OSIM

there's an OSIM exhibition downstairs at raffles city foyer... was discussing with my colleagues that probably we should walk past it during lunch time and start saying (in unison): Oh Shit It's Monday... Oh Shit It's Monday...

but then again, today Friday liao leh... hahahaha...

Hung Up Video

Madonna's Hung Up video can be downloaded from here (quality not very good lah):

http://rapidshare.de/files/6822332/Hung_Up__video_.wmv.html

personaly, i don't think it's a great music video... yawn yawn...

**********

the file is about 8.5M... if you have problem downloading from rapidshare (which i usually do), let me know if you want me to email to you via gmail...

Artistic November and December 2005

it's gonna be 2 months of artistic events for me:

1. 10 Brothers - 12 November 2005, 7:30pm

2. Lao Jiu: The Musical - 13 November 2005, 8pm

3. A Twist Of Fate - 20 November 2005, 8pm

4. David Tao Love Can World Tour 2005 - 26 November 2005, 8pm

5. Snow Queen - 30 November 2005, 10am (MY BIRTHDAY)

6. Rent - 3 December 2005, 8pm

7. Chestnuts Episode III: Revenge of the Shooting Stars - 4 December 2005, 8pm

8. Oi! Sleeping Beauty - 11 December 2005, 7:30pm

**********

tickets for Rent already bought... if you are keen to catch any of the above, make some noise here by this Sunday (30 October 2005)...

tickets for all shows are available through sistic (www.sistic.com.sg)...

Sunday (23 October 2005)

woke up at 7am... read the newspapers...

met Kerry, Jerry and Marc for high tea at Cafe Vienna... just to try out the food... cos it's 1-1...

for those who plan to go for the 1-1, please take note that the timing is not from 12pm to 5pm... instead they have two seating sessions: 12pm to 2:30pm... and 2:30pm to 5pm... duh lor...

it's so nice to meet up with Jerry and Marc after so long... especailly Marc, who's always busy... glad that you could make it... so nice to catch up with old friends... so much to update each other on... Kerry paid for the high tea cos he said it's his promotion treat... thanx!

**********

after high tea, we went to Borders cos i wanted to use the 30% coupon from the Straits Times... was browsing a number of books... eventually bought Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Eevrything...

next we were at the Mac shop to look at the new iPod video... damn cool sia... the screen is big lor...

after that it was tea at Big O... more catching up with each other... so much has changed but we still looked the same... hahahaha... Jerry picked up the tab this time... citing it as his "get together treat"... hahahaha... thanx pal!!

we parted ways after that... Jerry went to meet his friend; Marc headed home; Kerry and I went to GV Plaza to catch Flightplan...

**********

used the 2 free GV passes from my UOB Rewards thingy... very worth it lor cos tickets were so expensive on weekends...

luckily we could get tickets to Flightplan... not full house, probably due to the poor reviews EVERYWHERE (e.g. newspapers, 8 Days, etc)...

well, i actually enjoyed the movie... Jodie Foster was good... what else can i say... story-wise, it wasn't that credible... the slight twist at the end sort of salvaged the movie...

**********

headed home after the movie... like i told Kerry at Cafe Vienna, today was "cheapo day"... free meals... free movie... discounted book... only full price item i paid was the iced lemon tea at GV Plaza... $2.80 to be exact... hahahaha...

**********


me in my "cock" T-shirt at home...


me in my "cock" T-shirt @ Cafe Vienna


Jerry, Kerry, Marc (taken using my O2 xPhone II)


Jerry, Kerry, Marc (taken using Kerry's SE k750i with flash)

Nokia 6060

the new Nokia 6060 (http://www.nokia.com.sg/nokia/0,,76696,00.html) that i am eyeing on right now... time to switch back to Nokia after using O2 since January 2005... i was with Nokia from December 1998 to Janurary 2005...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



What's New

Get more than you bargained for; the sleek and snappy Nokia 6060 phone gives you first-class looks without busting your bank account. And with its user-friendly design and a host of features - Expense Manager, multimedia messages, email, and more - staying on top of things and in touch with friends and family is easier than ever.





