Well, seriously, part 2 had nothing to do with the PHP User Group, except that we were all heading to somewhere together. Bernard wanted to go to Kinokuniya to get some books because he had some 20% for purchases, while Tianhong originally wanted to go to Borders, but got waylaid by me. =P

So we grabbed a small bite at Sushi Tei, where the sashimi is really good - compared to Sakae Sushi, Ichiban Sushi and the likes. The food might be a little costlier, but I guess when it comes to good food, footing a little more is alright.

There’s this Hokkaido crab promotion that seems to happen every now and then. I’ve not tried it before, but I guess I’d just give it a miss and stick to Singapore’s Chilli Crab, unless I am in Hokkaido itself. Heh. Probably fresher too.

It’s the first time that we were actually given window seats, or rather it’s the first time *I* was given a window seat - not too sure about the rest though. Haha… it’s different, I guess - in that, everyone else walking outside can see you eating, scratch your hair, dig your nose, scratch your inner tights, adjust your pants, unbutton your pants (when you are too full?!) digging your ears, making funny faces… haha…

Here are some more views… and you can see Tianhong seriously surfing some porn doing his tweaking on his blog. Heh heh… I think he managed to get something to work on it.

Food finally arrived and the sashimi looked really good! Heh heh… there’s salmon, yellowtail, tuna and swordfish. Hmm… too bad Alice isn’t a fan of sashimi, so it was left to Tianhong and myself! Haha…

We had some fried salmon skin too, which we thought were overcooked! It seemed like it was double fried! Oh well, it was too hard and too much were sticking to my teeth.

There were probably too much good in the end, but thank goodness we had miccheng to join us to help finish some food. =P

Here’s Alice giving her thumbs up for the food! Mmmmmm… the food smells good! Haha! And here’s Tianhong with his fastest fingers first kungfu chopsticks! Look at that double take!

More of Alice’s don… and Tianhong has his opinion of the food! Haha… thanks for putting up for the camera! =P If you think there were too much onions in Alice’s don, it’s because she asked for more. I think I’d be away from her for the next couple of days. =P

Soon after, miccheng’s food came as well. You see that fuel under that pot, it seemed like they were burning some plastic along with the fuel - and I am not sure if that’s entirely environmentally friendly! Haha…

My snack turned out to be much bigger than I expected. Oh well… in the end, Tianhong didn’t get to go to Borders and ended up with us at Starbucks. Yes, everyone was busy blogging! Haha… that seemed to be the highlight of the evening! And I had had my usual Chai Tea. Somehow, it seemed blender than usual! Oh well…

Haha… oh well, today’s quite a relaxed day. Just hope that I’d be as free as today for all Saturdays… you know? It’s good to take some time off after a week-long of work and study. After all, work and no play makes jean a dull girl =P

I was supposed to meet up with the PHP User Group people for brunch in the morning, but I

• got up late,
• was tied down with lunch with J’s parents, and
• couldn’t grab a taxi at all (where in the world are all the cabs?!)

In the end, I got there by almost 2:00pm and lunch was all finished and I was left with not even a drop of water. Oh well, at least I met really nice people!

From top left to bottom right, arzhou, Hendri, miccheng, Neo Neil, Nicole and Tianhong. Yes, all were quite obviously there much earlier than me and had already finished their brunch by the time I went there. And you know what happens when geek conjugate? This.

Haha… all were either happily Battle Station’ing away or doing up their blogs. I mean, what do geeks do when they get together, right?

So, arzhou was busy giving tips to Alice, who was a newbie to Battle Stations, while discussing strategies with Bernard. I wasn’t sure what miccheng was doing on his Mac, but Tianhong didn’t bother to join in the gang on Battle Stations. Instead, he was busy beautifying his new blog. =P

Following which, for some reasons, I got very hungry. arzhou was about to go to Old Chang Kee to get some curry puffs, but was unfortunately closed. So he got 12 pieces of Kaya/Butter bread for the whole gang! Haha… thanks arzhou!

And because he’s so nice, I won’t mention what is wrong with the picture above. =P

Soon after, some left for Microsoft, some while others went on their way. For the few of us remaining, we decide to head off to Kinokuniya/Borders; but that’s part 2. =P

I didn’t know about the concert until the middle of November, by then, all tickets were sold out! Can you believe it? All sold out!!! Goodness.

Anyway, I was just looking around and saw that there are people still getting their tickets! Apparently, there is some sort of waiting list from Sistic and more people have gotten their tickets. Well, I’ve nothing to say if they are die hard fans of Jay…. but! Look at this!

The tickets are going for $2400 for their buy now price for 2, which is $1200 for 1 ticket! Goodness! Is 1 ticket (originally $198) really worth 6 times its original price?! And that’s not all…

There is apparently a wait list! Haha… oh dear, I never knew that there was a wait list! =S Oh well, I guess it’s a free market after all. She can name any price she wants, but if there are people who are willing to pay that kind of price, well, all I can do is to congratulate her.

