New York New York...

finally booked my air ticket to NYC...
Cathay Pacific discounted ticket at S$2,237...
no mileage accrual...
could not get a flight out on 1 October and has to bring forward my trip to 30 September...
for certain reason, shortened the trip from the original 2.5 weeks to 10 days now...
will be back in Singapore on Saturday 11 October night...
rest on Sunday, in case of jetlag...
looking forward to the trip...
and my first Madonna concert...

High Tea @ Chatterbox...

surprised that Chatterbox was fully booked for high tea on a Sunday afternoon...
Sonny and i were early and we were admiring the view from the 38th floor of Meritus Mandarin while waiting for our table to be ready...
the high tea was a local and Asian one...
the food was quite nice...
but of course the company was far better...
it is always a joy catching up with the dolls...

OCBC platinum credit card has a 1-for-1 discount...
the kind cashier actually asked if i have an OCBC platinum credit card...
luckily i have...
saved so much!!

7th Month Ends...

so glad that the Lunar 7th month has ended...
it has been a rough month...
Lillian Too was right in her 2008 Fengshui book for Rats...
looking forward to the Lunar 8th month...
but has to control on my intake of moon cakes...
hahahaha...

Wall-E...

saw the movie on Friday night...
was disappointed...
mainly because there was not much dialogue...
as the two main leads were robots...
and somehow the expressions of the two robots were very limited too...
some scenes were quite touching...
of course the show was thought-provoking too...
made one think about life in the future...
where we are all so lazy and grew fat...
cannot even stand on our own two feet, literally...

The Week Passes By...

my legs were feeling pretty alright after the half marathon on Sunday...
partly due to the deep heat that i had applied...

into my second week of Herbalife...
been experimenting with different juices and mixing with different volume...
my sensitive stomach has been producing gas actively whenever i mixed the shake with juices...
even had diarrhoea on Monday due to the high concentration of fruit juice, together with real fruits...
will continue to monitor the situation...
but i will be switching to the chocolate flavour next...
not much mixing can be done for chocolate flavour...

had dinner with my ex-staff at the newly-renovated Beng Hiang restaurant in Amoy Street...
they are still surviving without me...
good to know that...

watching Wall-E tonight...
hopefully it is nice...

Tie...

met David and Jason for lunch...
my first proper lunch since last Monday when i started on the Herbalife meal replacement...
will replace dinner with the shake tonight...
had Thai food at Boat Quay...
very nice... and aircon restaurant...
set lunch for S$10.50 per pax...
free flow of white rice and lime juice...
we ordered popiah and Thai fishcake too...
during lunch, i dirtied the orange-coloured tie that i bought during my retail therapy two weeks ago...
tried to wash it with the handsoap in the office toilet...
did not help much...
will have to see if mum knows a way to get rid of it...

yesterday met Tracy and Grace for measurements...
lost 1.3kg since i started Herbalife...
well done!!
keep it up...
my target is to reach 56kg...
from 62.8kg two weeks ago...

Singapore Bay Run 2008...

the alarm went off at 4am sharp...
shut it off and went back to bed...
by the time i woke up, it was 4:30am...
rush rush...
had breakfast, packed my bag and took a cab to Raffles City to meet Joseph and KC...
slight drizzle while i was waiting for them...
luckily we found a lot in no time...
but we were still late by the time we reached the starting point...
was at least a good 15 minutes behind...
bad mistake cos we were stranded by the runners in front...
could not run our own pace at all...

this year's Bay Run had its route changed...
introducing the first time running across the Marina Barrage...
it was a bad idea cos the trail that leads to the Barrage was uneven...
felt like running in MacRitchie Reservoir...
had to stop and walk instead...
the number of isotonic water points was also reduced...
last year they did a great job...
this year has to be my worst run in so many years...

and just when our Prime Minister was talking about social graciousness during his National Day Rally last week...
we met so many ugly Singaporeans during the race...
running couples who were walking right in the middle of the trail...
but at least they were not holding hands...
a father pushing a pram while running...
what was he thinking??
and of course, those Indians and Caucasians who do not believe in deodorants...
could hardly breathe whenever we run past them...
finally those poor army boys who were forced to participate...
they ended up walking and blocking the serious runners' way...
sometimes you can even have three of them walking side by side yakking away...
very sad...

finished the run in 2 hours 44 minutes...
taking me longer and longer time to finish the run each year...
KC reminded me that we are also getting older as the year goes by...
the Padang was muddy and wet...
very bad conditions...
changed and headed home...
to quote KC: one milestone completed... one more to go...
the December Standard Chartered half marathon...

bought Joseph's car number 3693...
won the consolation prize...
S$300 in the pocket...
will give you a treat when you return from California, dude...
lolz...

