In "normal" or routine situation, yes all of us need to play by the book. But how about in "desperate situation"?...for illustrations:

Example #1:
Your boss in overseas holiday and uncontactable, you are a small team supervisor. You have 2 person shortage to run the operation, and in order to meet deadlines, you need to call for 2 additional temp staffs, which will incur cost. Choose your decision below:

a. Activate this 2 temp staffs, offer valid explaination to your boss, and if your boss don't accept your explaination, you pay for the 2 temp staff wages
b. Boss is the decision maker, I will not make decision on his behalf and run the risk of destroying my good relationship with him.

Most women will answer b, while men a

Example #2:
You are in-charge of writing management report. This report informs client on container movements in sequence during the day. Container A and B move-out at almost the same time (container B moves 5 minutes later). But container B returns 20 minutes earlier than container A. [Sequence of container movement: AB-BA]. You are puzzled by this, but the person-in-charge of container movement is very busy at the moment, and can't be disturbed. Choose your decision:

a. To be logical I shall record as container B moves-out 5 minutes earlier, and thus returns 20 minutes earlier. [Sequence of container movement: BA-BA]
b. I need to double-check, since the person in charge is of same level, I shall call him anyway and confirm. I better confirm than sorry.

Note: Whether container A or container B move first, it is an insignificant fact. Driver B might move first, but he delay for 5 mins for toilet break, but women will still confirm and double-check. Thus, most women will answer b, while men a. 

  
There is no right and wrong answer in the above examples, I'm just saying that women will tend to (1) avoid argument with bosses (person with authority), however small disagreement it might be; (2) overly concern over petty issues, which might not be significant enough to dedicate time and attention.

The younger the lady is, the stronger the above two tendencies. I would say tendency #1 stands out over what happened to poor young malaysian chinese girl conned by cops to have sexual intercourse. In short, Newpaper (24 June) reported in this way, this girl and her boyfriend are caught driving without valid license. The cops threatened the girl to "give-in" and have sex with the cops, otherwise her boyfriend will be put in jail for 20 years. And the girl complied.

Having said this much, I would like to advise all ladies out there (including my girlfriend), do not be paralyzed by "power" or "authority". You should think clearly and check all your facts, before you comply or act.   

Further digging into the matter revealed that, Jim has lent her $48,000 (without obligation) to finance her study. Jim also claims that she let him “hold her waist and her shoulder”, and they have seen each other for two years. During that period, Amy has rejected several offers from Jim to be his girlfriend. The molest incident happens after Amy asked only Jim to go for holiday in South Korea, citing no other friend available, and slept on the same bed with him for 4 days, citing booking mistake.

If I were to analyze the above case, I would say that the guilty party is Amy due to several reasons. First, she accepted Jim’s cash handout. Second, she allowed him to hold her waist. Lastly, she went to an overseas trip only with him, and sleeping on the same bed. From a guy point of view, these three are positive signals despite the verbal rejection. A guy will assume the verbal rejection as the usual girls’ ‘playing hard to get’ act.

The only way for her to rebuff the above points is a claim that she is super gullible, and thus treats the $48k as a loan from ‘good friend’. Being naïve, she ignored several facts: (a) Jim wants more than friend; (b) No ‘free lunch’ in this world, i.e. Nobody would lent a big amount of money, without obligation to return. Unfortunately, the argument of girls’ naivety is weak. She is a 24-year old graduate student, which means she is matured and clever enough to interpret Jim’s interest in her. 

Those people who genuinely believe that she is innocent, assume that: girls are incapable of using their body to get boys’ money / attention. Again this assumption is weak. For illustrations: (1) Xiaoyun, a 20+ year old girl from China, offered raunchy pictures of herself in exchange for donation (read: money) to Sichuan earthquake victim; (2) Austrian and Germans’ women footballers played nude soccer to encourage their men counterpart. One could not rule out a possibility that Amy is a cunning lady. 

