the month of june

the past 3 weeks of june was like the highlight of the year (not mentioning the batam trip which definitely tops everything else ).

i returned back to camp on 1st june and i was told that the peak period would start on 10th nov.
fantastic. 10th nov also happens to be the day i’ll see my pink ic.
honestly speaking, ns is like a wind that comes and goes almost instantly.
17 months gone, 5 months to go.
out of 17 months, 11 months were spent on healing my fracture.

so now i’m officially a clerk cos of my pes status.
and hence, i’ve lost the combat pay that i’ve been drawing for the past 8-9 months or so
well, i’ve found another avenues of earning cash though!

outings with B in b/w working days were awesome:

1. caught the 3d version of monsters vs aliens
2. watched ghosts of girlfriends past
3. outback steakhouse
4. sengkang adventure
5. hk cafe
6. marina barrage

they have brought us closer together and made me think about certain things.

on my bday, i spent the entire day with B.
thinking back now, i would still choose to spend the turning-20 moment with her
(shall blog about this in another post. soon, i hope)

actually for that week, it was my frens’ bdays too!

7jun-pong
9jun-siyuan
10jun-hongzhou
11jun-weiliang
12jun-tingkai, jonathan, peiying, myself
13jun-wilson,darren,felix
14jun-wensi

hope everyone had a happy bday (just like me!).

time was also spent meeting up with old frens: vsco, azmi gang and the ny-ians from plt 4

and sadly, no photos were taken, hence that explains for this wordy post.

and finally, today’s father’s day and tomorrow’s my mum’s bday!
we went out for a meal at bishan and i bumped into yj and regina tgt with his parents queuing for dtf.
for some reason, i see the mum and regina keep smiling at me.
so i smiled back. lol.

and to end off this post, i’m meeting the ny-ians again this friday!
WOOO

same same but different

i always believe that different people do things differently – starting from the way they want something.

for example, if we are talking about eating our favourite chicken rice, this is how each of my family members would ask for it when they want to eat chicken rice:

dad – “hey u all want to eat chicken rice?” he would never say he wants to eat it, he would ask everyone else and hope that they say yes

mum – “the chicken rice here like look quite nice ah.” then she will go on about how nice is it until i say i want to eat it then she will kope and try. LOL

zy – “i want to eat this.” straightforward and frank (very good). but sometimes, he gets so stubborn about wanting a particular thing that he gets frustrated when he can’t get it

myself – “eh zx, u want to eat this?” “eh. mei guan xi la mei guan xi. kan xian” i tend to have this habit of not saying out what i really want *winks*

and now, you get what i mean. right.

short note to my parents

bon voyage mum and dad!
have fun and enjoy the 二人世界 that is so rare nowadays for a married couple with children.

一路顺风！:)

2009

HAPPY 2009 people!!!

okay time to sleep.

The Eavesdropping Cabby

Since i haven’t blogged in proper for more than a week, i’m quite sure that my fingers are too lazy to do a brief recount of everything.
So i’ll just start with yesterday.

I woke up at 11am++ close to 12pm.
Actually i woke up not cos i figured out that it’s too late already, but cos i want to prove to someone that i’m not some lazy pig and that my PBAC is still intact. haha.
Then ate donuts and porridge for brunch.
After which, it was msn-ing and surfing of net until 3pm plus.
Nothing much happened in the afternoon i must say.
Listening to the melody of the raindrops as they landed on the windows and the ground outside was quite… quite… (can’t seem to find a word) cool i must say.

Then at night we went to our uncle joshua’s house.
I heard that it was Shalom’s Bday but it turned out to be Issac’s bday.
damn malu sia.
reached there liao, i was like “where’s shalom? i want wish him happy bday.”
then their maid never say anything.then when i walked into the room, i saw shalom, he gave me that stunned face.
super hilarious.
I immed. siam siam go look for issac and wish him happy bday.
He’s same age as zy.
I just realized that my mum’s side got 3 guys same age – all 1991 babies.
March, April (zy) and August.

