Just within a week of my break at home, I already fell into another bout of depression. Work is getting from worst to terrible. I am getting sick of covering other people's backside while noone covers mine. When people are away, I am supposed to temporarily take over their duties. So what about my own duties? They take a back seat and I have to do at home. That is like working for the whole day except when I am sleeping. When I am away, I still have to do my own duties. Life sucks. Life is unfair. Bleah..

Thinking about this just makes me more emo. I want to leave my current job. But I don't know what choice I have. Where can I find greener grass? Can I be sure that greener grass does not come with shittier fertiliser? Sigh..

To make things worst, I just lost an opportunity to purchase my holy grail: Aladdin Capodimonte figure for very cheap. I posted this 2 years ago and until now I am still waiting for an opportunity to get this. 1 auction started with $195 and eventually ended with just $202.50. Other prices on eBay currently is $1300-$1800. Haiz... Sadly this seller only shipped to US. I asked if he is willing to ship internationally by eBay Global Shipping Programme. He said shipping would be $300 by USPS. I was contemplating whether to get since the total would still only be 1/3 of what the others are charging. But if shipping is by USPS, I had to fetch such a big and heavy thing from customs office and that is something good. I also don't have the space for such a big piece. So the next emo-ness goes to my parents who up to now still does not want to get me a house here. I know it does not gonna help with anything. I prayed that the piece would remain unsold but obviously that did not happen. Sad...

FML FML FML.. that's what I am feeling right now :(

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

The few years wait turns out to be quite a disappointment.. Aaaah~~~ Having said that, it is not because the movie is not good. The first Avengers movie sets the bar too high that makes it difficult for the sequels to top it over.

In less than 5 minutes of the movie, I already felt a disappointment with the obvious CG work for the action scenes. I know they want to make cool and over the top action scenes but when the CG becomes too obvious, it defeats the purpose. After all, I want to see a live action movie and not a cartoon. Some of the action scenes also happen too quickly that it is difficult to catch and appreciate what is happening. There are too many mindless destruction that final showdown simply lose its impact. The fight between Hulk vs Hulkbuster is not as good as the trailer. I mean I don't feel any significance or anything great or anything touching from the fight. It is just mindless punching, kicking, and collateral damage to the buildings. The final fight is not as dramatic as the one in the first movie as the aim is to evacuate civilians and just to break apart the floating city before it falls back and destroy the earth upon impact. Even after the mission accomplished, the resolution does not have give invoke emotions like relief etc.

The pace of the movie is rather slow and I felt quite bored at the beginning. However, the plot is quite smoothly presented: why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch initially sided with Ultron, Iron Man's motives for his plans, how Ultron has his perverted idea of protecting the world, how Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch ends up fighting against Ultron, and how everything leads to the final showdown.

Another aspect that Age of Ultron does worse than its predecessor is the quirky and witty dialogues. I don't think the cinema had a laugh greater than "puny god" previously. Is it because everything seems to be more serious this time? I don't know.

Number of superheroes and screen time for each are always inversely proportional. It is a good thing that on top of the original 6, we also have Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, War Machine, and The Vision. On the flip side, there is less screen time for each person, notably for Iron Man. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch get quite a lot of screen time. In fact, Quicksilver seems to be very powerful here although he seems to be kinda useless in the comics. Haha.. The CG for Scarlet Witch is kinda lame, unfortunately as she is just shooting red beams. Too bad they have to 'kill' Quicksilver senselessly in the end. I say senselessly because I don't see what's the point of killing him. It does not move the plot forward and it does not even cause any crazy impact when Scarlet Witch going bonkers because of that. My friend said that Marvel "killed" him because Fox owns X-men and their Quicksilver. Hmm.. I still want to believe that perhaps he is not dead yet. Otherwise, why would Hawkeye lie next to a dead man when he is recovering from his wound?

Anyway the movie is still interesting, great, and enjoyable to watch. My expectations are too high and these dampen my mood a little bit. But I do not want to take the credit away and I still think that it is worth watching. In fact, I don't mind to watch it a second time. Haha.. Kinda ironic because I did not feel as excited at the end of it as compared to when I watched the first movie.

