously picked up the phone and stared at it.  As I had expected, it was not something I would use myself.  It was a pathetic Samsung two megapixel phone which was in a very worn condition with the paint at the corners scratched off.  I wondered how much the phone would be worth if I sold it to a second-hand dealer, then I thought about my moral obligations as an upright citizen of our glorious nation.  How would I feel if I had lost my phone?  Wouldn’t I be cursing the person who didn’t return it to me?  However, the devil repossessed my mind again by implanting the thought of how troublesome it would be for me to meet this person just to return him his phone.  I turned off the phone.  

I was still on my way home when I decided to turn on the phone and await for the boy to call me.  Alas, there was a password for the phone to be fully functional.  It was the boy’s demise that he had placed a password to lock his phone and prevented a fickle person like me from returning it to him.  Perhaps it was the higher being/s manner of punishing me for even harbouring such sinful thoughts in the first place.  A pang of guilt permeated my soul.  But just as guilt ran through my veins, loathsome thoughts pervaded my mind.  I wondered that maybe it was a blessing in disguise that the boy was looking for, this might be the most appropriate reason for him to get a new phone.  However, my conscience was still intact and I surmised that he would probably be disciplined by his parents all because of me.  

After my lunch, I started on the pile of laundry that I had not ironed for two weeks.  Possibly it was my way of repenting for lazing around these few months before my enlistment and for knowingly taking away somebody’s possession by doing the things I ought to do.  Honestly, I do not comprehend the depths of my soul very well and cannot conclude that I did that out of repentance.  It could be that I did not want to collect bad karma that would result in poor A level results.  Yes, I can tell that all this sounds absurd, but life is complicated yet beneath all these complications, there is no meaning.  Everything is meaningless, even these words that I am typing.  Words are just names we created ourselves for the matter that surrounds us.   That is what I’ve concluded.  There are no real goals, maybe we are all just pets under the care of higher authority that we do not see.  However, it is only natural and instinctive of us to just carry on living and do what we are “supposed” to do.  Only because we are human, we think too much and wonder what meaning there is to life.  Meaning itself is meaningless and if you ever think about such things, you would just go in a roundabout motion and perhaps even end up in an asylum.  That is conceivably why religion was created with it’s purpose of pacifying such unanswerable thoughts.

I think I’ve droned on for a tad too long already.  Anyway, I’ve to give tuition in half an hour’s time and I shall end my mad thoughts here.  I’m finally getting my first month’s pay for tuition today!

February 25, 2009 Posted by xjportal | General, Postbox | | 4 Comments

Stormy Sunday

  Usually, Sundays (to me) are sizzling and really drowsy.  However, today it is vastly different.  There’s a torrential downpour happening just outside my window and I got drenched in it just a while ago.  I was buying lunch and my favourite tapioca cake from the pasar malam right beside heartland mall and was returning when the stygian clouds began tearing.  Anyway, I didn’t really end up getting totally soaked because the rain had only just commenced, but the walk from heartland mall to my house is rather far because my house is kinda smacked in the middle of this estate.

  Before I go on describing the events that have happened this week, I would like to apologise to my dear friend Yishuang.  I’ve pang seh her twice if my memory is correct and I’m truly sorry for causing her displeasure.  Sorry!  

  I can’t exactly remember everything that has happened in sequence.  I remember I played mahjong on two days and Chia How came to my house to play PS3 on Wednesday.  I can’t recall if I went to Xiuru’s house this past week or the previous one.  Her nephew, Cassius, is adorable but a small little brute.  He engages in violent activities.  Haha.  Maybe that has something to do with his name.  I wikied “Cassius” and found that Cassius was one of the people who conspired in the assasination of Julius Caesar.  He had a tragic ending after he lost a battle.  

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  I had the most activities lined up on Friday.  First, I went shopping with Chia How at Vivocity.  Then I had dinner with the Power clique at Tony Roma’s.  It has been quite awhile since I met some of them.  After that, Nono, Xy and I went to Kbox for overnight karaoke.  Haha.  It was fun!  We didn’t want to waste money on cab fare so we sat on the benches around the Fountain of Wealth and waited for 6am to arrive.  I slept for 12 hours after that.  This is such a unhealthy lifestyle.  I mentioned in my last post that I would talk about the tree climbing day I had two weeks ago, but I’m too lazy to talk about it now so just check out the photos on facebook.  It was quite retarded. 

By the way, Slumdog Millionaire is a really good show.  It’s slightly humorous, sad and heartwarming.  Don’t watch New In Town, it sucks.

