Squeezed

You know the day aint going to be that great when even the lifts try to squeeze you early in the morning.

Fed (up) at Raffles

Goddess was kind enough to buy me dinner last night to celebrate my birthday.

I typically don’t like people to buy me dinner cos I eat a lot and I feel bad for others having to pay for my binges. So I either eat less and not enjoy myself or just simply pay for myself.

She was insistent that I choose a location and hinted strongly that she had a Feed at Raffles card that gave a 50% discount if you buy 2 food items.

I chose the Equinox cos I liked the view.

There was this set meal thingy for steaks that was accompanied with one choice from various potatoes AND one choice from various sauces AND one choice from various vegetables. Quite worth it. But there was only a 20% discount from the card as it’s a promotion. We decided to go with it anyway.

Here’s a pic of the steak. Half-eaten cos I forgot to take it before I walloped it.



Oddly, her steak came without her vegs and mine came without the sauce. I asked the waitress and she went to check. Seems like there’s a cockup and she told us that it’d be rectified. I casually asked if she had informed the manager. She replied yes, a lil absent-mindedly.

We eventually got her veg and my sauce, almost 20 mins later.

Here’s a pic of the sautéed mushrooms. Quite nice really.



But it turned out that my sauce was the wrong sauce. This was promptly changed in about 5 mins maybe. I got a little pissed now. I asked to see the manager.

15 mins passed, he didn’t come. I was getting edgy, to a large extent from the goading from the Goddess.

When he eventually came, I let go everything I had to say. I even asked him his name. I found that when u talk to people and you say their names a couple of times, they pay more attention. I even dropped some names to make him shudder in his pants.

He came back after a while with a tray of desserts. Complimentary of the chef, he said. Before he left, he asked if we wanted any coffee or tea. I declined but Goddess wanted Earl Grey.



The tea came but it was English Breakfast!!! DIAO! I took a picture of the English Breakfast label but it was too blurry. But the Dilmah label for English Breakfast is red and dark purple for Earl Grey, so that’s evidence enough.



Wonders never cease, just as cockups never case. Tsk tsk.

To be fair, the food was good.

Close-up

I thought this gift needed a high-res pic to do justice.

Thanks to me

Thanks to me.

More Thanks

Letter opener



Another pair of cuffs, after the Tiffany ones. My last two presents (at Christmas) were also cufflinks.

After-Shot

I completed my photoshoot that day.

It was a hard wrenching one.

After some initial snaps, the photographer told me to jut my head out a bit to reduce my double chin. Then he said my head was a little tilted to one side. Then he said my smile was too small, asked me to smile wider. I did and he grimaced a little when he saw my crooked teeth.

Frankly, the pictures turned out quite nice. He still needs to photoshop away a little of my pimple scars. Im glad the tie/suit combi looked good.

Will post on FB when i get them.

Thanks

Thanks. I was too hungry and ate the M&Ms before i took the pic.

Thanks

THANKS!

Gulp

It’s not a good day when you have an important lunch at 1230am and your shoe opens up at 1130am. It hurts even more when the shoes are one of my four favourite shoes. Not the right day when I have a site visit on Sentosa after lunch some more. Guaranteed to have lots of walking.



Quickly went downstairs to get it cobbled. Quick solution is to nail it together.

Sometimes these service providers try to examine your lives just by them servicing you. He looked at the relatively pristine condition of my shoes and he said “ I bet you have many shoes right?”

“Erm.. how do you know?”

“Cos the shoe looks new but the glue is all dried up”

“Oops”

My hairdresser also tries to assess my life when she saw my sudden influx of white hair and asked me if my new job was stressful.

For the power lunch, there was this odd dish – noodles made from lobster and flour. And this was topped with pieces of lobster meat. Amazing how they thought of it. It was quite nice at first before it got quite je-lat…

I’m having a headache now. I think it’s the cholesterol rush.

Conversation

Long time since i copied my chat messages here.

This was one between me and my ex-colleague, who has also quitted and serving notice.

XX: r u not gg home?

ME: im home

XX: we miss the days that u stay back with us till the wee hours of the morning when u were still with the company <~~~YY wrote this

XX: see i wasn't crapping when i wrote what i wrote

ME: gosh

ME: so scary

XX: r u coming or not?

ME: when

XX: to visit us?

ME: must i

XX: erm, we would like u to cuz we miss u

ME : did u or YY say that

XX :I said it, but it's felt throughout

ME: r u trying to make me cry

XX: nope

ME: im close

XX: morale is low in the ofc now

ME: y

XX: a lot of ppl leaving, a lot of unknown, a lot of unhappiness

ME: wat good will my presence do

XX: remind us of the old times and miss u even more….make us happy….cuz we miss u and we're glad u remembered us

ME: r u in love with me, XX

XX: nope…please

ME: but u r leaving the company already. so why does me coming back make u happy

XX: it's always nice to see a familiar face

ME: in a sea of strangers?