Saturday Feasts...

breakfast at Jalan Kayu prata Thesavi...
they have gone electronic in their order taking and payment...
had the delicious otak otak from a few shops away...
then it was home for some rest...

haircut at Loyang Point...
and Korean dinner at Downtown East...
i was never a fan of Korean food...
bad bad choice...
Sonny also felt that the food was not authentic enough...

was stuck to the TV watching the Olympics men's diving competition...
such a thriller...
with the Australian performed a near perfect last dive to win the gold medal from China...
eventually slept at close to 1am...
waking up at 4am later for the Singapore Bay Run...

Alcohol Overdose...

met the Ugly Dolls for dinner at Eight cafe and bar...
limited choice of food...
settled for my Cosmopolitan and a laksa pasta with creme brulee...
the mojito some of them ordered did not have enough brown sugar...
while their steaks were incorrectly done: the well done was like medium while the medium felt like rare...
good for the restaurant to replace the items...

had a total of four bottles of red wine...
alcohol overdose...
talked too much...
maybe hurt somebody...
shall not do it again...
or learn to keep my mouth shut...

was hungry when at Sonny's place...
had maggi noodles while watching the Olympics...
carbo loading for Sunday's half marathon accomplished...

20082008...

today is 20082008...
besides that nothing special...
met an ex-colleague for dinner at AMK Hub...
talked about my Bintan trip and her HK trip...
how small HK Disneyland is...
about the typhoon alert on her last day in HK...
the discussion somehow drifted to maintaining friendships with ex-colleagues...
she said that a few of her closer friends now are her ex-colleagues...
interestingly, they only became closer after they have left the company...
and just yesterday, Steve also wrote something about visiting his ex-school...
i have been keeping in touch with some ex-colleagues...
somehow, there is the additional effort that we have to put in to maintain the friendship...
in the past, we were able to see each other everyday...
now maybe once a week if we are lucky...
or maybe once a month...
but ultimately it really depends on how much we cherish them...
to determine how much effort and time we are willing to spend on them...

Babies...

so the dust has settled after the National Day Rally 2008...
or has the NDR stirred more rounds of debates...
16 weeks of maternity leave...
6 days of paid childcare leave...
6 days of unpaid infant care leave for children below 2 years old
whole lot of tax incentives...
and other subsidies for artificial insemination procedures...
the Government has been incredibly successful in the past with most, if not all, their campaigns...
why they fail so miserably this time around??
have we found the root cause (or cost) of the problem??
or are we only scratching the surface of the issue??
instead of looking into the crystal ball for answers...
we went to ask the women’s group for solutions...
and hence, the results are as above...
what about the heads of the businesses and companies??
have they been consulted??
they are after all profit-driven...
and 16 weeks of maternity leave will definitely have a serious impact on their bottom line...
and what about the men??
and the singles??
have they been consulted??
unfortunately, i am a man and i am single...
double whammy for people like me then??

raising a kid is a lifetime commitment...
and not only about the initial 2 years...
how to make it affordable / easier for working mums is indeed a challenge...
i have no solutions too...

but like any other good Singaporean...
i will have to accept this little red dot for what it is...
and what it will become...
i have no plans to migrate to another country yet...
not that i love Singapore that much... maybe only on National Day...
but i could not bear to leave my loved ones behind...
my parents, my family and my friends...

whatever it is...
i will still not give up my seat to pregnant women on public transport...
they enjoyed the sex...
they enjoyed the goodies...
i did not...
so they better bear with it...

