YEAR 2015

January 2015
02Jan15 -

And so, i signed the dotted line...

I had always wanted to get the Hyundai Avante.
1. It looked like a new generation car.
2. It is my favorite shade of blue.
3. It has its signal control on the right.
4. It is equipped with a quick boost of speed.
5. It has the latest media player with 3.5mm jack.
6. It is relatively cheap for its age and type.
7. It is fuel effecient with low fuel consumption.
8. It has ample space, yet not too big to handle.
9. The inside of the vehicle isnt black.
10. It was the first car i went down to take a look.

Instead i gotten a Subaru Impreza 4AT.
1. It look old.
2. It is silver, symbolizing the old generation.
3. It has signal on the left.
4. It has a very slow pickup.
5. It has a old player with a slot for cassette.
6. It is $3000 cheaper than the Avante.
7. It has high fuel consumption, about 1.5x the Avante.
8. It has a slightly smaller space.
9. It is black on the inside.
10. It was the first car i rejected with one look.

Because patience has it's limit. I was patient in finding the ideal car in the beginning and I tried to convince my parents after doing ample research and shortlisting the few that i feel will be good for me, but they were all shot down because they are ultimately still more expensive than the Subaru, which i felt was at such a price because it was a friend, and it was not that good. But doing all this research had drained away alot of my free time and my weekends, and I had troubled more people than i ever would have trouble if i had not gotten the car. My mom had to beg my uncle for a good deal. My dad had to ask his friends for a car deal. Having connection is good, but somehow i felt uneasy for this time round. Hence i decided to end all of this.. but getting the Subaru.

It has been several days now. The car isn't that bad, but it definitely is far from the ideal car i had hope to get. Hopefully this car will be problem free. Only with that, will i feel like the decision to get this Subaru instead of the Avante was made right.

 

Imagine digging a tunnel and you reached a dead end. A solid huge rock impenetrable by the tools you got. However as life has thought us, there are many other routes and ways where we can try again. So we take a detour and dig a new route. Till you reached another dead end.

And you will try until you die in that tunnel you dig in the first place. The end. But did you ever think that one route was to go all the way back, out of the tunnel, and back to the sunlight?

One week. That's all it lasted.

Clean Slate. Day 1.

Monday July 22nd 2013. This date marks a clean slate. Everything anew. Everything's possible. I will show you. It's a new beginning.

10 small pleasure in life

I guess its the small things in life that make it pleasurable and exciting at the same time. Happiness do not need to come from huge things like parties and expensive gifts. Sometime, you just need that one thing to go your way, or that special moment to bring the smile out of you. Here are my 10 personal favorite.

1. The smell of rain
I like that "smell" but its not really the smell of the droplets that are falling from the skies, but rather the additional moisture in the air amplify the smell detectors in your nose, and allowing you to sense the smell better from the things around you. However, our ignorant mind when young may not understand that theory and registered it as the rain of smell, therefore we named it that way.

That's why sometime it got me thinking, what if our eyes are not seeing the same thing but we are just registering it just the way it is. What if your blue is different from my blue? Perhaps if i were to look through your sight, the skies are my red and the grass is my blue. But you have learnt that the color of the grass is green regardless what it is. To you, that color of the grass is green because it's taught to you that. Maybe if somehow i can invade your mind and take over your sight, every color may be out of context for me.

2. Getting cutoff by an overanxious driver, then pulling up right next to them moments later at a red light.
I will always smirk when such a thing happen, but at the same time, i know i am guilty of it. It was that sense of achievement that i finally overtook a road hogger but moments later, it quickly changed to a sense of rage when i hit the red light and have that hogger come just beside me. But true enough, if i was the one being overtaken and meeting him again at the red light, it does feel great.

3. Having the exact change to pay for something.
I hate coins. Or rather i hate carrying coins around. For one reason, my wallet has no coin compartment, so all the coins goes into my pocket which jingle around as i walk. The best moment of this is when i have that one 5c coin when i do my shopping at fairprice. I never understood the value of 5c just like the 1c. Perhaps it is just a matter of time before it is taken out of the system too.

4. Sticking that leg out from underneath the blanket and feeling just right.

5. Dancing in the car and reciting entire songs, making noises to recreate instrument solos.

6. That first intense body stretch after waking up.

7. Correctly choosing the quickest check-out line at the grocery store, or the fastest moving lane on the road.

8. Finding money you didn’t know you had in your pocket.

9. Night time drives.
I like to drive at night. Probably everyone who drives love to do it at night. There is barely any traffic, you get to places faster, and there is no glaring sun hitting your eyes or warming your thighs. If only the traffic in the day is as empty as the night, then it will be worth it to get a car at such an expensive price in this country.

10. Late night/early morning conversations with good friends.

I like to heart to heart talk with my group of close friends, and even with my parents and my girlfriend. It is when things get serious and everyone really pay attention and speak from the bottom of their heart. That is where more truthful words come out and we get to understand each other more. Of course, no one speaks entirely the truth but i shall leave that to another time to talk about it.

08 Sept 2012 - meetup with agent / oldies song

Yet another Sunday. Most of the people i know have this as a family day, where the whole family stays at home and bond with each other. My family is slightly different. We also do something together, and that is going out, just that we all go out to our different places. Dont be mistaken. My family is really closely knitted, just that we do not see Sunday as one particular day of the week to bond. We bond as and when we have the luxury of time and just have a great chatting session.

Went out to meet my financial agent to have a chat session with him. The starting is weird i have to say. Never have i really want to bond with someone that is my agent before, but he seems keen in having more than just an agentship so we had lunch together while we just chatted, like friends. I guess i dont see any harm in making new friends, though this from agentship to friendship is going to take a while to get used to.