XX: yes

ME: awwww…..sounds now like a trick to trick me back

XX: no lah….dun want dun want lor...hmph

ME: i have lunch appt on tues, wed, thur

maybe the following wk la

XX: yay….come on my birthday lah….come after lunch

ME: 4 aug?

XX: then u can have cake

XX: yes!

ME: wat kinda cake? r u touched i rem ur bday

XX: I asked for Don's choc fudge cake

XX: kinda surprised u remembered

ME: ☺

D&D

For the first time in my life, I'll be attending a D&D. Haha... I never attended those JC or Uni ones.

First time D&D.

Someone asked me to play a guitar and sing a song.

I dont know if i should. So malu.

Shoot

I was just informed that i have a photoshoot next Thursday for future press releases or whatever. Sian diao. So last minute inform me. How to diet in time???

Bleah

I’m quite sick of typing, saying, smsing the word “triathlon” now. Yes, it was fun. Yes, it was a personal achievement for me. Yes, I was the only one in my company to do all three parts.

But there’re still people coming up to me and congratulating me. The attention was fine for a while but by the 8th time I have to repeat my experience, I was bordering on being irritated.

But still, the congratulations are coming in, especially since they saved the pictures taken at the event on the shared drive.

I hope it ends soon. Im not used to people paying attention to my athletic feats.

Comfort

Nothing like some of these babies after a strenuous weekend.

I actually went to play badminton today (Sunday) too. I'm officially damn tired now.

Which side?

Someone asked me once:

With the F1 coming to Singapore and that Singapore drives on the left side, wouldnt the F1 racers have to change cars since many parts of the world drive on the other side??

While, i'm sure the F1 teams have many cars, the cars are all driven from the middle.

I Survived

I survived.

At the end it wasnt THAT bad. I was shocked at the coldness of the seawater. And for some reason i was suddenly thrust to the front of the swim start. Caught me by surprise and took me some time to get used to it.

The 10km of cycling seemed endless. The lousy ass racer i rented was ..lousy ass. I swear i did not overtake anyone at all. NO ONE. I was overtaken by people who were in the subsequent waves... i was fine. I was just looking to finish. It did, however, got quite embarrassing, when the women, who started a good 15 to 20 mins after me start to overtake me. I was quite embarrassed. My number tag indicates when i start and everyone could tell i was slow. Then after the women, the relay people (read: my colleagues) started to overtake me. My boss overtook me, even though he started 30 mins after me. :(

The 2km run was quite easy. Of course i walked some parts but when i saw cameras i ran and made it look effortless. All those pics will be posted on the website la.. Cannot malu.

In the end, I received a hero's welcome from my colleagues, simply cos i was the only one who did all three components.

After the event and resting for 2 hours, i went to play badminton from 2-5pm. Needless to say, I'm damn tired now.

Clarification

Perhaps I should have explained a little more about my participation in the triathlon.

My colleague actually asked me if i wanted to join... the components (200m swim, 10km cycle, 2km) seemed manageable, so i agreed.

Then she went on to jio a lot more people and soon my company is sending 5 teams and she somehow managed to get the company to sponsor us for the registration fee and also print a tee shirt as well. (which, by the way, turned out butt ugly. My dad's going to get a new shirt)

Out of the five teams, im the only one doing all three components by myself. The other people are doing a relay where each does one portion. I dont know why im such an over-achiever sometimes. Sigh.

So here i am. I went to the Nike shop so many times over the last two days to get myself properly attired. Hard to find something that is flattering that i can wear when im swimming, cycling and running. I finally did today after work.

In any case, my boss, who is quite the speedster, is doing the cycling component. He thinks it's no kick. So he's going to get someone to drop him and his bike at the event at East Coast, cycle his 10km and then cycle home to Bukit Timah. The 10km is just like a warm up for him. Haha..

How to go for a long lunch without appearing slack?

If your lunch time is between 12 to 1pm,

Hurry to the lobby at around 12:30, looking very busy.

The key thing is about the time you return. If you return at 2:10 or 2:30 or 3:pm, people will think you took a long lunch.

But if you return at say 3:30pm, people will think you had a meeting outside, cos no one can be THAT audacious to have such a long lunch.

No one but you.

Triathlon

My triathlon is this Sunday.

And im not feeling too well. Ate too many satay over the weekend.

Swimming 200metres, Cycling for 10km and running for 2km

Sounds manageable.

There’re quite a lot of things to bring to ensure a good race.

1. Sunglasses
2. Small Towel
3. Big Towel
4. Powder
5. Running shoes
6. Socks
7. Slippers
8. Tights
9. Goggles
10. Spare tee shirt
11. Water bottle

Sporting

It was an all sporting weekend last weekend.

Jogged 4km on Friday evening with my colleagues.

Played badminton on Saturday noon with my colleagues

Ate geylang beef kway tiao

Watched Zohan at night

Played badminton yet again on Sunday noon

Stuffed my face with many satay after badminton

Then mah-jong.

So fun

Desktop

Some geeky forum i go to had people posting what their desktops look like.

Here's mine.