the biggest hooha in town...

Mas Selamat Kastari.

rings a bell? if it doesn't, please read the papers or watch the news. and be quick! just in case u missed him on the streets bcos u dont regconize him. as my client junming always says:

没有知识，要有常识，没有常识就要多看电视!!!

haha. i think he's(my client) a really funny guy. =)

somehow, i guess everyone is now questioning the security & efficiency of the singapore police force and our defense units. how could this have happened? not elsewhere, but in singapore, the country known for her well-enforced law & order and almost flawless security. i mean, afterall, the above factors are what make us one of the most popular choices for prosperous financial centres and business hubs.

and the real escape was almost like what we see in all prison movies, find an excuse to go to the loo and pave your freedom from then on. and i thought the centres are heavily guarded and all? i thought too that we have very advanced and sophisticated intelligence systems?

sigh, just hope that he will be located and caught soon. sidetrack, i find bra's entry on this episode pretty interesting.

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just came home not too long ago. finally, my chfc txtbook has officially been 'touched'. and im so proud of myself that i've at long last, managed the 1st chapter. yay!

TGIW!

it's wednesday! screams!

used to look forward to wednesday cos it's mambo night! but as i grow older, wednesday becomes a every-other-day. life's been pretty mundane since the start of 2008. and it's a choice of mine to be slack and boring as i did not agressively work nor pack my schedule. guess not. had been telling drey yesterday how i envy her tight working hours, be involved in meetings, have colleagues to gossip and shopped with and buy lunch for and all. sounds like a busy bee! was at raffles place in the afternoon and the pace of the crowd overwhelms me. the place, in layman, is so happening! or perhaps, i just miss the corporate working environment. and just perhaps, i no longer see a challenge or motivating factors in my line of work? but even though so, i know i will continue to stay in this industry. hence, i've come up with this idea of working part-time in an industry that i always want to learn more about. in fact, i've something on my mind already. pay doesnt really matter, just want to make myself more occupied but im afraid that i'll be spotted by my colleagues. haha. even though i can make myself more occupied by fixing more appts, but it just isnt the same.

guess it's time to broaden my skills set, cos the part-time im lookin at somewhat involves using my sales skills and im going to make sure that it wont take up too much of my time, i.e. part-time. mayb 4-6 hours per day and 2-3 days per week? and if capital and circumstances allow, i might just venture into this business. whaha. just that im still confused and undecided.

guess bloggin here is as well as annoucing the whole world. so, mw, stef and yvette, if you're reading this, please DO NOT tell anyone!

i've always feel that pictures spice up an entry, so here's some:

was with keet @ tcc last sat!

see the caption "hi, i'm keet!"? haha, i is smart, used canon's software to add the text in, so cool! goin to explore more of the software to discover more amazing things that i can do with!

then met up with the roommate for his dinner, see his robbery image, so cute. whahah, i guess he's going to kill me for this.


i bought something new too!

me with my new gg<5 top

a pair of mphosis slipps. =) love them when they're 50% off. wanted to get another pair but it was left with smaller sizes.


a new samsung 120gb external harddisk to back up my stuff! and it's only 97 bucks inclusive of the casing!
and i wanted to post this pic long ago, a feat @ mj with my kiddo brothers.

dangerous driving.

not me of course.

it's the bus auntie!!! took bus 2*0 from my place to the mrt at around 1120am yesterday and i SAW the bus auntie sleeping and nodding away.

proof #1:
i flagged for the bus, it did stop. but she opened only the back door and not the front door. just as i was wondering why, i waved to bus auntie indicating that i want to get up the bus. after 30s, i've decided to knocked on her door and in fact, almost everyone was looking out and wondering why. the reason is: she's sleeping!

proof #2:
the bus was going at an extremely slow speed and had been jerking on and off. a normal alert driver will not drive in this manner

proof #3:
this is not the first time i've met this bus auntie!!! the first time i was on her bus, i was right beside her watching her dozing off as she's driving and i was watching the traffic too in case something happened cos the whole bus was full of working adults on their way to the mrt.

should i just write a feedback letter to boon lay bus interchange? in case i forget, the bus number is 367t. haha.

