Another free USS trip

I just came back from another free trip to Universal Studios Singapore and I am so shagged! It is another free entry as an appreciation for my involvement in the APG in December. After a similar one for SEA Games, I was very reluctant to go again. Not only none of my friends were going, it was held on a Friday and it was only from 7pm to 12am. I used one of my friend's ticket to ask another friend and as it had always been raining in the afternoon for the past week, I told her that I would cancel the plan off if it was raining this afternoon.

Apparently it did rain but I told her that I would still go to Vivocity and if it was still raining, I would just eat dinner there. We ate at Fish & Co and there is a reason why the last time I ate there was many years ago when my friend was not even in Singapore yet. Haha.. It was raining when we started but it stopped when we were done so in the end we still went to USS. Yay!!

USS is ready for Chinese New Year although the CNY decoration is only at the Hollywood area (which is essentially the first area where public enters). It felt very quiet for a Friday evening and I realised that this time the whole USS was 'reserved' just for us as everyone was seen wearing the yellow wristband which was the entrance ticket. Whee :) That was unlike the previous appreciation event which was on a Saturday afternoon and USS was still open to the public. Unfortunately, my friend was not interested in the rides. If I went with people who like those things, they would be over the moon as all the rides were only 5-20 minutes queue long.

At the entrance, we took a picture with Woody Woodpecker and the girlfriend. The queue was like only 5 people. Lol. We then went for Shrek 4-D adventure which was a waste of time (boring, too much talk, and I found the 3D was too hurtful for the eyes). As we were going back, there was a Madagascar meet & greet. We had no idea who the characters are and we just took photo for the sake of getting photos. I think USS character meet & greet is like very poor thing as people are not interested to take pictures with them. We also saw Marilyn Monroe and Betty Boop and noone was queueing to take pictures with them. Ouch!

Sadly because USS was 'reserved' for us, a lot of eateries were not open and the whole area was quite dark in the evening. Not that I cared since my main reason for going is to take photo souvenir for team NILA. I wore a green shirt and the backdrop of the photo was also in green!! When I compared with the photo I had for SEA Games, I realised that I was actually wearing the same shirt so of course the same disaster was repeated: I blended in completely with the backdrop the photo turned out horrible. Haha.. This time I saw 2 of such photo booths so I had another try on the other photo booth and nothing could help my blending in. Lol.

I could not use the $20 voucher as we were already full from dinner. I did not regret eating Fish & Co as we were both so hungry earlier but I admit some of the food were very tempting T_T I just had an ice milo as the milkshake was already unavailable. Meh.. It was only past 9pm. I feel a bit emo because I cannot share the photos taken with the characters as my friend was also in the picture. Not that I am worried that people will think we are together but because I am afraid that her boyfriend in Korea will be jealous!! After all, he did not let her go for a holiday to Australia just with me.

But looking at the positive side, it was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience to visit USS as an 'VIP' as the whole place totally felt not crowded. Hehe..

The finale of my APG experiences :) Thank you for all the memories

Our Times

This is very late! I watched Our Times (我的少女時代 is the Mandarin title) in mid-December which was also already quite late. I had to shamefully admit that I watched this online through a link that a friend shared. I felt ripped off as the proclaimed HDRIP quality turned out to be an illegal recording in a cinema -complete with shadows of people going to the toilet. A week later another friend shared a link to the HD version. It is really HD but I do not want to re-watch it haha... I actually wanted to watch it in the cinema but between free stay at MBS vs watching this in cinema, the winner is pretty clear.

Our Times had a lot of hype, particularly for the reference to the 90s. I belong to the 90s generation too so I am quite interested to see what the hype is all about. People also compare this to You are the Apple of My Eye. That is not exactly appleaing (meant to be a pun :p) to me as the only thing I remember about that movie is that there are funny scenes and the last kiss. I totally cannot remember the plot which means the plot is completely forgettable.

I am pretty glad that I did not watch this in cinema. Honestly, I felt so bored for almost the whole movie. Our Times does not offer anything new or unique pertaining to the 90s settings or high school love stories between a delinquent, a shy girl, and the most popular student at school. Although it is quite expected that the bad boy will end up falling for the shy girl (and vice versa), it is quite cute that he does not have the guts to confess. This is only revealed near the end when the boy leaves for America and leave behind a cassette recording for the girl.

