Retail therapy.. failed

I was so lazy to attend my Nihongo class yesterday but since it was the last lesson, I decided to show face and attend. Well I was wrong. Next week is the last lesson. Lol. It is ironic that only at this time that I started to grow a little bit closer to my classmates. After lesson, I decided to check out for Uniqlo GSS deals before buying some Japanese snack at Iroha Mart. I found some Disney t-shirt on sale for $7.90. There were 2 designs of Aladdin t-shirt that I was interested. 1 design has both M & L sizes while another one only has M size. After I tried and was deliberating which size I should get, one classmate called me to ask if I wanted to join them to eat kani ramen.

I was intrigued as I never tried that before and hence I said yes. Lol. Anyway the kani ramen does not come with crab but the soup stock is made of crab stuff. I could not really taste any crab flavour that much but the after taste definitely was crabby. Oh ya, before going over to Cineleisure for the kani ramen, we visited Apple Store which was newly opened on Saturday. I am not an Apple fan but I was curious to see also. I think there were more staff than visitors. Lol.

After ramen, I went to Uniqlo at Ion and found no Aladdin t-shirts. Thus I tried Uniqlo at Orchard Central. They had the same stock as the one in Plaza Sing so I decided to get 1 design with L size and the other design with the only available M size. It is unusual to find Aladdin t-shirts and it is on sale for <$10 so buy now and think later.

I also saw a light weight jacket which was on sale for $39.90 from an original price of $129.90! Woaaa!! There were olive and beige colors which were unusual and unique. Again I was contemplating between M or L but since I was in t-shirt when I tried, I could not make my mind. I decided to go home, check my old sky blue Uniqlo casual jacket for the size and come back today in office wear. That would be easier to decide if M or L is better.

Today I saw that Uniqlo's sale for the week is another type of jacket for $39.90. It is a newer design that looked interesting but I did not bother to check yesterday because the original price is $59.90. Only Suntec has both M and L for this jacket so I went there after gym. The material was disappointing and I did not even bother to try. I guess price never lie. The one I tried yesterday has original price more than double than this one so no wonder the quality was better.

Red line is having problem today and I thought the problem was resolved in the late evening. Although there was no human jam, the train spent about 5 minutes at each station. I decided to alight at Somerset and take bus or something. I went to Uniqlo Orchard Central and I decided to just get M size for the light weight jacket. I wanted to get it over and done with so I bought both colors.

Does that make me happy? No :( Now I am think when or what occasion I will be wearing this jacket.. Haiz.. It is very unusual for me to buy clothes, not to mention 4 pieces in 2 nights. All the emo-ness is because of the CPIP haiz.. I am still praying for blessings from clinic to proceed.

Manager?

Everyone loves the prospect of being promoted right? Nope.. unless again I turn out to be the odd one out. On Friday, my branch manager prepped me for the appraisal last Monday. Lol. There is a likelihood for her to be transferred to take over a new clinic so the bosses are asking if I am ready to take over as the manager for the current place. Of course I have my own reservations haha.. I am far from perfect and I have so many weaknesses: I can't speak Mandarin, I am negative, I am quite fierce etc so I don't know if I will end up destroying everything. Of course I have my own personal reasons as well: life is going to suck as my colleagues suck and I don't think I have anyone to cover my back. I was asked to think about it carefully. Anyway, even if I decline, my branch will be left as status quo and alternative plans will kick in.

Outright yes maybe seen as being overconfident while outright no will be seen as negative. So I am prepared to be vague and just voice out my weaknesses and ask if the bosses have contingency plans should things fail because of my foreseen weaknesses. Guess what? On Monday during appraisal, the question did not even come. I was only vaguely asked if I am ready to take over as manager should the time comes. I still gave my pre-planned answer but I did not get a reassuring answer. Afterwards, I asked my manager if asking me was just a formality. Knowing the people in my company, even if I say no, likely the other plans will say no first and then it will come back to me (since it is being considered plan A) but this time the decision will be forced on me.

Today I heard something else from my colleague from another branch. She heard that my manager would be taking over that branch o_0 Alamak.. so what is going on? Every 2 days I hear different stories that I can't be bothered anymore. Just wait for an official news when it comes instead of getting stressed over speculations and wild guesses.