I don't really like popcorn and never ever in my life I eat popcorn when watching movie. I was so emo and upset because of work yesterday that I succumbed into temptation and got myself a popcorn combo. Actually it was not the combo that I wanted but the collectible that come for it. I don't collect non-anime collectibles but I guess all the Avengers' mood around me made me buy it. Quality-wise it is rather rubbish but hey, I bought it just because of the hype. Lol

Sadly only the big 4 are available. I would actually prefer Black Widow :( It was quite tough for me to choose between Captain America and Thor but I guess I like Chris Evans better than Chris Hemsworth and that is why I went for Captain America. Lol.

Talking about toys, if they ever make a figure of the computer model shown at the end credits, I will want it! Yeah!

Gin

My bubble tea abstinence ended on my birthday! How ironic! Haha.. I honestly have no idea where to celebrate my birthday as I am no longer familiar with my hometown. I am fine with anything anywhere as long it is the latest happening thing in Jakarta at the moment. Lol. I still want to keep up with latest development although I don't live here anymore. My sister told me about Fook Yew restaurant which as alcoholic bubble tea.

Regardless what Fook and Yew mean in the Chinese dialect, I am pretty sure the name is chosen just to make it rhyme with Fuck You. Haha... It works in Indonesia but I dare someone to open a branch in an English speaking country. I am not a fan of Chinese food but I have to say that the food here is quite unique in a good way. It is not the typical Chinese fine dining type of food. Moving on to the alcoholic bubble tea, I decided to buy a drink which contains gin. It was my first time and I could not taste any alcohol in my mouth. Initially, I was doubting myself if the drink had alcohol. A few minutes later, I felt the warmth on my back and the dizziness. Looks like I have found myself a new favourite alcohol. Haha.. I dislike alcohol because of: gastric, dizziness, flushing, warmth, and dry mouth. This gin does not cause me the flushing and the dry mouth so it is good. Now I know that the next time I want to get a non-drinker to drink, gin will be a good choice.

I am quite happy that my mum shared my birthday luck by winning a luck draw of a return air ticket from Jakarta - Bangkok - Phuket. She bought ruby earrings from the Thai fair and got 12 lucky draw entries. Hmm, that is like getting the earrings for free. Lol.. Anyway, I have been to Bangkok so I am not interested to accompany her.

Half of my holiday is gone :( I have not really done the work things that I brought home. Because my maid is not around, I have to waste time doing my laundry and my dishes. Haiz... I have yet to tidy up my comics and toy collections which definitely will make me more angsty as I have nowhere to keep them in order. Last but not least, one of the new acne cream that I got has tretinoin in it. It triggers the initial acne breakout as one of the side effects and I really cannot stand my own face :( I don't know what is going on with me. My acne had always been in control until the last 2 years.. Is this a punishment for calling other people ugly or teasing my friends who had acne previously??

Getting old

This week had been too tiring and stressful for me that my pimples broke out quite severely again. Bleah.. I think I am getting too old that my body cannot handle this level of tiredness and stress anymore. When I was in secondary school up to university, my level of stress and tiredness was worse than now but my pimples never gave me such a great problem. Want to blame it on hormone but I think my hormone was raging more in my teenage days than nowadays. I have stayed away 100% from fast food and bubble tea for since January. I failed in the last few weeks in terms of potato chips but I managed to stay away from Starbucks during Lent. I really think my pimples are affected by my stress.

My CP3 presentation on Monday went quite badly. I smiled and shook my head for most of the questions. It was quite useless to study. I chose to lodge my topic under infectious disease so I was nearly breaking down trying to remember various antibiotics, their mechanisms of action, their antibacterial coverage, renal dose adjustment bla bla bla. I did not have time to read on the other topics and the examiners were more interested in the other topics. Haiz.. I think it was definitely a failure unless they moderate the marks. To make things worse, the whole thing was overrun. Q & A was supposed to be 10 minutes and it became at least 30 minutes. That times 5 candidates. I was so agitated and eager to leave as I had dinner appointment. It was meant to be a farewell dinner for 2 of my juniors who left the company :'( I got a surprise that they also celebrated my birthday. Lol.. I am touched.

