Saturday, June 29, 2013

Who's the pussy now?



And watch this too:



Hello Kitty is freaking lame.

I don't understand the madness, absurdity and insanity over a plush toy.

So what they are "Limited edition"?
So what they are "limited stock only"?


Well, guess what - just go straight to the source, the useless plushies are sold for only S$7 at China.

http://alvinology.com/2013/06/27/are-you-looking-for-this-hello-kitty/


Lame shit.

Know a few friends who queued up as soon at 10.30pm, and another who queued up overnight from midnight - 7am, before going to work.

FREAKING LAME!

Monday, June 17, 2013

My kind of Sunday

Dear Diary,

Yesterday is a sunny day. I woke up relunctantly at 7.30am and accompanied my mom to the round market at Tampines.

Upon stepping into the hustle and bustle of the market, my half-opened eyes immediately dilated to the sights, smell and sounds of the cultural melting pot. The sound of the chopper against the chopping board, chittering and chattering, the damp floor, the bright orange filament lights hanging over the fishes/prawns, the greens, reds and browns of the vegetable stall, the red plastic bags, the acquired scent of preserved vegetables and salted fish...

Mom has been frequenting the round market since I was 5 and I bet she can navigate her way inside blindfolded (yes, challenge accepted). She led me to the butcher, took a quick look and walked away to buy pork from another stall. Puzzled, I asked mom why and she replied of the first stall, "The uncle has a bad temper when he has a line of customers."

=O

So my mom ordered 2 pig trotters, 1 muscle, and 1 slab of lean meat. Pig trotters for braised pork, muscle no need chop, lean meat for frying with vegetables, my mom requested and the butcher packed them exactly the way his customers want them. We paid $23.

I've also been to this round market many times enough for me to recognise the Indian woman selling spices and curry powder, here's warning not to speak bad of her because she can understand and speaks decent Mandarin, ha!

Taking careful steps along the damp floor of the market, I followed my mom to another section to buy some dried foodstuff. We paid about $7 for a pack of assam pieces,  a ginger and a piece of 霉香 salted fish.

Also than the unique shape of the building, the round market is also famous for its cooked food - Sarawak Kolo mee, Xing Ji wanton mee, prawn noodles, kway chap, just to name a few. We headed to tabao vegetarian economic beehoon. I remember a decade ago, mom tabao-ed the same dish for our breakfast and not only did we not thank her, we sulked because it was not drizzled with curry gravy. Today, mom repeated 3 times to the stall helper, “ 咖哩chap ”.


Moving on to another corner of the market, mom stopped by a stall and pondered what to cook for lunch later. She bought bee tai mak (mice flour?), fishballs and 50c beansprouts. The stall helper tried to up-sell a pack of instant curry, "it's better than A1!" but mom declined nicely.

Finally, we bought 2 packets of 奶白白菜 and a packet of petai for $4 and trotted back to the car. Shopping all done! =D

As we were walking back, mom told me that the lady stall helper at the bee tai mak stall is married to the man who was just now packing beside. Mom even knows that she originated from Vietnam and could not speak any Mandarin back then! From the conversation prior, I wouldn't have second guessed she wasn't local.

When we got home, I washed up, made myself a cuppa G7 coffee and prepared to dig in into the vegetarian beehoon (with curry chap), and boy, it was only 9.15pm!

Read newspapers.
Cleaned my room.
Changed bedsheets.
Napped.

____________________________________________


After lunch, I made myself comfortable at the dining table and started on my first book (ref: Resolutions for 2013), "The BFG".



Hahaha, yes I've done this book before when I was in pri school, but I've plain forgotten! I thought I would enjoy the story, but the book was so easy and simple I completed half of it in 40 mins. Hmm.

Off I cycled to Tampines East CC to donate blood (ref: Resolutions for 2013)!




The last time I did so was 10th July 2012 and I think the short period of missing in action actually made me feel nervous about this, lol. Fortunately it went smoothly haha, no repeat of faint spells.


At about 4pm, Celeste and Jiale came over and I suggested playing with jumping clay!

