Grim

I've been having quite a ball organizing DVD nights for myself. It's quite fun. I think I enjoy being alone at home like this now that Liana is away in Hanoi, haha.

I rented The Brothers Grimm last night.

Ok it was a bore. An utter disappointment but I had to watch it since the story revolves around fairy tales and all.

I thought Heath Ledger overdid his nerd-with-a-lotta-side-issues character and I didn't like the whole brotherly rivalry thing they're trying to shove down people's throats. Took too much of the plot. And then there's Capaldi, some Italian guy who works for the French army in the movie who also overdid his already over-eccentric character.

What a bore. I wanna see action, a twist here and there, blood, gore, kill, kill, kill!

Um... .

Right ok. Seems once again I'm not being invited to crash anyone's home today I was thinking of doing that picnic I thought of doing the other day but the sky's not cooperating again. It's raining outside.

I don't think I'll rent another DVD so soon. I've watched all I wanna watch from Play!'s pathetic collection, there's no one to hang out with, so maybe I'll just do some housework, read the papers and rot at home. Neat.

Handy

Been spending the last couple of days doing a little bit of DIY work.

Can't say I like it but it's necessary to keep the cost of setting up shop manageable.

Spent yesterday preparing some neon lights and my countertop we got from IKEA. Well it's not really a countertop. It's just a little dumb I don't even know what to call it but it took me two damn hours to assemble.

Most of the time I was cursing myself for not putting the metal brackets on first before I assembled everything. I couldn't imagine myself dismantling everything and redoing it from scratch again so I decided not to do with the brackets. Now my drawer slides in and out of the counter spastically.

After work I kept my promise to visit mom coz she made lontong with everything on top specially for me. I was quite disappointed she didn't make sayor lodeh on the first day of Eid. I mean, all that time I spent in the toilet for nothing... .

Leita was gonna prepare the lontong for me on a plate. I was flabbergasted beyond belief. I was like, "Katak (as I call her), you're using a PLATE?" She was like, "Oh oh sorry!" And then she took out the casserole bowl. Aaahhh, that's more like it.

Gone in sixty seconds. My mom's jaw dropped.

And today I spent a total of six hours sawing and sandpapering a few planks of wood. That's a whole lot of hours for a few pieces of wood but I really hate DIY work coz I suck at it. I should have taken Home Economics at school coz I was really bad at Technical.

Needless to say, even after all the time spent I still managed to come up with a few smaller pieces of jagged planks. I can't saw for nuts and I only sandpapered them to make the sides fit the cavity I'm gonna fix them into. Doesn't have to be pretty. I don't really care anyway.

Then I decided to do something positive for the sake of my sanity so I made a 3.293sec decision to go rent a DVD. E-mail newsletters work sometimes. I saw that Play! had some good new titles on so I took 0.5 for a ride to Toa Payoh Central to go get the Click DVD.

I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't the usual laugh-till-my-sides-split movie by Adam Sandler but it was good all the same.

I learned some good lessons in there. Like junk food is bad, smoking is bad, family is above all, yada yada yada bada bing but what really stuck to my mind was this exchange by some guy named Morty to Sandler's character, Michael.

"Do you remember the leprechaun in the cereal advertisement?"

"There he was spending all that time looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow only to find out that it was just a bowl of cornflakes."

Now that was funny and good. Says a lot.

...

It was Perth Day yesterday. I was waiting the whole day to be invited to anyone's house for a visit but I got none so I made my own plans.

I was planning to watch Dead or Alive at the new big ass cinema at the new big ass Vivo City mall yesterday but it turned out it'd only be out on the screens today but today after work I have a date with mom to wallop the lontong that she promised.

So watching DOA got strucked off the list of things to do. The next plan I got was to bring a book and some snack, take 0.5 out for a ride, settle my butt on someplace green and declare myself a picnic but that one got washed too. Literally.