After doubting whether it was a right thing to do to fork out another $50 to change my flight, I think it was worth it. Haha.. I did not even have the time to properly pack my luggage. I was still packing my luggage when the taxi was already waiting for me. As much as I want to save my leave for travelling next year, I was so tired that I did not want any additional stress for an audit on Friday or running clinic on Thursday. Having said that, I think this short break is not a full break as I have to catch up on the work-related things that I am unable to clear during normal working hours.

I renewed my driving license yesterday. Ironically I had to take public transport to go to the place and to go home. Yeah I can't drive. It has been many years since the last time I took bajaj so it was a trip down to memory lane. Now the blue bajaj is much more comfortable: bigger and less noise than the old red bajaj that I used to take to go for my tuition. Oops that was like almost 15 years ago. Haha...

I went for my skin consultation again today. I was offered some injection to quickly bring down the acne but as long as it does not prevent future occurrence, I don't want any invasive or expensive procedures. It is not as if I am a model or I need to have my wedding that I need to have a perfect complexion right now. However, I decided to take the prescription for Roaccutane. I am still not sure if I want to take that because again, no point of taking such a strong medicine with lots of side effects for the whole body just for my face. I still have 2 more exams coming up so I shall see how things go after that. Hopefully the stronger creams that I was prescribed with today would help.

I also had a bit of wardrobe makeover today. I wanted to get just ONE new shirt for work because I am thinking of getting rid of my greyish/black shirt which is already a bit too tight and has no pocket. Being a stingy person, I refuse to spend more than Rp 150000 for a shirt. Well, I found a "buy 2 get 1 free" promotion so I ended up with 3 new shirts for Rp 330000 in total. What a great bargain! I decided to just bite the bullet and get slim fit as I hope it will ensure that I control my diet or risk myself looking like a sack of rice in them. Lol. I am still thinking about the green and pink shirts but the materials are too thin. I am very self conscious and I don't my nipples to be visible through the shirt.

I will be 28 years old in a few minutes time so I am indeed getting old...

Cinderella

Cinderella is not really my cup of tea. The cartoon was released in 'ancient' times that it is too outdated and unbelievable in the current era. In recent years, there are plenty of movies based on childhood fairy tales peppered with dark twists. Cinderella does not follow that path and is literally faithful to the original Disney's cartoon. Another point to give this movie a miss. How about Frozen Fever clip? I like Frozen but when I heard the new song from the clip, I don't think it is as good as the songs in original Frozen. I am not sure on why I still watched the movie in the end. It is not exactly helpful when a friend kept telling me "Just watch the trailer. It is basically the whole movie!".

Apparently it was not a wrong decision. There is magic in the movie and I came out of the cinema like a little boy who just had his first ever fairy tale. I am going to skip the story as it is exactly the same as the cartoon. No twists, no changes, no suprises. Credits to the director! Being faithful to the original cartoon can either mean very boring or very unrealistic. The movie does not focus on the parts which we expect to see when Cinderella comes to mind: how she is being mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters which makes the whole story flows more smoothly and realistically. With less focus on the mistreatment, Cinderella's patience and kindness also become more believable. Cinderella speaks to the animals but the animals are not depicted talking to her again. Another good point considering realism. Humans do talk to animals/pets and animals/pets don't respond by talking in human's language you see. And it is a good choice to skip the Lucifer vs the mice parts.

I really love the setting, the environment, and the props. Every elements of fairy tales: big mansion, majestic castle, old towns, forests, etc are depicted beautifully. I think it would be fantastic to have a mansion where Cinderella lives! The next great thing is the effects when Fairy Godmother does her "bibbidi bobbidi boo" to transform Cinderella and when the effect of the magic vanishes at midnight. I think they are excellent without exaggeration to the point of unbelievable.

I don't know the actress who plays Cinderella but from the trailer, I thought she is so-so only. When watching the movie, I can't help to like her. I think she is a perfect representation of Cinderella. This may come out wrong: but I don't think her beauty is not the type that will attract people just from her look. Her beauty is more of the sweet-type and her beauty shines because of her kindness/personality. Aaaaah... What an ideal girl.. Haha.. Helena Bonham Carter did a great job as the Fairy Godmother although it is difficult to change the image of Fairy Godmother to a young lady. Haha.. She did a better job as when she disguised as the old lady. As always, she is always good when playing out-of-this-world characters. Cate Blanchett, as Lady Tremaine, is the other woman got me excited for this movie. I always know Galadriel can be a scary lady too. I definitely love her dresses. Unfortunately, the 2 stepsisters fail to shine and they fall into obscurity. They are dumb but they are not funny. I find the guy playing the prince is a bit too old but he does have a Disney prince aura.