Guys!, Brothers!, listen to me before you commit suicide, or die because of loneliness, or become a monk. Here are certain facts that can help to win your dream girl:

1.     A girl always confused between accepting money and receiving love. Illustration: If you come to a girl and said “here is $20k, would you please become my girlfriend?” you will get a slap probably. However, If you use that $20k and bought her a expensive diamond ring, and said “I love you, and this ring expresses my everlasting love to you”. Chances are, you make her heart melt! For a guy, there is no difference between cash worth $20k and diamond worth $20k. But for a girl, strange as it might be, these two items are different!. Cash make a girl look cheap (like prostitute), but gifts make a girl feel valuable (or loved).  

Lesson learned: Shower her with gifts, and proclaim that the gifts are nothing compared to her beauty. Tell her that the gifts are your expression of love. (Warning: this might hurt your pocket badly, but the simple truth is you need money to win a girl heart)

2.   It is a girl’s natural instinct to seek protection from powerful guys. 

In ancient time (hunting period), a woman (mother) was tasked to protect her children, while a man was tasked to find food (hunting). Thus, to guarantee steady flows of food, and to protect her children from wild beasts, she needs to find a strong man. A strong man would be able to find food consistently, and protect his family from threats.

This tendency to find strong man still embedded in women until today. No matter how advanced our society is, women will always look for protection from men, it is women’s natural instinct for survival.

So, how do women look for indication of strong man in today’s society? Strong man is not necessarily the most muscular guy. However, signs of a strong man in front of women’s eyes are: BIG titles (Director, Manager, etc); above average salary; fancy cars; fancy clothes (branded items), etc. Women feel that the guy that has some or all these attributes, would be able to protect them. 

Lesson learned: Appeal to women ‘sense of security’ by wearing branded items (wear good quality counterfeits, if you can’t afford), and talking as if you are on the verge of big success (for examples: you can charm her by telling her that you have plans to set up your own company, you have plans to win big contract or promotions). 

To help you understand more, here are some ‘Don’t’ that you should not commit when you are chasing a girl:

·        Don’t tell her your troubles, worries, anxieties. Remember: Appear strong, tell her about you past successes instead.

·        Don’t tell her you are not destined to be rich (or great). Instead, tell her about your big ambitions and dreams.

·        Don’t say you could not solve her problems. Remember: Appear matured and strong, listen to all her problems and offer some solutions.

·        Don’t say there are other girls better than her. Instead, always compliment her.

The above tips are not about cheating, but it is about hiding your weaknesses and presenting yourself the best you can be. No girl would want to mate with pessimist, loser, or no-hoper. Girls simply want to be protected and loved, and in order to do so, guys need money.

Please bear in mind that you also need lots of persistence and some luck in order to get hitch with the girl of your dream. All the best to single men out there, who never give up!

1.      Ms Alison Lim, 36, Managing Director of a public relations firm, has staved off buying luxury goods since January because she wanted to invest her money instead of spending it. She could not resist GSS. Her reason: “Because the economy not so great, it’s a case of not buying until you see a good deal” She spent nearly $10k on a pair of ‘Jimmy Choo’ shoes, DKNY clothes, and a Louis Vuitton handbag. Her total savings were about $3k.

2.      Dr Karen Chua, 35, who got herself a ‘Hugo Boss’ handbag and two ‘Ermenegildo Zegna’ shirts for her husband, plus clothes and toys for her three children. Her reason: “GSS is the perfect opportunity to stock up on presents for the family that I will give at a later time”.

Both ladies are holding good job, with ‘higher than average’ salary. Other than their income level, another interesting commonality is both ladies actually intend to save by buying luxury brands during GSS.

Their reasoning does not hold because spending on luxuries IS NOT saving. Spending on luxuries is spending on unnecessary things. Surely, there are cheaper handbag, clothes, shoes than branded ones. Furthermore, you can infer from the article that these things are not essential items.

Despite my criticism above, I do understand that ladies love to shop. Somehow shopping makes them feel powerful, in the same mold, wearing branded good would make them feel ‘elegant and glamorous’. Thus, my two-cent worth of advice to all ladies out there: Just admit you love to shop! admit that you want to look good by wearing luxuries (note: in girls’ perspective, luxuries = quality goods). There is no need to reason with nobler cause, like savings, stocking for future needs, buying for husbands, etc.  

One of the many things that never fail to amaze me is the Asian women adoration to “men with golden-hair” a.k.a. Ang-moh. You can observe this phenomenon on Orchard road, where you can find many asian women – western men couples holding hands together.

