Jay-Pee

Jay-Pee (JP) Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge took place today ... the rain stopped in time for the run ... with just a slight drizzle ... with over 300 corporations + 11,000 peeps taking part ... it was helluva crowd ... sadly, the firm's contingent was not as strong as expected ...

sans @lloy (the sirius rana) ... the rest of the 'ees' (sans bee who deliberately 'forgot' to bring his shorts) completed the 5.6km run in 49 to 60 minutes ... okay, we cheated a lil by taking the shortcut but at least we completed the run fair and square ... was expecting a detour to Esplanade for some ice-cream but that didn't happen ... oh well ....

nevertheless, my craving for dessert was satisfied at Menotti where i had the creme brulee again ... yum! + a pilsener .... *burp*

we can never stop bitching about work, especially since the moderation meetings take place this week which will determine the bonus payout and promotions before the financial year end ... stressed!

turns out that lee has the makings of a closet 'th-air' (i.e. playing the whiny damsel in distress) ... way to go gurl!

p/s : no luck with spotting any CFAs during the run ...

kok-eyed

i keep seeing the same files over and over again ... amendments, amendments and more amendments ...

stupid mistakes, careless mistakes, people who can't decide the damned position to take ...

i'm tired ... sooo very tired ...

JP Morgan run is tmw ... well, provided the weather holds, it'll be more like a leisurely stroll and a detour to the nearest dessert place in an attempt to get away from the office and yet get to charge time ... like i mentioned to the rest of the peeps, my only impetus to actually run would be a bunch of guys with CFAs (read Cute Fine Ass) ahead of me ...... and maybe a fantasy roadblock before all but one CFA are eliminated ... hahahaha ... okay, i'm going NUTS ...

quoting j-mee "24 chargeable hours" more to Batam ... the countdown begins ...

Operation : Kutiya Annihilation

feel like strangling the kutiya !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

she is going on leave AGAIN ... this coming Friday in fact .... "can you please cover me while I am away?" ... %&@#* #^&(!) ^*)(#$*&

if you read the earlier entry, she is going on leave again in mid-May ...

latest grouse :

the kutiya & I share the same assistant ... she has several but I only have ONE ... don't understand why she is cannibalising my resources, correction, my ONE and only resource ... what really irked me on Friday was that she told the assistant that some cases were urgent and needed to be done first ... fair enough ... but it was soooo URGENT that she left early for the day .... WTF!!! %&@#* #^&(!) ^*)(#$*&

Anyone up for Operation : Kutiya Annihilation? recruitment drive* starts soon ...

* note to @lloy ... your light sabre might just come in handy

Oonn-Ly Yoo-oouuu

Thursday 20.04.2006

Hit Party World with @lloy, j-mee, tee + uncle foo!!! woo-hoo! its been 2 months since foo left the firm and its the first time we met up with him after his departure ...

We were quite crazy that night ... selected so many songs ... Sang 4 different renditions of 'Only You' by The Platters ... 4 hours of crooning just wasn't enough ....

Foo is quite a crooner ... belting out Air Supply, Richard Marx + others with such feeling and gusto ...

West Side Story

Wednesday 19.04.2006

Caught West Side Story at The Esplanade with Chin-yee & Vin-wee + Yee-wan & Jia-lun (can't find any 'ee' to substitute his name) ...

As mentioned previously, I had zero expectations for the musical ... in fact, I was dreading watching it, thinking that it'd be an absulute waste of time ...

Storyline :

Way too predictable. Think Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet ... replace the Montagues vs the Capulets with the Puerto Ricans vs the Americanos ... and not only do you get the gist, but the entire storyline .... *yawn*

The ending was so abrupt ... "huh, like that one ah?" ... it just ended the evening on a low note ...

Actors + dance moves :

Wasn't too impressed ... only found the male lead worth perking up to ... okay, that didn't sound right ... but you get the drift ...

The verdict :

Below average.

The highlight :

A peek into Tammy's sex vee-deo on Yee-wan's mobile phone during the interval (yea, i'm slow alrite ... just not into local porn ... hahaha) ... gawd knows what else she has in there .... oops!

butter me up

Sent HATE MAIL to The Butter Factory (TBF) yesterday ...