In all, I think there is a magic in this movie and I really recommend this to everyone. I was prepared to be disappointed but I came out of the cinema filled with child-like joy. With all the realism, the message of "have courage and be kind" sounds very positive instead of being pretentious. And of course, other than believing in courage and kindness, a little bit of magic will be wonderful too.

Honestly, Cinderella is indeed an ideal girl that I am looking for: can work, can do housework, can ride a horse (drive), pretty, and kind-hearted. When will I ever find my Cinderella? Perhaps my Cinderella is still being locked somewhere by the evil stepmother.. Unfortunately, I am still not ready to search and rescue her yet...

By the way, I just realised that Lily James recorded "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and Helena Bonham Carter recorded "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" but both songs were only played at the ending credits. They should have included this in the movie!! Grr.. And Lily James has a very sweet voice too.

The excitement from getting $88 from POSB Chinese New Year promotion was short-lived. I lost another $50 this morning. Call me an idiot if you wish. I lost $250 last week but it looks like being nice is equal to being stupid. I learnt to lock my drawer but I still did not lock my room when I shower. I thought the thief would not strike back so quickly. Although the proof remains 'weak', today I am very confident that my housemate is the thief. I had only $6 in my wallet yesterday and thus I withdrew another $100 in the evening. This time there is NO WAY I could drop it or I remembered wrongly. After withdrawing the money, I went home and I did not buy anything else. After showering this morning, I realised that he was already awake. The first thing I did was to check my wallet and my feeling was true: a note of $50 disappeared.

I informed my landlady and I am grateful that she finally decided to kick him out. I have to be careful and patient for another 1 month. Sigh.. To look it in a more positive light, it cost me $300 to get rid of him from the house. $300 is close to 10% of my monthly pay and it hurts. I was even considering making a police report or get police to find fingerprint evidence etc.

A part of me feels that it is my own stupidity. If I already suspect there is a thief, why did I not lock my room when I went to shower? Haiz.. Another part of me does not want to leave in suspicion and negativity. In the previous house for 2 years, I also did not lock my room when I went to toilet. Sometimes I did not even close the door properly and the wind would blow it open, yet I never lost anything. The thief stayed on the first level in the other hose. Now in this flat, we are all on the same level so it had to be him. Coincidences cannot happen every week that I always lose something every time he is already up when I am still in the toilet.

The more I think about this, the more I upset I become. I know I have to let it go and just count my blessings instead of dwelling in my misfortune. After all, everything belongs to God. What He gives, He can take it away..

Haiz.. Okay I shall try to be more positive. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday that someone actually complimented this FON (aka me) for being friendly and helpful. LMAO! FON is our code for full of nonsense or unreasonable customers. It was a huge surprise because generally I am very impatient, curt, and maintain a black face at work, especially towards rude + racist Mandarin-only speakers. Of course when someone is very nice and friendly, I will also reciprocate them but usually they are the minority. I think this is my first compliment in 3 over years. Haha.. The last time I had any compliment was during my training days when I was at retail. That was looong time ago when I was still young, fresh, and "passionate" with what I am doing.

Today someone asked for my name and I hope she wrote something good about me. Haha.. Shameless mode one. I have to thank God for what happened today. She was in a hurry because she had to go somewhere else. She curtly told me to just put all the medicines in the bag and no need to say anything. Bleah.. I feel very irritated with this kind of people. So I just showed each medicines and since she nodded for each of them, I thought everything was okay. As she was making payment, I don't know why I was prompted to check for any hospital record. Tadaaaa... There was a recent hospital visit and there were drastic changes to the medicines. I spoke to her again and I think she realised how close the danger from all the different medicines were and she agreed to wait for me to contact the doctor and repack the medicines accordingly. She even said sorry for being in a hurry earlier. I was quite 'shy' but I was glad that I told her that the credit was not mine but God's. Usually when someone refuses counselling and acts as if they know everything, I will also not do any further checks. I don't know why today I did it. She shared that she was in hurry to see her husband who had lung cancer and liver cirrhosis. It is quite sad considering her husband does not smoke and does not drink. When she heard my surname, she was quite 'shocked' as it is the same as her husband's.

