I just don't feel inspired to spend three minutes to come up with a witty entry header ok. Besides, it's gonna come out corny anyway.

So Em and Su came to [removed] today. Damn I need a cigarette.

We had lunch at Tong Seng coffeeshop near Bencoolen Street where they've got Halal non-Malay/Indian food.

Hello!

We all had Chinese chicken rice, roasted for tunch. Mine as usual was the upsized version and that was after I swallowed a triple layer sandwich for brunch made with the Halal turkey ham and bacon that Lilies got for me and fried egg and two slices of cheese. I only added ONE fried egg by the way. I'm watching my cholesterol intake.

Edited to add this lovely picture of a triple layer Calamity sandwich. It's got every food group in it and thus very healthy. Don't trust 'em when they say it's not. There's protein from the turkey everything, eggs and cheese, carbo from the bread and of course vitamins from the sunflower oil which was used to fry everything good. Sunflower is a vege right, I think?

I think Su looks like a gangster. She looks like the sort who'd beat you up if you're not careful. She reminds me of my sister Lilie in Perth. They have this heck-all air about them. I think it's cool.

We were passing through this foodcourt when I saw a stall called "Supreme Pork Chop Rice". I was like, "You wanna try that?" and she was like, "Nah, not today." without missing a beat. Haha. Definitely like my Sis Lilie. (I miss you Lie and the kids and the kits too).

[removed]

She also has a 14 yr old sister whose idea of being cool is to memorize everything about The Simpsons. Hahahahahahahaha!!!!

Eat my shorts, dude! HAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem. Sorry. Normal programming resumes.

There was also Em who if you glance on my tagboard on the right, is looking for a wireless router with an inbuilt modem. Ok, no problem except that I quoted her the wrong price. It's actually $165, dop!

We talked a bit about the progress of our cows and goats project, raising funds for the ChinaMuslim Silaturrahim. I say, I say, we're doing quite well, aren't we?

Since Su's already blabbered about it on her blog, I guess I am left with no choice but to also announce the same thing ;)

The due date for all names and funds to be submitted to me is the 15th of December 06. That is so I have time (five days) to consolidate and organize the necessary paperwork like arranging the visas and flight tickets for the cows and goats as well as to prepare the cheque as a total amount before dumping the mess at CMS' doorsteps haha.

Each cow costs $770 and each goat, a mere $110. This is a combined effort so you don't have to come up with the entire sum yourself. 10, 20 dollars from you is more than most people can come up with, that is 'nothing'. There are still two more weeks to the day.

Got questions?

thecalamityman @ gmail . com

I think I'm depressed.

Today I ate the entire top layer of assorted biscuits from a tin of assorted biscuits (minus the actual plastic layer that separates the first layer of biscuits from the second of course), six packets of chocopies, one mushroom swiss meal with extra cheesesticks at Burger King as well as a packet of Van Houten chocballs.

I left work early as such is the arrangement with Max for Tuesdays and Fridays every week (no off days) and decided not to go straight home like I always do.

Like a delinquent with my shaven head, my shirt tucked out at the back and a cat (Boo) sticking his head out from the zipper of my backpack, I trawled Bugis Street and then City Hall.

To cut the story short, I came, I saw, I bought.

I blew 70 quid (sorry I've been reading a Brit book called Adrian Mole the last few days) on a new New Balance M808 shoes. Original price $134.

Chunky shoes for a hunky dude

I mean firstly, it was going at nearly half price. I tried, trust me I did but I couldn't stop myself from banishing that thought off my head.

And then, one must understand that in this day and age, where quality of sports shoes is concerned, the more colour it has, the better it is regarded and hence more expensive.

For instance, black soccer boots don't cut it anymore. It must now be yellow or silver or red. Also, these days, consumers pay sports manufacturers to advertize their logos for them instead of the other way around.

In this context, my new New Balance shoes is actually a rebel. A rebel with a cause, just like its new owner. I'm gonna call my new shoes MmmBob.

Mr MmmBob is a two year old model left on the shelf, a victim of dumb consumers who do not know how to spot a good quality all-terrain, off-road trainers. Being overlooked by many despite our qualities, we were meant for each other.

If you notice from the link on top, MmmBob is also described as 'a rugged, supportive and durable trail running shoe, designed with technical features for superior trail performance and a superb fit'.

I think the website just described me as well. How cool is that?