If you have always wanted a pet, you need only open your windows coz it was raining cats and dogs aplenty. It's a good thing to happen so I can't complain. Coupled with the fact that the Indonesians were too busy celebrating Eid to be burning forests, it helped to wash away the haze.

So I spent the day indoors. Apart from playing my computer game, I took time off to go out and get dinner and rent a couple of DVDs, Ice Age 2 and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Good movies they were. Thank God I made the right selections. Ice Age 2 made me laugh like heck, all by myself. I don't know how to describe how Good Geisha was but it's good. Just trust me on that.

I haven't been eating a lot like I had intended, at least by my own standard anyway but I sure have been smoking like a pre-Eid Indonesian forest. It gets me all excited knowing that I can smoke anytime I want again. Serves me right that I know have a sore throat and a runny nose.

I'm going to expect the development of my shop to pick up speed from now so there's certainly gonna be more things in store for me to do. I hope I'm up to the task.

Day 01 Eid 06

Blogger's note: Apologies for a few lousy photos. It's confirmed. Waffles suck. Also apologies for a few shaky photos. I really shouldn't have um, er, entertained myself last night.

Anyway, the only other person to hold Waffles today was Lilies. So if I am in the photo and the photo's shaky, it's her fault. But what's her excuse? *raising eyebrows a few times* Heh.

So the plan was for me to go to The Wang's at Serangoon North at early 7ish today, drop mom's layer cake and scoot over to the Istiqamah Mosque across the road for my Eid prayers.

By the time I get back in about an hour, they should be all dressed and ready to go to mom's with me, but were they?

Nyet. Lazy buggers.

But after an hour more or so, there they were, all set to go.

No prizes for correctly guessing who the hunk beside Heidi is.

Bananas in pyjamas are running down the stairs. Bananas in pyjamas are coming down in pairs.

There we were a while later at mom's (technically it should be Leita's, my 2nd sis who's in the middle of this photo).

We miss each other, Leita and I. Can you tell?

Lilies and I. I managed to develop a small pimple right smack in the top middle of my forehead in the course of a few hours.

The Wangs getting comfy.

As usual, Wang could only muster the energy to be excited for 7.3998 seconds.

Yeeeeeah...

Mr Bola and Heidi having a ball at the mini swing.

What are they doing!?

Oh eeeyuks... so, so young!

Even I don't have that kinda luck.

Ok that's it. That's gross.

Dude!

Her handbag's getting more heavy than she was. And that's all paper in there! Paper money. Some people have all the luck, just because they're cute. Harrrumph!

Mom, do I still qualify for a handout? Pleeease?

Soon after, my stepbrother Rudi's family arrived. This is my nephew Zarie who's just enlisted in the police force for National Service. Good luck man, heh heh.

Lilies, my babe-in-the-making niece, Shereen and Rudi. I look up to this guy a lot.

Let's have another look. Yup. Definitely gonna make a few hundred men cry in the course of her life.

Usually a day like this ends up boring without Dickhead who's in the sky somewhere on this planet and Liana who's in Hanoi for two weeks but with free entertainment from clowns like these, it turned out to be quite alright.

And off we were packed like illegal immigrants in the back of Rudi's van to visit dad at Ren Ci.

Hey dad!

Some of you may have met Calamity Bike which has by now been sold.

Now meet Calamity Bike 0.5.

Why 0.5? Because usually a superhero's later editions of weapons and accessories are always better than the last one but this one isn't. Heh heh.

It's not really mine anyway. I loaned it from Lilies. We went to her place after Ren Ci. I just kinda asked her that if she wasn't using the bike to might as well let me use it. She said ok. I said ok. So I cycled for an hour back home on this rickety thing.

Well at least I got a chance to sweat away 3% of the fats I accumulated since morning. But man... my knees... my butt... Oh oh oh.

PS: ALL that unwanted fat in your body could turn out to be a life-saver some day :D

Fat hope

So the time has come. It's Eid everybody!

I did manage to unload my stomach contents yesterday... four times for your information.