Key Features

Large, bright, 65,536 color screen (160 x 128 pixels)
Multimedia messages (MMS), SMS
Expense Manager - keep track of daily expenditures
Time management features: Calendar, notes, To Do List, and more
xHTML browser and email
MP3 ringing tones
Pulsating light and chrome accents

Full Specifications

Operating Frequency

Dual-band GSM 900/1800
Automatic switching between bands
Size

Weight: 93 g
Dimensions: 85 x 44 x 24 mm, 78 cc
Display and User Interface

65,536 color (true color) active TFT display
128 x 160 pixels resolution
Five-way scroll key
Nokia Series 40 UI
Menu with animated icons
Messaging

MMS messaging: Send and receive messages containing text, an audio clip, and an image or video clip to other compatible devices (maximum message size: up to 300 KB)
Easy SMS: Store up to 100 text messages in phone
Email: Supports SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4 protocols
Predictive text input: Support for all major languages in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas
Instant Messaging and Presence-enhanced contacts: Check the status of your friends before you call them
Java� Applications

MIDP 2.0 Java� pre-installed games and applications
Connectivity

Plug & Play easy flash connector
Browsing

xHTML browser over WAP (WAP 1.2.1 compliant)

Personal Information Management (PIM)

To Do List and notes, countdown timer
Phonebook with up to 500 entries
Calendar in day/week/month view
Date and time screen saver
Expense Manager - manage money by keeping track of daily expenditures
Voice Features

Integrated handsfree speaker
Voice commands and voice dialing
Digital Services

OTA downloading - ringing tones, wallpapers, operator logos, business cards, settings
MP3 and 16-voice polyphonic ringing tones
Themes and wallpapers
Java� games and applications (downloadable)
Sales Package Contents

Nokia 6060 phone
Nokia Battery BL-5B
User Guide
Nokia Standard Charger ACP-7 / Nokia Travel Charger ACP-12 (varies by region)
Wiping cloth

Power Management

Battery Talk time* Standby time*
BL-5B Up to 3.5 hrs Up to 400 hrs


* Operation times vary depending on the network and usage

The availability of the product and its features depends on your area and service providers, so please contact them and your Nokia dealer for further information. These specifications are subject to change without notice.

What Is Your Hidden Talent?

You have a sexual hidden talent You have a sexual hidden talent. You might not look it but you are a dynamo in bed. Most of your lovers think that it is from years of practice, but really, you were just born with it. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Dinner @ Bakerzin Raffles City

met my ex-colleagues for dinner tonite at Bakerzin Raffles City... nice food... nice dessert...

there were supposed to be five of us but Yew Yen was not feeling well and couldn't join us... sigh...

Arun was back in Singapore for two weeks of work... he has migrated to Sydney, Australia... i will come visit one of these days... just make sure you have a place for me to put up...

Suliana is married... ROMed but no traditional wedding dinner... nevermind lah... ROM is enough... save all the hassle...

as for Phemie, what can i say... after four years, you still look the same... except for the long hair now... nice red traditional blouse...

a pic of the three of them... hopefully we can meet up again before Arun heads back to Sydney on 30 October 2005...


Arun, Phemie, Suliana

Starhub iMode Pre-Launch Programme

did the Starhub iMode pre-launch programme (http://www.starhub.com/mobile/imode/survey/index_google.html#)... at the end of the survey, the website gave me this about myself:

Life discerning dominant ideal seeker

You understand that new does not always mean better and you see no reason to skip from one fad to the next. You value things that have stood the test of time, things that have proved themselves. You can give a 120% when you need to, but know that you don't need to 100% of the time. You know that life is for living, and you're smart enough to make sure that you have time to relax, chill and just be yourself.

You tend to identify more strongly with your own thoughts than any other personality. To others you are the one with the sharp intellect, strong need for independence and privacy, and intensity of your cerebral interests. You love explaining the world and predicting what it will do next. This derives partly from natural curiosity, and partly because you sense much of the world to be unreliable, requiring that you use your intellect to bring order to your own corner of it.

You have a strong desire to investigate, observe, and understand an issue deeply and provocatively. You are often independent and self-motivated, with a strong need for privacy. For example, others will often have no idea what you have been working on until it is finished and unveiled. Some of the greatest minds in history had similar traits, people whose ideas challenged the conventional wisdom, forcing those around them to think differently.

Famous people who share these traits include:
William Rhenquist, Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, Arthur C. Clarke, Sigmund Freud, Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton

**********

so bloody true... scary...

Rent The Musical - 3 December 2005 (Saturday)

got my ticket to Rent the Musical... starring Karen Mok... going with Kerry and KC, a friend coming from Kuala Lumpur... KC said to celebrate my belated birthday when he is here...

we are catching the 3 December 2005 (Saturday) 8pm show... seats D22 to D24... fourth row from the stage... yippie!!

Cafe Vienna Buffet High Tea 1-1

meeting Kerry (probably with Marc and Jerry too) this Sunday to have buffet high tea at Cafe Vienna... 1-1 offer leh... cheapo at work... hahahaha...

Confirmed: Madonna Pink iPod Nano...

* RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR *

www.drownedmadonna.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8972

"We earlier reported a rumour from the music industry about Apple to make another announcement closer to the release of Madonna's new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor" ; they would have announced that Madonna will have her own iPod - similar to U2's in that it will come with her entire catalog.

These rumours have been later reprised by New York Daily News.

WE have now received confirmation that Madonna will indeed have her own iPod. It will be the new iPod Nano - as we previously supposed - and in the color PINK."

The latest rumour from the music industry is that Apple is going to make another announcement closer to the release of Madonna's new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor".

According to the latest speculations from the insiders, they could announce that Madonna will have her own iPod - similar to U2's in that it will come with her entire catalog. It could be the new iPod Nano that just came out.

Keep in mind that at the moment, this is just speculation.

* RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR *

Snippets...

some snippets for the week that has just passed...

Wednesday (5 October 2005)

packed my gym stuff the night before cos i was planning on hitting the gym early in the morning before heading to the office... mum woke me up at 5:45am... it was raining cats and dogs... felt totally lazy... told her i'll go to the gym in the evening instead... hahahaha...

SMSed Sheung in the morning, asking whether there's any running at Mount Faber SAFRA this evening... he replied that they were having a farewell dinner gathering for Kelvin (our running shifu) instead... told him i will join them for the dinner then...

met the gang at Terminal 2 Crystal Jade... what a turnout of around 19 of us in total... glad to meet the gang after more than 9 months of disappearance... most of them commented that i had lost significant weight... indeed...

after dinner it was dessert at Swensens... ice-cream galore... 2 Giant earthquakes, 3 brownie ice-creams and 2 full-size ice-cream cakes... phew... we sure can eat eh?!

said our farewells, took our pictures, hugged hugged, kissed kissed... and goodbye Kelvin... wish you all the best for your stint in Tokyo... take good care and see you soon...

well, there went my plans to get back into shape after 5 months of inaction due to ill health... but i had a great time meeting the gang once again... like a lost child finding his family again...

Thursday (6 October 2005)

attended the annual conference of the Institute of Internal Auditors Singapore... met some familiar faces from my previous employments... nice!! the usual exchange of name cards and catching up on each other... even nicer...

seemed like the last 2 days have been days of meeting old faces... hehe...

**********

met up with Kerry for "Everlasting Regret" (???) at Cineleisure... a very beautifully filmed movie... good acting by Tony Leung Kar Fai... Sammi Cheng's performance was too over-rated... the major letdown had to be her bad Mandarin... as bad as, if not worse than, Michelle Yeoh in Grouchy Tiger, Hideous Dragon...

after the show, Kerry asked about the title... my interpretation was:

1. everlasting regret of Tony for not telling Sammi his love for her... he went through so much, all because of her...

2. everlasting regret of Sammi for living such a promiscuous lifestyle... sleeping with different males at different times of her life...

had dinner at M cafe... great food... beautiful people...

Sunday (9 October 2005)

went for jog in the evening... decided to do it at Hougang stadium, instead of the usual Punggol Park...

ran 2.4km in 12 min 15 secs... not too bad, considering this was the first time i've run in 5 months... actually first exercise in 5 months (excluding all the weekend rendezvous lah)

persevered on (with some walking in between) and managed to complete 4km... still did not give up... eventually ran 5km... decided to take it slow... and not push myself too hard...

**********

an eventful week... looking forward to yet another fruitful week ahead... and i'm out of hibernation... officially...

Quote Of The Year Award...

"I will not put up with slander against myself and my family. Don't play with me. If I am a queen, you are the court jester. I will sue you!"

- Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz to opposition leader Lim Kit Siang who had asked her about claims that she had given Approved Permits for car imports to her son-in-law. Mr Lim had likened the minister to a queen for her rare appearance in Parliament.

Madonna's Pink iPod Nano

luckily i have not bought my iPod nano yet...

* RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR *

Taken from madonnatribe.com:

Apple has announced a "One More Thing" special press conference to be held on October 12, 2005. The event is being promoted to selected media and will take place at the same California Theatre venue in San Jose where the U2 Special Edition iPod was announced last year. "One More Thing" is indeed the oratory phrase that Apple CEO Steve Jobs uses as a prelude to a bombshell announcement, fueling rumours that a new collaboration with a giant of the music business as Madonna will be the main subject of the event.

Taken from groovevolt.com:

Groovevolt.com has learned that Apple will introduce a Madonna-branded iPod nano Thursday (October 12) when the company makes several major product announcements. The company, which entered into a similar agreement with U2 last year, is expected to introduce the pink-colored version of the nano.

Taken from NY Daily News:

For those who crave more, [Madonna's] designing her own iPod, loaded with every recording she's ever made, and - call out the New York faithful - she's planning a concert here for MTV, sources tell us.

* RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR * RUMOR *

Service...

Date: 16 October 2005 Sunday
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Rice Table Suntec City

was here for dinner with my parents and uncle... some snippets on what happened during the evening between the waiter / waitress and me:

WM = Waiter (Male)
WF = Waiter (Female)
D = Dave

**********

after we sat down for a couple of minutes, WM came to our table...

WM: do you want to order some drinks?
D: do you have a drink menu?
WM: we don't have a drink menu.

after some moments of silence...

D (bewildered): so what drinks do you have?
WM: we have coke, diet coke, lime juice, orange juice... ... ...

**********

after dinner, we wanted to order dessert...

D: do you serve desserts here?
WF: yes we do...
D: do you have a dessert menu?
WF: we do not have a dessert menu.

after some moments of silence...

D (more bewildered): so what desserts do you have?
WF: we have chendol and sorbet...

after some moments of silence...

D (highly bewildered): so what sorbet flavours do you have?
WF: lemon... ... ...

**********

end of a not-so-satisfactory dinner outing...

do our service staff in Singapore only speak when spoken to? couldn't they have been more proactive and forthcoming with information that can help the customers make a decision or place an order?

SMRT Challenge 2005

got out of hibernation to write this account...

woke up at 6am to get ready for the SMRT Challenge... realised that i've not read the annual report... hopefully they won't test us on anything in it... hahahaha...

bumped into Jsen at Ang Mo Kio MRT station... took the train together to Woodlands MRT station where the registration point was...

met Eric and off we went... got our challenge pack that contained a poncho, a towel, a bottle of New Water, a Transitlink guide, an Integrated MRT and LRT system map, our number tags, our challenge passport and goddie bag coupons (to be collected at the end of the race)...

there are three categories: open red, open blue and school... we're in the open red category, team number 10 (hence, OR-10)...

some pics of the registration area:




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after registration, we took our group photo... then we had our final briefing before Miss Lim Hwee Hua, the guest-of-honour, flagged the open blue category off... after about 20 minutes, we were flaged off...

some pics of the final briefing conducted by one of the emcees, Robin Goh...




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number tag of some stranger who was sitting in front of me:


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pictures of us before leaving the registration area to collect our clue:
me and Jsen


Jsen and Eric

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got the clues (and our $20 taxi voucher)... started deciphering them... the final 8 challenge stops were (in the order that we went):
1. Kranji (where the turf Club is)
2. Segar (BP11 of the Bukit Panjang LRT)
3. Choa Chu Kang (where Phua Chu Kang said that his surname is not Yeo)
4. Jurong East (where Snow City is)
5. Tanjong Pagar (fill in the blanks)
6. Lavender (near Crawford Street and Horne Road)
7. Khatib (equate numbers with alphabets and solve the puzzle)
8. Sembawang (overslept and ended up at Woodlands and had to take two stops back)

except for Kranji where there was a queue, we completed the rest of the tasks quite quickly...

on the way to Lavender, the 2 posers of our team were taking photos:




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from Lavender, we took a SMRT taxi to Khatib (the most value-for-money way to utilise our $20 taxi voucher)...

after we finished our last task (where we had to give out 60 flyers on safety to the public) at Sembawang, we were neck-to-neck with another team... we were on the same train heading to the finishing point, Woodlands MRT... when we reached Woodlands MRT, we tried to walk briskly (cos running in the MRT is against safety rules and attracts demerit points of 5 minutes)... once out of the MRT station, we were practically sprinting towards the finishing line... managed to be ahead of the other team and eventually, we were the third team to come back...

after registering our return, we had about 2 hours to spare... went to Swensens at Causeway Point for lunch... then it was back to the Challenge area to wait for the official results...

after some games and the prize presentation for the art competition (for kids), it was time to give out the prizes for the winning teams in the 3 categories... indeed, the final results had us at third place... quite a pleasant surprise really... i was never here to win cos i was a last minute substitute (when Jsen's colleague couldn't make it) and i just recovered from my Hepatitis A infection...

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our winning "cheque" of $600...

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more pics of the two posers with the winning cheque:


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the whole idea of the Challenge is to promote safety and courtesy while travelling on public transport... SMRT did a great job and the entire Challenge was VERY well organised... we had a fun time... there's actually no registration fee (i.e. FOC) except for the time and effort we contributed to the success of the race...

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gotta say a big Thank You to Jsen for asking me to take part in this Challenge... luckily it wasn't that physically challenging... except for the travelling, the tasks were mostly written and verbal ones... not forgetting the singing one at Khatib... hahahaha...

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time to get back into hibernation mode and see you guys here once i have sorted things out...