6/28/08

Wedding Spree 2008

In a span of 6 months since the beginning of 2008, i had been to at least 4 wedding banquets and 2 church weddings. People around my age seem eager to tie the knot.

To be frank, attending wedding dinners suddenly became a chore. Probably i had been attending dinners one after another within short spans of time and the only thing that kept me going, was to see my friends happily celebrating their big day. You cant really expect much out of the food and service from wedding banquet these days....

I was at my JC friend, Xiuhui's wedding dinner last night. I was abit hesitant to invite my girlfriend, thinking that she wont know anyone. Well anyway i still did....So we headed down to Grand Plaza Park Hotel with lots of question mark on our heads, wondering if we could even see anyone we know. Fyi, Xiuhui wasnt in the same class as me during JC and we did not really have a common pool of friends.

Dearie nudged me when we were like a few steps away from the reception counter, asking me for the name of the groom...cos she actually recognise the groom as her Computer Engineering Batch mate from NTU!!! So it became quite a coincidental reunion for her and the groom as they shook hands. I felt rather stupefied as they started chatting...

Then as she advanced in further, she recognised more and more people from her current ( soon to be ex ) company. The groom happen to be in the same company as her... I scratched my head and wondered IF my gf was the one inviting me along for HER friend's wedding.

The good meal and service in Grand Plaza Park Hotel was the only reason that prompted me to write this blog. Found the servings very tasty and special.( i dunno if its because i was rather starved from my day skating workout in ecp ). Serving was prompt and the staffs were very very helpful and courteous. The souvenir offered was rather unique!!!

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Its a plastic ball, the size of your palm, with cartoon image of a newly wed, filled with shower gel in the inside! Now that's something different from the choco pieces / keychains / mini notepads bla bla bla....

This was one wedding dinner that left both me and dearie panicking for our big day. How would it be like?

Kyle is the man....

I had a good ride on Kyle's Honda stream to ECP on a Saturday morning. Today at the rink there were some old time skaters i once knew:

1.Alex, a close to 50 YEAR old skater, someone whom i started speed slalom with way back in 2006.

2.Jason, one of the neighbourhood skating class guys (whom i bumped into during my evening admiralty slalom sessions).

3.Graham, one of the pioneers in slalom skating. Toned down alot apparently and did leisure skating + chit chat most of the time at the rink.

4.Uncle Tay, easily 60 odd... still riding on his speed skate, cruising with no difficulty from ECP -> CHANGI VILLAGE -> ECP. That's what i call a hardcore skater.

5.Anne Chua, one of the frequent ECP speed skater. She just complained about some misalignment of her spine that caused the slightest discomfort even when she skates...

6.Zhirong of course. And the long lost lanky "best newbie" tianlong. Was quite glad to see that fella. He mentioned that my TOSS was done almost like that in the trick video. Thanks man, glad to be praised!!!!

I spent my friday evening at Jelutong Court skating with the Micro Team peeps. Along came this few slalom enthusiast ( lets hope i get the names right ): Gaston, 'Water', Lydia ( the lady on powerhouse GYRO frame )and Chijun... most of them are around 17? or maybe still secondary school students.

Sometimes, its truly glad to hang around at the rink. I had no problem meeting up friends i once knew. It is akin to this feeling of returning home. I cant help but feel that i am really into this slalom hobby ( though i am not very good at it )

6/24/08

My name is Joe

Have you ever heard of this lymeric "my name is Joe"?

It goes like this :

"HI, my name is Joe!!!! And i Woooorkkked in a butter factory I got a House, a car and a family ...."

I wrote this entry because i pretty much wanted to be like Joe ( except the part on working in a butter factory. Joe doesnt run and skate either. ). The good news is that i finally clinched a premium resale HDB with my dear dear on the 23rd of June 2008.

The days ahead for the year 2008 will be a very challenging one. The air traffic management stuff decided to revamp the way we control aircrafts and there's going to be another major change coming up on the 2nd July. Well, to a trainee like me, this means RE-Orientating to the controlling methodology and that translates to MORE time needed for my OJT and hence i am further from my license and my LUMP SUM PAYMENT!!!

Fortunately i have been getting good remarks from the senior controllers who say that i'm picking up things fast and the only skill i lack now is traffic management and priority of work. I shall work on those !

But i guessed i will take quite a long time to be like Joe. Lets do a quick check :

House? Technically acquired but i think i wont be ready for house warming till next year CNY. I estimate the keys to be mine by early october; Dearie and i have decided to go with the bare minimum for 2008 i.e we will get the basic furnitures, do a total paint job and get some cleaning accessories for the house. Any further interior designing will have to wait. Probably after our church wedding and banquet in December.

Car? It is not even stated as an item in my current budgeting list!!!! But lets just say that i'm quite contended with Terios or a Rush.

Family? Ok going to start liao.


I WANT TO BE A JOE!!!!!!!!!!

6/23/08

The Gates of Hell

To be frank, i look forward to get out of work every single day - FROM THE MOMENT i start doing my first controlling session of my shift.

