Life's Coincidences

I had this tutor back when I was in secondary 3 and 4 who taught me E and A maths.

By keying in 1 + 1 = into our calculators, we used to compete with each other to see who could press the = sign the most number of times within a minute.

Then I forgot how he found out, but he would also tease me about this girl that my friends teased me about during my sec school days. He would then remove the sleeve from my eraser and write the name of that girl on my eraser. So childish.

Then there was once when he was studying, giving tuition and holding another part time job. He would be super tired and keep dozing off as he gave me tuition. Then he said that he would teach with half his eyes closed. So he could sleep and teach at the same time.

Tuition with him wasn't that boring, because he did all sort of silly things. Fun times. And he wasn't a bad tutor at all. At least I improved on my maths, which was abysmal pre-secondary 3.

So he stopped teaching after I finished my A-levels. And I would at times wonder where he was. Or how was he.

But life is strange. It brings you through its ups and downs. Overturns and backflips. And sometimes it brings you one whole circle back to where you originally were.

Found out recently that that tutor has signed on as a regular with the SCDF. And it so happened that he was in the same platoon with my brother. He even fetched my bro home once. But he didn't immediately recalled who my bro was - or rather could not be sure off - apparently because we had shifted house. It wasn't until he saw my mum at my bro's (as well as his) passing out parade that he could comfirmed it was really us.

Let's see. About 9 years already? Hah. My brother can't even recognise him.

It's really a very nice feeling to see someone whom you've lost contact for such a long time. Very nice to know how they are doing now, what they're up to, are they doing fine, etc.

Wondering now about some of the other friends I've lost contact over the years.
Hmmmmm......

Anyway, I have to stop taking photos of the sky. It's an addiction.

Fork, Spoon and Chopsticks

From the time I have been staying at Prince George Residences in NUS to working in Raffles now, I have noticed something. It's that Westerners, upon mastering the use of chopsticks, tend to use chopsticks to eat everything.

They could be having a plate of fried rice. Or a plate of chicken rice. And they'd be using chopsticks.

I can't really understand this, as firstly, we Chinese use the spoon and fork for our plate of fried rice. Unless if it was served in a bowl. But that's another thing. Secondly, how do you grab your grains of rice properly with your chopsticks?

Anyway, I was having lunch today when I noticed 2 Westerners next to my table dining on zha cai fan using chopsticks. They seemed to be doing fine at first, then halfway through, they gave up, and went to grab a fork and spoon from the stall. Haha. And throughout his meal, one of them kept going back to using his chopstick to eat his er..pork ribs or something. But because it had bones in it, he had to revert back to his fork. Wahaha~~

But kudos to them though. At least they were using their chopsticks in the orthodox way. Unlike me. (I cross the sticks).

Then one of their wallet fell from their back pocket and they didn't notice. So this honest Singaporean came along and told him about it. Then I heard one of them say,
"In Singapore, nobody will steal your wallet. Amazing."

I almost LOL'ed.

Oh, had steamboat at Kok's house with a few friends on Sunday.

The soup was rather salty though. Too many cubes of chicken stock I guess. Went through 3 cans of ice lemon tea.


Wheeee~~

Die Hard 4.0

Just came back from supper. Stomach feeling rather weird.
So thought I'd rest awhile first before going to bed.
Since there's nothing much to do at this ungodly hour, think maybe I'll update my blog a little.

Met up with Jennifer for lunch today.
Brought me to eat beef noodles. Hah, I now have a new place to go for lunch.
Its a nice feeling to meet up with old friends very now and then.

Then because Kok managed to get his hands on a car tonight, we decided to catch Die Hard 4.0. With 5 other friends (Zr, Fab, Nix, Wil and Jeff). After the show, we went to Kok's house for durian. Played a few games of bridge.
I've actually played bridge a couple of times already, but I always seem to forget how to play...need to play a few rounds before I remember everything again.
Didn't play for long though, Wil and Jeff needed to go home because they had to get up early the next day.
Then apart from both of them and Nix, the rest of us headed for supper.

Had supper at some place along the Thompson area. Don't know what the place was called. They had quite a wide selection of food to choose from. But the food we ordered didn't taste very good. They also had this drink...Cappuccino with coke.
Weird combination.
Goodness.
Don't ever try it.
Tasted so weird.
That also explains why my tummy is feeling weird now.

Okay, the main thing I want to comment in this post, is about Die Hard 4.0.
I've only watched Die Hard with a Vengence, and found it nice.
Hence, I actually went into this movie with very high expectations, and I wasn't disappointed at all.
Bruce Willis as John McClane is as badass as ever.
Took down a helicopter, went one on one with a F-35. And bashed up Maggie Q.
Enjoyed the movie immensely.
I bet he can take on Megatron single-handedly.

"So you have any plans?"
"Yeah. Find Lucy. Kill everybody else."

Haha.

Cravings Satisfied

Congrates to ZR on his commencement. He said the photos we took that night was bad.
Blame it on the 8pm commencement. Haha.



Anyway, had been having tiny cravings for crab and durains lately.
And I had both those craving satisfied at ZK's birthday.
Bought durian cake from Emicakes for him. Quite yummy.
Then had chilli crab for dinner too.

Thanks ZK for the treat~

Then today, I came back home to a house that smelt of durians.
And sure enough, I am eating them now.
Hoho!!!

Finally, I would like to say, why do I always hear people at work say things like
"Don't need to OT lah. The work can never finish one."
I mean, if it can be finished, won't that mean you will be out of a job then?
Weird.

Go forth. And rock this world off its socks.

Many of my friends graduating...
Going to be quite a lonely 4th year. Will miss all of them.
Attended the material science commencement on Thursday, and attended Zhenrong's one on Friday.