Anyway heck about compliments! I am just glad that I am able to make an impact in someone's life and thank God for that.

This week proves that I have a terrible luck when it comes to queueing. I mentioned about the queue for LKY lying in state yesterday. On Wednesday, I went for Penitential service. I chose a wrong queue which was only served by 1 priest. There was another queue which moved faster because it was being served by 3 priests. I changed queue at the last minute which was not exactly helpful because I was still the last few to remain in the church.

My last confession was 2 years ago and I was looking forward to a good one this year. Obviously that did not happen as I was very irritated about the queue. My irritation was especially towards the wardens. I really have no idea what they were doing. If they had brains, they should realise 1 queue was moving very slowly as compared to the other because they were served by different number of priests. They should do something to even up. That just reinforced my impression that these church volunteers are usually stupid, incapable people who are just there for pride and glory. Idiots! Yes, I left the confession with such thoughts and it was as good as not confessing. Having said that, it is shame of me for saying and having such thoughts. If I really feel that I am better than them, then I should be volunteering my service to church. But nope, that is not going to happen because church people are weird.

Although I have "returned" to church this year, I have not fully returned. In fact for this Lenten, I did not observe any fast or abstinence at all. I see no point in fasting when I am on diet and I only have 1 full meal a day. I don't think I can survive cutting that down. I intended on abstaining from my toy online shopping which obviously did not happen. It was not even possible for me not to open those toy websites for this 40 days. Shame on me! Haiz.. With holy week coming ahead, I don't know if I will have a meaningful Easter this year.

It was pouring heavily this afternoon when LKY's body was brought from the Parliament House to the University Cultural Centre for the state funeral. I am not being a superstitious but usually the passing of great person always coincides with heavy rain. This trend at least happens once a year at every Good Friday around 3pm. That is the historical time when Jesus died on the cross. I had spent Good Friday both in Jakarta and in Singapore and regardless of the geographical location, it always rains. Anyway, I am glad that I went to the Parliament House yesterday. If I planned to pay my last respect by lining on the street today, I would end up not doing so because of the rain. I am still sad that I no longer worked at UCC but I am thankful for the live streaming. There is only 1 thing missing today: I could not hear the sirens from my place!! If there is any national emergency, I guess I will be the first to die!

The Great Singapore Queue

This week Singapore mourns for the passing of her founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, on 23 March 2015 at 318am. His body was brought to Istana for 2 days for private wake before being moved to the Parliament House for public to pay their respect. Initially, the lying in state was planned to open only until 8pm daily. However, the support from public was really tremendous that even when the lying in state was changed to 24 hours, the queue grew to as long as 10 hours. Yesterday was the peak that the authority had to close the queue from midnight and only reopened it at 615am this morning.

Considering a lot of negativity from keyboard warriors online, the support for LKY is really beyond expectation. I am not going to say what he has done and what he has been criticised as these are available online. Personally, I think that Singapore is a proof of his life and success, regardless of what people say. Take a look at the facts and compare Singapore with the other countries in South East Asian region. It is simply amazing that the smallest country with zero natural resources can be the most successful nation in the region. Seeing the surrounding nations, I cannot not admire what LKY has done to Singapore. Sadly a lot of Singaporeans are so narrow minded and more foreigners, who have experienced shitty living conditions in their countries of birth, are actually impressed with LKY and what he has done to Singapore. Nothing is perfect in this world and everything has its pros and cons. I prefer a safe and rich country to chewing gums and freedom of speech.

When I was younger, I hated to be here. As I grow older and more understanding to world affair, I am thankful for the opportunity to study and to live here. None of this is possible without LKY and for that, I am really grateful for him and I pray that he rest in peace and God will welcome him into His Kingdom.