But the amazing thing is that they're not enough. Definitely not if I want to make enough space for all the junk I intend to fill myself with over the next couple of days.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Suraya for taking the trouble to provide me with the necessary information on performing Eid prayers. Yeah, I don't really wanna screw up like the last time. Heh.

Also, naturally, I'd like to wish everyone a great Eid! Go eat and grow fat!

Sleep on it

I've been having this funny feeling in my tummy recently.

A large part of last week was spent with my stomach feeling gassy and everything and suddenly it became constipated at the weekend.

What the heck!? From one extreme to another. The challenges of fasting... .

Thank God today is the last day of Ramadhan, it's the last day of fasting for us Muslims and if I can get through this day, Delhi Belly or not, I'd cap myself another full month of fasting ever since I've made up my mind to commit myself to the idea last year.

See? I can commit myself to a cause, ya know?

But er, now I can't decide if I should spend the night at home, before scuttering to the mosque tomorrow morning, and then to Lilies' and then to mom's with her family OR to drag my stuff over to Lilies' straight from work this evening, then to the mosque in the morning, then to mom's with her family.

Guess I'll sleep on it for a while and decide when I wake up for work later.

Note to self: I HAVE to unload myself real soon. I mean, what is the use of having five stomachs if I can't use every single one of them to mow down ALL the stuff my mom's gonna dish out tomorrow morning right? C'mon stomach. You can do it.

Bright lights

Liana, Lilies and I were at Geylang Serai on Saturday evening.

It was an impromptu thing. I just finished my dinner at KFC, when Liana text me to join her there and the next thing I knew, I was there with the two of them.

I didn't mind. For days I was dreaming about greedily devouring all the fattening and unhygienically-prepared street food over there. Hunky deep fried drumstick, barbecued beef floss, messy Ramly burger, I didn't care. I want 'em all. Bring it!

"Auntie, can we have EVERYTHING on your menu? It's for our brother."

"But I'll test a little first just to make sure."

"How come mine doesn't light up?"

Very pretty.

Yeah, we got ourselves one of those. And some other junk too. I'm just glad we survived the whole thing. Would have loved to take more photos but it was so crowded there was hardly any space to get a good angle on any shot or to even stop a while to shoot away.

Waffled

I'm happy about how this week has turned out so far.

I get to familiarize myself with the whole running of an IT store thing at the other two [removed] as well as [removed] on top of busying myself with the setting up our upcoming third outlet. It makes me feel important again, to put it in a vain perspective.

Secondly, I got myself a new digicam which I've named Waffles for cheap.

Thirdly, I also took the time to hang out with people, friends (ok just one so far this week) and family.

Hung out with G on Wednesday doing nothing at Arab Street, visited my mom (Sis Leita and Mr Bola) at Yishun on Thursday and also managed to work something out at the last minute to hang out with The Wangs and Liana last night.

God knows how long it has been since I visited the Wangs' at Serangoon North. But together with Liana, who's flying to Vietnam with Jelte for a few days soon, I paid them a visit again after we had dinner together at some sucky place. I used to live with them for more than a year after my National Service before I moved to Braddell.

As usual, the place is as nice as when I left it (I'm not allowed to post photos) and I also thought they'd gotten themselves a very good helper recently. Now to get an English-speaking Indonesian maid is something like a one in a million chance. Ok I just found out she's Filipina. Just as well... .

I also took the opportunity to take photos of my favourite pet rabbit. Heh. No one said anything about this so here goes.








Ok actually I'm not totally happy about Waffles but now everyone knows it's not really a great idea to get a cheap digicam.

Unlike Cheeseburger, when I view my subjects at night, even with lighting available in the surrounding, I cannot see what I'm pointing at. It's all dark. I have to make a wild guess everytime I shoot it sucks. Anyone knows what I can do about this?

Lamb chop play along

This whole process of setting up a shop at S.untec City is proving to be quite a challenge.