I usually enjoy the time away from work to attend courses. This week is even more fantastic: 3.5 days course straight! Well this CPIP course turns out to be the most stressful and depressing course that I ever attended. At the end of the day, I feel very drained and tired with ideas being rejected and having to thought of more ideas. It is not exactly about my idea being rejected but it more of having to rephrase to make it very specific etc. In the past, I thought doing projects would be something that I like and I could consider for future. I guess it is another item struck off from my list.. and I am one step closer to a bleak future :(

Another hectic week

Earlier this week was a gruelling decision making process for me to decide what phone I would get. If I took the phone I wanted for personal use (Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime), I would save $250 from the original price.Getting any iPhone is a saving of $500+ from the original price so iPhone is definitely overpriced. I swear I would no longer spend crazy amount of money on phones as no matter what, they are obsolete in 2 years time. So I am glad that at the last minute my sister agreed to 'buy' the iPhone 7+ from me. Initially she insisted on buying it from me at the price I paid M1 -_-" Crazy.. if that is the case I did not even get any $250 to get my new phone.  So in the end I still have my $250 while my sister benefited $300 to pay me as compared as getting the iPhone 7+ from apple shop.

I kept refusing this and that add-on until the guy serving me said to help him as he needed to offer this and that for his commissions. Sorry mate, I really can't help you. Lol. So in the end, when he asked for a favor to send him a good feedback, that was the only thing I could do for him.

I went for blood donation on Wednesday and before that, I had another dinner at Teppei Syokudo. Lol.. This time I tried a new limited menu instead of having the Kaisendon again. It was not a seamless experience as I waited for more than half an hour just to get past the medical screening. I heard both were new so they were slow. The nurse was very pro as I did not feel anything when the needle went in and was removed. Curiously, my arm was sore until yesterday. That was 4 days! There was no bruising whatsoever as well. Not sure if it was something to do with my veins. For the first time, the nurse commented that my veins were 'soft' although I had always been using my left arm for my donation all this time.

Because of that gym took a back seat this week as I did not want to aggravate my arm further. On Thursday, I went for a positive leadership course. I am not sure if it is going to make me more positive but one thing for sure I realise that I am not alone. There are people who hate their job even more than me. Perhaps this is a revelation that everyone and every job is the same. Perhaps it is me who have to learn to shut my mouth and just suck up all the shit at work like what everyone else is doing.

My 11-month suffering finally came to an end on Friday. Yay! It was the last day of my pre-reg. My colleagues decided to give her a farewell gift -_-" and asked if I would want to join. Hell no! It is not my style to give anything to students as I do not want to be seen as 'bribing' since eventually they must grade me. I don't want that gift to distort the perception as I want to know the honest and real feedback. Anyway if I am pleased with the students, usually I will bring them out for lunch on the last day. But for this one bleah, I don't even bother to hide my displeasure. So yeah, I am quite proud of myself to be able to resist the temptation to save my face. Lol. In fact, I told her straight in the face that sorry I did not participate in the farewell gift (I did not even write in her farewell card) with the reason mentioned above. I am more upset with my colleagues actually. What is the point of trying to be nice on the last day when all these while behind her, they also talk bad.

The first time is usually the most difficult so I am glad that I overcame my first volunteering session yesterday. It was embarrassing as my nose kept dripping. It was supposed to be from 3-5pm but it overran until 6pm. I know it is bad to be complaining about this since I choose to be volunteering after all. Haha..

Since my nose has been dripping and I had difficulties in finishing my Nihongo homework, I decide to skip class today. Lol.. Tomorrow is appraisal and then I am away for the rest of the week for a course that requires 100% attendance. So I don't even have any chance to rest and take MC anyway. And a Sunday staying at home means another Deliveroo T_T

Revival

For the past 2 weeks, I am slowly trying to get into my usual life prior to going to gym. With limited time after work, gym basically takes priority over whatever free time I am left with. Movie time is the one worsely affected and I am worried that I can't use finish the free movie tickets I have for this year.

Last Saturday I went for Kingdom Hearts concert. There was no Japanese class on Sunday because sensei was overseas and I forced myself to watch Beauty and the Beast on Sunday morning. I then went to gym before going to Kinokuniya to buy Injustice Year 5 Volume 2. I was waiting for the 20% off during the free comic book day (which is on first Saturday in May every year). Then I went to Doujin Market at Suntec.

It was my first time attending Doujin Market. Doujinshi is a part of anime/manga sub-culture but I am not really a fan. In fact, I decided to take a look at it this year simply because it was a long the way and I am planning to spend the whole day out. So it was just for the experience and bragging rights that I ever attended such event.