Moving on the Queue itself, I planned to go on the wee hours of this morning for a possibility of shorter queue. Anything more than 4 hours is beyond my endurance. Since the queue was closed at midnight, I decided to sleep. I did not sleep well as I kept waking up. Haha.. I woke up at about 8am and read that the queue was reopened at 615am. People were saying that the queue was much faster. I contemplated to go but I decided that my invoices at office was more important. After leaving office, the latest update was 4 hour estimated waiting time. From my friends who went and people who commented on facebook, most of them waited 40% less than the estimated waiting time. This morning/noon, even though the estimated waiting time was 4 hours, people were saying that they finished in 2.5 to 3 hours. I thought this was okay for me and so I went.

I reached City Hall at about 3.45pm. I was so happy that I could breeze through all the way... until Padang when I saw estimated waiting time of 5 hours. Bleah... I stayed at Padang for 2 hours before proceeding towards Esplanade. The organisers were trying to shorten the queue and I got to skip the Marina Bay Floating Platform. It took about 1 hour from Esplanade Bridge towards MBS and then a U-turn back towards the Esplanade Bridge. It was another 1.5 hours from there to the Parliament House and I finished at about 9pm. 5 hours wait just for a 5 seconds bow but I think it was worth the memories. I am grateful for the great weather (no sun and plenty of wind), the opportunity to watch sunset and to explore Singapore on foot in a way that I never did before in my 10+ years here. Some complained that they were being hurried inside the Parliament house after all that queueing. I choose to have the opposite school of thought: there are still tonnes of people queueing so it is better to be quick for the benefit of others too.

This event also brought the good sides of Singaporeans which are often drowned with all the negative uncivilised acts reported in media. I would like to say a big thanks to the organisers and all the volunteers (drinks and food are given on the way to ensure people are energised throughout the wait). Unfortunately, the queue got a little rowdy at the security screening as people started to jostle and rushed.

The Fullerton Hotel tribute to LKY

So near yet so far... just about to enter the Parliament House

After surviving this historic queue, in the future, I guess I don't need to be afraid when queueing for SEA Games, concerts, or marathon events :p Tomorrow will be the state funeral. As an ex-usher in UCC, I feel a pang of sadness. If only I am still an usher and can participate in this once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

Expensive lesson

I just lost another $250 in cash. I do not want to accuse the other tenant in my house for doing it as I think it is crazy for him to come inside my room when I am showering. But this is not the first time. The first time, I lost $100 in cash from my wallet inside my bag. Since it was in my wallet, I doubted myself. Was it really lost? Could I have accidentally dropped it outside? Thus I decided to let it go and keep extra cash in my drawer instead. Looks like now $250 is the price I have to pay to learn to lock my drawer when I am not in the room.

This time, I am very sure that my $250 went missing. On Sunday night, I was looking through and throwing my old receipts. I usually keep some receipts until the points for the purchase are credited to my account. As a habit, I always rip all paper that I throw into small pieces, so there is no way I could accidentally be tearing apart 5 pieces of $50 note. I remembered counting the cash and told myself to take 1 piece when I went to collect one of my toys.

Sadly yesterday I was too tired. I took out my alarm handphone from the same drawer but I did not check or see if the cash was still there. I woke up from my nap and took a shower at 12am. Yesterday night, the other tenant happened to be awake still. Same thing as this morning when I took a shower. When I wanted to take a $50 note this morning, I realised that they were all gone.

I sort of getting nudging from the Heavens last night which I chose to ignore. I got the "urge" to prepare the cash for the toy payment last night but I was too tired and decided that I could do that in the morning instead. The "urge" came a few times. Another "urge" was to check for my iBanking status. My iBanking device was just beneath the cash and the receipts in my drawer. Again I chose to ignore that thinking that I might as well check all my bank accounts on the 25th after my payday.

This morning I was so upset and emo about this. Surprisingly, I am feeling much better right now. $250 is not a lot. But I still do not want to accuse anybody. I still think that it is unthinkable and crazy for the other tenant to enter my room when I am in the toilet. There is no proof that he did that. There is no explanation about my missing cash. I can only accept and suck it up.

Budget busted

I read an article shared on facebook that 1 thing that people should do in their 30s (I am not there yet) so that they don't regret in the future is to travel with their parents while they are still healthy and strong enough to travel. As much as I want to do that very often, I feel that I don't have the patience and energy to face family quarrel and conflict daily during travel. Sigh.. my family came to Singapore over the last weekend.

