So, I'm finally in Singapore. For the first time this year. It's been way too long. You can blame TOA and work for that. I visit Singapore/JB about 3-4 times a year, normally spending 10 days down. Every holiday I'd get in Singapore, I'd make the effort, to catch up with friends here, as well as visit my dad. This year was total hell though, and I had no chance to visit at all. After November, my next planned visit was to be in April, but that was the time of my graduation exhibition. Fine, after that my mom told me she was tight and couldn't give me any money to spend in Singapore. What's the point of visiting with no money? So after a month's break, I finally got a job, and since jobs don't offer holidays like school, I haven't had the chance to visit till now. Thanks to convenience of timing, Hari Raya and National Day are on the same week/day. Combined with my leave and the weekends, I could finally get an entire week off. Woots! Smart usage yes, but it reminds me how you need really convenient timings to get longer stretches of days off.
The last time I came down was in November, for Chee Kiong and Gwyn's wedding. And I sort of made that into a Singapore trip as well. Time well spent. The previous visit before that was in freaking April. I met up with Ashleigh, for the first time since she visited KL that time. Had a simple meal with her and her cellgroup member Georgina, and had a hell of a great time with jokes and all. As we neared our stops, I told her the story of Zhi Xuan and I, and it was hilarious. I also met up with Sebastian and Ryan, who I now call Yusiang and Zhi Wen, since they don't use their English names anymore since leaving church, haha. They're still as funny as ever, and despite not seeing them for years, it feels like nothing much had changed between us. It was still so easy to chat, and we just hung out and stuff like in previous years. I also met up with Xin Mei, after not seeing her for like 3 years. It was really random, because I saw her online (she's online maybe once every year) and chatted her up, leading to a date. Lol, I use that word very lightly here, as she's got her boyfriend, who apparently still remembers me as the guy who only wears black. I went out with her to Orchard Ion, and later Plaza Singapura, just catching up and sharing A LOT of stories. I shared mainly about my dramatic love life, and she told me about her and Bao Long, and all the hell she went through, as well as some details on some people who've made me lose even more respect than they've previously lost. I still find it hard to believe we could chat and talk for nearly 5 hours during meals, drinks and just walking around. Was a great time spent.
This time round, I'm determined to meet more people than spending quality time with them. I've always tried to have a balance when it comes to meeting friends everytime I visit. If I meet more friends, naturally I'll spend less time with them, meeting maybe 2 or 3 groups or individuals in a day, a meal each or so, just to catch up. Other times I've met up with much less people, but instead spent hours and days with them, enjoying quality time, at the cost of not meeting more people. The last visit in November was supreme quality time, and due to not visiting Singapore the entire year until now, I still owe quite a lot of people a time to catch up. I've not met a lot of people I had promised before the meet up with. My time in Singapore is always very impromptu, just the way I like it, 'cause it allows more flexibility in my activities, but at the same time due to the lack of planning I end up not meeting certain people.
So this time round I spread the news a week early to the people I planned to meet up with: The Magic Gang, Joycelyn, Jonathan Lim, Xin Mei, Chia Sheng and Ms Koeh (lol), so yeah. I picked some out because I really had not seen them in way too long. And now I feel the time is due. As for the Magic Gang and church members, they are always a given, so its just regular. And I'll be meeting up with Juswin, Eleanore and Jeffrey too. Quite a packed schedule, but one I think I'll enjoy. I just hope I can fit everyone in nicely, and have enough money to spare. I may be working, but its the end of the month, and due to the extremely long holidays, I'm worried my cheque won't be processed in time while I'm still here. I need the money here a lot more than when I'm just doing my daily job at work.
Time to enjoy my first "holiday" of working life!
Chronicled
3:20 AM
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Monday, August 15, 2011
So, like I said, there's a stupid issue with the car. For the better part of 3 years, I've always borrowed the Hyundai Accent, my mom's car, while Uncle Ben drives his Mercedes. Normally I'd borrow it only at night a few times, and certain days that I needed it. When I began working, this didn't change much. In the morning, I would drive the car to the office, park it, and my mom would come over, pick up the car and drive it off for her own use. At night when work ended, she'd pick me up. In fact, I could borrow the car quite often because my hours ended so late. My mom didn't need it anymore that late, so I'd borrow it, visit whatever friends I was meeting up, and come home. Sometimes she didn't need the car, so I would drive home, or go out, straight from the office.