changes.

lots of new regulations imposed/going to be imposed these days and the budget for 2008 is still lying unread on my desktop.

the one thing that has impacted me though, is the increase in taxes. thus, i just bought a new policy for myself cos the revised version is not as good as the current package. im officially 200 bucks poorer each month. =(

there's still lots of things to pay for and i dont want to work! i dont want to work, i dont want to work, i dont want to work!

but i cant, cos im not one of the winners for the $10m toto. sulks.

it's monday!

yay, it's monday again! faints.

looking back at what i've been doing for last week, felt like i wasted my life away again. though i did make an effort to work but my chFc textbook is still as untouched as it was 2 weeks ago. i so dread studying. sulks, and i wonder now, why did i make such a stupid move? it wasnt like it's free of charge and it wasnt easy to pass without studyin for it, what's more of not studyin?

it's going to be a great week ahead!

ramblings...

chinese new year is over; that's amazingly fast as yesterday seemed only to be the countdown to yr 2008.

the gang and i were at keet's house just last night discussing how fast time passes. it's already the end of february and within a short span of time, it's going to be the good friday holidays (21st Mar). and the gang is going to batam!!! i supposed that's the officially 2nd overseas trip (1st was the bkk trip) but it's the 1st one with almost everyone going. i wont be joining though as the roommate and i will be leaving for cambodia on 23rd mar. haha, looking forward to cambodia yah!

have been surfing quite a bit of websites these days, and i will really like to applaud the singaporebrides.com site. singaporebrides.com is my first time participating in an online forum and i must say it's darn helpful. this site has every information from ROM, home & deco, bridal shops, and etc. and nope, i'm on the site not bcos im goin to be a bride anytime soon. my initial participation is solely for our flat @ telok blangah. interesting that the local gals actually share information bout everything they can (homes, roms, weddings, photographers, etc) with strangers and of cos, im one of them. in fact, i met quite a number of my future neighbours online already, just that we havent arranged to meetup. and remembered the lessons learnt that i've blogged about when we went to select the flats? a lot of tips were given by my future neighbour who had already gone for the selection. and now, the latest topic is bout the delivery vs completion dates of our homes. sweet isnt it?

however, i strayed and wandered to the ROM threads while i was in the forum and i realized that ROM-ing is just as troublesome as getting a flat, the paperwork i meant. read through the threads and i saw phrases like 'you must book your JP first then can book whatever', 'go to rom site to efile for the rom dates 3 months before', 'must do this this this first', 'book venue', 'food catered was missed out' and stuff and stuff...sounds like a lot of admin and coordination cos late filing might just means that you're not given a slot on ur preferred dates. and guess what, almost all threads started off with a 'congrats xx, hope everything goes well for ur big day tmr', 'congrats xx, how's ur wedding yest?'...and the gals actually shared their ROM pictures yah and gave each other their blessings. and of course, i went to check out the links.

on the contrary, there're so many people/couples who are goin to get married/ planning to get married and are happily in love and all but yet, all may change a few years down the road and may lead to divorce. perhaps, they should be reminded of how tedious it had been for them to be together and how loving they had been when they were preparing their matrimony ceremony. im not emotional, just an off-hand thought. =)

the roommate says...

where is the picture of the very cute hermit crab??? he bugged me the whole of this afternoon and yesterday's night. faints.

so here it is, the very cute hermit crab on bintan's beach!

realize that a lot of pics that we had taken in bintan can be used as desktop pictures, guess that's why the place is beautiful yah. =)

went for my treatment, mani & pedi today. good, the treatment managed to get all the dead skin scrapped off my feet at least for the nxt 3 weeks. yay! and the manicurists, of course, tried to 'tok' me with more and very attractive packages again. told them to let me off, but i will consider cos it's really attractive. =(

Bintan 13th-15th Feb 2008

going to be a super long post with lots of photos, enjoy!

