Parking

Finally, December is here. I had just bought the monthly season parking today.

At the counter, the lady told me that I could have gotten a pro-rated season parking for the month of November for a new car. This would mean that I need not have to put any parking coupon for the month of November and go through the risk of getting summon when I parked overtime.

I could have avoided the summon. $6 for a lesson learnt.

Summon

As we had just gotten our car and it was nearing the end of the month, we decided instead of purchasing the monthly season parking, we would risk getting summons by putting parking coupons at night.

Yesterday, my wife put the coupon from 7.45pm to 8.45pm but she got the ticket at 9.02pm. She discovered it this morning and told me when she returned from work. The summon was $6.

This time round, my wife put the parking coupon time, from 9pm to 10pm. However, it is raining heavily now and it seems like the rain will last. I doubt the parking attendant will come and give us another ticket tonight.

Ginger

Today, I was at the Singapore Botanic Gardens doing THE PROJECT. I was supposed to be a ginger expert informing people the different types of ginger and their usage. (For this project, I had to search for the information about gingers myself and the timeline was a week to master the information.)

I was given several samples of different species of ginger to display at about 8.30am. As I was arranging the gingers to fit 2 small tables, people started to gather around me, talking among themselves.

As the crowd became more curious, they finally asked me what those types of ginger were. Immediately, I told them those I knew while for the rest of the gingers, I told them I wasn’t equipped with the knowledge and the pro will only be here to explain at 9am.

Unable to satisfy their curiosity, they decided to answer their own questions by giving the unknown gingers names.

At about 9am, the pro came and gave me a quick briefing. After that, I was able to answer most of the questions posted to me by the general public. As for the people who made up their own names for those unknown gingers, few came back to find out the truth.

Hungry

About 9.30pm, I was at the petrol kiosk buying bread for tomorrow.

At the counter, I saw a mini poster. It was French Fries, golden brown, looking delicious. Suddenly, I felt hungry.

Just then, my wife pointed at the same poster and told me to check out the flower calendar. I was puzzled.

I walked closer and looked at the poster. Indeed, it was a flower, with long yellowish brown petals. How in the world did I picture it as French Fries? I must be really deprived of fries. (I am trying to be healthy recently.)

Tomorrow, I have got a big event coming, a project that everyone hates. I have got to wake up at about 7am and be at the Singapore Botanic Gardens by 8am. There will be plenty of flowers reminding me of fries.

Sigh.

Urban Skating

I am supposed to go to the second urban skating event organized by FM98.7 tonight at 12 midnight. I heard from my friend, Ivan, that we are to gather at East Coast Park.

Ivan told me that he had attended the first urban skating event organized by FM98.7 few months back and it was fun.

Several years back, I had attended an urban skating event at Clarke Quay organized by Skateline. It was very enjoyable too. So this time round, I expected to tire myself out.

About 4pm, my friend called to tell me that the event was going to start at 7.30pm, instead of 12 midnight, and the route was going to be along East Coast Park, definitely not urban.

What a disappointment. And of course, I am not going now!

Charity Dinner

Yesterday night, I attended a charity dinner function.

I met up with many of my friends and we had a great time before the function started. They commented that I looked different as they had not seen me for about half a year. But, really, other than growing fat, I am really the same.

When it was almost time to start, we went to our allocated seats. The place was already crowded with people. We got comfortable and the dinner began.

Hossan Leong was the MC of the day. As one of the participants was his dad, I guessed he had no choice but to do his dad a favor (or maybe he got paid, who knows). He did a good job but his singing wasn’t that great.

Anyway, we carried on with our dinner. Apparently, to some participants, the dinner wasn’t that great as they kept walking around without really eating. But I felt it was ok for a cost of $40.

By the time the last dish arrived, I was already stuffed. But still, I managed to finish my designated portion. Suddenly, I realized that there was a grand finale of some sort. It was a performance that shocked me. There was a birthday cake!

At the grand finale, then I realized that it wasn’t a charity function, but a celebration of an event anniversary. Very blur.

Personal Lobang - THE PLATFORM

Today, before meeting the stupid car salesman to collect the platform, I wanted to confirm that I had not been conned. So I called up Kia Parts and Accessories department and enquired the price of one platform. It cost $192.

As the salesman was able to give the platform to me at the price of $120, I suspected that he may either be giving me a fraud or was earning sideline. So with full biasness, I called him.