The last 10 minutes, however, make all the yawning for the earlier 2 hours worth it. The girl is big fan of Andy Lau. After the boy's confession and fast forward a few years later, it seems quite random that we leave the lovey dovey part and back to the girl fangirling again. It is funny to see her frustrated for not able to ever get a ticket for her idol's concert for the past many years. So it is a big nice surprise when Andy Lau really makes an appearance (as himself!!) in this movie. It becomes to an even bigger surprise that the whole Andy Lau thingy is actually a fulfillment of the boy's promise many years ago to have Andy Lau sing for the girl. So manly tears are shed at this point and the music also creates the appropriate tear-inducing atmosphere. The movie ends with an exchange of "Long time no see" and although that does not give any closure to their love story, it makes the ending memorable. I can particularly relate to how they feel as there was no internet and international phone call was so expensive in the 90s. When someone moved overseas, you could simply lost all contact. When you unexpectedly meet that someone now (especially if it is someone dear to you), you will definitely get the 'feel'.

Oh ya, I am not a fan of Jerry Yan but I have to admit that I like to see him here as the adult version of the bad boy. 

The soundtrack

Chicken overload

After tongue, stomach is the next body part which may lead you closer to hell. I can't believe that I skipped church this weekend just because of my stomach. Oh God please forgive me T_T Well God is distant so it is alright to sometimes prioritise myself over God. But no, I followed my stomach desire when it also meant that I would be eating poison.

Egg is a poison to my body and I have proven it during my end of year holiday that eggs really triggered acne breakout. After bombardment of various salted egg cuisines in my facebook, I lost my restrain last night and I kept thinking about salted egg popcorn chicken. Sigh.. I can't remember who shared it but on my facebook newsfeed, I saw about the Chicken King which is located at Toa Payoh. I pass by the area daily so if I want I can get it after work but a part of me keep urging me to try it today and keep my weekdays for diet.

Since the beginning of this year, my sleep cycle has been completely destroyed. I could no longer take a 1-2 hour nap in the evening as I always overslept until 2-3am :( which means that I may not brush my teeth (eww!!!) and put on my acne creams. I always shower before dinner as I hope that it would keep me awake longer and I don't need to take a nap. It does not work but at least I still shower :p The same thing happened last night and I fell asleep while waiting for the uploading of my photobook. I woke up at 1am and only slept again at 4am. I woke up late and because I played game too long, I skipped my usual 1130am mass. I thought I would eat my salted egg popcorn chicken for lunch and then go for my Japanese class. I played game longer than expected that I did not even have time for lunch. I only bought Kkuldak popcorn chicken at Plaza Sing before my Japanese class.

After class, it was a tough decision between going for evening mass vs having dinner. Obviously I chose dinner with the excuse being not having proper meal since lunch yesterday. I bought the normal ($5) and the salted egg popcorn chicken ($5.40) from the Chicken King. The normal one is pretty good, even better than Kkuldak, as they are not dry and well marinated. The salted egg turns to be as I expected: over-rated and nothing special. Booo!!

So yeah.. 3 servings of popcorn chicken a day. No more of it for the next 3 months!! Haha.. Time to get back on diet again.

Photobook

In the era of digital photography, gone are the days of printing photos to keep in a photobook. Although it is nice to be able to browse through the pictures digitally, nothing beats flipping through a photobook -just like how I can never enjoy online manga as much as reading directly from a book on my hands. There is this online photobook website that has perpetual discount codes from groupon but I only finally got the 'mood' to properly do one this year.

Honestly, it is not an easy thing to do and it is very tiring. I have been doing it for the past 2+ weeks and sacrifice whatever free personal time I have. Haha.. I started with the photos from my Europe trip in 2013 and the most difficult thing to do is the selection of the photos. Initially, I did for a 40-page portrait photobook as the available groupon discount code was for that. It took me a week to complete and by the time I wanted to get the groupon discount code, I realised that the photobook website itself is running a promotion for 40 and 80-page landscape photobook!! It was the last few hours of the promotion and luckily it was for the discount codes only and the timeline given to use it is until May. Landscape is always a better orientation for a photobook so I decided to re-do everything T_T There went all my effort for the past 1 week and I spent another week to do the 80-page landscape photobook. I hope it will turn out not disappointing. I will only write about my experience (especially with the use of the software) after I receive the end product. Haha.. Biasness detected.