Doujin Market is free since it is not held at exhibition halls but on the area outside the halls. In comparison to the number of people attending, the area is too small and it is human traffic jam. Almost all the exhibitors are selling things so once someone stops at a booth to look-see, s/he will block the narrow passageway. It was so frustrating for me just want to go 1 round to see what interesting things available. I left empty handed and I think this will be the one and only time I will be interested in doujinshi or fanart stuff. Most of the stuff are either the kawaii/chibi style or the BL/yaoi stuff. I am more interested in the CG kind of artwork.

Yesterday was another day outside with my doctors' appointment, followed by gym, and then Conan 21st movie advance screening. Today I was so tempted to skip my Japanese class because I wanted to check M1 shop to make sure of the phone that I would get on Tuesday and I wanted to gym and I wanted to sleep. I managed to beat the lazy bug and in the end, sleep is the one sacrificed.

When Teppei Syokudo at Plaza Sing was about to open, I was so excited and then I forgot about it. Once I remembered about it last week, this is going to be my new addiction as I already ate their Kaisendon 3x in the past 2 weekends. If the trend continues, it is going to hurt my wallet since it is $16 per bowl. Iroha Mart is also smart to bring in a potato chip brand with tie in with Conan movie. I bought one pack of each different Conan picture.

Okonomiyaki is famous in Osaka so all the pictures for the Okonomiyaki flavour are Heiji and Kazuha

Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter

I made an exception to watch Conan 20th movie last year because it was interesting with the Black Organisation plot. I said 'exception' because I never watched any Conan movie before despite already reading the manga for more than 15 years now. For this year, I was not hooked by the trailer. I was hooked because of me being deprived of movies. Lol. After working for 3 Saturdays in a row, today was my first off. When I saw the advertisement for the advanced screening today, I thought why not since I would be out for the whole day.

It is my first time attending a movie advance screening kind of event by Odex. The ticket cost me $35 and the gimmicks were actually not fantastic: poster (I am not a poster person), clear folder, Japanese tea cup, and Gosho Aoyama's signature card. The only thing which caught my interest is only the Gosho Aoyama's signature card although I knew I expected the impossible. It turned out to be a digital signature copied and pasted.

The so-called event was messy. There was no signages on the queue for the sales of limited merchandises from the movies and the queue to collect the goodie bags. When I reached, I only saw a queue and I thought there was only one queue. It turned out be the queue for the merchandises. I was like the 5th person queueing and I was disappointed the items that I wanted (the medal and the hand fan) were already sold out. The hoodie is too expensive at $98. I am very particular about clothes while I did not bat an eye when I bought $75 Kingdom Hearts Keyblade Conductor Baton last week. Haiz. But I was also thinking about practicality: there was no chart to estimate the size of the hoodie so it would not be funny if after spending that much I could not wear it and there will be limited chance of wearing it in hot and humid local weather. Although the merchandise sale was advertised to be open to the people who bought tickets first before to the public, they did not really check if the people buying had tickets as they were understaffed.

I did not get what I wanted. But since I already queued, I decided to buy these plush keychain for $19 each T_T Well it is rare to see Heiji's merchandise so I guess why not...

Conan mascot was wondering around. It was good for the public but disappointing for me who thought that there would be a designated proper space to take photo with Conan for the ticket holders. Sigh.. I still consider myself lucky to take a photo with the box office as the background and although there were strangers at the background, it was not that crowded. Still, with strangers, the photo was not good enough to be a profile picture :( The girl who helped to take my photo was lovely too. She retook my photo when a passerby inconsiderately walked past behind me.

After watching Kuroko yesterday, I think Conan movie is nice to give a brief introduction to the characters at the start of the movie. Yes, despite having 21 years of history, it still gives introduction which I think will help people who are new to the series. Story and humour wise, it is typical Conan style so nothing is extraordinary. The action scenes during the bombing of Nichiuri TV and the Satsuki temple were too unbelievable. Although these scenes give audience adrenaline rush, it is quite unrealistic for Conan and Heiji to escape such situations. The action scenes from last year's movie are more exciting as it is really about fight between good vs bad.