Met jane with her frens.
Chatted with her a while then disappeared to go get food.
Then chatted with jane’s grandpa.
Took pictures.
Eat some more.
Tried knot-tying with about 5 to 6 cherry stalks and failed.
Jane tried to fake me by tying it with her fingers then putting it into her mouth, but her friend’s laughters gave her away. lol.
Then we used uncle joshua’s iMAC to skype with my mom cos she wants to show us her new apartment.
It’s quite nice sia.
It has a gym, swimming pool, jacuzzi and stuff.
it’s like a condo in singapore like that, just that the weekly rent of >400AUD is enough to burn the wallet, not including living expenses.
It seems like my parents are doing fine there, which is a good thing =)
take care mum dad!

and so,
after that, me and zy headed to CGH to visit zhi ming.
Btw, he’s my cousin – the eldest cousin from my dad’s side.
I’m the first to enlist into the army from my dad’s side and .. i fractured my ankle and was on crutches and mc for 5 months.
He’s the second to enlist into the army from my dad’s side and .. he damaged his ligament and is on crutches and mc for __ days/weeks/months.
hahaha.
Damn suey la i would say.
He didn’t complete live range and ippt.
He missed sitest too.
So if he really can’t go back and do all these, he has to taste the tekong air again next time.
and OFF GOES ALL HIS HAIR again.

He looks fine la but i think he’s concerned about his own condition.
The doc also not sure of what is it, that’s why put him into hospitalization.
Then he told me, he upgraded to Class B2 ward. and my first thought was GG.
cos army only covers up to Class C and once u upgrade, u become private patient liao so need to pay own fees.
and he still said that he maybe going for MRI scan which is quite ex too.
yeah, so GET WELL SOON COUS!
haha we hung around abit more to talk about army stuff and the olympics.
My uncle is not staying with him throughout the night cos he wants to watch olympics on tv.

Uncle: tomorrow i won’t be coming to visit u in morning, i’ll ask mummy to come. I’ll be coming in afternoon.
Zhi Ming: why. u cannot make it ah?
Uncle: I going to climb bukit timah hill tmr leh.
(silence)
Zhi Ming: (jokingly) what can be more important than ur son? dont go climb la.
Uncle: You okay what, still can walk and talk.
Zhi Ming: (turned to me) and so… (army talk continues)

LOL.
It was 1030pm by the time we left the place.
so we accompanied our uncle to wait for his bus.
After that, me and my bro went to drink some starbucks.
CARAMEL FRAP.
then we took a cab home.
and we met this super friendly cabby sia.

I was discussing with my bro the two people who alighted from the cab before we boarded it.
I saw them running towards the CGH direction while waiting with my uncle for his bus.
Then suddenly they appeared, coming out of this cab which was travelling towards the CGH direction.
So i discussed with my bro.

me: aye u got see that two people just now not?
zy: who? (looking lost)
me: that two la. just now we waiting with da bo at the bus-stop, then got these two people running towards CGH there.
zy: have meh? never notice.
me: there! so obvious. they run (keep gesturing) there then disappear then sudd. they appear in this cab. so funny sia. dont know where they go.
zy: (tries his best to stay interested) [i forgot what he said]

SUDDENLY,
the cabby SPOKE.

cabby: orh. the two of them ah. nono. actually got 3 but one alighted before liao. they asked me to ….

i wasn’t really listening to the explanation but i still “orhh” after that.
hahaha.
my brother and i were looking at each other and laughing sia.
cos i thought i spoke quite softly. LOL.
which is a bad habit of mine cos times that i usually thought i was speaking softly, actually i was speaking damn loudly all the while.
not loudly la to be exact. it’s just audible to most people lor. lol.

There were silence after that.
After a while..

zy: aye how come got the 30 cents surcharge ah.
me: oh. that one last time have liao. its due to the diesel dont know what la so got another 30 cents.
zy: orh. really ah.
me: there (pointing to window) should have a notice ma. that time i see before.
both of us: (looked around the whole cab but also dont have)
me: oh i think they take away liao. but its just some diesel shit.
zy: oh like that.

