HK

Hmm, I had grand plans for this weekend, but unfortunately, I could neither anticipate feeling stuffed and bloated, the loss of appetite nor the fatigue that weighed me down. Oh and the fact that many of my friends were on the Friday flight. Thank God for Gina =)

Day One
Trudged down to the airport on Saturday morning at 630am. Actually I was driven down. Many thanks to KK. And I also thank God I got the morning flight. At least we had the rest of the day to hang around and feel our way around HK! There weren't many of us on this flight. I could only identify Yongseng, Aaron, Sanjiv and Vikram. And a few others from CRE and FSD.

From the airport, the ride down to HK was interesting. It was full of gently sloping hills and the odd cluster of towering skyscaper apartments concentrated very tightly together. Which was very very weird. Which was very weird because there was so much expanse in between each concentrated cluster.

Conrad was very lovely. It faced a very high peak. From my window I had a grand view of the city, which was swathed in this grey er, cloud... And on my right were the hills. We were situated right above Admiralty Station, one stop from Tsim Sha Shui.

That afternoon, we hung around Causeway Bay in a daze actually after we had checked in.

D&D was good. Cosplay was very fun and people were really good sports. I had the privilege of sitting next to the Powerpuff girls and one very hot mama (actually, that was Clara). The highlight must be when Sanjiv the Elvis Emcee called out my name in the lucky draw. I'm winner 15 out of 20!!! (I won a DVD Player!) Yay!!! I have never won anything in my life!

Then next stop - Lam Kwai Fong. I was pretty much stoned at first, but thankfully the girls stopped off to drink some authentic Yuanyang. Man was that a perker-upper. Sucked the fatigue out of me entirely!! The transformation was amazing! haha. We headed down to Sugar, as we had planned with the rest of the Liti department, but to our surprise we only found some of the partners and a stray few associates there! This place felt like Butter, but with better looking guys. The moment I stepped in, the music went dead and people started muttering. I was trying to figure what was happening. Then I saw these older guys in navy vests with the words "Police Department" emblazoned across the back. Felt like a TVB Drama!!

So some of the partners suggested heading down to Dragoneye. We decided to walk down to check it out. BTW, LKF is so not the place to walk around in when you are high and wearing extremely high heels. Thankfully I was not in that position. But the slopes are steep and almost 45 deg, the steps are steep and precarious and there are holes in the ground. In my head, there were 100s of high people tumbling down the stairs.


Day Two

Ah, the fatigue started to hit. EC, JCHM, GTEO and I headed down to Tsim Sha Shui after brekkie. Bought 2 pairs of Nine West shoes =)

EC and JCHM left to catch their flight. GTEO, ever sweet and compliant, went along with my yumcha suggestion. I have to say the food here is extremely oily.

Gina and I went to H&M. Thankfully we learnt a lesson from the day before and decided to start asking for directions a bit more =) And I thought that was an affliction that only affected the male species. Sigh.

We headed down to WTC, where we were told there was some branded goods outlet shopping to be done! Apparently not! Gina was a bit disappointed and I felt a bit bad for her. Especially since I did so much shopping myself!

Later on, we headed down to Pacific Place. Bought myself my wallet. Finally! It's green and it's gorgeous and I love it to bits.

Then I accompanied her for a very average pasta dinner at the basement. Hmm... she wasn't in the mood for HK food and I wasn't too keen to compromise. Later, I met KK and dragged him down for dinner.

So here are the pics! Finally!

ADY's Farewell

It was ADY's last day at work on Friday. As of Friday, he stopped being ADY and being plain old Au Da Yu. For those not in the loop, those are his office initials. Everyone has one. I'm JCYL.

Since he was leaving for a foreign land (London) on Monday, the 3 of us, JCHM, EC and I, assembled a little er, care package, basket of goodies, call it what you will. Forgot to take a picture of the golden box I bought from prints, with the little pink ribbon courtesy of EC (Being Eunice Chew) and we all signed it. But it's what is inside that counts =p

We had the farewell dinner at Wine Garage. We made ADY wave the items in the air proudly. But he had a dour expression the whole time! Save for pic no. 3...