February 22, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | | 2 Comments

Ominous Presence in the Air

Just in case you didn’t know, today is Friday the 13th.  There will be another Friday the 13th next month, a day after I enlist into the army.   Since I have some time before I go out to meet Fabian and Terence whom has just been released from his two weeks of confinement, I shall blog.  It has not been a good day at all.  I can’t exactly say it has been a bad day either, but I have been feeling terrible.  Xiuru feels the same too.  Her sentiments might be the result of her illness though. For me, I have been feeling like this since I found out something horrible last night.  I woke up extremely late today at about 1pm because I had been watching dramas and an old film, Indecent Proposal, the previous night. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I love listening to dispiriting songs these days that emanates my sorrow.  I remember times when I was younger that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to light-hearted songs like those from S Club. It’s kinda embarrassing to mention that but it’s a fact and I won’t shy away from it.  However, I don’t like happy songs nowadays.  Wilson occasionally sends me such songs and I would just leave them in “My Received Files” or delete them.  I feel like a sorry miniature person within.  I hope this unhappiness in the marrow of my soul would just vacate.

On a less depressing tone, Kelly Clarkson has a new single!  It’s called My Life Would Suck Without You.  It was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on it’s second and third week on the chart.  I think it sounds rather pleasant and it seems like she’s making a comeback from her flop-of-an-album My December.  She looks so relaxed now and she doesn’t look like she’s trying to hard to be a rocker-chick anymore.  I’ll probably buy her album which is due for release next month. Check out her video for her new single below.  I went to Pasir Ris Park yesterday and I’ll probably write about that another day.

February 13, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | , , , | No Comments Yet

A Guide Of What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do

As you can see, I’ve nothing to do other then giving some kid tuition.  Thus, I’ve created a list of things to do if you’re unemployed or bored on weekends and have nothing to do.

Step 1.

Wake up really late.  When I say late, I mean super late like 12pm onwards.  You’ll totally be skipping lunch, but that’s ok since you won’t be doing much vigorous activities for the day.  

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Step 2.

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Head for the toilet and spend an extremely long time in there grooming yourself.  First, take off your clothes.  Second, step into the shower.  Third, shampoo your hair and apply hair conditioner after that.  Fourth, soap your body thorougly.  Next, wash off all these products on your body.  [An alternative to steps 2, 3, 4 & 5 would be to soak in a bathtub.]  Sixth, wash your face with facial wash.  Then dry your body with a towel.  Shave, brush your teeth, apply serum on your hair, rub toner onto your face and lastly, moisturise.  Don’t forget to put on your clothes.  Haha.  Now that you’ve wasted loads of time in the bathroom, you can step out of it.

Step 3.

You’re now hungry and have to go out to buy lunch.  You can spray some cologne or perfume if you want to attract some aunties or uncles while you’re out.  Take the longest route to the hawker centre, food court or fastfood outlet of your choice.  You have all the time in the world to squander, so stroll at a leisurely pace and feel the warm rays lightly descend upon your face.  Maybe you could take a detour to the bank to deposit some angpow money or to withdraw money to buy your lunch.

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Step 4.

When you’re done with your lunch, head home and turn on your computer.  There are lots of things to do when you have broadband internet access and a computer that has at least windows xp.  For starters, you could log onto msn messenger and do some site-surfing such as spying on people using facebook, checking out blogs and reading news or gossip blogs (fyi, i don’t do that).  After that, you can go on to the hardcore stuff.  Some guys will play DOTA and they could just go on forever.  For me, I watch all sorts of dramas be it Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean or American.  I’m always on the lookout for new shows.  Below, I’ve produced a list of shows that I’m currently watching.

American TV shows

1. Gossip Girl (available online every Tuesday*)

 

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This is the ultimate guilty pleasure available from the whole bunch of American shows being broadcasted in the US this season.  It is scandalous, the twists are just crazy, the people are hot and the soundtrack is fabulous.  Too bad the episodes are being inconsistently released.  Season 2 episode 18 will only be coming out in March. 

2. Ugly Betty (available online every Friday*)

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I don’t think she’s ugly at all.  It’s so freaking obvious that her braces and ensemble of clothes are purposely done to make her seem unfashionable.  How could there be anyone who would dress like that?  It’s a really humorous show and I like watching it.

3. Desperate Housewives (available online every Monday*)

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Ok, I know most people have given up on this show and I’m nearly giving up on it too.  It’s over-dramatic and the last episode was simply BORING.  It was about some unknown neighbourhood fix-it-all man called Eli who had touched all of their lives in some way.  It bored me so much that I didn’t watch it till the end and I had to fast-forward through the parts that I did watch.  Well, I’ll still be watching this series because I have nothing better to do.  Haha.