I actually bought 2 more codes for 40-page because I am planning to do more for my Japan trip and Korea trip but after these past 2 weeks, I should take a rest doing these photos until Chinese New Year. Lol.. As a new customer, they emailed me a discount code for a free small photobook. Hehe.. I thought I wanted to use this for all my personal narcissistic photos but I realised I don't have enough photos to make a 40-page photobook. Lol.. Well I still have until end of this year to fill this photobook. Lol.

I finally completed my 3rd consecutive working Saturday since the beginning of the year with company's Active Day. That was the first physical activity I did since before my surgery in 2014!! Wow.. I played frisbee for a while and I still think that it is one sport which looks simple to play but very tiring to play. I ran out of breath and simply gave up on the last point despite at 1-1 condition. Well, we played for fun anyway. I also completed the 2km walk (jogging or running was forbidden as this was meant to be a walk assessment) and all my body is aching until now. I hope it will kickstart my exercise habit again.

Small surprises

The things are no big deal. But because I totally do not expect them, they become pleasant surprises for me. After I reached my room on Sunday, the first thing I noticed was a missed registered mail from Singapore. I did not order anything locally. I was very curious and at least it was an excuse for me to leave work on time on Monday. And what a great a surprise it was: a Christmas card and a pair of Cathay's Platinum Movie Suites tickets from my financial advisor!! Hohoho... Cathay's Platinum Movie Suites is something similar to Golden Village's Gold Class. I have been to Gold Classes for a few times and I am looking forward to try Platinum Movie Suites. Just nice that in 2016 there are plenty of super heroes movies coming out.

Yesterday I received an expensive looking item from Switzerland!! Wow.. Again, I did not order anything from Switzerland. It was Swissotel membership card. I really did not expect that the card will be sent from Switzerland directly. I will definitely patronise Swisshotel again --when the rates are reasonable. Haha.. 

It has been challenging to become a better person this year. It is hard not to feel upset when you try to help but the other party does not appreciate your help. That happened to me on Monday.. yep.. just the first working day in 2016. I keep reminding myself of Mother Teresa's "Do good anyway" even when others do not appreciate it. Oh well.. I have gotten over it but urrgh...

My resolution to set aside a few minutes everyday for prayer has been working so far despite the great effort to fight against the ZZZ monster. I can't seem to recover from my 3-hour sleep after my flight back on Sunday. I have been able to revert back to my diet to lose weight. It has been very challenging and I am feeling hungry every evening :( In the past, that 1 glass of cereal was sufficient. Clearly my stomach has expanded and I need to adapt back to this 200kcal dinner.

I was honestly surprised to find special appearance of Atsuko Maeda and Yuko Oshima during AKB48 performance in the 66th NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen. It was so difficult to find the video of the performance but yesterday I found it on Youtube!! Yay!! My guess that AKB48's popularity is fading with graduation of their famous members finally become reality. Something must be terrible if they had to call 2 of their former members for a national TV performance. Honestly, the performance was rather rubbish and it was only made interesting because of the appearance of Acchan and Yuko. A part of me feels quite sad that these 2 former members actually overshadowed the current members for this performance but no doubt that they have more star power than the current members. Anyway it is good to see both of them look much fresher in this performance than when they were still in AKB. And I think nothing tops AKB48's performance in 2011 (i.e 62nd NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen).

Mickey and Minnie Mouse also appeared with V6 but sadly the song chosen was rather disappointing.

Fantastic 2015

It is the last day of 2015 and looking back, 2015 has been a fantastic year for me. I feel that I did a lot of adventure and achieved quite a few things.

At work:

~Involvement in SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games

~Completion of Clinical Pharmacist Preparatory Program

~Promotion

Travelling:

~First time I went to Batam. Batam is like a favourite weekend getaway place for people in Singapore so I am the odd one out to never visit Batam despite living in Singapore for more than a decade.

