Arrgh-senal!!

I dunno why I stay up till the wee hours to watch soccer matches anymore. You try to keep your eyes open throughout the match, then shit hit's the fan!

How Arsenal threw away chance for any Silverware this season

KNNBCCB the team had some penalties against them that weren't spotted, got away with it, but still can lose to a last minute goal, in extra time!! As usual it's the defence that let them down.

Like they say, the ball is round one...

Sigh..when can I hold my head high while wearing their team jersey??

Sing, sing a Song :)

You know how sometimes a song you hear just gets stuck in your head and you "sing" it over and over and over again?




Jason Mraz
"You and I Both"

Was it you who spoke the words that things would happen but not to me?
Oh, things are gonna happen naturally
Oh, taking your advice and I'm looking on the bright side
And balancing the whole thing

Oh, but at often times those words get tangled up in lines
And the bright light turns to night
Oh, until the dawn it brings
Another day to sing about the magic that was you and me

'Cause you and I both loved
What you and I spoke of
And others just read of
Others only read of the love or the love that I love

See, I'm all about them words
Over numbers, unencumbered numbered words
Hundreds of pages, pages, pages forwards
More words then I had ever heard and I feel so alive

'Cause you and I both loved
What you and I spoke of
And others just read of
And if you could see me now,

Oh, love, love, you and I, you and I
Not so little you and I anymore, mm mm
And with this silence brings a moral story
more importantly evolving is the glory of a boy

'Cause you and I both loved what you and I spoke of
and others just read of and if you could see now
well then I'm almost finally out of
Finally ou-ou-out of
Finally din-di-di-dit-dit-dee
Well, I'm almost finally finally, well I am free, oh, I'm free

And it's okay if you had to go away
Oh, just remember the telephones, well they work in both ways
But if I never, ever hear them ring
If nothing else I'll think the bells inside
have finally found you someone else and that's okay
'cause I'll remember everything you sang

'Cause you and I both loved what you and I spoke of
and others just read of and if you could see me now
well then I'm already finally out of
Finally ou-ou-out of
Finally did-di-di-dit-dit-dee
Well, I'm almost finally finally, well, out of words.




I just love it when my Sis sings it :)

Come hear her at Wala Wala and now, Muddy Murphy's too!

Cleaning out the closet

Been trying to get into the mood for CNY coming in a few days.

Honestly, I'm dreading seeing the whole family this CNY. It's becoming like how some people spend Thanks-giving in the States; you don't see each other most of the whole year, and when you do, everyone is putting up a false front, and can't wait for it to be over. Why it has come to this I think I know, but am not gonna go into the details here.

So I guess I'm lucky to be able to jet off on the 2nd day. Will be spending it in Christchurch, with my colleagues. No steamboat, but will tuck into some delicious lamb chops. Then maybe hop over to the casino to try my luck. Or should I just work my magic on my own set of crew? Hmmm...

Now, there are guys who goes shopping where they zip in, get their stuff, pay up and leave. I'm not those guys. When I do shop it's like an exercise in itself. Questions run through my head; do I look good in this? Do I need new shoes to go with them jeans? Is red a good colour for me? Will someone else *gasp* show up at the same place wearing the same clothes as mine!

I'm more or less done with shopping for new clothes. Funny how we seem to think we need new clothes this time of year, even though I know that many of us have clothes that we've never worn still hanging in the closet. Then, 6 months down and we have to clear it out as we've bought more new clothes, yet again. Like they say, clothes maketh the man...And the shoes...And the hair...Plus some accessories...

Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni...

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

I went down to Wala yesterday, to meet up with WenDee. In fact, she asked about me through my Sis and very nicely wanted to say goodbye before she jets off again.


I found out that she was embarking on a backpacking trip which includes Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, with a final stop in Bangkok. I know that she'll have a blast and come back with many stories and good pictures to show on her site. This woman knows how to shoot, lemme tell ya.