Korean Drama

 

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Korean dramas are really lousy these days, so I hardly watch them.  I’m only following the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango called Boys Before Flowers.  It’s available online every Tuesday and Wednesday* with English subtitles. One thing about Korean fansubbers is that they’re really fast, unlike their Japanese counterparts who can take more than a week to release English subtitles.  The Korean fansubbers only take one day to come out with the English subtitles for this show.  However, I find that Boys Before Flowers isn’t a good show at all, but it’s watchable.  The plot is so typical of Asian dramas and I think the lead girl isn’t the least bit pretty.  Watch it only if you’re really bored.

Japanese Dramas

1. Akai Ito

 

AkaiIto.jpg Akai Ito picture by avrilportal

 

I normally don’t watch sad dramas, but this is an exception.  I quite like it and I think the leads are compatible, even though it is a rather predictable show.  The guy is kinda silly though.  Haha.  It is about two people who are supposedly fated to be together but have to overcome obstacles before their love can fully blossom.

2. Mei-chan No Shitsuji

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It’s about a girl in a school for rich girls where each girl has her own personal butler.  It’s an average show and based on a manga as usual.  

3. Hachi-One Diver

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I really have nothing better to do such that I’m willing to watch this show about a Shoji (Japanese chess) player who failed to become a pro and his journey with a female Shoji champion to beat other expert players.  The lead is the same guy from Akai Ito and he’s only one year older than me.

4. Love Shuffle

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I only just started watching this show so I can’t really pass a verdict on it since I’ve only seen episode 1.  However, I think it’s a show that I’ll give up on watching even before it reaches the halfway mark.  It’s a drama about some people exchanging partners.   

Taiwanese Drama

My Queen 敗犬女王 (available online every Monday* without English Subtitles)

 

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There are hardly any Taiwanese dramas airing now.  Furthermore, Taiwanese dramas usually have lame plots and bad acting (nevertheless still better than mediacorp dramas) but there are always a few good ones.  This one is not bad and has Ethan Ruan as the lead.  He’s the guy from Fated To Love You.  It’s about a woman in her early thirties and her romance with a guy 8 years younger than her.  It’s rather hilarious.

{*times are GMT+8}

Step 5.

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If you’re done with your dramas and still have plenty of time to spare, call up your friends and ask them out.  Organise a mahjong, guitar hero and/or poker session.  Try to plan this a day in advance as most people are working and there are few friends left that are unemployed.  You can also meet your working friends for dinner or shopping.

Step 6.

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It’s at night and you’re back at home with nothing to do once again.  Turn on your computer and continue watching your dramas.  If you’ve nothing to watch, upload photos on facebook, chat with friends on msn, finish that game on your ps3 or blog like what I’m doing now.  There is an infinite number of ways to idle your time away.

Step 7.

Step into the bathroom again and repeat step 2.  This time don’t apply serum on your hair and don’t rub toner and moisturiser onto your face.  Instead, apply pimple gel onto spots on your face.  Make sure you sleep late so that you can wake up late the next day to carry out your daily ritual.  If it’s still early, read a book or play some stupid handphone game.

Optional Steps

You can organise a cycling, rollerblading, bowling or pool outing.  If you are health concious, you can also include jogging into your daily routine.

cycling.jpg picture by avrilportal

ALERT:  I just found out that Coldplay’s coming to Singapore, but guess what?  I can’t go!  Why not?  Because I’ll be bloody f***ing serving NS!!!  I should’ve passed my napfa so that I’ll enlist in April and be able to watch the concert on 23rd March.  Damn this stupid small dot! 

February 10, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Recapitulation of the Week

Once again I’ve been kinda lazy to update my blog.  I invited the class to come over to my house for a Chinese New Year gathering later this evening, but I regret having bothered to organise it.  Most people are unavailable and everyone is coming at different times.  I just came back from sending my brother off to stay at the ACS(I) hostel.  Apparently he claims that he can’t concentrate on studying when he’s at home, so he decided to stay at the hostel in order to give due attention to his work with the help of his Thai scholar friend.  I was highly annoyed by his nonsense just now.  He was playing games on his laptop this morning instead of packing his stuff and he couldn’t find his hostel room key when we were leaving.  He had left it in his pocket and that pair of pants was in the washing machine. Furthermore when we reached his school, he couldn’t find his key again.  My mum found it in the car boot.  Next, he brought us to the wrong hall.  He is such a moron.  Anyway, the rooms are really small and four people have to share one.

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I was looking around his school and the compound is really huge.  They have lots of empty space.  What a waste?!  Just look at that picture below.

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Let’s see what I’ve been doing this week.  On Friday I joined VJ’s orientation at East Coast Park (sea regatta).  It was bloody hot.  Then we went to somebody’s house opposite VJ to play mahjong which resulted in me only winning enough to pay for that day’s transport.

 

In the evening, I joined Mong and a few others at Suntec’s Fountain Of Wealth for the annual mass dance.  I didn’t dance at all.  I remember skipping all the mass dance when I was still with VJ.  I had a long dinner chat with Mong before going home.  You can check out the photos on facebook.