By the way, no money from the ChinaMuslim fund was used to obtain MmmBob. I am broke, not destitute. I can still afford things. Besides, my mom came by my shop yesterday to air drop some food supply hence I'm covered for this week food-wise.

Also, I've decided to try and stop smoking again. That way I'd have more money for food, hang out with the people (actually just one person but I just wanna give the impression that I'm popular) I wanna hang out with and not suffocate them to death as well as to be able to contribute more to my humanitarian causes.

Maybe I'll smoke again when I'm rich. Heh.

When life throws melons at you, chop them up into little pieces and make melonade.

Bloody goat

I mentioned the slaying of cows and goats in my last post. That was meant in jest although cows and goats shall be slayed anyway. All for a good cause but.

As part of the Hari Raya Qurban (or Hari Raya Korban or Hari Raya Haji or Eid Ul Adha), the ChinaMuslim Silaturrahim are raising funds in order to continue their cause in aiding the needy Muslim folks in China.

Hari Raya Qurban occurs on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijja. It is celebrated by Muslims the world over as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son (Ishmael) for (Allah) God. Others celebrate it as it marks the end of the Pilgrimage or Haj for the millions of Muslims who make the trip to Mecca each year.

We don't really need to sacrifice our own sons for this but what we do though is to sacrifice cattle such as goats, sheeps and cows instead. And then we distribute the meat to the needy.

The cattle in question are usually provided by people who can afford them. The funds raised through this is then used for charitable causes which in this case is to aid in the improvement of standard of living for the folks in China.

At present, only cows and goats are available. Each cow costs $770 and each goat, $110. This is not a profit-making scheme. I was pretty shocked to discover how cheap a goat is. Dang, they're even cheaper than cats and we can't even eat cats.

We here, of course refers to everyone else but me coz in fact, I eat cats. Sure I get choked a little by their fur but nothing a bottle of water doesn't help.

So anyway, I'm attempting to lead by example here by pledging $60 to the cause. My aim is to gather enough resources to at least afford two goats.

Assuming I have eight other people contributing $20 each, I believe it's an attainable ambition.

I mean, what's $20 to you huh? For me, 60 bucks means I'd have to put off purchasing a bicycle for use at work till the new year or even, horror of horrors, SIX packets of cigarettes! GASP! You know how much THAT means to me? A LOT but I will live.

Instead of spending money to slowly kill myself, the 60 bucks could now instead be used to build a whole new annex in a school in China. Woo! I can always continue slowly killing myself after this.

You want details? thecalamityman @ gmail.com is the email you should reach. If this is all a scam, you're welcome to sacrifice me instead and lay my cured skin in your living room as a carpet.

Pie, please?

After about a month of lingering in the wilderness, the matter of collaborating WantToTrade.sg (WTT) with ChinaMuslim Silaturrahim (ChinaMuslim Solidarity or CMS for short) is finally seeing the light of day.

Not only that. Business-wise, I've also snagged a deal with Namsan Halal Mackerel Otah to advertise with WTT.

It all started when I saw a video clip on the lives of Muslims in China on Su's blog. So I thought hey, I could help them get even more exposure through WTT should people want to chip in to their charitable causes.

Under Sister Mariah, whom I liaised with, CMS' mission is to provide an education for needy children and orphans in the rural areas of China.

They strongly believe that it is through education that they can develop their potential and abilities to benefit the community.

With the knowledge and skills acquired, these youths will be able to earn a decent living and break out of their economic poverty.

How noble of her.

She is one positive and energetic lady. Both she and her brother make money to contribute money. I felt very comfortable talking to her. I think in the couple of hours we were talking, we only spent like five minutes actually talking about WTT.

We also talked about her broken laptop, about sourcing for someone to help her revamp and periodically maintain her six years old website, about helping her find a delivery driver for her brother's mackerel otah business, about there being a purpose for us meeting this and that people in the course of our daily lives, about slaying cows and goats as well as possible future collaborations in exploring China to source for stuff to sell in Singapore.

Cool beans. Everything was fine and dandy until we both had to go as we each had appointments to attend right after that.

I'm just pleased as pie to finally meet Sister Mariah.

Pimp my [removed]

Hello [removed] (how original)!

[removed] is an established direct importer, wholesaler AND
retailer of IT accessories specializing in:

- VOIP products such as skype phones, ear/headphones, mics, webcams
- networking products such as wireless routers, modems and cards
- USB-powered accessories such as desktop fans and lamps
- data storage solutions such as memory cards and memory card readers and of course...
- mice (retractable, optical, laser). We have them all.