I politely asked him that I wanted to check out who should I write the cheque to. He replied that I should write the cheque to his name, Tan Wee Meng. Or simply give him cash. Ha! I immediately asked him if it was his sideline. He stammered and admitted in the end. Then I confirmed with him about the standard of the platform. He gave me his assurance.

Actually, I wasn’t angry with him earning extra income. But I was very angry with him for not being honest and upfront with his information. His strategy was unscrupulous. I simply hated salesman to tell me that the items I saw was not included after I had confirmed the deal. I felt that he was dishonest. (Hypothetical scenario: Imagine after confirming the deal and collecting the vehicle, the car salesman tells me that the engine is not included.)

I did not complain him to the management because, after this purchase, I will not buy from him again.

I learned a valuable lesson. Ask the salesman what is included and what is not in the deal. And squeeze him for freebies till he becomes a fruit punch.

Car With No Platform

I waited and waited but the stupid car salesman did not call me.

I was prepared to give up the idea of collecting my car today. I got dressed up at 4pm, ready to meet my friend, Serena, to collect some lucky draw tickets. Just then, the phone rang.

Yes! The car is ready! I got the lucky draw tickets from Serena and went straight to collect my car. I couldn’t wait to get my hands behind those wheels.

After I signed the handover form, the stupid car salesman gave me the keys. Just before I left the place, he told me that the boot of the car had no platform. This meant that any passerby could see what I put in my car boot. He told me that the platform did not come with the car. And if I were to purchase it, it would cost $120. I got this feeling that the stupid car salesman was trying to give me a last swipe at my pocket. So I walked around to see other new cars of the same model. Sigh... he was right.

In the end, I had to meet up with him tomorrow, pay him the $120 to get the platform and my identity card, which I forgot to take back.

New Car Coming Soon

Tomorrow, the new car may be delivered. I am pretty excited about it.

It is going to be the second car I own. My first car, Honda Civic, dark blue hatched back, EM 1701 (I had forgotten the last alphabet), died prematurely in 2001. It managed to keep me on the move for only 3 months when it was supposed to last until the scrap date, which would be 9 more months.

Back then, I paid $3000 for 12 months of road worthy vehicle, thinking that the depreciation was cheap. Never did I expect that, in the end, I would be paying for a piece of junk that depreciated $1000 per month.

To make matters worse, the roof leaked when raining, the wiper did not work, and I had to feed the radiator with liters of water for every single trip. Lastly, I had to endure the fear of the vehicle breaking down suddenly in the middle of the expressway. (Imagine the speed of vehicles coming from behind.)

A positive note from the above negativity was that, I learned quite some stuff about cars from the ordeal.

Now, my policy is this. As long as the car can bring me from Point A to Point B and it does not leak, and the depreciation is really low, minimal maintenance required, I will get it. And I hope this new car can last.

Sleep

Yesterday, I slept at about 1am and woke up at 7.30am to make breakfast for my wife today.

After she left for work, I returned to my beloved bed.

The next thing I realized was time to wake up. I knew it was pretty late although I did not know the exact time, but I wished that it was only about 10am.

I looked at the clock. Unbelievable... it was 1pm. I felt gross that I could sleep for so long.

Piracy!!!

My wife and I carried on watching the VCD TV serial today.

The more we watched it, the more we thought that the VCD was pirated, although we had bought it from a legal store. That store had once been sued for selling illegal VCD and we thought they might be at it again.

Why we thought so was because there were some Japanese text (not subtitles) flashing on the screen showing something like news. And we thought it was pretty impossible that a movie would show such text unless it was recorded from TV.

Anyway, we carried on watching and finally finished the serial. I wonder where we can report piracy.

Movie Marathon

I bought 2 sets of VCD TV serials today.

One was about ice hockey while the other was about motor racing. My wife and I started watching the movie on ice hockey starring Kimura Takuya (actually, he also starred in the other serial I bought). I had liked him for a long time while my wife started to like him recently.

Anyway, we began our marathon. Disc after disc we followed the story. As the movie was in Japanese and we knew nuts about it, we had to read the subtitles. (But I had got no idea why my wife still asked me to turn up the volume.) We found out that it was quite tedious after about 6 consecutive hours of straining our eyes trying to chase the flashing texts.

Finally, we decided to sleep after Disc 5. We couldn’t take it anymore.

