Orangeous Dailies

The two schnauzers encounter Tickle Me Elmo. The irritating little toy is invincible, protected by the cage.

Doggedness: Persistent determination.

Jesse and I celebrated our 2nd Year Anniversary today. Exactly 2 years after we got together during my two-week confinement book out. Since then, my shaved head has grown a lot!

We settled down for dinner at Absolute Haven as recommended by HungryGoWhere. Absolute Haven is located at 70 Prinsep Street. You can either park outside the cafe (which I doubt you’ll find any free lots), or at Sunshine Plaza, a short walk away. Just call 6333 4358. Couples who make reservations get a complimentary pink-rose-in-a-box.

We arrived at 6:20 pm. The music and lighting in there were so soothing, we both could fall asleep by just resting our heads on the table. It was great service there by Ms Margaret (written on the receipt) who periodically came over to check on us, asking about the quality of the food and how we got to know about Absolute Haven. Our glasses never got to half-full, as the waiters kept coming over to refill them with strawberry flavoured water. We had :

Asparagus Rolls, wrapped in bacon

Chicken Roulade

Fish and Chips

I would recommend all of them, simply because, I’ve never tasted anything better. The only thing I didn’t touch were the slices of cheese on top of the asparagus rolls. I gladly let Jessie have them. On the way out the waiter waved goodbye, and I told him,”Don’t say bye yet, because we’ll be back!” He thanked us and grinned.

After dinner, we caught the movie, Horton Hears A Who!

Jessie dumped a whole lot of shopping bags in the backseat of my car, and I wasn’t even aware that my presents were inside them. She shoved me a few bags and gave me a peck on the cheek. “Happy 2nd Year Anniversary, I enjoyed myself tonight!” she declared. Yeah! Great success! *two thumbs up* And I began to open the presents :

She got me a Casio STP-100 pedometer watch (the one I showed her online, weeks ago, and she got it direct from a supplier) as well as a photo frame! Coincidentally, we both visited Bloomington Greetings @ Anchor Point on different dates, and we almost bought each other the SAME card. I remembered holding up her card, pondering for a few seconds, before deciding that it was too “girly”.

Anyways, thank you so much my girl! Happy 2nd Year Anniversary to you, my love! Chapter III : University Life is starting soon!

No more deciding and pondering over where to eat. The answers are all here :

http://www.hungrygowhere.com/

Fantastic website! The best part is that you’re able to search for places with card promotions. Time to chase the one-for-one promotions!

The hardest part of my day is waking up at 6 am. Gulping down a full glass of water the moment I wake up usually solves the problem. 30 minutes later, a half-hour jog. Followed by breakfast and shower.

By 8 am, I’m ready to start my day.

The first game console I ever got was the PC Engine. I think that was way back in 1990, when Dad bought it from Chinatown. I had an entire drawer full of HuCards (game cartridges) worth hundreds of dollars.

I was only allowed to play on the weekends. Not that the entire console was locked up or hidden high up somewhere during the weekdays, the problem was with the seemingly impossible task of connecting the 3 different coloured cables from the back of the console to the TV screen. Whenever I did it myself, there was only sound, no visual.

Dad wouldn’t teach me how to fix them up (Mum would kill him), so I had to wait till the weekends. Saturday morning, to be precise, where he would hook up the game console to the TV, then leave for work. I woke up extra early on Saturday mornings, spent the weekends hammering on the pathetic two-buttoned game pad. On Sunday nights, Dad would disconnect the PC Engine from the TV. That brutally selfish act of his, disconnected me from my one and only source of happiness.

Then “Command and Conquer for PC” came in 1995, and the PC Engine was left to collect dust, subsequently thrown away years later.

I found Youtube videos of my favourite games :

Son Son II

The Kung Fu

This was Dad’s favourite game.

Vigilante

Super Star Soldier

Youkai Douchuuki

Shinobi

Mr Heli

Celebrated Elgene’s 21st Birthday at Tapas Tree @ Clark Quay.

Happy birthday Elgene!

Thanks to Carol for the pictures!

I was curious about what a heroin-high felt like. Not that I am a junkie or anything, but I’ve heard so many stories of students returning from abroad who claimed they were using “hard” drugs, so I just wanted to validate their experiences. They weren’t just smoking weed or snorting K, they were literally messing around with intravenous drugs like heroin.

I did some searching on Google. I came to this site : http://www.erowid.org

Screenshot of Erowid

I spent the whole night reading the various FAQs and texts. They talked about “line doses” and “visions” experienced using various kinds of drugs.

However, some of the links were blocked by our local authorities :

The site you requested is not accessible.

It is an offence to consume, possess, traffic, import, export, manufacture, or cultivate controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185. Central Narcotics Bureau.

You can still view them using Proxify. Not that I’m advocating drug use, but it’s good to be aware of the actual facts and consequences, instead of people telling you “Drugs are addictive and bad…mmmkay” all the time.

I had a short chat on MSN with my ex-Temasek Poly classmate. Let’s call him Mr M. I used to pay him for help in completing my I.T projects, and 50 cents per lecture attendance sheet he signed on my behalf. The lazier I got, the more money he made.

Mr M told me that he got into trouble few days back after returning from Johor Bahru. He had :

1. A pack of Malaysian cigarettes with a few sticks gone.

2. Some chewing gum.

During a routine spot check, they found these items on his bike. He ended up being locked up for 8 hours (2am to 10am) while waiting for the “customs guy” to arrive. He ended up being fined $200.

He complained that he was mistreated during the entire ordeal. Lots of vulgarities were hurled, their tone was simply… barbaric. All the F-words here and there. Mr M intends to bring this issue up with the press. Let’s just see what happens.