Item No. 1 - Universal Adaptor


Item No. 2 - KY and Pregnancy Test Kit
Yes, he gave us the weirdest dour look when he saw that... Well, we hoped most of the things we bought were useful, save for that one!


Item No. 3 - Condoms

Not his favourite brand anymore. Apparently it's fallen out of favour. But ah well...




We only took a picture of the first appetizer. Good stuff! The terrine was fabulous...



Then there are the girls:











We took a harem shot with ADY, but can't seem to locate it! Some other guys came after, but I think we were too high on wine to bother taking any more pics.

More bbq pics

This is the committee I was working with... There's Stevie and Louis and Jiasheng and Joseph and Joanna and the ever-willing helper, Daniel. I'm going to miss these people when I leave next year. Will never forget these moments. Even the bad ones! haha.



And there's Steve and Louis =)

Things to make me happy

Item No. 1




I wonder if this dress could be incorporated into my DnD theme this coming Saturday. The theme is Cosplay. And I blame Victor Wu Kaixuan. @#$%^


Item No. 2



Yippee, my sis works in a company that owns Prestat!! That means discounted chocolates! Just bought some Earl Grey chocolate wafers that taste really good. Slurp.

That eventful saturday

This is the event I've been planning for for the last few weeks! We fashioned a game based on Settlers of Catan, where teams aim to win resources. They win resources by competing against one another in mini zone challenges. The zone challenges we played were hilarious. One of them was sudoku, another was a game which revolved around catching a shuttlecock with a vanguard hat, another was an eating game (they surprisingly attacked the cucumber with gusto)...

Once the teams earn enough resources, they can build a settlement. Each settlement requires at least 2 ore minerals, wood and brick resources. Each road requires one of each, and a city is defined as 2 settlements separated by 2 roads. Sounds nerdy I know, but heh I thought it was a pretty good idea. And people enjoyed it!!!

I don't actually have pics of people enjoying the game, but here's the board game!



Actually, the Barnabas leaders were surprisingly competitive. Almost scared me at one point when they started to accuse the judges of judging wrongly.

We also had a bbq after that at East Coast Park, and Jiasheng brought his 2 very cute twin nieces. Spent a large part of Saturday night playing with them on scooters. Here's Grace =)






Finally saw some people I haven't met for the last few weeks / months. There's Dickson (he's finally gone into NS and gotten his head shaved). And there's the elusive Steve, who had a really good talk with me on the same thing I discussed with Bipeng. And there's Joelle... had a cosy gossip session with her too. And did a good supper with Steve, Louis and Jiasheng after that at Siglap's very own Mas-ayu =)

Good day.

The Guy

I'm somewhat amused as to how this one person has been avoiding me for some time, especially at group events.

Once upon a time, I was alerted to the fact that something was going on with him. Of course, I had to hear it from my dear friend A. I myself would be too blur to figure it out. At first, I didn't believe it. Then, more and more people would start making jibes. Some made obvious ones. Then I entered into a period in which I tried to avoid eye contact, or tried to walk away whenever he approached. Then he got the hint.

After this period was over, I thought I could become friendlier and more interested, as a friend of course, in his affairs.

Then one day, I got this very disturbing call. It was while I was at Big Fish, with the E4 girls, and he called to tell me something that totally shocked and disgusted me.

Then began the awkward and disconcerting period in which I tried to avoid at all costs. Then he got the hint again. I haven't been friendly to him since.

And he has gotten the hint for good now. We don't talk, we don't even sit around in the same group to talk anymore. Except for one recent phone call in which he called to ask me how I was (which I attribute entirely to friendship). I'm relieved. Amused, but very relieved.

Nostalgia

I'm combing through my old hall pics right now. It's amazing how time changes everything. It felt a lifetime ago. I looked like a whole different person!

I am looking at the pics, looking at all the old faces of people I once knew, of people I still meet up with and how the dynamics have changed - How we got close or grew apart. And there are a couple of people I avoid, for good reason. And I also see people whom I didn't know very well back then, and how I used to think of them in a certain way, and how this has changed so much now that I know the people that they really are. I am also looking at people I have lost touched with, and how it had happened, and I wonder whether I will ever see some of them again. Some of them seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth!