Having the commencement at 8pm is really quite stupid. How is anyone going to celebrate after that? Go pub or clubbing? In their graduation gowns? Quite dark to take outdoor photos too.
Lucky the Material Science commencement was at 10am. Took lots of photos. Managed to went out to eat and catch a movie with everyone also.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone. So many years of study, all culminating in that Single.Piece.of.Paper.

I am kind of tired of saying cliche things like
"Good luck for your future endeavors." or
"All the best for everything."
Instead,
GO FORTH AND ROCK THIS WORLD PEOPLE!!!! YEAH!!!!!

heh.

Kind of dreading my upcoming commencement in a year's time. Afraid to start that new chapter in life...
Afraid to take the first step into the cruel world....
But I guess time waits for no one yah?
Can't be studying my entire life.
Can't stay in this tiny little comfort zone forever.
Things that are inevitable, we should face it with everything we've got.

By the way,
Happy Birthday Zhangkai~~

Stop calling me BOY!

Forgot to mention in my previous post.
I always thought it was, "Transformers, robots in disguise."
Didn't realise it was actually, "Transformers, more than meets the eye."

Anyway...I was complaining to my friend previously that I think I am still a boy...as in...like a young, innocent, ignorant kid. Don't feel like I am really matured yet.....
Then recently, alot of people are calling me boy!
What the hell?!
At work, my neighbour...

"Morning boy."
"Boy, come."
"Don't teach my boy bad things ah."
"Boy, come help me do this."

I look very boy meh?
I VERY BOY MEH?

SIGH...

Work, transformers and food

Started work already...

Stucked in a tiny room (very very very tiny room) filing mails the entire day.

Quite boring actually. But at least I enjoy this job better than my IA.

You don't get paper cuts when you file mail. But you get mail cuts. And file cuts. Was filing a mail into a file today when I was sliced at the flesh beneath my fingernails by a file.

Twice.

At the same spot. My poor index finger.

Ouch.

It's an irritating kind of pain.

Typing hurts.

Anyway, first time working in the central business district.

Its really interesting in the morning when you squeeze on the train with everyone. Raffles MRT can be very packed. Then you see everyone brisk walking towards their office. Everyone looks very listless, dull and zombie-like.

Its like we all became robots.

On the topic of MRT, how do you know when to give up a sit to someone who needs it more? Sometimes, a pregnant woman may not actually be pregnant, just fat. And some of the old people actually look very fit and healthy still. If I was old and still healthy, and if a youngster were to offer his seat to me, I'd think I'll feel rather insulted. Then you have the old ladies, who go and dye their hair black, or red, or hazelnut brown, or something, then you can't really tell how old they actually are. And if they are aunties, I don't really like to offer seats to them, because they are so kiasu the moment they get on the train, ramming through everyone to get to an unoccupied seat...

Or am I thinking too much? Hmm

Lunch is also very packed. No seats everywhere, have to share tables with total strangers.

But its interesting sometimes, listening on to their conversations.

I eat alone, but I guess that is not such a bad thing. Can find places easily and can walk around the shopping centers after my meal. Lots of freedom.

Caught transformers last Saturday with a few of my friends. it was OKAY.

But it WAS NOT TOO GREAT.

Let me explain why.

Firstly, I understand the need of injecting some humor into movies. It makes it enjoyable. But some of the jokes in the show were so lame. I felt it actually took away some of the seriousness of the film. It dumbed down the epic-ness of the movie.

Secondly, story wasn't the focus of the movie. The whole movie was mainly action. Granted, this is an action blockbuster, but still, it would be a lot more enjoyable it had a better story script.

But that aside, the movie was still enjoyable to a certain degree. Some of the CGI was really cool. Loved especially how Starscream transformed in and out of the fighter jet while taking on the army fighter jets.

Ate alot of good and expensive food recently. Luckly I am already working.

Ate this at Sakae a while back. Forgot what its called. Sabuza soba or something. Anyway, to Nicholas and Christopher...You see that quill egg on that..."plastercine"? How do I go about eating that? Do I pour the yolk over the soba? I did that, but it doesn't seem right. There's ice under the soba, and the yolk becomes too diluted. Moreover, once you dip the noodles into the sauce, the yolk coating is washed off.
So how?

Do I just drink it straight?

Shared this fondue at Haagen Das with my friends on the day we caught Transformers. Its an ice cream fondue. Nothing special. But it sure looks nice. As most desserts tend to be with their nice presentation.

My 2 other friends had this. Chocolate journey I think. Now that I think of it, its probably called chocolate journey because you have to first start with that hot belgium chocolate drink (or the right most ice cream), and once you are done with it, you move on to the next flavour ice cream and so on. A journey through the different flavours of chocolate ice cream.

This is the rib eye steak with MUSHROOM sauce that I ate at New York New York. This is the before picture.

Rib eye steak with MUSHROOM sauce (After).

I cleared everything! The steak was done just the way I like. Medium rare, with abit of blood oozoing out as I slice into the tender meat. The MUSHROOM sauce was, well, what can I say. Its MUSHROOM! So it was superb. The wedges were very good too. What surprised me was that I actually finished the salad. Some of my friends would know I don't really like veggies. Especially the raw ones. But the salad was surprisingly tasty. Proof in the picture that I cleared my plate. For $19.90, it was well worth every penny. Or cent.

Very yummy.

Oh. And I realised I have a habit of leaving my cutlery at this 4 or 5 O'clock position everytime I finish my meal. I think it has something to do with this vague memory of hearing something when I was young, that by placing the cutlery in this manner, it is an indication that you are done with your meal.