Herbalife...

met up with Tracy & Grace two Thursdays ago to hear about their success stories with Herbalife...
was introduced to some of their products at the Ngee Ann City office...
quite a variety of products from inner health to outer beauty...
decided that i should give it a try...

met up with them again to collect the products last Monday...
got the shake, tea, aloe concentrate and a bottle of pills...
comes with a whole set of containers, spoons, shaker and pill box too...
also did a quick body check to record my current statistics for future comparisons and monitoring...
had a shock that i have grown to 62.8kg...
from 60kg about a month ago...

will have to sit down and think of how to start the programme...
quite a hassle in the beginning i am sure...
a lot of measuring, mixing and shaking...
and i have to find enough containers for each mix / shake...
also to consider which meal to replace...
breakfast is definitely out...
so it’s either lunch or dinner...
but once i am able to get into a routine, it should be easier...

will be starting the routine from tomorrow...
wish me luck...

Southern Ridges...

no breakfast with my parents for they have gone to Malacca for a short trip since yesterday...
instead, met up with the Ugly Dolls at Seah Im Food Centre for our Southern Ridges walk...
the sun was bright and hot; perfect for a Sunday morning walk...
we set off at around 9:15am, after breakfast at Seah Im...
from the Marang Trail to Henderson Waves to Mount Faber to Alexandra Arch to HortPark...
we completed the walk at around 11:30am...
with numerous cam-whoring moments along the way...
had a short break in HortPark to enjoy the flora...
before heading to the Reflections Of Bukit Chandu museum...
it has been a few years since my last visit...
we were entertained by the educational multimedia presentations...
unfortunately the rain came just before we were done with the museum...
had our short break of chips, cookies and snacks...
as the rain showed no sign of stopping...
we called cabs to bring us out...
picked up the car at Vivocity...
and we had dim sum at Ah Yat seafood restaurant in Singapore Turf Club...
did not eat much for my head was feeling a little light...
maybe from the altitudes of the walk... lolz...
came home and realised that my THB100 sunglasses were missing...
well... reason for more retail therapy perhaps...

Retail Therapy Continues...

bought a pair of red NewUrbanMale slippers from the shop in Pasir Ris Downtown East...
was tempted to take up their buy-3-get-1-free promotion...
with different colours to match my wardrobe...
in the end, gave it a miss...

collected my Singapore Bay Run goodie bag at Toa Payoh SAFRA...
was early for my facial...
shopped at Marina Square...
bought a pair of Mizuno running shoes and a set of matching running gear...
was surprised at how much these things cost nowadays...
the last time i updated my running gear was more than two years ago...
have been wearing the same old thing for two Singapore Bay Runs and StanChart half marathons...
time for a change...
but the Mizuno running shoes will not be seasoned in time for the Bay Run next Sunday...
will try to make sure it is ready by December...

12 Lotus...

after a huge surprising success with 881...
how does Royston Tan think he can surpass those expectations??
well, for one, stick to the same getai theme...
with a more varied soundtrack...
the storyline for 12 Lotus was a disappointment...
about the life story of a getai singer who went crazy after she was raped by a bunch of hooligans...
simple yet tragic...
tragic because the transition between the younger and older female lead was unconvincing...
even the growing up of the male child star, Xiao Fei Xia, was badly done...
a lot was left unexplained...
even the soundtrack, though varied, lacked a certain punch this time...
the acting by Qi Yu Wu was atrocious...
he was better in 881 where he did not have to utter a word at all...
Mindee Ong was average at most... failed by her grasp of the language...
was surprised that Stephanie Sun had a cameo in the movie...
and somehow Yeo Yann Yann was short changed for her cameo role too...

same theme, same cast, same musicians...
that is nothing but a disaster for any movie...

Olympics Tennis...

been following the tennis matches...
so far could only catch a couple of matches...
and check the rest of the results from the Beijing Olympics official website...

last night was watching the match between American Venus Williams and Chinese Li Na...
as much as i would like to see Venus triumph in the competition (she won the Gold medal in Sydney 2000), it would be nice for the host country to have a player in the semi-finals...
Zheng Jie, the recent sensation at Wimbledon 2008, has already crashed out of the tennis competition earlier...
so Li Na, the unseeded player, is China’s only hope in the women’s single Gold medal...
in the end, Li Na managed to pull through from a 0-3 down from the beginning of the match to beat Venus 7-5, 7-5...
Venus went out of form in the middle of the match, just like Roger Federer did earlier in his match against James Blake...

the Russian ladies on the other hand, has at least two players in the semi-finals and at least a silver medal...
Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva (who beat the other Williams sister, Serena, in an earlier match)...

my favourite male player on the tour, Rafael Nadal, has reached the semi-finals of the game...
hope he wins the Gold medal...
it will be the perfect icing on the cake after winning the French Open and Wimbledon this year...
and further boosts his chances at winning the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open...
but no matter what happens, he will be the new world number 1 from next week...
dethroning Roger Federer from the seat that he has been occupying for the last few years...