Porridge

I woke up at 11am today because I was totally wasted from yesterday’s activities.

I woke up to a well prepared but simple lunch. My wife had quietly prepared the meal while I was snoring away. She made sweet potato porridge with a side dish of meat and peanuts. It was simply tasty.

As my wife cooked a large amount, I had it for dinner and supper too, while my wife had pizza. Simply delicious.

(And I now know the secret recipe...)

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

Today, my wife took leave because it was my father’s birthday.

We went out to settle some administrative work for our newly bought car and moved on to Ikea for lunch. After that, we went over to Marina South and wasted our time there.

Upon arrival at Marina South, we went to see if there was any movie to catch. But we found nothing. Then we decided to have a drink at Changing Appetite. The idea of having a drink turned out to be a disaster.

We ordered a drink each and a plate of their famous fish and chips. The fish and chips didn’t taste great and the drinks were too huge for one person. Halfway through the meal, my wife had tummy ache. She needed to go toilet. She went off but returned quickly. As the toilet was gross, she decided to endure. Then it was my turn to have tummy ache. And since she said the toilet was gross, I decided not to go too.

We couldn’t finish our drink, so we decided to leave. We ended up at K Box. We sang for about 2 hours before meeting my family for dinner. By that time, my wife and I felt like falling asleep. We were quite tired. (We usually go on date for about 3 hours, return home to sleep and then out for another 3 hours.) Seldom do we go out on date for more than 6 hours straight nowadays.

Anyway, we met my family and had a great meal at Hai Tien Lo at Pan Pacific Hotel. The view was great, the food was delicious but it was pretty expensive.

After that, we adjourned to my place to cut the birthday cake. It was from Pine Garden. Tasty orange cake we had but my dad was more concerned of his Channel 48 Cantonese show. He had already stuck his eyes and ears onto our small television screen.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

Change Of Mind

I just had dinner outside with my wife.

The original intention was to shop for groceries at the supermarket after dinner. However, we ended up shopping for maternity clothes and she got one top after trying several pieces.

After that, we shopped at a DVD store. I picked up a movie that I had wanted to buy several months ago. I showed it to my wife and she loved it after reading the description. Puzzled, I told her that I had shown her the same DVD some time back. And at that time, she said that the movie was boring after reading the description.

In the end, we bought the DVD. How do women’s mind work? I really wonder.

Mahjong

Alwin, Hazel, Xingli and I played Mahjong today at my place.

As Xingli was a beginner, we played without money. We started playing at about 4pm. A game of Mahjong usually ends in about 2 hours. However, we did not manage to complete the game in the stipulated time. This was because of Xingli, who had plenty of beginner’s luck. She kept winning and winning, resulting in the slow progress. (Maybe, it was our incapability of winning instead.)

In the end, Hazel managed to stop Xingli’s winning streak and the game started to flow.

After almost 2 hours, we managed to complete only half the game. Hazel, Xingli and me wanted to keep the tiles as it was getting late. Everyone had won at least once except for Alwin. As he did not even win once, he requested for one last game so that he could try his luck again.

In the end, he won. If not, he might end up staying over at my place.

T-Shirt Printing

Today, I tried silk screen printing of T-shirts for free.

I had always wanted to design some tees and print them. However, I found it too expensive to print just a couple. Thus, today, I really enjoyed myself.

I spent about 3 hours yesterday coming up with 8 designs. However, I only had 6 tees. Who cares? I started printing and printing.

In the end, I managed to print all 6 tees but only with 6 different designs. I decided not to print the other 2 as they did not look quite unique.

The end products are 6 different designs on 6 different tees with 6 different kinds of unwanted fingerprint stains. (Didn’t turn out nice.)

Tired Body Tired Legs

Today, I went skating with my friends at East Coast Park.

We originally had a group of 8 people meeting at 10am. 2 did not turn up. 3 were late for about an hour. Then it rained and eventually we started skating only at 12pm.

We skated till 3pm, had our lunch and went over to Marine Parade. We shopped for plain T-shirts (I’m doing printing of tees tomorrow) till about 5pm and we went home.

My body ached like crazy and I am dead tired.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!!!

Today is Ryan, my little brother-in-law’s birthday.

My father-in-law, sister-in-law, Ryan, my wife and I went to Pasta Café in town to celebrate his birthday. He had been nagging to eat pizza for some time. Naturally, he ordered pizza when he got cozy.