(pause a while)

zy: then taxi how the meter count one ah. u travel fast or slow, the meter jump the same ah?

at this moment, me and my bro were discussing about whether a cab’s speed will affect the fare that it charges.
And whether if the cab is stationary, will it earn more and stuff like that.
and here comes the EC (EC = Eavesdropping Cabby)

EC: Actually, the car’s speed does not affect how much u can earn.
zy: my frens got say before that if cab drive slow slow, can earn more.
EC: not true. cos u see ah. for example .. (then he gave figures and stuff)

it’s quite alot of elaboration and i also too sian to post everything here.
But the bottom line is, for cabs right.
there’s no point for them to drive slow slow. Instead, they would want to drive fast and send their passengers to their destinations quickly so that they can always pick up another one.
Say, for example, there’s this stretch of 5km road.
No matter whether the cab is travelling at 60 km/h or 90 km/h, they will charge the same, ceteris paribus.
And if a cab is stuck in a jam, compared to when it is travelling smoothly, it’ll actually earn more by travelling smoothly.

SO, the moral of the story?
it is: dont think that cabbies are always there to try and rip us off by driving slowly or purposely go get stuck in jam or purposely drive slow slow so wun beat traffic lights or what. they are just doing us a favour to send us to wherever we want to go in the shortest time possible. we happy, they happy.

EC then started to tell us about stuff, mainly cos zy prompted him.

zy: so do night shift good anot? better right?
EC: depends la. drive taxi now is very much about luck.
EC: sometimes unlucky, then will meet bad passengers lor.
zy: ya lor. there has been quite alot of thefts in cabs recently (i KNOW NOTHING about this. is it true?)
EC: ya. uncle got robbed 9 times already.
zy and me: WOW. how come so suey.
me: wah then like that how.
EC: lucky they nice la. nvr pay money then run out of cab one. some of the cabbies i know kena stabbed and held at knife-point one.
EC: how ah? just let it be lor. u bring them go police station. the police will only ask u, “so what u want us to do? (we no money also)”
[at this point, i feel like saying, "LL lor. what to do. suck thumb." LL=lan lan]
EC: but hor. actually i quite lucky also. every of these 9 times, after i kena cheated of cab fares, i got more business for the rest of the day, so i dont mind meeting these kind of people again.

LOL right?
hahaha he damn funny.
u should have heard the way he said it.

Anyway, then we asked him about whether he see those stuff before.
u know, those stuff u see in the 7th lunar month.

EC: no luck leh. bo bian. i purposely drive past cemeteries and stuff at night, but still cannot see.
EC: then got once, my frens say they saw this old lady sitting at the parapet every night at Joo Chiat Lorong H (i think. cannot remember clearly) so i that day dropped someone nearby then decide to go see see. i drove past there a couple of times, SLOWLY, but still cannot see. no luck lor.
EC: actually these kind of things no need scared one. if i see one, i will want to chit chat with it. cos it’s like normal pple cannot see but u can see, so its a special thing leh.. (blah blah)

then he started talking about his army stuff.
he said he purposely go do stuff that pple say will allow them to see things, but in the end, no luck too.
things like:
he go sleep under banana tree at outfield.
he go bury bayonet in the ground. (cos it supposedly does sth)

haha.
after we alighted at our house, me and my bro came out of the cab, looking at each other and started to laugh.

THE END

oh and before i go away to enjoy the rhythm of the falling rain, (it’s raining outside now btw)

happy 3rd month beeeee!
LUMM.

The past week

I realized that i’ve not been updating much and hence, i’m here to update.
lol.

I’ll start from last Wednesday ba.
I had dinner with baby and ju at sushi tei (the raffles city shopping centre one). The place queue damn long, we waited for about 45 mins before we finally got to eat sia.
Before that, baby had this craving for ha kau that had been going on for damn long liao. since the week before and so we decided to head to the food court to have some small bites.

The food at sushi tei was not bad la, just that abit ex. more ex than ichiban and sakae. lol.

