Praise The Weekend

I guess I must have not blogged long enough when someone's gotta ask me to update my "friggin'" blog.

Hmm.

It sucks that I can't add anymore Melinda Doolittle Youtube vids because they've all been taken down. You people really have to go watch her performances last week and the week before. I'm totally rooting for her to win or at least come in 2nd. Only Lakisha can do better.
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Last Tuesday I had the honour of being invited out for a casual dinner with an almost successful entrepreneur (scrapmetal dealer) and a top Citibank banker (spent 12 years there). Both of whom were pretty inspiring. One was the brother of my dear primary school pal, who set us all up because he wanted to hear our views on investment and the current global economy.

Its a good thing when such an invite comes around only because important people want to hear what you've got to say that will actually affect the very fabric of their existance (ok, so it may not be THAT important). Nonetheless I was honoured alright.
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I was at the British Chamber of Commerce function together with Arun yesterday.

I only volunteered to go because it was a stone's throw from office.

It was pretty interesting for a networking event because everyone was just so friendly and approachable (largely helped by free flow alcohol), namecards ever ready to be chucked in my face. And it seemed no one liked the company they worked at (think a top Swiss investment bank). Damn Brits. Dunno the good life they're having compared to us.

It got pretty bad when the place ran out of beer (them Brits once more) and there was only a single bartender at hand. Until some of them just walked to the neighbouring pub to buy bucket-loads of pints.

Was fun.
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Today I was at the Australian Chamber of Commerce function with Mark, Sandra and Nicole.

Was alot better and more pro than yesterday's event.

It was a wine and cheese tasting function which was way cool just cuz I love cheese. There was even a Persian carpet aunction which they started only AFTER everyone was high and giddy on wine and beer.

Can you imagine that poor sod who cheered hysterically when he successfully bid SGD3,500 for a 3' X 4' lousy rug? He'll probably wake up tomorrow morning lying in his own puke on his rug, outside Marina Square!

Anyway.....Man U plays Bolton this weekend. Hope they win!!!

K thats all for now!

Of Earthquakes And Golf

I was in the office today busy with a customer on the phone when suddenly everyone around me started looking panicky. An earthquake off Sumatra apparently swayed our building and the tremor was felt quite significantly since we were on the 30th floor.

Funnily enough I was still oblivious to everything while the office emptied. It was only when the last of the staff left the office that I got off the phone to leave as well, not really knowing what was going on.

Alas, the public announcement came just when we were pressing the lift informing us that we had to take the stairs! Wah lao! It was like the vertical marathon down-stairs!

Took me a good 15minutes of cyclical brisk walking before I reached the ground floor. Was sweating away and irritated as hell. Huffed and puffed irritatingly as I was late meeting Kin Wah for lunch. Thighs are currently aching as I type.

After lunch around 2pm, just as I reached Samsung Hub thinking everything was back to normal, I was stopped from taking the lifts! For the second time, another public announcement told everyone to empty the building. Wah heng I wasn't in office siah! Else had to walk down a 2nd time!

It was quite an adventure, but pretty disruptive. In the end we were told to stay away from the building for 2 hours while they did some checks. So the company gave us the rest of the day off since there was hardly anything we could do.

Raffles Place was a mass orgy of people I tell you!

Where were YOU during the tremors?!

I hope the Indonesian situation gets better. Damage seems quite bad. Bless them.
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In other news, I was at the Marina Bay Driving Range last night breaking into my brand new golf set!

Was so exciting. The 8 of us looked like a long and tough vehicle convoy driving into Tanjong Rhu. And its cheap to go there to hit away! Eugene's quite a good coach and is really patient with my lack of discipline (Y-axis? right foot? thumbs down?)

Anyway I kinda suck at golf (was never my thing). Think I'll be signing up for pro lessons with a few of them soon.

Liverpool 0 Man U 1

Biggest game of the season.