While majority of ang-moh men have attractive qualities, such as handsome, taller and bigger-built than average asian men, and perceived as “rich and successful” men, I believe asian men would make better spouse than ang-moh because of the following reasons:

1.     Asian men have similar background, culture, and language compared to their ang-moh counterpart. One of my neighbors is English (husband) – Japanese (wife) couple. I noticed that the wife speaks to their daughter in Japanese, while the husband speaks to their daughter in English. I wonder, how this couple maintain harmonious atmosphere if they speaks two language under one roof. 

2.     Majority of ang-moh men have superiority complex over asian people, which means that they would less likely to respect asian women as their equal partner. Although there are cases of successful happy marriage between asians and westerners, there are many more cases of divorce or worse. One of my friend (a girl) fell in love with an ang moh, became pregnant, and then neglected by him. I suspect this guy fools around with another asian girl. 

The above reasons will not convince an asian girl not to fall in love with western guy, that’s not the aim of this article anyway. Instead, I would like to urge fellow asian men to have confidence when competing with an ang-moh to get a pretty asian women. We are better than ang-moh!, Ang-moh does not reign supreme over Asians!

Things would be getting from bad to worse from now on. Consider this, St. James Power Station, noting asian women fascination to western men, has decided to give free entry to foreigners according to My Paper. In addition, there would be influx of ang-moh men to Singapore due to U.S. recession. The Straits Times reported on 5 June 2008 that more retrenched American bankers are looking to resume their career in Singapore, which so far not affected by the recent financial melt-down. 

More Ang-moh loaded with money arrived in Singapore shore would means more Eurasian babies produced here. Not to mention, more divorce cases between two different races with two different backgrounds. My Asian-men brethrens, up-in-arms!

=======================

Mr. Singgih Gunawan, a Singapore businessman, pays $332k for 12 bottles of 1990 Domaine de la Ronanee-Conti, which is described as the scarcest, most expensive wine in the world. He has been in Singapore for 6 years, and now split his time between Indonesia and Singapore.

=======================

Well, no matter what, I believe that Mr. Singgih is probably Indonesian-born Singaporean. What catches my attention is, ST conveniently label him as "a Singapore businessman."

I think one of the reasons is Singapore ego who attributed anything that rich, good, pretty, beautiful as Singaporean characteristics. Another example to support this is the case of Ronald Susilo, Indonesian-born Singaporean badminton player. Since Ronald is good in badminton, therefore he must be written / labeled as Singaporean.

I find the above story interesting because it is somehow connected to my life. For your info, I'm not black. I'm Indonesian-born Singaporean Chinese. Confused?...Let me put it in point form. Here is my profile: Born in: Indonesia. Nationality: Singaporean. Race: Chinese. Like the protagonist in the above novel, sometimes I'm stuck between Indonesian and Singaporean. When people ask me what is your nationality?...what should I say?...Indonesian (not quite, since I'm Singapore citizen), or Singaporean (The born-and-bred Singaporean would frown and look me in disgust).

I believe the root of the issue is the "born-and-bred-in-Singapore" Singaporean attitude toward new citizens. These so called "true-blue-Singaporeans" do not accept new-Singaporeans as Singaporeans. "the original Singaporeans" would behave in the following manners toward their new brethens. First, purposely forget that the new singaporeans are singaporeans. They will ask recurring questions like: "when you go back to your country?...";  "are you a Singapore PR?...". Second, remind that new singaporeans are still foreigners. They will state "but you are not born in Singapore"; "but you never do National Service (NS)".

Honestly, I find it difficult to make lasting conversation with the "born-and-bred-in-Singapore" Singaporeans.  In addition to the above behavior, they often "put me out of conversation". For example: talking about NS, about the goodness / greatness of Singapore (e.g. we singaporeans like to watch National Day Parade), or about Singapore politics climate.

The Singapore government coined the term "One Singapore", which I think reach to Singaporeans in all races. However, this term left out those Singapore PRs that took the plunge and converted to Singapore citizens. The government should campaign to educate the "born-and-bred-in-Singapore" singaporeans to accept their new brethens, otherwise I'm afraid that the government efforts to convince Singapore PRs to convert to Singapore citizens would be less effective.