Thursday:
Went gyming and swimming with weiliang and wenyuan.
It was quite fun sia.
especially the swimming part, cos we get to tan sia.
lol. before that day, i didn’t know that there was a sun-tanning deck at tampines swimming complex.
And weiliang brought this sun-tanning oil; the type that u apply liao then skin shiny shiny one.
haha. and the sun was quite meng so we managed to get tanned a bit.
and then we swam a few laps in the pool and headed for lunch liao.
had lunch with jasmine at cafe cartel at TM cos weiliang insisted that it’s damn cheap cos of the student meal thing.
The lunch was followed by haagen dazs ice-cream at TM.
(at this point, i realized that the gyming and swimming that we did earlier on were of no effect liao)
and weiliang, being the handsome him, was being ogled at by a group of ITE girls at haagen dazs.
and according to him, they were taking his photo.
but i insisted that they were taking wenyuan’s photo lor, cos wenyuan was sitting directly opposite them. haha.
At night I met my family for dinner at the Riverside JUMBO restaurant (Clarke Quay there)
it was to celebrate my, my mum’s and my ah gong’s bday (all fall in june)
We managed to get a room cos the set menu my mum ordered was above $400. (or is it $450)

the menu

damn cool sia. the room got tv and a personal call button one.

we were the first to reach. my da jiu (big uncle) and my grandparents and my ah yi (my mum’s elder sis) and her family came later.
so the first dish was called the JUMBO “Petite Four” Appetizer. It contains 4 different appetizers.

they cheat us one lor. they give the green beans instead of the Nonya Duck Salad stated in the menu as seen above in FINE print but nvm, we are very nice people.

scallop with yam ring

chilled marinated jellyfish and crispy fried baby squid

the second dish was the fresh fungus in seafood broth (and it still looks like shark’s fin to me)

artistic hor.

Steamed “Soon Hock” Fish with soya sauce HONG KONG STYLE (sia)

At this dish, my cousin, jin lin had not arrived yet. she’s caught up with work i guess, so my ah gong go and use two bowls to cover up her seafood broth and look at her plate; it’s filled with food.
and when she arrived.. (note my ah gong took the bowl away and replace it with a plate. lol)

prawns and sotong balls (i’m lazy to type out the entire fanciful names of the food liao)

the prawns deserve another picture cos they are too imba

i only ate the mushrooms so i will call this the mushroom with some green thing dish (the thing’s called broccoli i know)

the HIGHLIGHT:

and how can anyone eat chilli crab without MAN TOU!!

BURPPP.

the next dish is fried rice:

and then there was no other food liao =( (excluding the cake and the dessert)
haha and i found these pictures quite amusing.
me and jin lin are like in the middle of the table, separating the pple on the right from the left. LOL.

muacks ziyan. HAHA.

and i found this particular photo interesting. lol.
both my uncle’s and my ah gong’s head super shiny that night. haha.

the dessert: yam paste with gingko seeds

the cake (complimentary cake. WOO):

this is the result of me and jin lin playing with all the candles

(i will post the group family photo when jin lin send me the photos because canon FLASH photos really suck)

Friday:
Baby and I went over to yiboon’s house at night during their cellgroup because we were the surprise for the bday girl – grace
haha.
The surprise was simple: we just appear with the cake at yiboon’s house while they are singing a song. and even before we walked in the apartment, grace was already crying. haha.
and then, we were told to wear green cos they wanted to make grace felt out of place (cos yy or ys said that she never wears green colour-based clothes one) and true enough, she wasnt wearing green.
it was fun to be part of the surprise.
I don’t have much photos to show cos i still have to wait for them to post on their blog before i can kope. haha.
anyway, we then had fun chatting and eating.
and presenting to u the green team:

please dont ask cos i also dont know why my left hand’s placed as such.

Saturday:
woke up early at 6am plus to meet baby before going to meet the rest at bedok interchange.
why so early leh? cos we are going cycling at ubin with the cellgroup!
haha. she made breakfast for me somemore.
although its just two simple pieces of bread with nutella piak in the middle, it tasted damn nice sia.
haha.
and so we headed over to bedok interchange on foot and met the rest.
not long after, we are on the ferry to pulau ubin liao.
it’s my first time and her second time going to ubin so we felt quite excited. haha.
and it’s like 5 months ago since i ever took a ferry. (20th Feb was the last time)
There were many people there sia. many many.
and when we disembarked the ferry, kevin was sitting down there with a big signboard-like thing.
That’s another surprise for grace! haha. she was damn happy la can tell and so were we
The night before kevin faked a motorbike accident and caused grace to panick and rush out of yiboon’s house. it turned out to be another surprise.
haha baby immed. looked at me and told me not to try such surprises in future. LOL.