There's Wee How - not so close to him anymore, but he's a great guy and he'll make a great husband to Hazel. It's probably just as well we aren't so close. But I must say I enjoyed the last time we had a good talk while we were doing that Standard Chartered 42.195 run. We had all of 5 hours to catch up=p

There's Willy Foo, there's Xiaoxuan and Beat and Lihui and ... There are a couple of people whose names I won't mention, who purposely made life difficult for others, and there were a couple who raised a ruckus out of nothing and dragged me into it. Ah well, but that's hall. Live and let live. I'm thankful for the friends I've made. Some of them have lasted quite a while. There's my E block girls - really appreciate this friendship that we have.

One thing I can give thanks for - I learnt so many lessons. Living in such close proximity with a myriad of characters makes life interesting.

When I'm bored enough I'll scan some of these pics =)

Mimolette

As much as I want to keep this my very own, I have decided not to be selfish. Plus, the word has been going around already. hahaha.

Went to Mimolette for brunch on Saturday with K. It's a very charming restaurant perched on the top of a short flight of steps overlooking the green. There is lush countryside all around, and for your duration there, you can forget entirely that this is Singapore. There are horses trotting in the far distance... And few people... Lovely. Inside, there are black chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and white wooden chairs and tables covered with white linen... The description doesn't do any justice to what Mimolette actually looks like. It certainly reminded me of the English countryside, albeit miniaturized. It gets 4 thumbs up in my book for ambience =) Definitely a nice brunch place.

I had the french toast and K had the farmer's breakfast. The servings were a tad small, but no complaints with the food! We even had seconds! haha. (He had the very girly apple cupcake =p) Think we spent almost 3 hours there without realizing it. Yup, definitely will have to go again.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons (as I'm typing this out, I'm humming the theme song) is laugh-out-loud hilarious. I was laughing throughout the entire movie. In fact, I would rate it as one of the better movies I've seen this summer season (Priceless doesn't count because it's not a Hollywood blockbuster/commercial movie).

Before watching it, I read the review in NYT done by a Simpsons fan who had watched every single episode in the entire history of Simpsons. He bemoaned the absence of certain key characters. For example, Burns had such a small presence, as did Apu. And Marge's surly sisters. But I can't really fault Matt Groening.

In all, it was a good movie. Very unsubtly, it had pointed a finger at quite a few current issues and he has got his audience laughing at themselves. And I like the little symbolisms that he had scattered throughout (Check out the Reaganesque shot at the beginning of the movie).

I have the next 2 weekends planned back to back already, and I feel exhausted thinking about it. There's drinks with Dayu and colleagues on Friday, since he's leaving. I think I will actually miss having him around. Although I don't talk to him on such a regular basis, he has been a constant presence. Occasionally he veers into my "irritation" zone but most of the time, he has been helpful and even sweet. And I don't think I like change very much. So yes, his presence adds a sort of comforting continuity in the office. His departure is making me think about what I should be doing within the next 2 years. Whither my plans, I know not =)

Then there's that hectic Saturday, which I am working towards. It involves waking up at 7am, leaving the house at 830am, and ending with a BBQ at East Coast Park which should not end before 10pm. I really hope it works out. Things had not been smooth sailing so far. There has been more than the usual friction, and all these undercurrents which I am surprisingly able to detect (I am the worst judge of character and I usually ignore my intuition). But these are people with good intentions. Whether or not things have taken an odd turn, I'm sure it will work out. To digress a bit, I actually had to snap at S on Wednesday night because I wasn't able to get to him. He went on and on and on and didn't listen to what I had to say. Finally I couldn't take it and I snapped at him to get his attention. Later on, I felt really bad about it and text-ed him an apology. But I think, on hindsight, I would still have done the same thing.

Then there's the HK weekend... ... ARRGGGGHHH

I need a break. Now. I need to go somewhere away from the routine. I need to hibernate with one or two good friends in some faraway place. It's escapism in its purest form. Then I wouldn't have to think about what I need to do and the decisions I have to make (the church decisions!)