Day 1: 13th Feb 2008 930am

Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. It's located at a super ulu place and since it's our first time there, we took a cab in. However, singapore being singapore, we do have a super convenient public transport system; can take sbs bus 35 from either bedok interchange or tanah merah mrt and you'll drop right inside the ferry terminal. =)

anyway, felt that tmft is more posh than the harbourfront one. everything is much nicer except for the location.

i is committed, was still on the phone with the company regarding my client's matters. haha, so no worries being my client, sure good service. sidetrack, most of my colleagues and including myself felt that somehow our mobiles are most busy with clients matters only when we are going or we are already overseas. that's always the case! sometimes, our phones dont even ring when we are in singapore. highest record when i was in bintan was 3 missed calls and 8 smses in an hour. =(

before set off! our ferry departs at 1105am.

and yeah, the journey was so off that i vomitted. the roommate took this opportunity to shoot a photo. note: i dont have seasick, it's my first time vomitting like hell.

and amazingly, i still have the energy to take this picture! welcome to bintan! the immigration is pretty lax, but batam's immigration is still the most lax so far.

Arrival @ Nirwana Resort Hotel!

the resort's very near the ferry terminal, about 10min ride away. anyway, there was a free transfer from the ferry terminal and we were warmly greeted by the traditional dance and welcome drink (still feeling weak after the merlion episode so decided to give it a pass). anyway, check in was 3pm bintan time (which is 4pm singapore time) so we went to walk around after leaving our bags with the concerige.

view from the lobby.

us @ the lobby.

the good thing about nirwana resort is that it has many restaurants for you to choose from. be it asian, western, fusion, japanese or seafood! we were starving and decided to spend our time lunching @ the coffeeshop! we ordered an indonesian cuisine (grilled chicken on rice and kerepok), fish & chips and oxtail soup. the grilled chicken is yummilicious!!! and the sweet and spicy soy sauce is their specialty, nice!

guess how much was this meal? hee, $36.

as it was still early, we took a walk to the pool and the beach after the lunch. love the pool, cos it's big and beautiful. =)

the beach looks scary, check out how windy it is. and as it's the monsoon season, you'll see the red flag!

check in time! the interesting thing about bintan is that there's lots of space and land! our room is amazingly spacious for a resort even though we book the superior room. check in time!!!

dinner @ the kelong restaurant! we took an internal shuttle bus to the restaurant as it's located at the far end. the food is superb and SATISFYING! we ordered a chilli crab, sambal kangkong & 3 steam rice! the crab is very fresh!!!! and it's $39 for dinner.

after dinner was chilling @ the clayspo bar. winding and super realxing, nice place! 2 bintangs & peanuts cost only $12. the only cheap cheap stuff in indonesia are only beers and fags. haha.

Day 2: 14th Feb 2008 Valentine's Day
Buffet breakfast at the coffeeshop on our 2nd day, complimentary from the resort. okay, not bad. took a WALK at the beach after breakfast. it was a long walk cos we almost walked to the other end. phew.

nuahing at the hammock provided in the resort!

look how strong the wind is! i wasnt even wearing my jacket, just merely place it onto me. haha. and check out the 'flying droplets' at the swimming pool. part of the reason for the cold pool water was because of the wind even though weather is sunny!

lunch was room-service! as we were still full from breakfast, we had chicken wings and fries in the room instead! and after nuahing and nuahing, it's a day at the pool! the water is cccooooooooooldddd...

guess who's this? looks eerie right?


haha, it's my read in bintan! to prepare for our march cambodia trip!!


dinner was @ the poolside restaurant! we ordered a seafood pesto pizza, a snapper combo and drinks. slurps slurps. dinner was about 45 bucks.

Day 3: 15th Feb 2008 Home sweet home
As usual, we took breakfast @ coffeeshop and we went back our room to bathe and pack for the trip back. Lunch was @ dino bistro, fusion food. As i was pretty scared that i'll vomit again, we didnt order much. i had a chicken pesto sandwich while the roommate had a lobster penne. the creamy thai sauce was fantastic! =) $34 ka-chiang!

overall, the trip is satisfying and cool! and we or rather i, NUAH a lot! at least the roommate did some constructive planning and goal setting for his 2008. in summary, the trip's all about watching tv, eat, rest and relax by the pool and enjoying the cooling breeze! =)

finally, the entry's done!