It does seem that she was some what interested to go for the concert, but somehow, I can’t help but feel that she was trying to profiteer from it.

Hmm… I am too shocked for words… don’t know what else to say.

I saw some charge on my statement which I wasn’t very clear about, so I decided to call the UOB Customer Service - which by now is infamous for their 25 minute wait - anytime of the day.

I wonder who calls them at 4:00am in the morning, not that I do. Anyway, I guess I didn’t have much of a choice. It’s about 1:20am, it should be alright.

1:25am Takes a deep breath and punch numbers… 1800-2222-121. *ring ring* Welcome to UOB Call Centre. For English, press 1, for Chinese, press 2. (Ed: If I can’t understand English, how do I know I have to press 2 for Chinese? Haha… Then again, the Chinese version came shortly) Pressed 1, then 0, then 1 again for banking services… The wait begins…

1:26am Oh boy… I think I am going to hate this… then someone answered the call. Good morning UOB, this is XXX speaking. How may I assist you? Wow! This is fast service! So it’s not as bad as I thought. After getting my accounts cleared, I asked about my cards. Ah… so here’s where the wait begins.

1:28am Still waiting… waiting… why are they not picking up the phone?

1:30am Yawning. Still listening to the music. Ok. Decided to put the phone on speaker mode.

1:31am Eh! 1 minute le. Still not picking up the phone? Who calls at 1:30am?

1:32am I decided to save whatever remaining minutes I have on my mobile plan and hung up. I think I’ll just call them tomorrow morning. Early morning. Damn. Going to waste 1/2 hour of time tomorrow. Shucks!

Today was such a busy, busy day. I had a meeting in the morning (after a long, long break) to discuss about how we are going to save the world. =P Serious. We are working on some ways to save more people from dying from accidents/high-rise falls/superman stunts.

In the afternoon, I was involved in a studio shoot project, which basically tired me out totally. Flat. Haha… I hadn’t been this hectic for a long time. More updates later, ok? =)

Well, to a certain extent, yes. I’m almost ready to talk about it now. For the uninitiated, I decided on a hair cut yesterday and the deed was done yesterday evening. The rationale behind the hair cut was because I wanted a new look. However, like most previous experiences, I got more than what I bargained for.

1 year ago…

I got my hair cut in Kimage Funan by a supposedly senior hairstylist. I didn’t get his name, but he looks rather senior - literally old. Anyway, to cut a long story short, he:

• burnt my head with hot water
• left water in my ears
• left soap behind my ear and on my neck
• combed my hair so hard that my hair snapped
• yanked my hair out of my scalp
• doesn’t give a damn to what he was doing to my hair
• tried to get people to wash and blow dry my hair

Senior hairstylist? My foot. Anyone knows anybody from Kimage Funan? Maybe they should do something. And oh, this isn’t even the school/academy. It’s the Professional outlet. If this is Professional, I fear for the students under him.

Come to think of it, I should have done the favourite Singapore past time - write in to complain.

Now…

Yesterday morning, I decided to search on the Internet for "hairstylist good recommend Singapore" on google.com, and found a forum where someone left a good comment for a hairstylist located in downtown. So I called up the branch and made an appointment for yesterday evening, asking for the hairstylist who was mentioned.

When I finally arrived at the place, I was ushered onto a seat and moments later, the deed was done…

Looking back I am not heartache over the loss of so much hair. For one, it really feels much lighter now. Haha… then again, it’d take another couple of years for everything to grow back again.

I wished I had pictures with me, but they were taken by someone else… so, I’d just have to wait. Coincidentally, the gal got her hair cut as well this morning! Haha… tis’ the season for hair cutting… fwa la la la la, fwa la la la…

Haha… getting my hair cut today. Really short. Maybe it’s a good way to vent emotions. I’ll probably be so heartache about the short hair that it’d overwrite whatever emotions I am harbouring…

Thinking of posting before and after photos… then again, maybe not.

Last Sunday saw this year’s Standard Chartered marathon run, and me, like every other year, promised to sign up and run for it. Then again, it’s 42km. You must be kidding. Serious. I’ll probably just get entangled by my hair 1/2 way through the run. Of course, I can get my head shaved, which I am thinking of doing tomorrow. Heh heh…

Most of the students did quite well this year but that’s about all I can say. Exam marks cannot be disclosed before it’s confirm, especially not in a blog! Haha… but the marks are pre-moderation and probably not a good gauge. There are many factors involved too and for all I know, all might da bao not do as well as expected.