All of us had average portions during the lunch celebration except for my wife. She ate 2 plates of spaghetti and 1 slice of pizza. After the lunch, she told me she was not full.

Anyway, we went off to buy a birthday cake for Ryan to celebrate at night at my granny-in-law’s place. Along the way, we bought 3 brownies. On the spot, she ate one.

After getting the cake, we went home. My wife then had a second brownie with ice cream topping. And then we took our regular afternoon nap.

When we woke up, it was time to go to my granny-in-law’s place for dinner. My wife then had the last brownie before we went over.

We had dinner and celebrated Ryan’s birthday again. This time, it was with the relatives. Everyone enjoyed the cake. After the celebration, we went home.

Upon reaching home, my wife ate a bowl of fruits and a small packet of fries. I wonder whose birthday is it.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!!!

Toys R Us

Today, my little brother-in-law, Ryan went out with my wife and me.

Tomorrow is his birthday, so we decided to get him a birthday present. However, we did not know what to buy for him. So we decided to bring him to Toys R Us, give him a budget of $50 and let him decide on how to use the money. We came up with this idea so as to educate him on budgeting and math.

Ryan was very happy when he knew he could spend $50. Quickly, he walked around the shop. He was very disciplined. The moment he saw an item that was greater than $50, he moved on. He did not whine or grumble that his budget was insufficient to buy the huge toys. He kept looking and looking.

When Ryan found a Hot Wheels set, which was worth $30, he did his mental calculations. He was left with $20. He then carried on looking around for the next toy within $20.

Finally, he decided on a Hot Wheels set, a police car and a set of 5 sports cars. He then said that his budget was used up as everything summed up to be $ 48. We adjourned to the cashier for payment. It came up to be $38.

Ryan made a careless mistake in his calculation. Too bad, we are moving on.

What's Happening To Me?

Today, I went skating. On my way back, I stopped by the petrol kiosk and decided to get my wife some soft drinks. Previously, she had mentioned that we needed to have more variety of drinks at home. Thus, I bought F&N Orange.

I reached home and put the F&N Orange into the fridge. To my dismay, there was a bottle of F&N Orange half full. Unbelievably, I had bought exactly the same soft drink that was already in the fridge. Talk about lack of imagination. No variety again. Worse, more of the same kind of flavor.

Later in the day, I had dinner with my old school mates at Manhill Restaurant. It was a class gathering. My wife told me that she would be working late and to get her 纸包鸡, beef brisket and rice for dinner from the restaurant.

Half way through the dinner, I ordered my wife’s dinner and carried on eating and chatting with my old friends. We were having a great time. As we were about to leave, I realized I had ordered 纸包鸡, spare ribs and rice. Too late to cancel order, every dish was on the table, packed and ready for me to bring home.

What was I thinking when I ordered? I guessed as I loved the spare ribs a lot, it got into my subconscious. I then ordered beef brisket, adding to my already huge collection of plastic bags. I bet my wife will not be able to finish dinner all thanks to me.

How forgetful I had become.

Cot Out

Today, I wanted to give my wife a surprise by fixing up the baby cot.

The baby cot had been at my place for quite a while and due to my laziness, it had laid untouched. Somehow, today, I had the mood to fix it up and yes I did.

After fixing up and feeling proud of myself, I waited for my wife to return from work to flaunt my construction.

When she saw the baby cot, she was very impressed with my effort. Then she pointed at 2 wooden poles and mentioned to me that I had left out the 2 supports for the side of the cot. The baby could roll out from the gap.

How careless I was to leave that out. Fortunately, no baby was sleeping in the cot yet.

Buffet Lunch

Today, I had buffet lunch at Goodwood Park Hotel.

Usually, I would not be such as spendthrift to have lunch as hotels. But since my friends had one-for-one coupons and they asked me along, I obliged without any considerations.

As usual, I was late. When I arrived, my friends had already started stacking their plates. But it wasn’t too late for me to catch up counting the plates. We chewed up whatever that could be chewed eventually.

Although the food was average, I would be going back really soon. My wife had requested me to bring her there.

Foolish Call

“Hello? Uncle ah... Auntie 在吗? Auntie 今天煮什么? 我要 order dinner.” Said my wife.

“Uncle 在. Auntie 不在.” I replied, acknowledging I was the uncle and she was the auntie who was not at home.