Well at least now I know this kind of event from Odex will be quite rubbish both in terms of organisation and the goodie bags so next time I would not be tempted anymore. For now, I am only having empty hope that they will promote the movie like last year: Conan standees around Plaza Sing and Conan mascot will appear for photo taking at certain hours. Empty hope because I know it is not going to happen since the movie is out for general screening this coming Thursday and there is no standee whatsoever at the mall now T_T

Kuroko no Basuke: Last Game

Kuroko no Basuke season 3 ends with a high note for me so I am hoping for even more exciting things for this movie. After all, we will get to see Generation of Miracles to play as a team! There is not much introduction to the series so clearly the movie is targeted at fans who are already familiar with the series. While nothing much to be expected from the plot ~which is quite typical of extra stories in sports anime/manga genre~, I am expecting the same great things from the anime. Sadly none of it happens and this movie is basically just a fan service and an attempt to cash in from the hype.

The match lacks the build up and tension to make it interesting or emotional to watch. The team is a mess. Instead of getting a nice strategy and team ups, we are just getting a mess of: do whatever best and special skills that each of you can do. It is as if the person writing the story is too lazy to even think through how the match should progress or think of scoring or defence scenes that will wow the audience. With so many characters fighting for screen time, everyone ends up miserably forgettable. Not because everyone is fighting for attention but because the set ups for them to show their special abilities are bad. Even Kuroko does not really show his phantom passes. Bleah.. So yeah, don't even think there is even a nice thing to see how fantastic Generation of Miracles will be as a team. I don't even see the points of having substitutes for team Vorpal Swords when they are not being played at all -_-".

Spoiler alert: the title 'Last Game' is apt since at the end of the movie, Kagami is leaving to the USA to achieve is his dream to play in NBA some day. So I guess there won't be anymore Kuroko story since Kuroko will no longer have any 'light' to support in Seirin. Sigh.. As a farewell gift, Generation of Miracles plays against Seirin but this is left to our imagination altogether. Another disappointment.

I always thought that Kuroko no Basuke is popular with girls. So it was really an eye opener that majority of the audience yesterday was guys. It was even more surprising that towards the end during the scene when Kagami realises how important Kuroko to him and he wants to properly say goodbye and thank you before boarding his flight, everyone was fangirling in expectation that it was going to be a BL moment. Lol. Anyway, nope, it was not. Not even a hug.. not even a fist bump.. it was just a mid-air fist bump.

I honestly feel quite sad that this is basically like a closure and end of Kuroko no Basuke. While the movie is a disappointment, I still like the characters, stories (in the main series), the humours, etc. 

Beauty and the Beast

The movie was released on 16 March and I only finally had the time to watch it today because sensei is still overseas and there was no Japanese class today. Lol. There was so much controversy surrounding this and a lot of my friends said that the movie was rather boring. These killed my initial excitement and perhaps the main reason that I still watched today was I had movie tickets that are expiring in few months time and the show today fit into my schedule.

I am SUPER DUPER GLAD that I actually watched this as I find it exceeding my expectations. I think friends find it boring because they already know the story and know what is going to happen. I love spoilers when watching movies so it does not bother me. Honestly, I was not too excited seeing the trailers: Emma Watson's singing is not that fantastic, the CGI for the living furnitures looks lame, and the general feel that it is not going to be at the original cartoon. Well it turns out that Emma's singing is actually okay after I get used to the first song (after all she is an actress and not a singer), the CGI for the living furnitures turns out to be believable enough (the gesture looks more human than cartoon), and it is faithful to the original cartoon (the addition of the introduction and the ending are very much welcome to add to better background setting and closure). The movie runs for 2+ hours which is more than 30 minutes longer than the cartoon, yet it does not feel draggy.

I am really glad that the live action tries to stick closely to the cartoon. You can see a lot of youtube videos comparing scenes from the original cartoon vs live action. It is simply amazing to make a good use of the good nostalgia. The musical scenes are all amazing, especially Be Our Guest which is as magical as the cartoon version. I hope Disney will follow this formula for the subsequent live actions instead of cutting down on the fabulous songs like what was done with Cinderella.

The Beauty and the Beast OST is sung by Ariana Grande and John Legend. I guess can't help it to have them to attract current crowd. But I am glad that they do not forget Celine Dion and she still sings a song (How Does a Moment Last Forever) at the end credits. It is a nice touch that the end credits during this song shows the main casts one-by-one smiling at the camera and only after the song is over then come the usual black screen end credits.

It is a good surprise to find this although their voices are not as nice as ang moh versions.