Received a prompt response today from one of the partners ... hmm, not bad - at least my message got across and was heard ...

Unfortunately, they did not offer me a lifetime membership or a VIP ticket to TBF ... damn! Just offered another round of free drinks should we decide to visit again ...

Oh well, feels good to let it out anyhow ...

kutiya overkill

THE kutiya is driving me up the wall again!!!

Ms Sing-Song voice, Ms Loudspeaker, Ms Wierd, Ms Sticks-Her-Nose-So-Close-To-Your-Face-When-She-Talks ...

The kutiya is going on leave again ... and guess who has to cover her?

Damnation ...

Propeller Island

Came across this interesting hotel situated in Berlin, Germany ... Propeller Island City Lodge

Very much like a Hollywood TV set, each room is furnished in a wacky and distinct style and the hotel has a wierd inclination towards elevated beds ... it takes a while to browse through all the rooms ... so my take is on rooms 11, 12 , 15, 16 , 23, 31 (coffin room!), 42 (caged beds!) ...

Reminds me of my NYC stay at The Chelsea Hotel/Hostel (by far one of the cheapest lodgings in Manhattan), where each room is done up differently as well .. check out the 'Saturday Night Fever' and the 'Cher' rooms which we stayed in ..

retail therapy ....

Saturday 15.04.2005

I haven't had the luxury in a looonng time to just while my time away ... finally had the chance to shop, shop and shop + eat, eat and eat today!

Met Jas for a round of shopping at Orchard ... lunched at Island Cafe - had the crayfish laksa - delish! and tea at Imperial Nan Bei Restaurant - while it sounds so upscale and chi-chi, its actually cheap and good for afternoon tea!

Caused a slight ruckus at Best Denki when Jas bought her Nano but received a stack of CD-RW worth $12.90 instead... the CD-RWs were bought by a fella before us at the cashier ... luckily, she checked her purchase when we sat down for tea ... immediately went to BD to demand a replacement, which they did in a fuss-free manner (*applause*) ... obviously, the fella ran off with a Nano in lieu of his cheap CDs ... lucky guy :(

Met tee for the Open Stage Flea Market at The Substation ... was not as good as I had expected it to be ... minimal vendors ... but managed to pick up some great bargains - 3 acid lounge CDs for $22 + a pair of vintage earrings for $2 ... woo-hoo! the CDs are great by the way ...

Tee & I were craving for some brew at Soup Spoon ... unfortunately, they were 'upgrading to serve us better' ... Being soup nazis, we HAD to have our soup ... so we settled for soup at Cedele Depot which was pretty good except for the 'duh' cashier ... shall not elaborate since I sound like I'm such a pain already ... sorry, I can't help it, but I'm having so many gripes about service people nowadays ...

Sinned at Menotti - wonderful dessert! Creme brulee, tiramisu and warm chocolate cake ... heaven!!!!!!

Death by Chocolate anyone?

:: dessert at Menotti :: CDs + vintage earrings ::

Good Friday

Friday 14.04.2006

dragged my feet back to the office today ...

management : "it's not compulsory to come back to work on Good Friday"

me : remember, its a public holiday?

however, nicely put, we were "expected" to come back to work ... in a bid to push up the submission rates by 15 April ...

so back to work i went ... not an easy task considering the round of drinks the night before ...

absolutely no mood for work ... sluggish day ... the heavy rain in the afternoon did not help either ... I could be at home snuggling beneath the comfy sheets ... sigh

due to the dressed down attire, someone commented that Gene, Mano & myself resembled a traffic light ... cor-neeee!!! but here is the pic anyway ...

All Buttered Up

Thursday 13.04.2006

After dinner at Valentino, joined the 'ees' for a night out at The Butter Factory ... a relatively new club in town, belting out R&B, hip-hop beats ... the night's event - "State of Deckadence" which we were on the guest list, hee ...

The Factory is a rather small outfit as compared to Zouk & MoS ... as lee put it, we have been spoilt by the bigger clubs and as such we were not used to the smaller area. The night started off pretty well ... had fun posing for pictures with the cute and wacky wall murals (check out "Weird Uncle J-Mee" below)


... but that didn't last long as we played musical chairs 3 times ... having had to shift seats 3 times in half an hour ... and finally settled down on the outskirts of the 'VIP' area ...