In conjunction with the opening of our latest shop in [removed], we are pleased to offer you the following promotions:

[removed]

Why pay more and spend less on other things when you don't have to?

[removed] - IT accessories at budget wholesale prices. GST-ABSORBED.

Please reach us at [removed] for any feedback. Thank you.

[removed]

We're right on top of [removed].

Bad stuff, good stuff

We caught our first shoplifter in the act today. Well, Max did. I was in the toilet.

The kid's been touched by an angel. God knows what I'd do to him if I had caught him myself.

All 6ft plus tall Max did when he saw the kid slip a $2.50 PS/2 to USB adaptor into his bag was to stand behind him while he was doing the do and the kid quickly took the thing out and paid for it right away.

Is going to prison over something worth a few bucks worth it? Is going to the hospital before going to prison over something worth a few bucks worth it?

Anywho, on to the good stuff.

I was happy to see a bouquet of flowers at my shop when I arrived this morning. Finally, someone remembered us. It was from some organisation linked with the mall's management. Better than no flowers. It was quite embarassing to be the only shop without any flowers at the doorstep for a while.

Flowers, I loike.

Dusty book

The beginning. The present. The end.

What's wrong with the above?

There is no future... or is there?

After reading this book called Dust by Charles Pellegrino, I have a new-found respect for insects. Next time I see a cockroach, I'm giving it a pat on the head. Maybe I'll keep one as a pet and take it for walks on a leash or something too.

Egg-citing promotion

It's Easter all over again coz starting tomorrow we're giving out eggs at [removed] with every $30 purchase in a single receipt.

They're not just any eggs. In line with our obsession with offering cute and bright thingy things, they're colour-changing eggs! Like you actually give a... nevermind.





While stocks last. Bird flu not included.

[removed]

We're right on top of Giordano and Watson's.

Invasion

Meet Boo, the fluffy cat. A cat in a [removed]... how original.

Boo facing the door ready to eat any intruder after I pulled down the shutters.

Actually Boo is my sister Liana's cat. I don't know what she calls him but I'm calling him Boo coz he gave me a fright when I found this black, furry thing in my bag yesterday morning. No idea how he sneaked himself in there but I took him to work anyway.

Now he is my shop's mascot. Many customers couldn't resist patting his head on the counter.

Jack in the box

Two other great things occured yesterday.

Before closing shop and going home last night, we got ourselves a brand new vacuum cleaner that got me all excited.

Meet Flapjack, or Jack for short. Look at that thing. It's a broom which sucks! I absolutely love how sleek and simple it is!

Jack was of course obtained coz we thought we needed something less bulky for a shop the size of the one at Suntec with a store room so tiny. The old vacuum cleaner took up half the room.

And then I got home and got myself signed up with eFax. It's an online fax service that eliminates the need for a fax machine, an extra fax line and all the associated expenses (paper, ink cartridges etc).

I think it'd cost me $40 a base of $20 a month but I don't really care coz I took up the 30 days free trial and all I need is to be able to fax from my email till the new month.

The thing is, I need to place orders from the mother ship at Keypoint everyday in order to have a sufficient amount of inventory coz I can't store a lotta things at Suntec to begin with.

Unfortunately, their Internet connection is down since they're moving out to another premise soon and I don't have a fax machine to be able to fax them. Hence eFax was a necessary compromise.

I think it's a good, easy to use service. I might just go beyond 30 days. Love the idea of paperless faxing. Love the idea of not needing to have one bulky, white thing someplace in the house (Liana already has something like this LMAO!!!). Love more the idea of giving my computer one more function. I can do sooo many things from one corner of my home. Woo!

Giggle giggle

If I get $10 for every giggle at my shop, I'd be halfway in achieving my sales target every single day.

Firstly, they'd giggle at the name.

(Looking up at the signboard) "Hooouse...Offf...Mooouse. Ha ha ha! *giggle giggle* so funneee."

Then they look down at the stuff on display.

"So cuuuuute!*giggle giggle*"

Then they look around for the guy manning the stall.

"Pssst. Look. *point point* Toilet brush head! *giggle giggle*"

*rolleyes x 83478287*

So anyway, TR came by today with one of her sisters. The first customers of the day.

They didn't come empty-handed and they didn't leave empty-handed. I just realized this. TR is always the first of the people I know to support me in whatever stupid thing I do. God bless her.