To put it simply, before we can even think about starting our renovation work, we'd have to first submit our renovation plan as well as electrical plan to the management. It's not that easy. They didn't accept our pencil on paper drawings.

They want a professionally done one in graphic and colours and fireworks! They wanna know how exactly the shop will look like and also where exactly every single light bulb will be placed. You get the drift.

On top of that, there is the application to activate the temporary power supply, the insurance, the utilities, the this, the that. Talk about a baptism of fire... . This is my first attempt at a proper business venture.

Things will be delayed unfortunately. Taking the long Deeparaya weekend this coming Saturday to next Wednesday into consideration, getting things to move will be a tall order. Hence, Max and I have pushed back our opening day by a week.

Empty house of m.ouse

So after work I decided that I needed to take a little breather.

I wanted to be alone but then nah, I didn't think so. So I decided to be alone with another loner for dinner at Arab Street near work, my friend, G. I also took pictures just because. They were kinda crappy. Don't know if it's the haze, the camera or just the me.

We had dinner at Amirah's Grill after hunting a while. The prices were affordable and the menu seemed good enough for me. I just wanted to devour something rich and fattening without having to sell my rear end for it.

We weren't disappointed. Although the place was a little warm what with little spotlights all over the ceiling pointing down, the food was really good and the portion big enough to fill all my five stomachs.

I stole some of G's beef kebab on top of my own lamb chop. Aaaah... lamb chop. Reminds me of the time I had in Perth... it was lamb chop galore... .


G also gave me this The Lonely Planet Story book to hopefully inspire me in my next big move in life. It says there,

"... thanks to their relentless spirit of adventure and thirty years of travel publishing, they've inspired generations of weirdos and not-so-weirdos to get out there."

Seems apt to me but I'm thinking, what's up with the lonely this and that and weirdos thing, eh? Haha.

Ode to my cheeseburger

Goodbye cheeseburger!

Hello waffles!

I made a 3.484sec decision to get myself a spanking brand new Grandvision E82 digicam just now. It may not be the best of brands and specifications, but it is the best of the worst as far as I'm concerned, just like most of everything I own, plus it suits my basic needs.

Usual price of the digicam: $249.00
Usual price of 512mb SD card: $40ish
Total price I could've paid on any other day: $289.00

Unusual price of the digicam: $$159.00
Unusual price of 512mb SD card: $19.90
Total price I paid today: $178.90
Total savings I earned: $110.10

I thought it was a great deal even when compared to this particular digicam I saw on eBay the other day which is suspiciously similar to the one I got which would cost me a total of $259.00.

It's about time anyway.

1. Because Eid is coming and I don't know what people would think if I was to keep lugging a murder weapon around to their homes like I did last year. Not very friendly.

2. I'd love to be able to slip my digicam in my pocket and take it out whenever I like to shoot at things. Can't do that with the cheeseburger. Most times I'd have to drag it around. Other times, the opposite occurs.

3. I'd be sneaking time at work to shoot the products at my shop and post them on the Internet for sale in the shortest possible time. Can't keep waiting 10mins between shots as I did with the cheeseburger. That'd take too much time off serving walk-in customers or other form of work.

Throw the choppy waters, keep the calm, that's what I always say and now I gotta start to actually live it.

My cheeseburger had been a great companion on my adventures, forcing me to improve on my own photo-taking skills and upping the limit of my patience due to its lacking, but the time is now for it to take a looong rest. It's time to move on.

Thank you cheeseburger, for everything.

November reign

Just a little update about what's going on.

1. I've left LC (the catering company I worked for) two days ago on Friday the 13th. I just had to include the date for dramatic effect.

2. I officially re-joined [removed] yesterday.

3. I have decided to stop pursuing Ann.

Looking back, there is one thing about me that I realize, that many would agree, that if I have one major weakness, it'd be that I rarely finish what I started. There's no shame in admitting to that because it is an undeniable fact.