The drink list was quite interesting, decided to try out The Factory's specialties - Zombie (aka the 'knock out' drink) & Butter Factory Iced Tea (aka Long Island Tea) ... turned out that Zombie was much more palatable than the Iced Tea which tasted like cough syrup according to some ... absolutely disgusting ... bleah!

Trouble really started brewing during the 141 hour (i.e. the infamous B1G1 ... Buy 1 Free 1 lah! hahaha) ... we placed our order for some shooters (again, another Factory specialty) which we understood were part of the the 141 promotion ...

alas, the bartender was clueless about the promo ... so we approached the waiter who provided the confirmation on the promo and he took our orders for the shooters for the second time ... we waited some 15 - 20 minutes for the shooters which did not arrive and approached the same waiter again and demanded to see the manager ... we were so furious, we were so gonna screw THE MANAGER ... and we did!

The excuses/explanations given were lame and unacceptable ... being a new club does not warrant the benefit of having a 'get out of jail free' card for the lackadaisical service + attitude ... if The Factory wants to level the playing field with the bigger boys, it better brush up its service attitude and management style ... we are sooooo not gonna visit The Factory again ...

:: the drinks menu ::

:: BF Iced Tea + Zombie :: Pink P***y Slam Shooters ::

Anyway, to make up for the unpleasantries, we received 23 free shooters (they forgot 1 ... see what I mean about the attentiveness of service?!) on The Factory ... in other words, we had free p***y that night (pardon the pun and the crudeness) ... and surprisingly, the shooters were good! So that softened the blow just a little ...

Bottomline :

The Butter Factory s*u*c*k*s BIG TIME !

still pissssed .......

bee-day celebration (part 4)

Thursday 13.04.2006

Yup, a belated bee-day dinner at Ristorante Da Valentino, or Valentino for short, off Rifle Range Road. I have always wanted to try this restaurant after hearing much ravings about its food and ambience ... Thanks to Jas & Pat who arranged for reservations way in advance, we secured our coveted seats at Valentino ...

Reaching Valentino can be quite a chore considering its far-flung locale ... so driving there is a must! Despite its location, the trek there is well worth its while and you won't be disappointed with this restaurant set in a quaint neighbourhood of sorts.

Operated by a bona-fide Italian family (read ang mohs, not some Singa-italiano wannabe, everything at Valentino was authentic Italian. The ambience was very warm and cosy, very trattoria-style like ... perfect for a romantic dinner :) , service was impeccable, food was excellent in terms of quality and taste, pricing was about right - not cheap but worth every penny.


For starters, we ordered 2 rounds of pizza (yes, 2 rounds!) and it was delicious - crust was thin and the parma ham was tangy and nice! I ordered a squid ink pasta with crabmeat - recommended by Pat, no regrets on that one ... excellent choice! For dessert, we ordered a round of sweets - the tiramisu was purr-fect, profiteroles were yummy, but the chocolate cake was a tad too dry and needed improvement ...


Oh yes, before I forget, the waiters deserve special mention for their sporting rendition of a birthday song ... somehow they managed to pull it off without knowing the bee-day gal's name ... hahaha ... oh well ... i felt kinda sheepish about it since my bee-day was like a month ago :)

Overall rating : Valentino receives a thumbs-up from me!

:: pat & cleturs :: jas & me :: all of us :: me, jas & ken ::

zap zap

osim has done such a fantastic job in marketing the U-Zap ... it has claimed another prey ... my mum!

the advertisements on radio are driving me crazy!!!

Singapore GaGa

caught the much acclaimed, much talked about - Singapore Ga Ga at the Arts House today ... and I am happy to say that I wasn't disappointed ... it lived up to all the hype!

it is a short one-hour film by Tan Pin Pin and it really tugged at the heart-strings (well, mine at least) ... there is no real storyline ... just snippets of everyday life which we take for granted ...

my favourite parts of the film :

The Voice :

You hear this EVERYDAY ... she is the Voice behind the MRT station announcements and Civil Defence alerts ... i never knew that a real person was behind those annoucements as it sounds so robotic/mechanical to the ear ... i thought the feature on The Voice was sooo cool!