She actually took the trouble to bake me and my sister Liana some cupcakes. Mine had the letters H, O and M on them and Liana's had "Liana Banana" or something. Can't remember coz we ate them very quickly.

See! House. Of. Mouse. So cute, right? Next time she's spelling the whole thing. Woohoo! 12 cupcakes!

Gone in 60 seconds. They were damn good. Even Liana agreed. What a lotta fun. Box of sunshine they were! Check out TR's wonderful cupcakes here or reach her at cupcakemomma @ gmail .com for orders.

"Hmmph! Damn papparazis!"

Anyway, the crowd at Suntec is a weird one. At The Arcade and Keypoint, the main draws are the thumbdrives and portable hard disks. Over here, it's the...

Colour-changing snowman

Weird things are happening

Doraemon USB fan

I kept ordering and re-ordering for Max to send some over every day from the other outlets this past half week and now, they're already sold out, save for three pieces of the Doraemon fan including the display set.

Small ticket items they may be but I ain't complainin' coz sometimes the people who buy them buy other things too.

I had this Filipino guy who was going back to his home country and he was having a ball just picking out stuff for his family and friends back home. Every time he'd finish paying for one set of stuff, he'd stop for a while more, look around again and get even more stuff. He must have collected four or five receipts by the time he was done.

Then there was this guy from India who did almost the same getting stuff for everyone he knows. He spent like one hour browsing around. I mean, spending one hour in a hole-in-the-wall is just plain crazy man but again, no complains. He might have just accumulated one receipt but it was a big one considering how cheap my stuff are.

So after half a week, I realized that my shop is actually more of a gift shop based on IT, or using IT as an excuse than a proper IT shop. Ha ha. Like, no one cares about my networking stuff or my memory cards or my data storage solutions, dude!

The moral of the story is that everything in my shop is cute. Including the guy manning it. Heh heh.

And we are... OPEN!

We are finally open! Look at the amount of stuff in there. I was amazed and pleased to be able to have a substantial product mix to offer.

I said I would tidy up my counter and I did. It looks less clutterish now with all the wires tucked behind and on the left side of the CPU away from the view of the public.

Really cute USB desktop fans. Office workers' favourite no doubt.

USB-powered black and white doggy speakers for your PC or laptop for that matter.

Our newly-arrived webcams. I especially like the ones on the right. So chunky and fruity I wanna eat them!

Our USB animal-shaped massagers which always never fail to put a smile on people's faces. The piggy is a radio/speaker combo. People buy it all the time at our other shops as gifts. Too cute to ignore. I saw them at a pushcart at Toa Payoh a few weeks ago selling for double digits, can't really remember, but we sell them for less than $10.

I'm really excited about my audio and VOIP section. I have some really wonderful items for making Skype phonecalls. Skype phones, headphones with mic, earphones with mic, single sided, double sided, headphones, earphones, standalone mics. I can't wait to get one or two for my sister Lilie in Perth so she wouldn't have to pay so much to call us in Singapore, vice versa.

What is [removed] without mice? Graphic print mice, laser mice for gaming, mice with retractable cords, mice which look like cars, or a foot with painted toenails, big mice, small mice, etc.

People go crazy about our networking section. ADSL routers, broadband routers (wireless and non-wireless), wireless PCMCIA cards, wireless USB adapters, cardbus to ethernet adapters, modems, etc. We only carry Linksys and Prolink by the way.

You folks can send flowers to:
[removed]

I was quite pleased at how I maximized the space at the shop. Mice on the left, USB hubs next to it, reserved a slot above my counter for the thumbdrives and memory cards which will arrive soon, with the memory card reader section next to it, audio/VOIP section on the right with the sub-sections (headphones/earphones/mics/headphones with mic/earphones with mic/Skype phones/speakers) neatly arranged for ease of convenience.

Even the display shelves were strategically thought out. I made sure the USB fans and mice are at eye level and the toy-looking stuff such as the webcams and massagers at the kids' eye level so they could play with them and perhaps annoy their parents to get the stuff for them. Heh.

Seize the fish!

Things are finally clicking together with the setup of [removed]. So far, we have only filled up half the shop with inventory.

As I write this, [removed] must have just finished inputting all the inventory in the computer and tomorrow morning, I shall report there early to arrange the items nicely and do some cleaning up.

[removed]

The shop looks good as a whole but I am not quite happy with some of the workmanship when I look closer.

I would have said something like, "some things are better left to the pros" but the thing is, some of them WERE done by the pros.

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

But there are also some positive things about the shop.