I can only think of two events in my life where I haven't given up halfway and that is my O Levels which I took twice in order to make the cut for my course of choice in polytechnic (which I didn't complete in the end *rolleyes*) as well as my National Service which I didn't really have a choice unless I wanted to spend time in the Detention Barracks (it was a very tough decision haha).

But looking ahead, I have my immediate one year plan and I believe it is not impossible to achieve. Slowly does it.

So far, I have announced my declaration of intent for the coming year which is to save $10,000 and to get my driver's licence and now the time is apt for me to add one more - which is to run [removed] for at least a year as stipulated in the contract with [removed].

To quickly recap, [removed] is [removed]'s franchisor and together we have decided to open an IT store at [removed]'s new e-L.ife at Tower Five Level Two. As mentioned before, I do have my skepticisms with regards to this move but on the flipside, opportunities like this do not fall on one's lap very often.

For me, it's always been about running my own profitable business and if I don't grab the horns by its bull now, I don't know when an opportunity such as this would arise again.

Thing is, I'd have to push back my one year plan by three months to accommodate this development. Instead of August first 07, it's now gonna be November first 07.

I'd like to take this opportunity to seek moral support from everyone around me and also to understand that I may not be able to commit myself to anything other than Mouse in my day to day activities. I'm a one man show. If I don't turn up, I don't make money.

As such, I have also decided to lay off girls until further notice. Not that my gender preference have changed, just that recent developments in matters of the heart have proven yet again that I lack the patience to deal with the unnecessary wishy washyness of being involved in a romantic relationship one way or the other.

Friends are ok though. I work everyday 1100-2200hrs and have set aside Wednesdays as my Perth Day when I can pursue other things such as obtaining my driver's licence.

Other than those, I hope to squeeze some time in my busy schedule to still be able to hang out with people, get involved in WantToTrade.sg's events and marketing work, etc etc so help me God.

Majulah Calamity

I've decided that Ann and I need to talk one of these days and I've told her so.

It's not only about what she wants out of this relationship, and I use that word loosely, it's also about what I want.

I've had enough of clapping air. I'm about to embark on a big step in my life and I cannot afford one part of my life to remain stagnant while the rest are trying to progress.

It's not always been about her although I seem to give that impression. I have also been using the last few months to figure out if I really want to be with her. There are some attributes of hers that I do not want to live with and I'm sure she has her own concerns about me.

In short, I need to know where we both stand with regards to us in order to move on.

Bizzaro fact: Did you notice all the paragraphs in this post all start with the letter "I"?

Bloggers' day night out

It wasn't very nice to be stood up by the person you're trying to extend a hand to help but that's exactly what happened earlier.

But that's alright coz after that, as planned, I met up with fellow bloggers Yaslam and Lin for dinner and then some.

I suggested the nasi ayam penyet joint at Beach Junction called Ayam Penyet House. I'm on this life mission to discover a place that offers nasi ayam penyet as good if not better than the first authentic nasi ayam penyet I had months ago and they were just happy to be dragged along. Even if they weren't, I would've dragged them anyway.

They knew it was coming. The photos I mean.

Those clowns weren't us

In my opinion, this place had the closest thing to the first authentic nasi ayam penyet I had albeit by many, many kilometres, although it was definitely better than the last one I had at Lucky Plaza.

They just don't get it, do they? The secret in a superb nasi ayam penyet dish is the sweet flavour that comes out from the fermented beans, tofu, the side of vegetables and of course the chicken thigh which must be flattened (hence the "penyet" in the name). Only the damn rice should remain tasteless. And this comes from keeping the thingies dunked and boiled in a pot of secret concoction until they are about to be served. Only then they're taken out to be fried.

The street lights were out in full force to usher in Hari Raya

Anyway, we talked quite a lot. From Beach Junction to the Hari Raya Bazaar at Kampong Glam to a cafe at Arab street and back to Bugis MRT station. Covered everything mostly from the stuff we connect with from our blogs. Boring stuff like relationships, life in general, religion, money, Lin's attempt to activate her cousin just in case I turned out to be a psycho when she and I first met last week... . LOL!