Victor & Charlee :

Yep! Charlee is Singapore's answer to Mickey Mouse! i grew up with Charlee ... at shopping centres where there were roadshows for kids, at my dad's company functions, over the radio ... its amazing to know that he has been entertaining children for 50 years! i love Charlee :)

Buskers and the Tissue Seller :

Amid the hustle and bustle of daily life (its never a stroll to the office) ... we come across Buskers and the Tissue Seller at the MRT station ... come to think of it, they never fail to turn up at the MRT station ... 7 days a week!

The film pays tribute to 2 particular Buskers and 1 Tissue Seller. I have only seen one of them in real life - a Mr Ying ... who performs at the Raffles Place MRT station ... tapping away in his signature cha-kiah + harmonica while juggling 2 tennis balls in one hand ... i always thought the guy was a little nuts ... i still think he is ... considering that he thinks he is Singapore's national treasure ... no kidding!

What the film showed was a different perspective altogether ... people in general DO NOT CARE about such people ... on one really pays heed to such people ... everyone appears nonchalent towards such Buskers or Tissue Sellers ... i will now attempt to pay more attention to such people around me ... i'll try ...

If you have not gone GaGa ... I strongly suggest that you do ... the last run ends on April 16 - go catch .... or wait for Arts Central to screen it ... cheapskates! hahaha :)

frantic frenzy

another week of hard work + long hours ... another towel thrower ... this year's peak has been an uphill climb with plenty of excess baggage and is really getting on everyone's nerves, its no wonder the turnover rate is much higher this time round ... wonder what the 1.5 hour department meeting this coming Monday will entail ... surprise me please ...

on to happier thoughts ... Thursday was an enjoyable day ... JD brought @lloy + the 'ees' to Singapore Cricket Club for lunch! Lunch was surprisingly good ... since SCC is famous for their chicken rice ... decided to give that a shot and I wasn't disappointed ... meat was succulent and tender, portions were generous ... ambience wise ... the place is kinda quaint and laid back, average age of diners hovered around 40-ish ... not exactly the hippiest place to have lunch in town, but overall it's a nice change from the usual spectrum of choices :)

Joined mum & sis for a play at the new Drama Centre at the National Library after work - The Magic Fundoshi ... starring Hossan Leong, Jonathan Lim, Koh Boon Pin (who bared his @$$, Robin Goh and Emma Yong (who bared her t*ts ... well almost! save for those diamante ni**le coverups) ... in case you are wondering, nudity did not save the play ... made up of 3 different plots with lots of sexual innuendos ... i wasn't impressed ... frankly, i felt it was more like child's play ... well, maybe adult's play ... i wouldn't reccommend this ... so don't bother watching it, unless you are a huge Emma Yong fan ... then go catch her jiggling t*ts on display

:::: dessert! after the play ::::

Speaking of plays, half the 'ees' went to catch West Side Story on Friday night and they were so not impressed ... i'm catching it on 19 April and my expectations are rock bottom ... damn

A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.S.

one of the things the gah-men does best ... coming with up every imaginable acronym to symbolise any thing worth symbolising ...

anyway, just read van's blog and there was this site that she listed that had a little to do with acronyms ... well, more specifically name decoders ...

in line with the slew of publicity behind the recently infamous P.R.O.G.R.E.S.S. package ... here's what i found! lavish in the gah-men's rapturous embrace people!

and when i input my name, here's what i got!

am i horny or what?!?!?!?!?! hahahahahaha

bring it on

proud to be Singablogean

came across this wacky video jerkitout ... made in Singapore, no less ...

yea, i'm into nonsensical stuff these days ...

cruising the bruise

it's been a week since paintball and i have been nursing the bruises diligently ... i swear by Hirudoid creme ... it works miracles! the swelling has gone down and the purplish marks have faded substantially ... for those who are still frantically rubbing those 'galaxy' marks ... go get a tube!

hope all the marks dissappear in time for Batam ... ah ... the beach! so looking forward to post-April 15 ....

2 more ...

... have thrown in the towel last week ...

*deep sigh*

and guess what? ... there is hiring freeze despite all the resignations ...