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

Some people have asked me what [removed] selling point is. As you can see, the shop is realy small. It's a pushcart with walls so the things we have in there must be specific. Our strategy is to sell things that people would just grab and go.

We can't have people walking in and spending fifteen minutes enquiring about one product as there'd be no space for others to walk in. Two people in there, me and the customer, is two too many people already.

So we sell things that appeal to the impulse buyers. Things that are not necessarily practical but are fun. Like a mouse that looks like a foot with painted toenails. Then there are USB-powered massagers that look like a ladybird, a tortoise, etc or the USB-powered desktop mini fans that look like a football, a soccerball, baseball, blah blah blah.

Unlike some IT shops, a big chunk of our customer base at our other outlets are female. I think it'd be the same at [removed]. I sure do not mind! Sometimes they not only buy things for themselves, but also for their friends at one go.

They don't have to spend so much time pondering over whether to get the stuff because as direct importers, [removed] is able to sell things cheaper than others.

I was at Sim Lim today to buy the bracket for my LCD monitor when I noticed the shop selling some things that we also sell and I was flabbergasted to find out how much they were selling them for.

For instance, a USB-powered sound card was selling for $28 when we are only selling them for like $15 $9.90. Their headsets were going for double digits while ours is only in the single digit. We are talking about the exact items here. Same packaging, same quality, same everything.

But... we also have things for the guys AND gals for that matter. Thumbdrives, memory cards, portable hard disks, wireless routers, modems... .

Initially I was quite skeptical about how many things we can squeeze in that hole in the wall but I was pleasantly surprised to find out we could actually squeeze in quite a lot in there. It's exciting.

Carp diem! Seize the fish!

Update on Heart To Heart

With regards to my earlier post on volunteering at Heart to Heart on the 2th of November, I've some positive responses so far and I hope to work on this and more.

Some of us will be contributing in cash while others will be volunteering their time but basically there are three ways where contributions can be made - cash, kind or time.

If you wanna contribute in kind, actually it doesn't matter if we were to turn up with more of one type of food over the others. All will be graciously received by Heart To Heart as they'll eventually run out.

Please refer to the list as meted by Heart To Heart for guidance on what food items to donate.

So far, only these people have stated the ways in which they wanna contribute:

Cash:
Liana
Lin

Kind:
Nil

Time:
Fara and friends

More details to be adviced closer to the day.

I Heart Perth

This day last year, I was on my way to wonderland spending what would be the best 13 days of my life, ever.

Sigh... .

Cat wanted

My Sister Lilies is looking for a cat.

If you have a fluffy animal with big ears and a smackable butt to offer, please write to lilies.roseita at gmail dot com .

Thank you.

Charity call

The good people at WantToTrade.sg are organizing a trip to Heart To Heart this coming 25th November to deliver some food donations.

Heart to Heart is a non-profit, non-government aided welfare set-up initiated by Teresa Hsu. The Service reaches out to the poor and needy by providing them with food and monetary assistance every month.

She could do with some instant noodles. That's all she needs to make her day.

Some of the items they need are:
1) Instant Noodles
2) "Super" Coffee-mix 3-in-1.
3) Milo 3-in-1
4) Sugar (1 kg bag)
5) Cooking Oil (1 litre)

Please click here for the full list and other details.

Logistically-speaking, we are considering collecting monetary donations, scoot off to Sheng Shiong to shop for the items, before delivering the stuff to Heart To Heart nearby.

This is to ensure no items are repeated, manpower better utilized and time efficiently managed.

Those who want to contribute in other ways are also welcome.

For more information, please write to thecalamityman at gmail dot com.

Wishing well

Friday is a good day to make a wish.

And since I have very little time and money to sacrifice, it's off with the hair then.

It was either the hair or the magic wand. Heh.

Adventure Suntec

The shipment arrived yesterday morning from out of the blue.

When I saw the 20ft container parked outside of K.e.y.p.o.i.n.t, I wished it hadn't come.

It was high, smelly, dusty and the about 130 cartons in there, big, small, light and heavy were all over the place. The lazy buggers didn't even bother to stack them neatly. They didn't give a damn if the items were damaged or not. To them, their job is to deliver the goods and as long as they've achieved that, nothing else matters.

That's the mainland Chinese for you. Always full of surprises. Also, you order item A, they send you item B which kinda looks like item A when in fact, it is not. You never know what you're gonna get until they reach you. When you order from China, you can expect a small percentage of your shipment to be a surprise.