So far I’ve had no problems bringing cigarettes through from JB. I leave the pack on my dashboard when I drive past customs, and they don’t really bother me. That was months ago. After a discussion with another friend, and in the light of all this beefed-up security, there were only two options we could come up with :

1. Transfer all cigarettes into a cigarette holder and discard the package. How do you differentiate Malaysian cigarettes from Singapore ones? Shorter filters?

2. Drive through and declare the cigarettes. That way, if anything happens later, we could defend ourselves with “I declared the cigarettes, but they let me pass!”

After I’m done with breakfast, I carry my plates to the kitchen. Then I hear some noise coming from my parents’ room. Looks like mum is home, I’ll leave the washing to her. I throw all the dirty dishes into the sink. I walk away.

Then I pause for a moment. I go back and wash the plates.

After I’m done showering, I hear Gabbie barking loudly in her cage. I open the door. She just crapped in her cage. There’s three pieces of shit lying there. She’s barking and barking. I’m brushing my teeth. I’m pissed. I don’t want to pick up the shit. I’m clean now. So I yell, “Mum! Gabbie just shit in her cage”. I get no response. I yell one more time. Same phrase. Now, I get a fuckin response. She says “Ok.”. I go into my room. I get changed. I come out. The shit’s still lying there. Mum is still in the room. So I’m like about to yell again…

Then I pause for a moment. I clean up the shit.

Looks like I really need to start doing the things I hate most.

One more thing…

Go read the Home section of the Straits Times today. First page. Tells the sad story about foreign workers duped by agents. Broke, hungry and nowhere else to go. This particular guy, Mr Meghanathan Panchatchasam, was dumped at Woodlands without a passport or a job, after his agent brought him here from Malaysia. He was nabbed by the police, sentenced to a month in jail and four strokes of the cane. He says in Tamil, “I want to go home. I hate Singapore, my life is wasted,” he said in Tamil. One of our lecturers, a lawyer, used to teach us Business Law months back. He questioned the soundness of the legal system in Singapore, especially the section dealing with illegal immigrants.

“Why do you have to flog them? Can’t you just jail them, then release them? All they did was come here with a decent purpose, to look for work, for food, for shelter, for survival. They didn’t hurt anybody. They have no intention to hurt anyone. Then you not only catch them, you flog them somemore. What are they going to tell the people in their country?” he said.

Well, I do agree with him. Why do maid-abusers and reckless drivers who cause deaths get away so easily? Shouldn’t they be flogged as well?

Me and Pillay.

Jessie, me and Pillay.

Some lady in our project group fucked up big time. We were fooled by her initial friendly appearance, and agreed to let her join our group months back. She complained to us about her previous team mates, who were biased, arrogant, cocky and rude towards her. Now we ALL know why…

1. She sent me a half-fuck report all in point form, on the date of submission.

2. We only asked for 2 presentation slides, yet it was so badly done that she, herself, didn’t know how to present her own work.

She did that twice in a row for both concurrent projects! And her wonderful excuse was… I tried to do the project ALL weekend but my mind was BLANK. Cannot think of what to write.

Jessie got so stressed up clearing up the shit for her all day while I was busy compiling the other reports to meet the 7pm deadline.

She saw us coming into class, turned around, tried to talk to us when Jessie slammed, LOUD!, yes, slammed her bag on the table and stared at her. So she quietly turned back. Jessie was fuming mad, and I had my hands behind her, just in case she leaned forward and slapped her. When class ended, the lady packed her bag and quickly left.

Tell me how not to be angry with her? I really hope you guys don’t bump into such people in life.

Found two old class photos while packing up my room. The covers were pretty dusty and yellow. Taken in 1999, when I was in Victoria School Class 2I. Our form teacher cum Literature teacher was Mrs Poon Soo Lee.

9 years ago…

Almost two years ago…

My platoon mates in Basic Military Training.

Now…

Our pink identity cards! Something we haven’t seen for two whole years!

Had dinner with the guys at Thai Express @ Paragon before heading down to Cosmopolitan Bar & Caffe @ Orchard Road for a few drinks.

Cheers!

I haven’t seen them for more than a year. Apparently, they all still look the same!

(Standing) Me, Leonard and Leslie. (Seated) Jessie, Fiona and Chris.

Leonard, the French guy, still looks the same, his French accent intact. It sounded really unique, especially when he gave footdrill commands in Malay.

Leslie still looks as young as ever.

Chris looks very decent this time round, comparing to the good old BMT days, where he was in his army singlet and his tattoos were all over the place. The bunch of us three guys (another who was not present tonight), would often go smoking without permission. We would squat in a circle, in the dark, and pass a pathetic stick of cigarette around, taking turns to smoke. And that was how we became good friends.

People would yell “Chris!“, and we would both go like “Which one?!“.

Into the storeroom!

Today, the 10th of March 2008, is my Operationally Ready Date. I have finished my 2 years of National Service.

For those who have been reading long enough, you would know about Agent X, the bad ass motherfucker and his exploits. Wrecking havoc just for the thrill of the readers. Too bad I removed the entire section a long time ago because Orangeous was under scrutiny from the authorities.

I had the opportunity to explain this idea to a television script writer over a cup of coffee. We were talking about blogs and I explained to him the concept of Agent X.

Days later, he asked if I would allow him to use the idea for a kids programme. It’s about some kid who did something bad, blogged it, then got busted, something along that line. Hmm.. interesting.

God-damned flu and god-damned projects!

It feels fuckin miserable to type with one hand and wipe my runny nose with the other.