~I finally fulfilled my dream to visit Japan!! Hurray!! I hope I will be able to visit again for many more times in years to come
~I got to stay at Swissotel and Marina Bay Sands. Yeah!!!
~I went up to Gardens by the Bay Flower dome and Super Tree for the first time. I also swam and took pictures at MBS Infinity Pool. Hoho...
~I visited Universal Studios Singapore for the first time as well. 

Personal development:

~I finally joined a class to learn Japanese. It is going to be tough but I wish that I will be able to travel alone to Japan some day. It will be a bonus if I can read manga, watch anime, and watch Japanese shows without translations.
~Spiritually, I think I am slightly better this year than in 2014. At least, I went for Sunday masses more regularly.

Of course there are still things which I am still lacking in:
~Physical exercise. I literally did not physical exercise for 2015. My excuse is that I am scared after my surgery at the end of 2014. Actually the doctor already gave the go ahead to resume my jogging after 1 month of resting. I take it as 1 year so I hope I can start again in 2016.
~I managed to drop to 58kg prior to my trip to Japan. After that my diet and weight went back to square one.. until now.. Time to restart my diet again in 2016.
~I am still an angry, impatient, and arrogant boy. I hope to be a more patient and humble person.
~The most difficult thing is to actually control and cut down my shopping on anime/manga related stuff. Haiz.. I have been trying every year since I started working and I always fail.
~I am still single... aaah...

I am thankful for everything that happened to me in 2015. God has been very loving and generous to me this year. Thank God!! I hope that 2016 will be even more fantastic than 2015 and I hope that I will be a better person in 2016 as well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

Random thoughts on some mangas

Godhand Teru

After many years, finally Godhand Teru ends with the 62nd volume. I am talking about the Indonesian version of course. It is one of my favourite title as most of the stories are very touching and make me cry buckets. The beginning is really promising. In fact, it can be inspiring for young people who read this to become doctors although what the manga depicts may not be a true reflection of work life in a hospital. Lol. As the story progresses, there are more shounen action spices being injected like rivalry with another doctor and another hospital group. Unfortunately, I feel that the ending is very anticlimatic. It seems that after a long journey, the mangaka forgets about Teru's intention at the start of the series and the end does not tie back to that. Bleah.. we do not even get a nice wedding scenes after all that lovey dovey relationships. Heck, I think the mangaka was forced to just quickly end the series and hence we get such an ending. I know there is a continuation called Godhand Teru Kamigami no Souheki and although I am disappointed with how Godhand Teru ends, I will still read the continuation if it is translated by Elex Media Komputindo.

Fairy Tail

I had high hopes for Fairy Tail as I enjoyed Hiro Mashima's previous work: Rave Master. Fairy Tail slowly losing its uniqueness with artwork which getting more similar to One Piece -whose artwork I dislike- and trying too hard with all the fanservice. The fanservice is too much and the jokes are no longer funny. There is a limit on how Gray's shirtlessness, accidental booby grabs, losing clothes in the middle of battle, etc can be funny and I think they are no longer funny. I am surprised how Fairy Tail can retain its popularity as I already lose track with the main plot with all the side plots. This is going to be a long ride as I am still at volume 36 and the Japanese version is still ongoing at volume 52. I want to quit but the other part of me feel that I am way into this already. It is sad to see how Fairy Tail has moved way too far from its predecessor. Other than the artwork, there is no way to tell that this is actually done by the same manga who does Rave Master as Fairy Tail has almost none of the good points of Rave Master, especially the great touching stories.

Beelzebub

Now if you want to have a fantastic example of great comedy manga: read Beelzebub. I wanted to stop this at the beginning as the story is almost non-existent at the beginning. However, this is the first manga that made me laugh out loud while reading it. The jokes tend to fall on the lame side but coupled with the stupid expressions that the characters make, everything becomes an explosive comedy. It is an interesting concept as usually humour is inserted to move the story along but Beelzebub is doing the other way. Well I am not complaining because even the filler story arcs -purely there just for the sake of the comedy- are hilarious. Fairy Tail should learn from this on how to make things funny with minimal fanservice. Yep, even the naked baby does not become the butt of all the jokes to keep things funny.

Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun

My sister informed me about this new title a few months ago and my only reason for buying this was good reviews that I found on the net. I did not even actually find out how the artwork looks like or what the story is all about. My first impression after reading the first few pages was not very positive as the artwork is too shoujo for me. But beyond that, everything is becoming enjoyable. Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun has an interesting approach with 4-panel per page per 'story' which reminds me of those comic strips in the newspaper. There is still a continuation from 1 page (or 'story') to the the next. The humour style is very similar to Beelzebub: funny and lame lines coupled with ridiculous expressions from the characters that makes me laugh out loud although not as loud as Beelzebub. Hmm... if this is considered LOL, Beelzebub's level can be considered giving me 6-pack from the laughing.

Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai

This is rather moutful as a title. The literal translation is 'Yugami does not have any friends' so thumbs up for M&C translation to 'Friendless Yugami'. I bought this just because of an end of year sale of buying 3 and get 1 free M&C manga. Last week I only needed to buy New Prince of Tennis 13 and just nice that so far there Yugami-kun is up to volume 3 so I picked those 4. As an antisocial, especially during my school days, I am naturally attracted to a story about an antisocial boy. Lol. The story turns out to be different from what I expected in a good way. Yugami-kun is supposed to be brutally honest, blunt, and self-centered but surprisingly his words and actions turn out to be very funny. The humour is similar to Beelzebub and Nozaki-kun above so it is not a surprise that I also enjoy reading this.

Yep, so that's how I end my 2015. Lol...

Missing Christmas spirit

Let me begin by wishing everyone

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Based on Gundam, not on Star Wars.

I am safe and sound at ho ho home but Christmas feels somewhat underwhelming for me this year. With all the hustle bustle of daily activities, I am really missing Christmas spirit. APG preparations and operations since mid-November really took up a lot of my energy and attention. I did not even have enough time to listen to Christmas music. Not to mention that I have no new Christmas music since the last 3 years that listening to what I have start to become boring. 

It is almost a week since I am back at home but I have been out most of the days. In fact, today is the first day that I am able to enjoy myself at home. I arrived on Saturday and I went to Bandung for a day trip on Sunday to attend a session by Mr Anton Porat. The journey took about 3 hours via the highway. It is kinda sad to realise how old my family and I have become that we need to stop at the rest area to look for toilet. It is amazing that in the past, before the Jakarta-Bandung highway existed, the journey took many more hours through the mountains and yet we were able to hold our bladder.

On Monday, I flew to Pontianak to visit my grandma. I went there in 2013 so it is considered very early for me to go there. My grandma fell down earlier this year and I was worried that she would not have long to live. Thus my main reason to visit her was to see her while she is still alive. I don't know if this is going to be my last time doing that. I am actually very happy to see her eating more as compared to when I saw her last in 2013. 2 years ago, she would only eat 2 spoons of rice but now she could even eat tidbits after her proper meal. I also heard that she started to get senile but it was not as bad as expected. She still remembered me and spoke to me in Indonesian (the last time I called her she only spoke Teo Chew). Although what she said sometimes did not make sense in reality, the things she said were actually still coherent and not disjointed.

I went back to Jakarta on Wednesday morning and I was brought to my mum's office first before going home. It was shocking to see the condition of my mum's workplace. It was worse than her old job -before her retirement- as everything feels so run down and ancient. Not to mention that the traffic was also demonic. It took me close to 2 hours to reach there from the airport although they are not that far and the journey back home took us 4 freaking hours!! Bleah... Thank goodness the company has a new manufacturing plant elsewhere so most of the time my mum will be at the new plant. 

It was really an eye opener for me. I really think I have no right to complain with what I currently have at my work and I have no right not to take care of my mum. It is really amazing just to imagine how she survives doing this daily for the past 3-4 years. And it is amazingly ungrateful for me just to spend less than 1 hour for travelling to my office and to complain about my job etc.