Unexpectedly, the people who sent the container didn't even bother to unload the goods for us. I don't know what the money we paid them is for.

They came, they parked, they left... with the container doors still padlocked. Dumbos forgot to unlock it. Thick padlock it was too. They were so eager to rrrun. So Max had to saw it off.

When that was over, it took us more than 20 trips to and fro the container and our new shop space to unload it... during lunch hour... with millions of people around. Of the 20 plus trips, I took on 3/4 of them. Back-breaking stuff.

After that, Max scrammed to S.u.n.t.e.c to oversee the NETS machine installation process while I stayed behind to oversee the goods were sorted with the help of two retirees and two of our K.e.y.p.o.i.n.t staff.

I was the youngest and presumably fittest so I took it upon myself to cut open all the cartons to view the contents, rearrange them into three categories: Barcoded, Not Barcoded and Wrongly Barcoded, free some of the cartons that came protected with wooden crates (highly fragile), dismantle the crates with a hammer and knock all the nails in so they wouldn't injure anyone (especially me), sweep and dispose all the rubbish.

For the Barcodeds, they can straight away be priced tagged and sold. The Not Barcodeds and Wrongly Barcodeds would have to be barcoded and re-barcoded (we have a machine for that) before they can be price tagged and sold.

Since we're talking about 130 cartons here, of course we didn't manage to complete everything in one day. The other guys left at seven. Max, Michael who's in charge of our The A.r.c.a.d.e outlet and I stayed till nine to process them as much as we could.

After that, Michael left while Max and I went to Suntec with our 5.25m signboard in an attempt to fix it up at the shop. We didn't. It was a pain in the rear end so we decided to go at it the following day.

Before we could go back, we had to clear up the mess which essentially consisted of the more than 5.25m wooden crate that the signboard came with filled with rubbish. When we transported it over, we tied the thing on top of Max's van like a surfboard from K.e.y.p.o.i.n.t but then it was still secure and intact.

Suntec is big and we didn't wanna carry the whole thing and walk to the rubbish dump and we were too lazy to go through all that tying up process all over again, so Max drove while I hung onto the side of the van for dear life while keeping the damn crate in position on top.

It was quite hilarious and embrassing. Thank God the road was quiet and the few buses that passed by were near empty at that time of the night.

Mouse Suntec lowdown

The more we rush, the more things screw up.

[removed] and some folks stayed up at [removed] on Monday night to fix the wall planks up only to find out two of the panels had the wrong measurements. They have to be sent back to to our dumb contractors to be remeasured and recut.

It was only meant to be a two hour job.

[removed] and I currently work on a rotating shift. The plan was for me to stay up on Tuesday night to process our China shipment which was supposed to reach us in the evening but the damn thing which was initially supposed to reach us last Saturday, hadn't reached us on Sunday, nor Monday, nor Tuesday.

I suspect either there are only five people working at the port processing all the shipments that arrive OR there are 500 of them, but all of them are taking 10 hour coffee breaks.

Anyway, we decide not to rush our [removed] opening. Most of our time is spent waiting for other people. We can't get anything done no matter what.

So far though, we have since last Saturday, laid out the carpet, installed the phone line and the phone, put up the shelves, hooked up all the wiring and fixed half the wall planks onto our walls.

Today, the NETS people are coming to install our NETS transaction machine.

After that, all we need to do is fix the last two wall plank panels so that we can put up our hooks onto our walls, process our shipment whenever it decides to come, separate it into three for all our three shops, move the goods meant for [removed] over, display as well as store them and that's pretty much it before [removed] could start selling.

Day 02 Eid 06

Wonder Banana Girl and Superhuman Dickhead having a Bollywood moment

Liana's toes were trying to escape

Time for chow at Pak Long's place

Shot this photo of me and my late grandma from an album. The result was very errie

Katak and Dickhead being blue

Nerds

Mom and her brother Pak Long

Mom and her brother's wife, Mak Long

Liana, Lilies and Heidi being cheesy

Family shot before we parted

Saw this guy performing at Tampines MRT while on the way to Yaslam's. He was playing some aboriginal musical instrument and the sign says this is his way of raising money for his travels. He wasn't half bad actually. Admire his courage and determination.