It was gonna be our first attempt and armed only with minimal artistic talent and google images, we found it really tough to mould the dough into the shapes and sizes we desired! So funny recalling how infuriated we were when the clay wouldn't stick or when the colours wouldn't mix, haha! One thing we learnt - the smaller the detail, the more difficult it was!

We spent like an hour and a half rolling, moulding, crafting and cursing at ourselves before we presented our 'master pieces':


 

Hahaha. Not too bad a first attempt ya?? =)



And then it was dinner!!!!!


Heartwarming, filling and happy dinner :):)


And the above, sums up my kind of Sunday. :)



Deja vu

From dictionary.com:

dé·jà vu

noun
1.
Psychology . the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time.
_____________________________________
I have frequent deja-vus. How I experience them - suddenly a tingling sensation would shoot through my nervous system, my pupils will dilate, skin pores expand and hair will stand. It's like, I've been here before. Haven't I seen this place before? Okay, I know what's gonna happen next!
It's a really peculiar, bizarre feeling. It's a very familiar sight/scene/hearing... from my past dreams. I have not done research as to why humans do experience deja vus, but a part of me believes in fate - our paths have long been crafted out by destiny. Hence, our souls have travelled to the future and seen and experienced a short snapshot of it, and it is only a matter of time before it really happens.
And that, is my deja vu.
People can't prove whether their deja vus are real; neither can they prove to others that they have indeed, dreamt of the scene before.
So I'm gonna make an effort to note down every memorable dream I had (of course, only those realistic ones and not those of me flying, stepping on thin air, being late for exams, being chased by monsters, etc), and these entries are going to be my evidence, some day in the near future.
Anyway, have you realised that once you wake up, you will have an immediate recollection of a dream you just had? That's when it's the most vivid. However, once you brush up and head to work... an hour later, you will have zero recollection of it. Interesting, isn't it?
________________________________________
Deja vu:
Date: About a week ago....
Dream: Family gathering over a dinner with my paternal relatives and we shared 2 tables. Wenkang and Amber were eating huge, steamed prawns and then 叔母 (wife of Uncle Ah Nga) dished out steamed crabs!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Monday, June 10, 2013

My luck at balloting for HDB flats

1) Toa Payoh Crest / Joo Seng Green - Nov 2012


As much as I love Tampines and yearn to live near my parents, the location of Toa Payoh Crest was too awesome to be missed. One of the tallest developments in TPY town and sandwiched between walking distance of 2 MRT stations (1 NE line and 1 Circle line), TPC was located at the junction of 3 other roads and had other amenities within a stone's throw. Coupled in the same lot was Joo Seng Green, which paled in comparison in everything else, both BTOs were 3-room/4-room flats and comprised of 610 units in all.

It was oversubscribed by donoe how many times over, but we still kept our fingers crossed, as it was our first time balloting for a flat. Beginner's luck, they say?

A month later, the results were delivered via email!

The fact that we were allocated a number was considered not bad liao wor.


Result: 1600+/610.


From friends who also balloted for this lot, heard that even a draw number of 800+ did not even get a chance of selection.

Location was too prime, bo bian.


2) Tampines Green Forest - Feb 2013


Located beside EC The Arc and near luxurious condo Q Bay, the area was primed for denser housing development. Amenities and MRT station were more than 2 bus stops away, Tampines Green Forest wasn't an ideal choice but it was still in Tampines and near my parents, anyway. Moreover, it didn't look like there was gonna be BTOs coming up in the area anytime soon. On the other hand, the plus of TGF was that within the compound there would be a supermart and a coffeehouse, wootz.

Prior, I had heard rumours of the 'first day lucky' trend, which meant that if one were to place one's ballot on the first day of the window opening, there stands a higher chance of getting a good number! My first-degree friend got a number 15 at Punggol's BTO and this case was not the only hearsay.

So, for TGF we hiong first day ah!

At the end of the window closing, I recall it was many times oversubscribed..... oh well, Tampines ya.

A month later, the news arrived via email again! Total available: 264 units of 3-room/4-room.


Result: 354/264


Not too bad! I was very optimistic of a chance to select a unit. So we waited anxiously for a few months... and about 1 month and a half later, we received an envelope from HDB! 