and so we got ourselves a double bike and off we went.
it got me quite a while to get used to cycling again, especially after i have not cycled for so long.
i felt damn noob when i first stepped on the pedal but lucky, baby’s safe and unscathed after the day ended
halfway thru, we decided to switch to single bike and cycle.
haha we stopped at several places to take photos but once again, i can’t post anything here cos the photos are not with me
and all that cycling has made me interested in cycling again. i suddenly feel like getting a bike sia and maybe i will really get one.
the day ended so fast sia. but we had fun nonetheless.
thanks everyone! and most importantly, thanks baby
haha.

Sunday:
MY MUM’s BDAY!
my brother got a slice of tiramisu cake from Coffee Bean on saturday.

and since my mum fell asleep last night at 12am, we can only give her the cake today.
we stood outside her toilet in the morning and surprised her with the cake.
happy birthday mum
we love you.

and then in the afternoon, we had dim sum lunch at Far East Square at a place called Zhou’s Kitchen.
guess what? baby had lunch with us too
haha. i can lunch with 2 girls i love so much. how lucky am i sia.
(ya. go ahead and puke if u want cos that’s not going to stop me from loving them. hahaha)
i picked her up at raffles mrt then we walked over to Far East Square to meet my family.
I didn’t really take any picture of the food and dim sum cos i figured out that it’s damn tiring to post so many food photos on my blog.
(i have already spent about 3 hours on this post. SERIOUS!)
but here’s some photos. haha.

this is called the “three-storey” (i think)
the first layer is the mushrooms, followed by the tofu and then the seaweed at the top. (i chose to ignore the green colour thing. haha)

some dessert with lime sorbet and jelly

guess the bill?
it hit $140 sia. i can’t believe that we spent almost half of that on dim sum. haha.
cos the set only cost $68+.
but well, we satisfied our tummies

and finally, here are some photos with humans in it.

mum with my am-chioing dad

Do-Re-Mi. HAHA.

the damn cute photo (quoted from ms ong. haha)

I realized that i’ve spent 3 consecutive days with ms ong and no, i’m not bored of her.
Instead, I wish i could spend even more time with her! haha.
and though sometimes she bullies me, but i still love her all the same

FINALLY.
i’ve finished blogging.
i spent 3++ hours sia. haha.
now it’s time to go to my ah ma house for dinner. EAT-FULL-FULL time is nearing.
haha.

Looking at your watch on the table, i realized how much i really miss you.

Purpose of Blogging

Suddenly, this question just dawned upon a young and handicapped boy today.
He can’t help thinking about why do people blog and what is their purpose of doing so.
And so, he went blog-hopping.

He found blogs that talked about food, and these blogs got like don’t know how many gazillion pictures, and some of these blogs even got recipes and reviews on the food.

He found blogs that talked about people’s own daily recounts and adventures. Some of them were interesting while some of them were outright dull and boring – because today does not seem any different from yesterday.

He found blogs where people used it as a platform of emo-ness. He felt that these people seriously got nothing better to do. What’s the point of telling other people u’re emo? perhaps u want others to feel as emo as u, and take sympathy with ur emo-self?
But again, these people might really be very depressed and emo that they need a platform to say out whatever that’s on their minds; so he figured out that he should stop criticizing such emo people with their emo blogs.

He found blogs where people shared information with netizens, just like himself. From information on acquiring free software to information on how to win yourself a date with any girl to information on how disgusting some guys on this planet of ours can be.
Those are just 3 examples that came to his mind and are of no particular relation to his grey matter. (to put it in simple understandable english, it means that he does not give a damn about these 3 examples. he reads, he forgets)
wtc. (wtc = what the crap) ignore what i said in the last sentence and those words in the parentheses.

He found blogs where people not only blogged about occasional interesting happenings in their lives, but they also include pounds and TONS of pictures in their blogs. To him, it’s interesting because he’s a person who finds pictures more appealing than words. (which kinda explains why u can seldom find him reading a book or in the library) But sometimes, the loading of the pictures take so damn long that he can’t be bothered and so he just close the window.