The above telephone conversation was from my wife to me. She paused and broke out in laughter.

Her initial intention was to call her office canteen to place a take away order for 2. I thought she wanted to make fun of me and I played along. She had actually dialed the wrong number.

I didn’t expect it was a genuine mistake by her. She found it funny. I felt fooled.

I Am Screwed...

I am screwed.

I had THE TEST today. It was quite easy. Upon completion, I checked and submitted. I did well, I thought.

My thought was slightly shattered when I realized that I did wrongly for one of the question that was worth 10 marks. I thought it was only 10 marks and I could afford the error. When I returned home to check, the ultimate thing was that I found out that it was 15 marks. My world crumbled.

The whole paper was upon 60 marks. I am left with 15 marks for my tutors to deduct in order to pass. And I doubt only 15 marks would be deducted from the balance questions. I just wish that I could get some process marks for that particular question rather than a straight forward zilch.

I am screwed big time.

THE TEST

These few days, I had been slogging for one ultimate challenge, THE TEST.

Tomorrow, I will be having THE TEST at 9am. The past few days of struggling will be challenged to the fullest and I will not know the result until I don’t know when.

For the past few months, I did not know what the test topic was about. Hence, I definitely know nothing about preparing for this test. I asked my colleagues about it. They were as lost as me.

So what was I doing for the past few days? I guess I was preparing something, whatever, just to calm myself.

Tomorrow, I need plenty of luck!

I Am So Sorry...

My sister-in-law just got her motorcycle license recently and I decided to let her try my bike.

I asked if she needed a helmet and she said no and off she went for a spin. As my bike was different from the normal kind of bike whereby they had clutches, she found it uncomfortable to ride. She took quite a while to complete one round around the car park.

As she stepped down from the motorcycle, a policeman approached us. He had caught her riding without a helmet. I was really worried as she had just gotten her license. I wouldn’t want to be blamed for losing her license.

As the policeman started his nagging, I quickly apologized and apologized. I tried all means to show that I was sorry. (Usually, it helps to mitigate the sentence.) I think my sister-in-law got the cue and she started to apologize too.

The policeman gave us a verbal warning and let us off. Phew! It worked again.

Good Ear

Yes! It’s Friday again. I had a short date with my wife after she returned from work. We had dinner at Pizza Hut.

My wife was not in a happy mood and she looked really gloomy when she returned from work. Depressingly, she said she wanted to have dinner at Pizza Hut. She had longed to eat at Pizza Hut for quite a few weeks already.

The moment we arrived at Pizza Hut and ordered our food, she started complaining about her project team mate. She was really mad at her colleague. Now, this was the real issue that had caused her to be moody.

When the food was served, she was still cranky. She was rattling on and on while I ate. Although it was not exactly music to my ears, it was therapeutic for her. After much complaining, she got tired and her mood improved. She was happy again.

It’s good to have a listening ear.

Mastermind

I bought a game, Mastermind, on Saturday.

Ever since then, I have been playing the game with my wife everyday. It seems rather addictive setting the code and cracking it.

We play about at least 4 games a day. Usually, we will play till we are both mentally tired. After that, we will retire for the day.

Better than counting sheep.

Happy Holidays!

Yesterday was Deepavali, the festival of lights.

Although, I do not celebrate the festival, I enjoyed it because it was a public holiday. Basically, I enjoy all occasions that results in the government declaring them as public holidays.

And tomorrow is Hari Raya Puasa. Hooray!!!

How To Fight Against Tales

Met a colleague yesterday and we chatted.

Found out that she stayed near my parents place. When she asked where exactly my parents’ house was, I told her that it was rather prominent as she would see 2 Golden Retrievers in the garden when she passed by.

She paused for a while. Suddenly, she cried out the names of the 2 Golden Retrievers. I excitedly acknowledged. She then looked at me in disgust and said, “So you are the son that left the 2 dogs at your dad’s place and abandoned them.” I was stunned.

What had my dad said about me? What tales had he spun about me? I felt so accused. He was the one who looked sad when we wanted to bring the dogs back to our place. Anyway, after explaining to my colleague, she understood. Had I not met my colleague, I would be living with a bad reputation.

However, she added that my dad seemed to have told the whole neighborhood that I had abandoned the 2 dogs. I was the bad guy and he was the good guy. I guess I should not be bothered about what people think about me. No point clarifying. Facts versus Crap. Sigh.