We're totally dominated throughout the match (with hardly a good shot on goal).

Scholes is sent off.

Then O'Shea rams it home from 6 yards out in the 92nd minute. What a dream end. I think I screamed till the whole of Changi could hear me.

Happy like anything.

Go Man Yoo!!!!!!

Melinda Doolittle - My Funny Valentine

Seriously.

Have to give it to her man. She's getting better and better every week. Totally rooting for her!!!

American Idol Season 6 - Final 24

Just when I thought I'd lost the TV for good, I get sucked back by my favourite reality show, American Idol!

This season of AI started off ok-ish. The audition rounds weren't the most interesting, in fact, AI is in fact more of a reality show (one that's produced to entertain) than a singing contest. Go figure!

So anyway the exciting episodes have only just begun. The final 24 have been selected and I've proudly sat through 4 hours of AI6 this week already (2hrs each Wed and Thur night), another hour tonight on the results show.

I must say that the male singers sucked on Wednesday, with only Blake and Phil being the only notable performances. But yesterday's female performance was da bomb! This is the year of the black belters really, with Lakisha, Melinda and Stephanie all bringing their 'A' game.

My favourite as of now is only Melinda Doolittle. Hope she gets far in the competition. She's definitely top 12 material lah. Check out her performance of Baby Sweet Baby last night!

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!!

Here's wishing everyone a very very prosperous and happy Chinese New Year!!!

May the year of the Pig bring luck to one and all!!!

Huat big big ah!!!!

Flood (Not The Jars of Clay Song)

Ok, so that sounded abit to kua zhang, but it sure felt really wet for awhile.

There I was at my desk contentedly making money off FXCM and having a ball of a time trading FX when I hear sounds of pitty-patter in the bathroom. So I curiously went over to check it out and 'lo and behold, the bathroom was leaking from the ceiling!

So there we were scrambling to plug the leak. Ma was removing all the stuff out of the bathroom while Pa was checking out where the problem was. I was busy wiping the flooded floor (when I wasn't taking pictures), haha.

Here's a picture of the flooded bathroom roof.

That's Pa doing what every man's gotta do - hide when his picture's taken!

And here is the flooded floor which isn't THAT obviously flooded but I swear at one point in time the water was like 10mm deep in certain crannies of the bathroom!

Looks pretty bad right? But guess what? The leak was plugged and now its all dried up.

Think tomorrow the maintenance man is coming.

How's that for a Monday highlight?

I'll see this as a good omen for our family. Got water flow past (the leak) and got mountain (the ladder) - you shan you shui (got mountain got water). We must be in for a windfall this coming CNY...

ASEAN Cup Champions Once More!

Hooray for Singapore!

So happy that we won.

Watched the match at the girlfriend's place.

I gotta say we played sucky football and our defence was horrendous and even atrocious (Aide Iskandar cheeky back-heel?!??!) at times but we weathered the Thai storm and Khairul Amri scored an amazing goal. Really an exciting match that kept even Chun (soccer helps her sleep better) at the edge of her seat, especially during the dying minutes.

Cheers to the Singapore team for giving us something to be proud of once again.

Go, Lions go!

Maybe I should watch less EPL, then my expectations wouldn't be so high.

Man U's leading 1-0 at halftime.

Hope they win too!

A Firm Compliment

"Why didn't you apply for it?"

"You were the first choice on their list, and they were hoping you applied for it."

"Maybe in the next round you should try for it."

Well, it was good enough. I dunno why but I left feeling really good about myself.
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On a separate note, guess who won the Best-dressed for my company's X'mas party held last Friday? (Yeah I know its like sooooo late). Indochine, here I come!


The things you have to do to get noticed even in Denmark and London.

Hurt.

We were leading 1-0 from a Rooney header.

Then Saha came in and it went downhill from there.

Van Persie 84'
Henry 94'

That really hurt man. I thought we used to do this to teams, not the other way around.

Bummer.