Yas and his youngest kid who I also bit earlier. I was quite rude. I bit his kid, plundered his food and made myself comfortable lying around on the big, fat cushions in his living room like a Roman emperor ;)

Yaslam's Wall of Fame

After that, I had to go to S.u.n.t.e.c City to help Max and Kelvin (a friend) fix some shelves and pheripherals in our shop. It was quite late and we only finished at 0230hrs, Sunday but something's got to give in order for us to launch soon.

The S.u.n.t.e.c management only called yesterday morning to inform us that all our applications have been approved. We immediately got the carpet laid, phone line fixed and Nets machine applied for.

Hope to get the skeleton of the shop all up by Wednesday, move all our stocks in by Thursday and start selling on Friday.

Talking about food

I've been checking out quite a few eating places at Arab Street the past week. Well I've been stationed at [removed] so obviously, if I can't find Halal food in Arab Street across the road, where else can I find Halal food?

The first one I went to was Minang Nasi Padang. The place serves rice and an array of side dishes. I thought the food there was very tasty and rich... so I continued eating there for three days running. I couldn't help it. They were really lip-smacking gooood.

Then I thought I should be more adventurous and try other places for a change. Afterall, I wouldn't be stationed at Keypoint for very long so I might as well try as many places as possible. Besides, the spread of dishes they have is more or less the same everyday.

So I went to House of Briyani next. Briyani is a form of flavoured oily rice accompanied with either chicken or beef cooked in in many different ways.

I went to the counter and asked the lady, "What's the difference between Iranian briyani and Afghanistan briyani?"

"The taste lah!" she replied.

*smacks forehead*

Duuuh. Obviously... . "But I usually go for the Iranian one," she added.

"Ok, I'll have that one then."

It was very good too. I didn't know there were actually a few types of briyanis going around. I like rice other than Japanese or Taiwanese rice to be grainy, not mushy and that's how the Iranian briyani was. The flavour was also right unlike other scam briyanis which is just tasteless yellowed rice pretending to be actual briyani.

And the tandoori chicken I selected was equally just as good. It was quite spicy and not swimming in gravy. I don't like too much gravy and sauces with my food. Gives me the impression someone's trying to hide the taste of the food behind it.

The next one I tried was Jubilee Dum Briyani. Make no mistake, this briyani is anything but dumb.

I've had dum briyani elsewhere before after being recommended by others and I've always been very disappointed.

I can tell you where NOT to go for any kind of food, especially dum briyani. The Thai coffeeshop at Joo Chiat run by some Indian folks called RK Eating House. Scam artistes they are. Bunch of liars. Holding back on ingredients is no way of retaining first time customers. They have at least one more outlet at Yio Chu Kang Link just outside of Serangoon Garden.

I can also tell you that Jubilee is indeed 100% different from those Thai coffeeshop scammers. They claim to be experts at dum briyani. That is all they sell. I also noticed they've been featured on TV before on a programme called Hawker Walks and Nonsense Talks or something. There are so many foodie shows on TV right now I don't really care.

Dum briyani is also another variation of briyani. The difference is that the chicken or beef is cooked together with the rice, along with all the spices to allow the stock to simmer and permeate so you can imagine the flavour that goes into the dish.

Yum! Jubilee got it right. Finally I get to taste honest dum briyani. I selected beef for a change.

It was spicy. Like as though there were tiny organisms biting at my tongue as I eat. It was all good. Some forms of bitings can be good. Heh.

Unlike briyani scammers who serve heaps of rice with perhaps a dollop of beef the size of a dice, Jubilee's portioning was also honest. After I was done with the rice, I still had some beef left. Wow, that's never happened before!

Actually I also had a chance to taste proper nasi ayam penyet this weekend after searching so long to find one that could match my former tenant's but I botched that one up.

Ita, former tenant I mentioned above, called the other day inviting me to her place for Eid. She said I could ask for anything and she'd prepare it for me. She knows I like her cooking. It was a no-brainer. Of course, the King requested for nasi ayam penyet. No one beats hers in my educated opinion.

I said I'd call her back to confirm details but uh, the number of hers that I have on my contact list was her old number and she called me from her new number which was confidential. Didn't show on my phone. She forgot to tell me about it.

GAAAaaaaAAaAaAaAAAAAaA!!!!

Do you know how cruel this is!? This is perhaps my one and only chance to satisfy my nasi ayam penyet cravings. This is the only person in Singapore who knows what nasi ayam penyet is all about. Others have tried to emulate but they fail miserably. The closest one is still very far for her standard.

I did suggest to her to start her own eating place but she doesn't have the capital. Damn, if I have the money, I'd just hire her to be my personal cook so I and only I can savour her cooking! Bwahahahahaha!!!