When Uncle Ben got a third car, a Toyota Harrier, I thought that would make life even easier, and for a week, it was. Uncle Ben drove the Harrier, mom drove the Merc, and I had the Accent to myself. Then suddenly that all changed. The Accent was lent to Uncle Ben's business partner so that he could use it to transport goods and stuff. Mom had the Merc still, and Uncle Ben still used the Harrier. Fine. I just needed to borrow the car from my mom right? No. Apparently Uncle Ben thinks I drink every time I go out, and doesn't want me to drive the Merc drunk. Even though I'm not drinking every time I go down to Sunway during the weekdays. Seriously? What the hell? I'm not allowed to drive it because he thinks I drive home drunk, EVERY SINGLE NIGHT? What the hell? Why am I allowed to drive with the Accent all I want, but not the Merc? Is it because if I get into an accident, the cost of the Accent is less? I'm still accident-free till now. And I don't drink that often anyway, and certainly not on the weekdays. Most drinking happens in my own house anyway. Geez. Freaking pissed off.
This is causing a load of trouble for hanging out and for band jamming. It could all be easily solved. Just let Uncle Ben drive the Merc, that partner drive the Harrier (he needs to transport stuff right? A Harrier's pretty big), and let my mom drive the Accent, so that'll let me borrow it whenever I need to. There, everyone happy. Right? No, apparently the Merc has a few technical problems (that I haven't experienced yet) and that's why Uncle Ben's not driving it, as its safer for short distances. Then FIX THE CAR. SIMPLE. Sheesh! I mean we're not that tight to the point of dying. It's a simple solution. But no, because of this stupid arrangement, I'm stuck without a viable means of transport. I'm not being selfish here. I only borrow the car like twice a week, and maybe 3 times, at night when no one else is using it. And it could've continued too, if not for the fact that I'm not allowed to drive the Merc, despite driving it over 10 times already in the last few days. Geez. I'm actually considering getting a motorcycle license so I don't need to deal with idiotic crap like this. Only downsides are my hair will be flattened, rain will be a major bitch, and dying will be a lot less harder. Still, let's see how all this goes.
Okay, enough of ranting. I spent 400 bucks last week. I bought an external hard disk with 1TB space, which feels damn good. I've been suffering with 320GB for 2 years now, having to delete a lot of stuff that isn't essential, but would be nice to have, like certain movies, games and the such. Aiks. Having 1000 gigs feels great, and now I can finally back up all my stuff in peace, and still have more than enough space. Plus I can finally reformat my computer. It's been giving me trouble the last few months, but I had no storage device big enough to store everything. Not anymore though... ho ho. Part of that 400 spent was also an the Apologetics Study Bible. I love apologetics, and I've been wanting to get this Bible for a year or so. Finally, with my own money, I finally bought it. There's a lot of info inside, several from authors I'm already familiar with, and who's arguments I know very well. However, there's a lot of other authors' inputs as well, and it'd be nice to learn more. Plus, one thing that truly makes it valuable is that on practically every page, below the footnotes there's another section of footnotes that describes the historical setting of the Bible and gives archaeological evidence, or some other input that gives more clarity and context to the verses. Very, very useful, especially for the more troubling sections of the Bible.
Aye... I had a weird day today. I woke up at 5am, then 7am, and finally at 8am, when my alarm woke me up. I was DEAD sleepy at work today, although thankfully, it was very productive in terms of quality... whew. Hope that makes up for lack of quantity, heh.
Chronicled
11:51 AM
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Saturday, August 13, 2011
One thing I didn't cover about was the MTV World Stage. It happened a few weeks ago, four bands were part of the lineup this year, and I managed to get free tickets. Heh, courtesy of Wai Kwan! Lol... she needed transport there and had an extra ticket, so she invited me along. So off we went to i-City, the location of the whole thing, and after an extremely long time of waiting in line, we finally went to the stage. We picked a place reasonably near the front, and just waited. And waited. And waited. Oh brother. On TV, they always edit it to make everything look so smooth and transitional. Not in real life though. In between bands, there's a lot of idling and waiting for nothing while they prepare.
The four bands this year were the local band Popshuvit, Beast, a boyband from Korea, Neon Trees, a very recent band of US fame and 30 Seconds to Mars, which I believe needs no introduction at all unless you've been living in a cave all your life, or are deaf. Popshuvit was the first to perform, and they were pretty energetic on stage, and they brought along their side project as well. Second was Beast, which had the most number of girls screaming, and singing along with all their songs. Geez. Even before they came up on stage, they were playing "commercials" and MVs of other bands featured on MTV. The fangirls even sang along (and aloud) to the MVs and commercials, whenever it played the boyband songs. Geez! Lmao. Beast sang pretty well, and their dance moves were pretty swell too. However, their thanks at the end of their performances were really generic and felt like empty flattery. Or maybe their English just isn't very good. Lol.