Singaporeans are fast becoming multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religion and multi-country-of-origin. It is sad to see that "born-and-bred-in-Singapore" Singaporeans fail to accept this simple truth.   

Some interesting things that captivate me:

• All life are created equal, or is it?...are scum, thief, killer psychopath deserve to live?...
• You need to let go painful memories in order to move forward. "A convenient substitute" can always be found, to replace painful memories.
• Name give a person identity, such that he can have meaningful life. The most cruel thing in this world is to take away name from people. In the story, the villains are nameless, they use several names, but none of them are their true name. (I believe this is based on Viktor Frankl idea, "Man Search for Meaning").

1. Kirsten Ashlee Yong
2. Lynn Kayleigh Yong

The above names are protected by copyrights, hehe... 

1. "greatness has nothing to do with humiliation" 
2. The statement is wrong because it would infer that, a man who take greater humiliation is a great man.

To tell you the truth, I only hear about the scoff about my shout-out from my girlfriend, and have not check the exact wording. I'm totally not interested in engaging war of words to whoever that disagree with the above phrase.

However, I need to remind you that I do not like a person who uttered half-truth, because it indicates that the person is a liar, deceit, swindler, etc etc... Before I go off-track, an example of Half-truth is point no 2 above. If you can't see my point, let me highlight to you that point no 2 eliminates the phrase "humiliation for a bigger purpose." let me repeat: FOR A BIGGER PURPOSE. It is NOT all kinds of humiliation.

Whoever agrees with point no 2 has lack of depth, not to mention try to pose as intelligent person. Seriously, you need to have clarity of the whole issue (i.e. look at the bigger picture) before you attacked my shout-out (i.e. you act).   

This is a topic that I had always feel strongly about but somehow just shrug it off.

Perhaps I was compelled to write only because just yesterday two young girls from a non-secular primary school just brushed me aside because I was in their way. I was in their way because there is someone else in my way. There is such a thing as an informal queue. And acceptable behaviour.

Why is there such a phenomenon?

Some people answered:

(1) I am justified in being rude
(2) Others are rude first, so i retaliate

......

One thing I know, rudeness comes from different categories of people. There is no common denominator:

(i) a fit looking, powerfully built young man knocked me flying as I was queuing for food. Maybe he does not know his own strength. But the rudeness comes from his feeling that that is natural behaviour - no apology, no backward glance, just continue scanning the food area for nice food before returning to the queue. Perhaps he thought this is an army camp?

(2) young men and girls who felt that they have a right to walk with shoulders straight and heads tall, bashing shoulders with others who do not give way to them. Perhaps this is their perception of NLP?

(3) old people who walked unsteadily and brushed into you. Later i learnt that their sense of mobility is quite restricted due to some medical condition and no longer as flexible as before. They do not intend to be rude. Do be careful of the old. They could be your parents or you yourself in a just a blink of an eye.

(4) Men. No difference whether they are young or old. Behind the wheels of a car or bus, they are usually the same. Even on a bicycle.

(5) All. They will deliberately cut into your path.

....

Someone said, "Others are rude first. I retaliate". Makes good sense.

You learnt to cut into others, make sure you reach the turnstile first, walk slowly after that, stare into the eyes of others and if they meet your eyes, stare at them and ask, 'kuah simi'. Walk with heads tall and shoulders straight. If the girls wish to act the same, brush against their chests. For the guys, strengthen your shoulders and bash them.

To prepare yourself for the battle of life, take up weightlifting and martial arts. Join the Army.

....

But there are the courteous in our society, people who gave way to others, who do not indulge in shoulder bashing or shoving. Sometimes I feel like going up to them and say "Thank you for being such a courteous person".

...

Once I saw a young executive holding a lift door open for me.

I thanked him.

"Oh, it's okay. Nothing really."

We got to talking and he passed me his name card.

He's a financial advisor.

I know what you are thinking.

What I am thinking is "It's nice to meet such a courteous person".

I kept his name card.

Some people said that the ketoprak is quite nice. I tried the ketroprak when I went there couple of weeks ago. It is nice, although you still can't compare with those which we usually buy from tukang ketoprak street vendors in Jakarta.

More pictures (not many) can be found here.