Gone Baby Gone...

before i left the house today...
wanted to pack a change of casual clothes for this evening...
cos i do not want to be in office attire during my facial...
to my horror, my red Haviannas slippers were missing from the shoe rack outside the house...
i have been leaving it outside for years now...
and suddenly today they are gone...

told mum about it...
she said she has seen a new Chinese cleaner on our floor lately...
maybe he has stolen the slippers...
guess it's possible...
since it is red in colour...
China's national colour...

it's time to shop for slippers...
after my shopping spree last night...

Shopping Spree...

collected my Borders Preferred Card and bought 2 books...
James Patterson's You've Been Warned and John Grisham's The Appeal...

after that went on a shopping spree...
first it was Isetan...
bought 4 shirts from G2000...
and 2 matching ties from Isetan...

next went to Tangs to look for a belt...
found nothing...
stopped by Zara on our way to dessert...
got a brown belt that is reversible...
very pleased with today's results...
it is such a breeze shopping on a weekday...

Run Baby Run...

had breakfast with my parents at AMK...
the usual Sunday morning routine...

the rest of the day was spent watching the Olympics on TV...
could not believe that i actually spent close to 2 hours watching the live telecast of the Women’s Cycling event...
i was glad that James Blake won his opening match against Australia...

inspired by the Olympics, i went for a run in the evening...
the sun was shining bright and hot after the rain...
felt extremely good after the 9km run...
good preparation for the 21km Singapore Bay Run on 24 August 2008...

bought a pair of water-resistant Panasonic earphones from Popular...
my last S$60 Sony earphones could not take the sweat and the rubber melted after about a year...
hopefully this S$18 Panasonic one can last longer...

Flopped Retail Therapy...

woke up with a headache at 7am...
did not sleep well...
not sure why...
popped a Panadol and headed back to sleep...
it was already 10am when i got out of bed...
saw the weightlifting event live on TV...
China won their first gold medal...

had breakfast at Kim Gary in Vivocity...
my second time there...
they do not serve luncheon meat...
had the Nissin noodles with egg and ham instead...
not too bad...
started the retail therapy at around 2pm...
flopped totally... at least for me...
bought nothing... totally nothing...

Sonny, on the other hand, went home full of things...
2 t-shirts and a pair of bermudas Pull & Bear, a table fan from Best Denki and a pair of sandals from Pedro...
he nearly bought a watch (with a red face cos he needed red colour in his life, according to the Fengshui Master)...
but they are only left with the one on display... so he gave it a miss...

had coffee at the Coffee Club in Harbourfront Centre...
a much less crowded place to be than Vivocity...

checked out GV for The Mummy...
all shows were sold out until 10pm...
went to Seah Imm Food Centre for cheap dinner...
fried kway teow and Hokkien prawn noodles for $2 each...

call it a day after that and headed home...
managed to catch part of the NDP 2008 parade...
was not impressed...
especially after the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony last night...
but i still felt proud to be a Singaporean for that one day...

08.08.08...

08/08/2008 a special day in the history of the Chinese people, whom are one of the most superstitious race in the world...
the 29th Olympiad opening ceremony in Beijing started at 8pm sharp on this significant day...
it has been a long road to this day and China has done wonders to make sure everything is in place...
Zhang Yimou did a splendid job with the direction of the ceremony...
the fireworks dazzled and thrilled the world...
Sarah Brightman’s duet with Liu Huan on the theme song, You And Me, was touching...
she even sang a few lines in Mandarin... lolz...
Li Ning, the final torch bearer’s performance puts everyone in awe...
for a day in my life, i am proud to be a Chinese...
and i am sure the Chinese people too feel the same, if not more so...

White Vs. Coloured...

realised that i do not have ties to match my green, orange and red shirts...
think i will start to buy plain white shirts from now on...
easier to match with the dull-coloured ties i have...
G2000 sale still on...
maybe time for some retail therapy...