Later on, something happened, and I've been forbidden to tell what happened, so lol. Let's just put it as Wai Kwan wasn't well so we left the stage floor and went to rest.
Neon Trees came afterward. Prior to MTV World Stage, I had never heard of Neon Trees before. Never heard of them. Nada. Nothing. I mean I was vaguely aware of Popshuvit, and knew Beast was from Korea, but at least I knew they existed. Not Neon Trees though. And I thought that Neon Trees was a hugely ironic band to be playing in i-City.
Neon Trees. Get it? Eh? Eh?
The lead singer was hugely charismatic and very lively on stage, sharing stories was a preface to songs, and a lot of entertainment in his words and actions. The songs themselves were quite alright, and basically their stage presence was just hugely energetic. And of course after them came 30 Seconds to Mars. As the main headliners of the World Stage, they completely lived up to their hype.
Chronicled
1:44 PM
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Monday, August 8, 2011
It's hard to believe that it's August already.
Yes, yes, I know time flies. I also know that it was mere months ago that I said I couldn't believe 3 years had passed, and that I was done with TOA. Yet now I'm surprised that I've entered my third month of working, nearing one quarter of a year. So this is going to be my life for perhaps the next 30-40 years? Going to work 5 or 6 days a week, doing things, chatting small talk, enjoying a few laughs here and there, chill out a few times a week after work, make the most of the weekends, get pay, spend it on necessities, and repeat. For the next few decades. I'm beginning to know why a lot of working adults commit suicide now. It all seems very, very redundant. Work hard, get paid, buy necessities, buy things you like, go out once in a while, repeat, as the stresses of marriage, bills, children and retirement add on to this redundant lifestyle. At the end, you die. I'm beginning to see things from the perspective of people who say life is meaningless.
Of course, I'm not bitching about work. Nor life. Nor do I think its meaningless. I'm just saying I'm starting to see (experience, more like) the perspectives of those I didn't quite understand before. But anyhoo, while I'm working 11 hour days most of the time, its a must to keep myself entertained (and awake) so normally I listen to music. I previously used my phone, but there's only so much space and the quality from the speakers isn't brilliant. So I began Youtubing things to listen to. First it was the bands and music I had in my own playlists. Then songs I hadn't listened to, from the artists I knew. Then I slowly began checking out other bands and music, and now I've come to know much more bands than before, all thanks to random Youtube suggestions when I listen to songs. I've discovered God is an Astronaut, Rosetta, Isis, Draconian and a hell lot of other bands I can't quite remember at the moment. After a while though, I began listening to other stuff, like comedians. Yeah... since most of the humour is from what is said, I could enjoy the jokes while doing my work. Allowed me to catch up on a lot of things I hadn't heard previously. Made me look stupid because I was giggling while doing my work, and due to the earphones, no one knew what I was laughing about. And also, since I had such long hours, I also listened to long videos. I've been intently listening to entire debates of Christians with atheists, Muslims and the such. Watching lots of atheistic videos and documentaries also helps keep my apologetics sharp as well as keeping me open to the different views of other beliefs (or unbeliefs).
Anyway, the last 3 weekends, my dad has come to KL. Naturally, I went to meet him, and also was re-introduced to Uncle Winston and Aunty Felice, both family friends that I can't quite recall -.-, despite them claiming I met them several years ago. I'm doing a favour for Winston by designing his new company's logo, and he's "paid" by paying for my food and drinks whenever we meet. That means he's paying for free flowing alcohol. Yeah. I actually got drunk three weeks back because of the free flow. When I met up Symposium, apparently they said I was a complete moron. Lol, sorry. Last week though, he asked me to bring along some friends at Lake View Club, some club that's mostly for the middle-aged. I brought along Justin, Redzuan, Kevyn, David and Masayo, as they were free. And we all got free flow beer, thanks to Winston and my dad. So much thanks!
The club had a small band singing a variety of songs, and sometimes they would get the crowd involved by singing a few lines. Interestingly for us, they saw Masayo singing along with them for "Bad Romance" and let her sing the chorus a few times. Then Justin and Redzuan nudged her to try growling the chorus instead, which she kept refusing until the singers came back again and let her sing the last few lines, and Masayo growled. LOL. Freaked everyone in the club. Later on, Justin even went up onstage to sing 2 songs, and was dancing with one of the singers. The words we used to describe it were "What a waist". LOL.
A few weeks later, we also celebrated Kevyn's birthday by giving him a shisha bong! Heh, had a heavy drinking session at Justin's house, despite idiotic troubles with the issue of borrowing a car. More on that in my next post.
Chronicled
2:03 PM
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