Yesterday, I went to Parkway to have lunch with Ian and other friends.  Ian’s dad and mum paid for everything, even the cab fare.  However, I lost the $10 note aunty Irene gave me so I had to pay for the cab using my own money. Himbo incident no. 2 happened when I realised that I had left my camera on so the battery was dead and we couldn’t take any pictures with it.  We used Kon’s phone to take two photos but he had some problem with his bluetooth so I don’t have the pictures with me now.  Later that day, I had dinner at my grandparents’  house to celebrate my cousin’s seventh birthday.  I bought him a Ben 10 DS game cartridge which wasn’t cheap.  

I started giving tuition last week and I think it’s quite enjoyable.  Too bad I’ll be enlisting soon.

February 8, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | , , , , , | 1 Comment

and so the Spring festivities continue…

There are quite a few things that happened these three days.  I bought my new camera, Lumix FX520 at Mustafa on Friday before meeting Xiuru for dinner at Vivocity’s White Dog Cafe.  My new camera has partial touchscreen capabilities.  I decided to try out Lumix because I’ve tried my friends’ and it seems better than cybershot. My previous camera, a cybershot, was stylo and fully touchscreen but it doesn’t take good pictures under poor lighting and the picture turns out blur if my hand shakes a little while taking a photo.  After dinner, I brought my guitar to Sarah’s house so that we could play Guitar Hero World Tour.  We played two mahjong games after that and I only had a net gain of 40 cents.  I went home at about 9am to sleep.  Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Nono’s house for a Chinese New Year gathering with the choir people.  I saw a few baldies.  We played taboo, poker and mahjong (without money).  It was fun.  Thanks to Nono for organising this.  I reached home at about 2am.  I will be having overnight mahjong at Carol’s house tonight.  We’re aiming to play 6 games and beyond.  Haha.  Wish me luck.

Here are photos taken at Nono’s house.

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February 1, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | | 1 Comment

Season to Burgeon

It is finally Chinese New Year once again and time for our (singles only) pockets to instantly overflow with money and our tummies to secretly expand.  This year it was pretty much the same routine for me.  I planned to start bathing and change into my new pyjamas at 11.45pm on CNY eve so that I could make it just in time for 12am, but I realised that I hadn’t changed my bedsheet.  I was in a frenzy to get everything done in time for the BIG day.  My family has this belief that whatever happens on the first day of CNY will happen throughout the entire year.  Thus, I had to automatically wake up early in the past to study, but I mostly pretended to do so.  Anyway, I did everything just in time.

At around 10am (it was supposed to be 10am but my mum woke up late), we went to the temple (莲山双林寺) at Toa Payoh after having abalone mee suah for breakfast.  There are two temples with the temple ground.  One is the peaceful and serene Buddhist temple and the other is the chaotic and smoky Taoist temple.  I dread the Taoist temple because my clothes will end up stinking of incense and my eyes will tear as the smoke gets in my eyes.  Luckily I wore contacts this year to protect my eyes.  It was a success.  On the contrary, I simply adore the Buddhist temple, albeit the slightly bigger crowd there this year.  It has lovely lotus plants and bonsai trees that complements the calm expression  adorning the faces of the Buddha statues.  The best thing is that incense burning is not allowed within the temple. Enough about the temple.  There was a slight change of plans this year.  We went home first to change out of our sandalwood-scented clothes instead of heading directly to my grandparents’ house.

DSC00197.jpg picture by avrilportal

We had lunch at my grandparents’ house and I collected the biggest angpows that I’ll ever get this whole CNY.  Later, a few of my aunts and uncles came over to my house and we went to my aunt’s house after that.  I took a few photos with my primary one cousin.  Haha.  We were practically camwhoring.  

DSC00196.jpg picture by avrilportalDSC00195.jpg picture by avrilportalDSC00204.jpg picture by avrilportalDSC00203.jpg picture by avrilportalDSC00201.jpg picture by avrilportal

Lastly, I went clubbing with Fabian and Terence!  Oh such fun we had.  Haha.  It was so bloody crowded, I felt like I was at chinatown.  I concluded that I should not regularly use the Bvlgari Aqva cologne that I bought a while ago, if not I’ll smell like a commoner.  I smelt the scent everywhere in the club yesterday.  It was like the club’s unofficial air freshener.  I put on my new cologne yestersday, so I’m glad I wasn’t smelling like everybody else.

Alright I’ll end here.  Good luck to Terence for tmr!  (you know what I’m talking abt. that dreaded thing.)

PS:  I hope everyone won’t see too much of a drop in their angpow collections!

January 27, 2009 Posted by xjportal | Postbox | , | 2 Comments