Burn Tummy Burn...

been feeling this heartburn sensation for a few days now...
started on Sunday afternoon...
maybe it is due to indigestion since i went to sleep after breakfast and lunch...
and there was this intermittent pulling pain which could be very acute at times...
Monday the tummy became bloated...
and dad recommended some Chinese medicine ointment to help ease the bloating...
felt better after that...
but started farting... real smelly stinko farts...
Tuesday was feeling much better...
and today i have diarrhoea...
probably my system is protesting from all the good food i have been taking for my farewell lunches and dinners... lolz...
think everything should be back to normal by end of the week...

Krisha's Birthday...

celebrated Krisha’s birthday with a dinner at Modesto’s Vivocity...
has been to the outlet in Orchard and enjoyed the food a couple of months ago...
except for the lamp chop (which was quite fat), the other dishes were yummy...
the calamari, Portobello mushrooms, pizza with salami, and seafood ravioli...
we ordered a total of three desserts: tiramisu, brownie with ice-cream and chocolate profiteroles...
while sipping the Mocato dessert sparkling wine (which i fell in love with the last time after trying it at the Orchard outlet)...
it was a simple yet enjoyable evening...

Happy Birthday Krisha Mama...

Steve's 36th Birthday...

finally decided to join the gang for the birthday dinner...
was originally planning on having a private 1-1 session with him...
so that we can update each other on the latest...
before that went to Molton Brown in Raffles Hotel to get Steve a gift...
last year i bought him the shower gel...
this year got the air freshener and the hand lotion, both of the same scent...
hope he likes the scent...

it was good to see so many of them at the dinner...
although in the past i have always joined them for the Christmas gathering...
met Eric’s boyfriend for the first time...
dinner was at The Cathay restaurant...
there were so many 1-for-1 promotions going on at the same time...
most of us chose the UOB promotion eventually...
dinner was never boring with these guys around...
Steve thanked all of us for celebrating his 36th birthday with him...
i can tell that that must be something he cherishes very much...
considering that we have known each other since 1987...

Saturday...

went to the Singapore Expo...
bought nothing from the Watson’s sale and the underwear sale...
after three rounds, finally bought some titbits from the Asian Food Fair...
the queue for the NATAS travel fair was incredibly long...
and we kept complaining that times are bad, high inflation, etc...
yet the travel fair was a record-breaking one this year...

Sonny picked me up at 6:30pm...
went back to Downtown East for dinner...
wanted to watch The Mummy but it was sold out until the 9:55pm show...
gave up and had dinner at BBQ Chicken...
delicious chicken... fast service... and friendly staff...

Town...

after work, showered at California Fitness before taking the MRT to Orchard...
on the way met an ex-colleague, Koby, who was from Thailand...
caught up on the latest happenings in my ex-office...
decided that we should go gym together some time...
dinner with Sonny at Lucky Plaza...
a famous and crowded Ayam Penyet (friend chicken) place...
ordered the Ayam Penyet, Gado Gado and fried catfish...
the lime juice was so nice we had another round of it...
shopped at Tangs after dinner...
on the way to Borders, bought some biscuits from Marks & Spencer...
Sonny did not know about the underpass linking Shaw House to Wheelock Place... lolz...
bought two books from Borders...
locked our purchases in the car in Paragon and headed to Cineleisure for the movie...
after the movie, we had coffee at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves before calling it a night...

The Book Of Revelation...

was glad that the movie as finally showing in Singapore...
bought the book at a discount a few years back during one of the book fair...
was attracted to it by the title...
cos i thought it was related to religion and the Bible...
was pleasantly surprised that it was about sado-masochistic behaviour...
a male dancer was kidnapped by three women...
in an exchange of gender roles, the male dancer lost control of himself to the three kidnappers...
they masturbated him, gave him blowjobs, were fucked by him as well as fucked him (using a dildo)...
he even had to piss on himself in a sign of total loss of control...
after 12 days in captivity, he was released...
and the plot switched to one of him seeking revenge...
trying to find the three kidnappers...
from the tattoos and marks they had on their bodies...
eventually he failed... miserably...
the movie was also about his struggle to come to terms with the humiliation he had felt...
personally, like most movies adapted from books, i prefer the book to the movie...
where details were more vividly described...
the movie was a little too draggy and the pace was not tight enough...

Hungry Ghost Festival...

time flies...
it's the Lunar 7th month again...
this year it is from 1 August to 30 August 2008...
do be more careful...

of course there will be lotsa getai to watch also lah...