I’m still writing my marking summary for this year. Hmm… so many things to write about; but here are some of the highlights:

• When giving an answer, it’s good to stick to the point. If you are unsure of any answer, try not to elaborate too much, because you’d expose all that you do not understand.
• When you are given something to answer, answer to the point too. This is because I have answers that goes around the point, but just not hitting the point. A little *palm-face* sometimes.
• If a question is given in parts, answer all the parts to the point. Again, some answers fly everywhere, and I have to flip through the entire manuscript to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Yup yup, that’s about all. This summary should be quite interesting to write. Since the exams are already, all you can do is pray. =P

There was a technical glitch at the library@orchard closing ceremony when they were loading the tribute to bloggers video and for some reason, I was called up for a short interview on stage. Of course, what I’d have wanted to say was:

Thank you. I’d like to thank the library for giving me this opportunity and thank God for giving me the courage. I’d like to thank my friends who helped out in the casting and production - Alice Edmund and Xinhui who are here, Ridzuan, Tianhong and Yip Leng who are not present today. Thank you all for making this a great moment. This award goes out all to you!

Of course, that didn’t happen and I was made to answer some questions about how nerve-wracking it was to interview people for the first time and how heart-wrenching it was to see people feeling sad and missing the library.

Still, it was quite a good experience - because for the first time in years, I had no less than 6 cameras clicking away in front me me during the interview on stage. Oh well, too bad, no golden globe award for my amateurish video. =P

It’s been a long and memorable journey since the library@orchard opened in 1999. For the past 8 years, I grew up with the library, and I am really sad to see it go today.

There is a closing ceremony for the library@orchard today and I made a special video for it. As with Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and that includes the music video not playing, or the screen going blank, or out-of-sync movements in the video. You know? Anything really can go wrong.

3:00pm Managed to reach the library in time to check out the music video with Jillian. Made some last minute changes to the music video so that people will not have seasickness while watching the music video. =P

I basically reduced the number of frames and have lengthened each frame so that there will be less transitions. The result? You won’t go giddy after staring at the screen for too long. =P

3:30pm Woohoo! Final touch up is done. Time to save it… erm… 11 minutes? Ok…

3:45pm Yes! It’s done! Eh? How come credits out of screen? Hmm…. cham… but looks very artistic! Haha… Hmmm… let me try to figure this out…

4:00pm Aiyah! Silly me! I saved it with 16:9 aspect ratio. See lah! Too greedy for HD quality video. =P Must watch out to save it with the correct aspect ratio. Well, at least now I have something for wide-screens! Heh heh… Ok better save video.

4:30pm Hmm… looks good! Woohoo! Done! Heh heh…

4:45pm Going out to look at the playback on the big screen. Keeping my fingers crossed. Heh heh… argh. ldkgvdhnile4/535$^%^G#$BBtynrstvyrt …. Sorry, fingers entangled. =S

5:00pm Yes! Success! Woohoo! Heh heh… time to eat something light. Hmm… had been feeling rather hungry quite easily these days. Hmm. Did I mention that there is food? Heh heh. Had some samosa, sotong rings, fish, tempura… yup yup. More pictures later, ok? =)

5:30pm Argh again! Forgot to upload to youtube! What was I thinking of? Auto upload? Hmm…

5:32pm Seems like it’s going to take ages. =( Got express ways of uploading videos? Hmm…

5:45pm Yes! The video is uploaded here!

6:00pm Overhead… the PM’s here? huh? Okay… better go out and see what the commotion is all about. =P

6:23pm Heh… no PMs around. If he were here, I bet security would have been tighter! Haha… I was entertained by a magician just now. He’s Jeremy, who is with RiTZ Events Asia and he had been performing magic professionally for the past 10 years. He got his skills from his father, who also performed magic professionally. I will upload some videos here soon. =)

Photos anyone? Yup… later too! Haha.. sorry la, one woman show here.

6:36pm Computer trojan/virus/malware detected! Oops! Hope the presentation laptop guy didn’t install the trojan =(

6:50pm Xinhui is here! Whoopie! Okie… more fruit dessert helpings. Yum yum! Hmm… they are also having a jazz band outside. Ridzuan just asked me for the lyrics for the music video. I guess Lenniez just got a new fan! Haha… her music is really good. I hope she will go far with her songs.

7:00pm Guess what? Chin and SO and Yuhui are here too! Haha… big crowd today. Come’on down if you are somewhere near? It’s at the 5th floor of Ngee Ann City. Nice crowd, good food, good music

8:15pm Oh! They played my video! Sigh… so sad to see the music video. =( hmm… going to cry le.

8:20pm Oops! technical glitch for the tribute to bloggers =P hmm… guess what? I got called in to be interviewed on stage on the spot!!! Argh! So unprepared. Oh well, thankfully I was a little composed =P They asked about what inspired me to do the music video, the people involved, the challenges of interviewing people in the library and all… hmm… and there were cameras! so many of them! *faint faint*

8:55pm oh, the library will be closing in 5 minutes’ time! and everyone was ushered out! oh… out out out…

9:00pm my bag!!!! my stuffs! they are still inside the library! argh…

9:15pm oh.. thank goodness there is backdoor =P hehe… okie. knocking off le. more updates later