He found blogs that are so dead that you can find spiders all over the blog and maybe some flies here and there stuck on the spider webs. (attempt to be lame: 99% failed)
The last entries can date back to like 1 year ago.
But being an understanding boy, he realized that not everybody is free to update their blog frequently.
and since blogging is like a personal thing, he shall not talk about this group of bloggers anymore.

and the conclusion he had after looking thru ALL these blogs is that..
is that..

blogging is really for everyone.

bullshit.
actually i forgotten what i wanted to say cos i saved this as draft just now and went out for dinner with my family.
it was a belated birthday dinner for my brother.
(ignore whatever i blogged about in front, i forgot about what i really wanted to say)

[just a slight note: i started this post on 17th April and today's 19th April and i think i will complete it tonight]

anyway, here are the pictures.
the whole dinner cost around 150 bucks? haha.
but the amount of food doesn’t seem like 150 bucks.

I’m too lazy to put all the photos one by one and describing them with some useless words (which i can actually do without cos remember? a picture is worth of thousand words)
yeah. i know i took some pictures of myself. I was bored lah. Sorry if it hurts ur eyes to see those pictures. We were waiting for my brother to come to vivocity cos when we reached crystal jade, he was still at pasir ris mrt station.

OH and i gotta comment on this. the coconut thing u see in the picture.
there’s scallops and mushrooms in it. actually only 1 scallop.
But i think it’s nice lah.
got coconut to eat somemore, can slowly dig. the whole thing look damn presentable also.
haha must try if u eat at crystal jade.
But, the price of one coconut like this is $8. Very nice too.

Today I performed at the East Zone Concert at VJC.
I wanted to talk about it but i’m too tired to do so,
and there’s the MOE psychometric test this morning.
Well, and yeah i was happy talking to some of the juniors today.
haha.
made some new frens with the backstage crew today, who are my juniors too.
later then.

I can still smell the mushroom swiss double burger i had at BK just now in my breath. lol that’s kinda sick.

7.30am

that’s the time i woke up today.
DAMN amazing i tell u.

i didn’t exactly sleep at 7.30pm last night.
in fact i slept at around 1.30am?
i tossed and turned on my bed until 2am then i managed to finally fall asleep.
Woke up this morning with an itchy right eye.
now it’s still kinda hurting from all the subconscious rubbing.

had co practice yesterday and was smoking there.
don’t know how mdm wee sees it from the back.
like i said i want to perform, and yet i’m not putting in as much effort to practise hard for it.
i promise i’ll practise today.
1 min also practice, 1 hour also practice. (i’ll try for 1 hour la. but no guarantee)
yesterday was my brother’s bday.
and ya, i got a cake for him and kinda celebrated it in front of my macbook.
lol.

that’s the cake

that’s the bday boy and my mum

i just find this photo quite funny. don’t know why.
lol

don’t really like the cake though.
looks pretty but not very nice.
anyway, my interview yesterday it went okay i guess.
was quite natural when responding to the 2 professors’ qns.
one of them even stood up to pull the chair for me to sit down when i walked into the room for interview.
i started off talking about how i broke my leg and how many months i’ve been at home (have repeated this for so many times that i’m sian of hearing it myself)
well, ya. i guessed it went okay?

okay. its 8 am already.
still got like 13 hours to spend before i can watch joanne peh on tv at 9pm.
hmm.
1 hour for erhu.
2 hours for lunch and dinner.
4 hours for dota (pending)
6 hours to do random stuff like chatting on msn, youtubing, blogging, blog-hopping, cutting my fingernails, trying desperately to get photoshop (somehow from somewhere), eating the leftovers of ytd’s cake (that is if i’m really bored), reading newspapers, going nba.com to check out bball stuff.

there’s too many things to do in that 6 hours, so many that i can’t write them all here.

Oh, i’ve learnt a lesson in life.
I think sometimes things should not be rushed.
in fact, most of the times.
and it all starts from eating a simple meal.
so from today onwards, i’m going to eat and enjoy my meal slowly (cos somehow as long as u put food there, i’ll keep eating and eating. cannot like leave it there untouched for more than 5 seconds or something)
and not dump all the food onto my plate and start eating.
yeah, so the bottom line is?

(here!) _________________________________

lame. there’s no bottom line.