Kingdom Hearts Orchestra ~World Tour~

This feels like forever. The announcement and ticket sale began since May 2016 so it has been a year. I was so excited about this as it would be the first game concert that I would attend (although in the end, Final Fantasy Distant World concert played first in December). Thus I still decided to watch despite having little knowledge about Kingdom Hearts. Out of so many games in the series, I only played Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and honestly the only thing I remember is the names of the 3 main characters. Lol.. I remember nothing about the story, the gameplay, or the music. I read the manga for Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 2 but I also remembered very little about the story.

I bought the category 2 ticket for $189. Sigh.. I should have bought VIP for $255 since it would come with the opportunity to take photo and get a signature from the composer Yoko Shimomura. I guess I can't help my ignorance 1 year ago. I might not even know about the VIP benefits when I bought the ticket last year.

I may be quite biased with my feelings towards the concert as I was not very familiar with Kingdom Hearts music. I also can't help but drawing comparison with Final Fantasy Distant Worlds last December. I honestly did not think that I really enjoyed this concert. The pieces sound quite similar and boring. Nothing was really memorable or outstanding. Some of the better ones (although I can't remember the tunes now and even when they are played now, I may not be able to recognise them as Kingdom Hearts music) are Roxas' and Ventus' character themes (perhaps because they share similar tune), At Dusk, I Will Think of You, Twinkle Twinkle Holidays, the Final Bosses' Medley, and the finale song: Passion. The one that made everyone happy was The World of Kingdom Hearts particularly because of the Mickey Mouse March. For the other worlds, I think there is a nice mix between Disney and Kingdom Hearts elements but I personally prefer if they improvise along the Disney tunes that I am more familiar with. To be fair, I am also not familiar with all FF music (especially FF X onwards which I don't play) but there are still songs with memorable and catchy tunes that I grow fond off, despite not knowing anything about them at first.

In my post on Distant Worlds, I said that it was great to see Arnie Roth conducting and emcee-ing at the same time as that makes the concert experience better for the audience. That is sorely missed in this Kingdom Hearts concert which really feels like a professional orchestra performance. Yoko Shimamura was present to say her regards and thanks and it is definitely great to have her also playing the piano for the final encore. Her translator needs to be fired though. She sounded so unprofessional and I personally think translator that translated in 3rd person language is bad. Is your job supposed to translate or to interpret?

Surprisingly the concert was not sold out. I saw plenty of empty seats, at least on the level 1. The audience was quite peculiar too as they are more mature and not many otakus and cosplayers spotted. Hmm.. interesting...I arrived 1 hour before show time and I managed to get the souvenir after about half an hour queue. That is not bad compared to FF Distant Worlds that I did not have the chance to queue at all and afterwards I read that people were queueing for 2 hours plus on that day. Haha..

Surprise surprise.. I did not get the concert programme. Haha.. I am not that huge fan of Kingdom Hearts to spend $55 on it although I have to admit that the quality of the book is quite high standard. However I spent $75 for a conductor baton which is shaped like a key blade. Lol.. It was displayed like it was damn epic although it turns out to be just an overpriced plastic piece. No regret getting it though as I am a sucker for this kind of thing.

The plastic stand also has the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra engraving

Usually concert merchandises are exclusive so it is interesting that this concert's merchandises are available to be purchased online. In fact, the brochure they gave us is encouraging us not to queue and to buy the items online. Haha.. Can use credit card and free home delivery too. Wow.. The price is also exactly the same. The website is khshop.wildfaery.com and I am not being paid to advertise this. Perhaps I will change my mind to get the concert booklet.

After 4+ years...

It has been a long time.. really really long since I managed to sell any of my unwanted toys. So I am very happy to be able to say bye bye to Yuna today. I have been trying to sell this since 2013. That is 4+ years already T_T I bought her for $80+ and sold her for $120 which is pretty good. I am happy that the buyer is satisfied with her condition. I thought the box condition is not that optimum but he said it was still pretty good.

This is a reminder of my early collecting days when I still had a lot of space and bought anything that I could afford lol. As space became scarce, I realised that my love for FF X is not as big as for FF VIII. Initially I wanted to collect all but I only managed to get Tidus and Yuna. Not sure if I gave up this series because of oily Tidus or really because of space issue. Surprisingly, Tidus was sold way long ago and I thought Yuna would be the more popular one.

I get a bit of extra space although it is nothing compared to a few more preorders that will be coming. Well, better one than none :) I hope business will be picking up soon for the other items as well. Lol.