I thought it was a giddy spell, as I have had one two many meetings these few days. But having experienced the swaying buildings before in March this year (see this post by me and this post by Otterman), I knew it may be another tremor. I could definitely feel the sway, so I asked the wife, wassup? She was listening to snow patrol and suddenly felt giddy and then we saw the one of our kids' bag hanging on the doorknob sway. And then the building swayed a little again.... So we decided let's just walk down stairs bringing the kids who thought it all fun. So before I could feel paiseh about it, I met quite a few block members hanging around the pavement and looking at the buildings. The ground floor of the flats across the junction were also gathered some people who were also looking up at the buildings.

Called Siva, because he would probably be online and being so Web2.0 savvy could check out what was happening. I remembered also that he knew where to check in real time the websites that reported earthquakes, but he didn't answer handphone, so called Ladybug who was at a seminar/class but didn't feel anything even though her friend later said the projector screen was shaking... Finally got Siva and he checked up the useful USGS site to tell me that it was a Sumatran earthquake measuring about 8 in magnitude. Check out his first post today about it here and the second one on how to report tremors.

Check out also Leafmonkey's extensive and interesting perspective of Singaporean's reactions to the tremors.

Later our upstairs neighbour recalled that she was trying to put her baby to sleep when felt the bed moving, so she listened out to see if there were anyone in the block screaming, a measure of how serious the situation was and then went back to tuck her baby into bed.

Here are some pictures at Sengkang. By this time the crowd slowly petered out.

One of the families brought down a suitcase.

By this time, the crowd was petering off and I was relaying to them Siva's news that it was a sumatran earthquake.

extra notes

Jen said she felt giddy cos maybe she had been too busy with her flu and work

Siva said that he felt giddy cos he thought he was fighting off an infection and overworking on lectures

I said I felt giddy because I thought, that's it, must be the many meetings I have attended this week.

we went to a french restaurant for dinner yesterday. it was the first time i had snails, (or escargots as the french call it). and it was yummy! it wasn't slimy as i thought it'd be.

we had 2 appetizers, the snails and a salad with new potatoes, bacon bits and melted brie. and 3 main courses; the lamb rack, venison and salmon with trout roe. they were all really good. i like the venison as it wasn't overcooked or too tough, it was pink in the middle. for dessert, we shared a slice of pecan pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. we also had free canapes courtesy of the chef, some ravioli thing and pickled cucumber with salmon roe. both of which were also good.

i really enjoyed dinner yesterday. the food was good, the service was good, the company was good (as usual) and it was just different from the usual places we would go to for dinner.

this french places gets my vote.

last night was spent reminiscing about our time in tasmania, the dinners/celebrations we held/celebrated there. the food we ate there, how we all grew fat eating so much in tasmania, lost most of the weight gained after returning to singapore. laughing over silly things like french pronounciations (or how to pronouce those french words in the menu), laughing over the things we did in tasmania, forgetting names and places of the land we called home for 3years. catching up on news of our mutual friends, who got married, who're having kids, who's where in the world now, who's doing what. that kinda stuff.

on a side note, this is going to sound weird. but i haven't been hungry at all this week! there's so much food, meeting up and eating with friends that i haven't had a chance to go hungry. sometimes i like to go hungry cause like how you have to calibrate your batteries, i callibrate my stomach. strange but that's the way i am. heh.

only one week left to go. but there doesn't seem to be this sense of urgency. should there be? i'll leave the packing to the last minute so that i can re-live the panic of things not fitting, bag too heavy, the usual..

the weekend was spent with family. saturday with my mom's side of the family, cause it was my cousin's 21st birthday. sunday with my dad's side of the family, cause we had a popiah party.

popiah is like a spring roll. kinda like that. the filling includes turnip, carrots, belly pork, shrimps, small squares of fried beancurd. you have to roll the popiah yourself. my favourite one is the one that's cooked by my paternal grandma. she even does the skin(the stuff you roll the filling in) herself. yumness!

asides from all the food related activites, i also tried on the various sarongs (bottom) and kebayas (top) my grandma, aunty had. i am now in possession of a sarong that is older (27yrs) than me. this sarong wrapping/tying business is not as easy as it looks. trust me. mine drops after i take a few steps, and it's measured steps, not my usual big strides. more practice, and there might be hope yet.

needless to say, it wasn't very successful.