Now THAT was hysterical.

That custom-made sign on the top right is sooo right for me. I want!

As mentioned, I've already met Lin. She's just a dorky girl, ditzy and all. Think she has a secret ambition to take over the Calamity superhero tag. Heh heh.

As for Yaslam, I've never had a sprinkling of a doubt that he was a nice guy judging from his comments and emails to offer his advice and to cheer me up whenever times are down. I was right.

We thought we'd leave Lin out of the picture coz she had this horrendously huge pimple on her nose

He's a family man with a great job and a well-balanced life kinda like the kind of things I want for myself. Sure things haven't been all rosy according to him, but he manage.

I'm sure we'll get to hang out again.

You know the universe is screwed up when even the moon is covered with sponsors

How it is going

Oookay this is more like a note-to-self.

It's Perth Day today and these are the stuff I need to do... or else.

Noon: Contact Sister Mariah about meeting her up with regards to my proposal to utilize WantToTrade.sg as a platform for her non-profit China Muslim Silaturrahim charity work.

1230hrs: Our lease of the current place was successfully extended thanks to Dick and Liana's hard work so I can happily put away the stuff I packed a few days ago.

1330hrs: Figure out how to install and play my favourite Championship Manager 2 game on my laptop before I decide to have it for Iftar later coz to be frank I'm getting a little cheesed off here harrrumph.

1700-1815ish: Meet Sister Mariah sometime between Asar and Maghrib anywhere she likes.

1845hrs: Possibly meeting up with Lin and Yaslam for Iftar somewhere in Beach Road (waiting for Yaslam's email response as I type) and perhaps to hang out with them a little while more after that.

The Salvation Army Youth Development Centre

The Salvation Army Youth Development Centre

"Heart to God, hand to man"

This is the 4th year YDC has been involved in youth work since its official opening in 2003. Direct involvement in multiple youth projects and public awareness, has helped the Centre to mature and develop its programmes.

The Centre’s vision is to be a place of excellence, where youth are celebrated, cultivated in character, and challenged to lead purposeful lives. In short, we want to build roots and grow wings.

Currently we are in the process of renovating our premise at Kallang Bahru in order to offer the kids a more conducive environment to develop and we are in need of a few items to achieve that.

Please have a look at our wishlist and if you would like to donate your items, you can find our contact details at the bottom or simply contact us directly here.

Thank you and God bless.

Prehistoric photos

I was packing my things just now when I found some really old pictures of me and my family. Some are reeeally old.

Some of you may be trying to hide your past or something so before I begin I'd like to apologise in advance to anybody whose unflattering photos of yore I'm gonna put up real soon.

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.....
.......

NAH!

Dick, Liana's ex Tin Tin and I. Hired mafiaso.

You wouldn't wanna mess with us. We were scary-looking.

No one dared to go near Lilies. Even the bees stayed away from the flowers.

Oh Gaaawd. Seriously man, what was I thinking with a suede shirt and all...? Notice Lilies turning pale. She was actually suffocating but she likes to suffocate in style so she made the effort to smile for the camera first.

Aiyoh, chokers? Friendship bands?

My first girlfriend. As you may have guessed, I was only after her skirt. Good for her we didn't last. I'm so sorry for being such a jerk. She's a good girl and deserved better at the time.

Aw... all the siblings together. Yeap yeap yeap, the fat kid was me. But the kid on my left was WHO? Liana? What? You kidding me? NAW. You sure?! *covering agape mouth with both hands*

Uh-hmm, once upon a time my brother WAS shorter than I was.

Scuba glasses were the rage at the time. Notice Leita was actually skinny at one point of her life. One thing remains the same though. Her BIG hair.

On the left is the woman who used to raise me since I was a baby, my grandma. On the right is the woman who's always made it happen by putting food on the table no matter what, my mom. Anyway, only one person in this photo brushed her teeth that morning. Guess who?