And suddenly having strong feelings to listen to oldies songs. Not really oldies but those i listen to when i was around 13~14 years old. Those were the great songs which has the sensational meanings in them. Time to take a break from all the hiphops and dupstep, and to enjoy the wonderful sound of the oldies.

07 Sept 2012 - recee / air wing dinner

Got a half day off today so i spend the entire afternoon recce-ing around Novena to look for a surprise for my girl. Explored over 5 shopping malls in the vicinity but was unable to find the special thing i want. Look like its time for plan C. After that i had a very late dinner with my air wing mates. Nothing much happen today but i realised how shocking some things that are so unexpected can happen. And i need to go pray soon. Before something even more drastic happen.

06 Sept 2012 - Rock Climb

Rock climbing. The passion to climb again came back quite suddenly. I had a liking for climbing back in my young days but they was not fulfilled mainly because i was too distracted with everything else to get a proper CCA to settle down in. Anyway, went to On-sight again after work to climb, and at the same time work on our arms because it again has been some time since i last hit the gym. Ohman the drive and determination is like a switch, flicking on and off every now and then. 

And anyway now that i've been posting on a daily basis, i realised that there is a sad but inevitable factor. My course starts in 2 weeks time. I am sure this blog is going to be inactive for a period of time again, possibly starting with no weekdays first. As the course goes on, should my activities start to pile up, my blog will just end up closing its doors once more. Just felt like mentioning this although i will constantly remind myself to take a step at a time and not dwell too much on the future. We should always enjoy the present and when the time come, we just accept the outcome and see how we can proceed from there. 2 weeks is quite a duration. Lets hope this blog can remain super active for this upcoming two weeks.

05 Sept 2012 - back to work / dinner at bugis

After my long weekend, its time to get back to work. By that i meant heading back to reporting at camp and not really physically doing any work. However, i made my time useful there, reading books and helping to clear the inventory and other misc duties. Truth is, i dont have much things to do there, now that my busy period is over. Perhaps a new event will appear soon and i will be busy getting ready for it again, but for now, let me just enjoy a little bit of privilege called rest.

Met up with my fg clique for dinner at bugis, where they brought me to a famous fish soup store. I remember walking pass the store some many days ago and there was a long queue stretching outside. Perhaps we were early today but we managed to escape the queue and settled down quickly. Food was average and rather overpriced for me, afterall, i have tasted the wonders of fish soup from both Amoy Street Level 2 and Lakeside Food Centre (which closed down already sadly). Afterwards, to digest our food, we shopped around Bugis before i complained it was getting late and we headed home.

04 Sept 2012 - Shopping

Nothing eventful today so i stayed home for the whole morning and afternoon meddling with my laptop, customizing this blog to my liking down to every details and research on my upcoming staycation. I can be really crazy when it comes to perfectionism for IT stuffs. Every single details must meet my expectation, otherwise i will spend hours trying to make it my way. Take for instance, the blog description above does not has a font type and font size change in the new dynamic template. Nothing serious i know, but i went to google for the html codes and insert it in and test every different size and type until i get the one that look ideal. Weird i know, but i just have to do it.

Anyway, went down town to find my girlfriend again since i have off for today and that i needed to get something which only has one branch in singapore and it is in town. My girlfriend found it stupid that i will travel all the way down just to get one small item but hey, if its important you just got to go the distance to get it eh? Just chilled around town before i got tasked an errand to run for my mates in camp and coincidentally, i met one of my Conrad colleagues working as the concierge in ION. Apparently everyone wants to go back to Conrad to work. I do too. Miss the fun and life and especially the staff canteen food!

03 Sept 2012 - 44 monthsary / spa / ippudo tao

Happy 44th monthsary to my dearest girlfriend! looking back, we really walked a really long road and although there were many obstacles, we managed to hold on to each other and braved through them. 44 months already, and 4 more months to our 4 years milestone. Time sure pass fast, but im sure we will both last.

To commemorate, we went for a spa which we bought at a road show the last month. Usual price is like $180 per person so i guess its gonna be some great massage. Wasnt that bad i say, though im still slightly uncomfortable with people massaging my upper thigh, which is my ticklish-sensitive areas. At the end of the massage, the masseur also commented that im easily tickled as she can feel all my muscles tense up when she press upon my thighs. However my legs are still aching from the run the previous night, so im not so sure whether it has been helpful on mine. Perhaps i should request for a harder treatment next time instead of a light one.

Dine at Ippudo Tao, finally able to strike one restaurant off the lists of restaurants where we are going to explore and indulge together. The ramen was good, though i found that most of the ramen i had were of similar standards and i couldnt tell the differences. The restaurant at Mandarin Gallery was small but cosy and you will often hear the staffs shouting some japanese all over the shop. Lively i say but slightly overpriced.

02 Sept 2012 - gym / run

Probably the most well spent day so far. Never had i combined two workout together on a single day. I nearly did 3 workouts together but was maxed out after my morning gym session with JC. Went bishan gym with him and was thankful to him for guiding me through and assisting me when i need that additional push to get back up. Still a noobie at the gym and really need all the guidance, not to mention the push to even get me there because im often very shy about my skinny hands and legs that just doesnt seem to be like those of the gymmers. 

Wanted to swim after the gym session but was pretty worn out and i was still saving my energy for my endurance run training with my gf later that evening so we gave it a skip. Had a short lunch then we went our seperate ways and i head to my gf house, and fell asleep to rest till the evening and had an 8km run with her. Didnt manage to hold myself on until we reach our target 10km, and had several excuses but still a little disappointed and worried for my upcoming run next week. I have not done 10km before in my life and is not sure how things will be that day, but i definitely need more training. Starting to feel the shag when i only reach half the distance. Really salute and awe at all those marathon runners whom train and held the endurance for 42km.