it's edible. but not as good as my grandma's.

i consoled myself by watching one of the mid-afternoon chinese/taiwanese soap operas that my grandma watches.

there is no logical flow in the above four sentences.

i called my grandma to tell her about it and offered to bring some over to her tomorrow.

she wisely declined and said i should eat it, let my mom try my cooking.

it seems that i might have overcooked the noodles and that my timing should've been tighter.

oh well. more excuses to ask my grandma to cook more yummy things :D

dad: eh, where you go?

me: holiday lor.

dad: *silence*

then after that, i took the rubbish out to throw.

dad: where you go?

me: shopping!

dad: *silence*

yeah. sometimes, i can be so childish. it's usually for my amusement, and if you can take it, then, our amusement.

dad and i decided to head over to the tampines ikea to jalan jalan* whilst waiting for her. mom's haircut and treatment packages usually take about 2-3hrs.

so we were at ikea, just looking, following the specified 'trail'. we walk into the section that sells racks for the kitchen, dish racks, bars to hook things on, you get the idea. so my dad picked up a rack, turned to me with a cheeky smile and said "eh look, i'm playing the harp." he then proceeded to 'play' the rack. it was quite funny. i laughed for abit because it was so silly.

at ikea, they have this rotating light that displayed words on the floor and kids being kids would be intrigued by moving words and try to step on it. so there i was, jumping to step on the words. of course i got scolded by my dad. some kid saw what i was doing and copied me. hehe... they got scolded too. not my fault what.......

we moved on, and i started sliding. you know how when the floor's really smooth, you can run and slide? i was doing just that. this time, getting nagged at didn't stop me. it's great fun! wearing lampshades as hats and sliding around. so, the inevitable had to happen - i slipped - yep. there was this bit of the floor that was extra slippery. so i slid, and slid even further, nearly landing on my butt.

the old lady behind my dad just looked at me curiously while i couldn't stop laughing at the silliness of it all. my dad gave me the "see i told you not to do this already. walk properly." and so i did. i walked properly, and did little slides every now and then only to test the floor out.

so yeah. i was behaving like a kid, the worst kind you can bring out except i won't cry incessantly. i can play quietly.

i didn't start it. my dad started it first!

*jalan jalan = walk walk

warabi mochis aside, i've informed the girl i'm in contact with my decision to rent apartment #2. the tiny apartment in the good location. i also managed a chat with her via skype whch was good. we chatted, i learnt more about the school, living in japan and stuff. speaking to her was like listening to american tv. i heard stuff like the innernet, and like, words were like spoken with that upward inflexion? almost becoming like a question mark?. yep. speaking of skype. for those who read this and have skype, email/message me your skype name or ask me for mine. we can even do video calls via skype. that should be stacks of fun.

in other news. i've updated my flickr page and until i get myself a pro account on flickr, i won't be updating more pictures.

[Edit: i've upgraded my flickr account to a pro one.]

lots of laughs along the way, chatting about silly stuff, walking lots, sweating lots, eating lots! the last time we met like that was in adelaide. i stayed there for about 3 days, there abouts. this time, it's in singapore. the next time (sometime next year), we'll be in japan at chihiro's place.

photos in my camera. i should get around uploading soon.

i miss them already. but it'll soon pass. like all things.

4 more weeks till japan, and i'm still unpacked, homeless (in japan), wondering about what i should bring and do. i hope i won't forget about the orientation next wednesday. i'd be in big shite if i do. i've got a stack of things in my room to ship to japan and it's growing slowly but steadily.

4 more weeks till japan and i still short of money. there's the apartment deposit, rent, key money to pay for. there's furnishing the apartment with whitegoods, furniture, and that ain't free. there's commuting between schools whilst i'm there. i hope i get a big travel subsidy (if there's any to begin with).