As expected, there were quarrels because people were too selfish and only thought about themselves. Food was an issue as my dad and elder sister die die also wanted to look for rice. I hate people asking me for food recommendation when obviously my taste is way beyond theirs. Quarrels over shopping also happened. My mum had a bad habit of black facing when others were shopping but all her tiredness would disappear when it was her turn to shop. But obviously I don't want to travel with my elder sister. She is not only problematic about food, she also does not like to walk, gets tired easily, and basically only wants to do or go whatever she feels like doing.

I was upset that in the end my dad refused to bring back the soda maker I won from Standard Chartered Bank. He mentioned that the machine came with CO2 tank and noone sells it in Jakarta so no point of bringing it over because after we use finish the CO2, the machine will be useless. Haiz... I am giving it to my cousin here and I am glad to hear that likely her dad will be happy to play with it. At least it will not be wasted. I also wanted to use $100 Sentosa Voucher that I won to eat something good and expensive. Again it was not used because of the troublesome people over food :( Since the vouchers were expiring on the 27th March, I just used all of them in Universal Studios souvenir shop. Bleah.. the things are so bad that it was difficult to spend $100. I had to force my parents to get a pair of ugly looking polo for $50 and I spent the other $50 over rubbish such as the replica of the revolving Universal globe and a mug. Wasted wasted wasted... If only this is a Disneyland voucher, it will not be a problem to even spend $1000 :p

Accompanying my sister shopping resulted in me buying things which I initially did not know about. T_T First, I bought Nyanko sensei and Kuro nyanko plushies from Natsume Yuujincho that I am currently watching. They are quite big that I can't fit them into the largest ziploc bag available. I usually put my plushies into ziplog bags to prevent dust. Less space for me on bed but as long as it makes me happier, it is a good trade off. As other prize figures, they are $36 each.

I prefer opened eyes for Nyanko Sensei as well

My new sleep mates :)

I did not know that there was a Japanese toy fair at Takashimaya. After waiting and hoping for a sale for 1 year, I decided not to wait any longer and just buy Figuarts Zero Atsushi Murasakibara. He is the only one from the whole set that I don't have. It is very pricey at $40 but since I want to utilise my $10 voucher, I decided to just bite the bullet. Bandai.. Bandai.. your quality is really damn shit. The paint job is even worse than some prize figures. But again, it was too late. I already had the rest of the cast so might as well get this to complete.

After 3 months of waiting, finally Kinokuniya 20% Members Sale is here. Hahaha.. The sale 2 weeks ago was only for Main Store so I did not want to buy those items available in Bugis since I can earn Capitastar at Bugis. I bought 2 Kuroshitsuji books and 1 Free! Eternal Summer. And talking about Free!, I am quite pissed with Kinokuniya. Kyoani often release exclusive Free! artbooks. Last year when I pre-ordered from Japan (which cost me a bomb because of the proxy fees), Kinokuniya brought in these exclusive books. I thought they would continue do that for subsequent exclusives and I did not pre-order from Japan again. Guess what, when I did not pre-order, Kinokuniya also did not bring in! Damn it. I have to hunt at secondary markets which usually have inflated prices.. Don't even talk about proxy fees which will inflate the prices even more.

This is the spread front and back covers. The book is still A4 in size.

Lastly, thank goodness for the reprint of Cardcaptor Sakura's Clow Card book. I missed the January print and I did a special order at Kinokuniya. I was surprised that they arrived quite quickly and then I realised it was because they were getting the reprint in March. The price was about $5 more than the January one because of exchange rates perhaps. And lucky that this week also the members sale so I can still get 20% discount for this. If only Kinokuniya sale happened last week, I could send all these books to Jakarta via my family also. Haiz.. Now I have to carry heavy luggage this April.

I stopped following Ayumi Hamasaki for a few years already but I could not help but curious when my friend shared her new song The GIFT which featured JJ Lin. My first thought was: what the heck he was doing! After watching the PV, I was like: how come he did not sing but only played the piano? Any guy could have played the piano. He was actually the composer =x Lol.. Haha.. Well, I have to give him credits because this song is quite awesome, not the generic J-pop/J-rock type that usually I avoid.

I think I can use this song as my wedding song. Haha.. That is provided I can find a bride as pretty as Ayu.