Gate timings are an essential. If you serve the army, one thing you wont forget, is the back gate timings. If not, you have to detour within premises just to get to the front gate, and end up going home late.

In the radar centre, things are pretty much the same as per army. I will never miss a second so that i can be one of the first few to witness the opening of the 'gates of hell'.

Speaking of which, i suddenly recalled this clip which me and my pal AH JIANG made in our varsity days.

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This is Ah Jiang on my left



This is his master piece( with my voice in it )

6/20/08

A young boy's day

After my tuition in the afternoon, i headed down to City Hall to meet Untung and Ruyan, the up and coming CGL for FOOT 2008. I was there to share with them my experiences as CGL during 2006 and gave some tips and advices whenever they shared their concerns.

Talking about FOOT alone brings me back to 2003. Never regretted joining an orientation camp. I cant imagine the people and the memories that i will miss out if i had plunged into UNI without any CCA. (To me, no CCA in UNI is like drinking my fav cold milo without adding sweetener)

I wasnt alone with them; I had my new pet with me -> One majestic cream( with streaks of neon intercepting its lateral lines ) siamese fighting fish and 2 ordinary female fighting fish. Now they are swimming happily in my tank ( i hope... )

Dearie had planned for a dinner with her fellow colleagues at Clarke Quay. And so i found myself heading towards Jelutong Court, Sembawang to join the guys from Micro. Before the boys and gals were in the team, we frequented Admiralty Court to skate our Friday evenings away. I think sometime in mid July last year they started to plant the micro flag in sembawang and from then till recent, i was the only poor rookie skating on my own ( sometimes i have the companionship of my brother ).

It was my virgin visit there. And the ground there is superb to do tricks! Finally got some live preview of a proper TOSS demonstrated by the slalom king pins(best in SINGAPORE AND SOME SAY JB ). Wont wanna miss the opportunity to try out MY version and the pros shared their advices and pointers. Skating with these young bunch of people is certainly a very humbling yet enriching experience.

It feels like i'm a young little boy today.

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Ok, maybe not that young, say about 20?

6/8/08

A good way to pamper yourself with fishes

For the past few shifts doing ATC work, i had been experiencing some uncontrollably itch on my calves and shin. Maybe its the interior of my sleeping bag or maybe my jeans need some cleaning; when it starts to itch it really sends my nails sinking into the skins, leaving them sore and reddish after a real 2-3min scratch.

I never had any intentions to do anything about it over the weekend when dearie told me about his colleague's unique skin therapy encounter to cure problems related to dead skin - Doctor Fish...

Though tired from yesterday's invitation to friend's church wedding in the noon and another friend's wedding banquet dinner, i thought of doing something special with my dearie and we found ourselves scouting around in Chinatown( where the doctor fish is reputed to be ). Dearie smsed,asking her colleague for help as we tried to search for People's Park complex level 2.

Ok, cut the story short, here we are :

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Its this shop called O.P Healing in People's Park Complex ( Not Centre ), level 2, near the shoe shop area. ( The whole level 2 has the smell of liniment and medicated oil scent, dont say i never warn you woh... )

Here is the poster.
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Yup, 13 bucks for half an hour. Considered quite cheap because other places in msia( dunno abt spore though ) charge about 38rm for 1/2 hr.(i only got to know about this relative comparision as i'm doing more research on this for blogging purposes)

Thank goodness, the whole therapy process was made easy cos i wore berms. What a coincidence though...

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"Please come in!!! Rinse your feet first hoh", says the lady attendant

Before us, there was another elder lady who was already having her limbs submerged into the tank filled with approx 300 plus Dr Fish ( each having the size akin to the length of your INDEX FINGER OMG !!! ). She was trying hard to battle the itch coming from the soles... apparently she was struggling to refrain from giggling.

I suddenly felt this deflated sensation. As i edged my way carefully around the walking platform of the tank, i saw hope burning in the eyes of those hungry fishes. I didnt have to understand fish psychology to deduce what the fishes were thinking.

Dearie making the bold move...
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And then i found myself in it too...
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The moment my limbs lay motionless , it meant feasting time for the fishes. Every bite from the fish feels pricky at first. It made me giggle uncontrollably. In less than 2 min, we found ourselves laughing away
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I suddenly recalled the days in langkawi when i experienced my first painful fish bite while snorkelling in the coral reefs. Those that i experienced today were thankfully not as painful as those bites in the msian waters.

Took us a good 10 min to settle down. This pricly sensation soon turned into numbness.

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" NO sweat ah!", says dearie

I decided to sink my entire shin down to see if the fishes would actually detect those scratch zones i have been mercilessly attacking for the past few days...

It was like this initially..

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... TO THIS!
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Almost instantaneously after this picture was taken, i looked over to the elderly lady's progress with the fishes. She had little fishes nibbling on her limbs. Oh well... sorry ah auntie i steal your business.

The fishes were indeed sinking their little jaws onto those itchy scratchy areas on my shin. Good job soldiers!

I dried my shin 1/2 an hour later and found tiny red spots on those strategic itchy spots i mentioned earlier on.

Hopefully its a sign that new skin will grow from rejuvenation.