4 more weeks.

they're here, they're here, they're here!!!!

miss hirota and justin are here! they called me monday morning and we met up. firs tday went well. lots and lots of walking. 1pm now, and chihiro is still sleeping. we're the kinds that would wake up, do some stuff, go back to bed. hehe

today, we'll head to the museum to check an exhibit out, to the good ol' merlion park, a walk to the esplanade (depending on how we go for time). dinner will be at changi hawker for chilli and pepper crabs, sambal stingray (this is for steve irwin), maybe fried baby squids, a dish of vegetables. yummness!!

in other news, the boss is always right. no matter what, the boss is always right. 

i was saying the other time, that my boss mentioned that it would take about 2hrs to travel to tokyo while the girl there now mentioned it was 30mins. i mis-understood the girl. 30mins from the end of the tokyo line to where i was. i confirmed this with another friend who used to live in the next town from where i'll be. he said two hours to central tokyo. i say that's pretty good. not too far.

in other other news, the search for an apartment is now on! it all looks very nice, clean. in both apartments you can set the water temperature and level for the bath electronically! and for one of the apartments, the control is located just by the main door. so you can set it, do your other stuff, then shower, saving time. quite cool right?

but it seems the school i'm at is infamous for it's stingyness. so as most rented apartments arrive empty, i'll have to start sourcing for my whitegoods (fridge, stove, washing machine), basically, stuff to furnish the apartment. but we'll see yeah? the girl i've been emailing seems really nice. looking for the apartment, contacting me, answering my questions, whilst my predecessor hasn't even emailed me! 

he was a tad worried about his daughter. somewhere in malaysia, no contact via email or mobile phone.

if you've just started reading this blog. or have been following for sometime already, no, i did not suddenly acquire a japanese dad. neither am i somewhere in malaysia. i'm still in singapore, still singaporean with a peranakan-chinese dad. does this make my dad peranakanese? if so, he'd be similar to being japanese because of the suffix +ese behind. hrm. perhaps not. 

you see mr hirota-san, your daughter is actually in the jungle somewhere in malaysia trekking with her boyfriend. but i couldn't really tell you that because i was surprised, forgot how to speak japanese, forgotten alot of the vocab i learned at school. but what i will do is to get your daughter to get in contact with you once i'm in contact with her.

raina to chihiro. can you hear me? raina to chihiro. hello?

thankfully, in our mix of english-japanese, we managed to get what we wanted to say across and sorta understand one another. well, i did anyway.

note to self: the first and second of the month is known as tsui-tachi and hutsu-ka respectively. not the ichi-nichi and ni-nichi i nervously stammered out. remember to print out the counters to bring to japan.

in other news, which is nicer?

1. rafe (pronounced as ralf)       or,

2. raoul (pronounced as ra-ul)

books should not have covers with roses, pink (or any shade of pink), swirly, flow-ey designs/motifs/print. they should be banned. any books with fabio on the front cover should also be banned. no more trashy romance novels!   

/end of tirade

in other news, there was a farewell party at work today. champagne/sparkling wine, delectable pastries from delifrance, yummy-licious pizzas from spizza. it's quite unbelieveable. it's the people that makes the whole difference. everyone's nice (or so it seems anyway). i guess this is why i'm not hating this office job.

there're lots of french nationals working here and it's just common to hear french being spoken. everyone who works here speaks at least 2 langauges. the basic would be english, the other would be either japanese, mandarin or french. and of course, there would be those who are proficient in three langauges (with english and french being the main two languages).

maybe it's just the legal department where everyone is just so smart. and by department, i mean all 4, 5 of them excluding myself. i'm sure they are all at least trilingual. and maybe, just maybe, i might work till the end of the month and for slightly longer. tis not bad, not bad at all.

y'know, most people may think that filing, scanning, removing staples is a brainless, dead-end job. and for the most part, it is true. it's truly boring, highly repetitive, you can almost do it with your eyes closed. but, it is actually quite a humbling job. why do i say that? because this job requires prayer. without God, i cannot do my job. it's a simple job, yes. what kind of prayer? that the paper feeds into the machine well, documents get scanned properly.  

so many times, i just stare at the machine, counting the number of pages (i can't help it. it's automatic for me to count things). then the paper gets jammed. i sigh, removed the jammed paper, reload it into the machine and start counting again. paper gets jammed. i say a quick prayer and the next time i reload it, it goes well.

then i forget about praying because it's going well. and hey, whaddyaknow. paper gets jammed. i think God's teaching me a lesson: that he's in charge and in control of everything; small things and big. there ain't no hiding away from him. not even in the belly of a huge fish at the bottom of the ocean.

there really is no hiding away.