I also went to Yaslam's place last night and had nasi jintan. Had no idea what it was but that didn't stop me from having a second helping. The beef rendang was rich and succulent. The beef strips effortlessly so I work less and get to eat more. Heh.

Mighty Mouse

Things are not moving as fast as we'd like to over at [removed].

I've already done my share of tasks but the rest of the things are crawling at a snail's pace.

[removed] will still be opened this month but currently, NOTHING is up yet. This guy is waiting for that guy who is waiting for these people to approve some things they've applied for before the cavalry can come in to start putting things in which would have to wait for the ship which is presently somewhere in the South China Sea with our brand new goods from China.

Talk about taking a slow boat to China... this one's coming FROM China. We were informed that this shipment would only reach our shores on Sunday. It didn't say what time so [removed] and I have decided to deal with it only on Monday and take it easy this weekend. There's no use rushing anyway since nothing else is cooperating.

At the same time, [removed] is also relocating to another bigger unit which thankfully is just a few doors away within the same building and I've been entrusted to concurrently busy myself with the development there instead of tapping my foot for things to happen with regards to the Suntec situation.

Last week I managed to cut my index finger while putting together some lights. Not only that, I also managed to develop a really painful blister on my thumb from sandpapering the dumb pieces of wood to size.

So this week I decided to keep up with the tradition of offering blood sacrifice by hitting myself in the nose.

Damn, I really hate DIY work.

I was fixing some racks for the new [removed] shop when I realized that I've fixed some of the legs the wrong way. I managed to pull and refix all of the legs the right way fairly easily except for the last one.

It always has to be the last one.

So I huffed and I puffed, groaned and heaved trying to pull the damn leg out when suddenly WHAM!

Daaamn... it was so quick. The damn leg hit me squarely on my nose. I was like, "Oh God, ow ow ow, why oh man, oooowwww!" The pain was so excruciating tears welled in my eyes as blood streamed down my nose.

I took my glasses off and hid in the corner to curse somemore as I felt my nose to see if it's gonna fall off or anything. Nope. Whew.

It was quite funny. I was actually confused whether to laugh or cry. This sort of stupid thing would only happen to a superhero who calls himself The Calamity Man. Thank God this superhero is strong. Even his nose is strong.

Whatever. After a few more minutes of cursing, I continued fixing the racks. All five of them. All double storey. All on my own.

Lose change

I don't know what is so special about today that made two total strangers approach me for money.

The first one asked for 90c but unfortunately for him, I only had 85c. He took it anyway. I didn't even know what he wanted it for.

Then after visiting my mom, at a little after 10pm, I fought the urge to take a cab home. I was pretty tired then but I managed to convince myself to save the ten bucks for tomorrow's meals or something.

Weirdly enough, as I was approaching the underground tunnel that leads to Yishun MRT station, a girl came up to me and asked for some money.

I only heard something like, "Blah blah blah, mom pregnant, need money, $30, pay back at the end of the month, yada yada yada".

I'm not saying that it works but I gave her $10 hoping that she'd use the money wisely. $10 is a lotta money if you're a kid. Um actually, if you're a 27 year old adult too but whatever. I'll give those two the benefit of the doubt.

Though it did occur to me that I should have just taken the cab. I'd be poorer by ten bucks anyway. Hardy har har.

Watch and learn ;)

RING! RING!

CM: Hello. Mom? It's CM here.

Mom: Oh hello.

CM: So uh, what did you make for dinner tonight?

Mom: (Caught off-guard) Um, er, uh, fried rice, fried noodles, this that this that...

CM: (Oh goody, I already had fried noodles in my mind then) So what do you intend to put in the fried noodles?

Mom: Um, prawns, fishcake, chilli...

CM: Will there be fried egg?

Mom: Yeah.

CM: Ok good but I want the fried noodles to be prepared just in time and not sitting there for hours ok? Will there be chicken?

Mom: Yup. Fried.

CM: So which part of the chicken is it? Wings, drumstick, the head maybe...?

Mom: Adoi! You're the king what, so it'd be drumstick of course!

CM: (Good answer heh heh) Deal. I'll be there at seven.

Mom: (Still didn't know what just hit her) Ok, call me when you're at Khatib MRT so I can prepare and get it ready by the time you reach here.

CM: Alright, love you.

Mom: Love you, bye.


So that's one way of closing a deal - the element of surprise. Heh heh.