The contents contained an introduction to TGF, a floorplan, pricing, proposed layouts etc, along with a confirmed appointment date for flat selection. When I checked, our appt date was only a month away and there were still 89 units available. NOT BAD RIGHT!


I must have checked almost every other day, watching the number of available units decreasing day by day... from 89 to 60.... to 50... to 32... to 20 odd.... Not surprisingly, my optimism dropped in tandem.

A week before our appt date, there were 8 units left for selection. Some units were facing a reasonable direction but all were on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th floor. There was a faintest of hopes I could have gone down to HDB Hub at Toa Payoh to see the mock up for a better decision, until 4 days before our appt date, the number went down to 4.

Come next day, there was a sole unit left, #02-53. It was not taken for a few days even until the night of the eve of our appt date. I checked the plan and realised that unit was facing was a 6-storey multi-storey carpark, all but 12-metres away. Thinking of a good view, comfy breeze, quiet road etc for your new flat? There was going to be zilch privacy!

Hence, the decision was depressing but a simple one - I jokingly told my girlfriend, "Let's leave it for a couple who needs it more."

Though by forfeiting this chance it would mean that our accumulated chances from previous BTO missed chances would be reset to zero, we didn't think we wanted to lock ourselves in that depressing unit for at least 5 years. Nope, I don't think we were choosy - with only 1 unit left, there wasn't even a CHOICE to begin with?!


3) Sale of Balance Flats - May 2013

The next few BTOs were in ulu places like CCK, Sembawang, Bukit Batok, and Punggol but we weren't comfortable with the North East. We were really considering alternatives of securing a unit for ourselves, so we widened a higher budget ala EC. Alas, the ECs in Tampines like The Arc, Trilliant, Citylife (the famous penthouse that cost >$1M) had all been snapped up.

Of course, Sale of Balance Flats was coming up in May 2013. I had signed up for sms alerts from HDB and my phone beeped one afternoon whilst at work. Immediately, I went to the HDB website and recce-ed the list of SOBF flats. There were quite many in Tampines, like 46 units of 3-room/4-room and 15 units of 5-room/Exec. I would say 70% of them were not shabby in terms of location and level, including a handful new and not repossessed flats.

Fastest fingers first - I confirmed our ballot at about 3pm and was within the first 10 to sign up for the lot of 15 units of 5-room/Exec.

REALLY THIS TIME MUST TIOK, PREASE!

By the end of the balloting period, I checked and it was over-subscribed by 31.4 times, receiving 472 bids. What the..... -_-" ....  The good news was that for this lot, all units are allocated for first-timers only, so after discounting the non-first timers (don't know why some ppl neh read), our chance stands at 1 in 20. 

Well, still a higher chance than striking 4D, don't you say? 

I never had much luck at Mahjong and cards and thesesorts over the years, now here's hoping the luck accumulated have been cannibalized for this SOBF balloting.

If I TIOK first 10 (number 'x'), I will....... I will...... I will..... burn lots of offerings and be a vegan for (10 - x) days.

And you know I love my meat.

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Gwiyomi

Was at Switch yesterday with girlfriend, Busy Roys, Shaokai, Toeji, Jx and almost got sabo-ed to dance Gwiyomi on stage!

My sadist frens even got the floor cheering my name!

Luckily, I managed to divert the attention away by telling the band, "I'll do a Chinese duet!" However, it was the end of the band's first set, and it was already 11.20pm with a 15 min break till the next set, plus I started to have butterflies in my stomach just imagining myself on stage, so I shoo-ed everyone to go home.

HAHA.

#notdrunkenuff
#miniregret.

______

Apparently, Busy Roys and Shaokai haven't seen Gyiyomi until yesterday! Shaokai exclaimed, "Had I known Gwiyomi was like this, I'd have carried you on stage just now!" Hahaha, hilarious!

For those who are also foreign to Gwiyomi... have fun with the video below :P


The overseas shirt

I'm not sure about you, but I have a few tops that I categorised as "overseas shirts". That means I wear them only when I go f...