I was planning to rest at home yesterday but my sister tempted me to eat at Outback Steakhouse because of her 1-for-1 credit card promotion. I have never tried Outback even in Singapore. Thus I relented when she assured me that the traffic was not busy and it would only take at most 45 minutes to reach there. At the end of the day, we spent 8 hours outside. Bleah.. Although I feel tired, I think the food was worth the trip and the time. Lol.. I ordered the Toowomba Sirloin Steak and I did not make a wrong choice. The Toowomba thingy was refreshing and went great with the steak. As there were 3 of us, we ordered the steak & ribs combo as the additional free one for sharing. If not because of the Toowomba thingy, I don't think I can finish both the steak. I did not order french fries as I was scared of being too full with each meal comes with 2 side dishes. The portion for the side dish was pretty small. I ordered mashed potato -which I usually hate and avoid- but I have to say that it was pretty good. The vegetable was fantastic too: they looked bright and fresh and yet very soft to chew. It was a great meal as I don't mind going there again. Haha..

So yep, that's all I did for the past week. It is too late to watch Disney Christmas cartoons that usually helps to get me into the Christmas mood. I was even too tired to pray. Sigh.. 2015 Christmas is a bad one for me indeed.

Pawn

People will call me dumb.. career suicide.. big mouth.. etc. I have to agree with the big mouth part though. Lol. Sometimes being too honest can be a bad thing but that is really me. I don't like to lie and sabo others just for my own benefits.Whatever others may say, I feel kinda liberated after saying what I am honestly feeling.

Today I told my branch manager that I have the thoughts of leaving although I do not have any solid plans yet. I have heard it previously but today was the first time that I 'officially' heard from her the plans that big bosses have for me: to train me up as future managers in anticipation of opening of new branches in few years time. That is nice of them and in return, I have to be nice also to tell them what I am thinking of so that they do not waste time and effort on me and in the end I really decide to leave.

There are a lot of things on my mind right now. If I am thinking about career progression etc, it is so easy to make a decision to stay on and just follow with everything. But on a more personal level, I know front line is not my passion and if I am committing myself to this, I am essentially committing myself to something I do not really like for the next few years. My passion is teaching and I enjoy doing things when the fruits of labour can be really felt. I do not get any sense of achievement when I do things just for the sake of meeting KPIs.

Still related to my pride, I bear some grudges. What's the point of doing so much and get little recognition while someone else gets promoted earlier although people do not know what the person has done. It is a big difference between "You have done well and I want you to be a manager" versus "I think you have a potential to be manager and I want to train you to be this or that". I don't mind with the first one but currently I am under the second circumstance. I am too proud and I refuse to be a pawn. I want to be myself. I do not want to be forced to change just so that I can be a manager that others want. I have been the 2nd most senior since 2 years ago and that was not even looked at all. I do not want to be "used" now only just because they have places to fill in few years time.

Haiz.. it seems that I still have yet to overcome the problem with my pride. But no matter what, I am not going to sell myself and my 'siao' personality just for career or money. After all if money is really all that I want, I might as well go sell my backside. That will be easier to earn money. Lol.

Ticket to hell

"The proud, heaven rejects. The humble, hell rejects".

That is the phrase that Father wanted me to repeat during my confession. I am proud (see lah!) to say that my pride is the root of all my sins: from blaming others and God when things are not going my way to having a huge inflated head and completely forget about God when things are going great. I am impatient, temperamental, and can be quite rude to colleagues and family too. Sigh.. 

Knowing and realising that it is a problem is a step towards the light but I am always having the problem to change. Sigh.. I think it was very obvious that I am a very proud person and Father spent the whole time to advice me to be humble and not so much about me skipping masses occasionally and not having sufficient time for prayers.

Some of the words he said perfectly described my state of mind: feeling angry for not being promoted because I thought I had done a lot, getting scolded for trying to do the right thing, and it is very difficult for a clever person to be humble. With the level of pride I have, it is obvious that I am nowhere near to heaven. After all, the cause of Lucifer's downfall is pride.

You realise how sinful you are when you are fearful to go to confession. It is not easy to confront yourself and admit your failures in front of a stranger, even if that stranger is a minister of God on this earth. Although I was so excited yesterday when I heard about penitential service today, I got very discouraged when I realised skipping mass is even considered a mortal sin. Gosh... I am so glad and thankful that in the end I went and I had a good and meaningful confession today. 10x Our Father and 1x I Believe are too light for penance as compared to the gravity of my pride. Every morning I pray for patience and to be able to be God's blessings to the people I meet but every day without fail, I will explode just after 1 rude encounter. Not to mention how I fail daily in setting aside quiet time for prayer..