I always thought that I'll make a good backpacker. The idea of traversing all over places, especially those that haven't been mobbed by the commercialism of the modern world, just seem so tempting. You see them on travel programmes on tv, talk to them on planes, and find that they are almost always young and have plenty of time on their hands. With a big-ass backpack on their back, they hold many tales from their jaunts all over the region that they are traveling.

Yet, after flying for so many years in comfort, I'm becoming less convinced that I can make it roughing it out there in the big, unexplored world. I've gone soft from all the creature comforts that most of us take for granted; clean potable water, hygienic food, working loos, and cable TV. I did bring it up to my good buddy redcocoon once, and the answer was a resounding N-O. He too, I suspect, does not wanna give up too much convenience in return for some true traveling experience one can only get from stripping oneself down to the bare essentials, and getting to know the land very much different from your regular cushy tour packages.


Speaking of traveling, Ko Samui holds many fond memories for me. It's almost a pilgrimage that my friends make every year, this time with child, wives and girlfriends in tow.


Most times we put up at Chaweng, which is a hub for many activities. There are frequent trips to Lamai, Surat Thani, Ko Tao, Ko Pha Ngan and Nathon to visit the local friends that we have come to know through one of the gang, who introduced me to this idyllic beach paradise some years back. I in turn started asking like-minded buddies to join me yearly, and the group just grew and grew. At one time there were almost a dozen of us boarding the evening flight on Bangkok Airways to get there.

I can almost taste the Tom Yum Koong(the real deal) from here...

Chok Dee Krup!!

Complimentary Letter

Having been in my line for close to 10 yrs now, I find that service here in general is still sorely lacking, even with the recent efforts to push it to another(minimum?) level. If it's not the waiter who doesn't know the day's special menu, it's the Ah Lian who gives you scant attention at the big name boutiques downtown. Then there's the ubiquitous , "Everything's there, we no more stock behind..." All very frustrating, seriously.

I came in possession of a very nice iPod with Video last X'mas. And as with most iPods, the quest for some nice accessories got me shopping at a popular IT mall. Actually I started online, , scouring the internet forums for some ideas. After setting my sights on an XtremeMac MicroShield. I found that one shop here, macshop, is a local retailer for it's products. However, I was unimpressed the first time I was there. The one staff attending to me didn't even know they carried the brand in their shop, made snide remarks, and to top it all off, I purchased a 3rd party product thinking it was an original iPod accessory, as they had lumped them together on the same shelf. Another regular day out for the average shopper, eh??

I emailed my displeasures to the shop, having had enough of complaining to friends and getting a bad deal, yet again.

WOW, you have to give it to the sales staff at macshop. Not only did they attend to my complaint promptly, they (namely a very pleasant lady called Grace) kept me updated with the product that I had in mind via regular emails. By this time, any decent store everywhere was already carrying said product. I just simply had to go back to the same shop, if only to reward them with another satisfied and thoroughly impressed customer.

Oh, and the staff who attended to me 1st time round? Not on their payroll anymore...

I'm sure that in future if I were to cross over to the Mac-side, this is the shop that I'll be getting in touch with.

Thank you, macshop, you made my day!!

Akimashite omedeto gozaimasu!

So is everyone still hungover from your New Year party? Somehow I am thinking that missing the various countdown parties that were happening around town wasn't a big loss.

I was in Athens during this period, and the team that I flew with decided to have a nice dinner before going to the town square to do the countdown. Frankly, I think the food is really not tasty in Greece. One would have to wash the food down with lots of wine or Ouzo(it smells and tastes like Dettol, really). The company I had that night was good though, even the cockpit crew joined us. It was nice of them to come cuz then we had interesting conversations and anecdotes from the 3 of them. A Mexican, a Belgian and a Singaporean walks into a diner...

We finished dinner early and decided to pop into another, more traditional, Greek restaurant for more drinks and to warm up from the chilly night. Now, this one had a live band downstairs and was packed. We were ushered upstairs as we didn't have dinner there and the surly old guy wouldn't serve us hot beverages until we ordered some wine. After being ripped off for 40Euro bottles of wine, we moved on to the town square.

Now an interesting fact. Greeks celebrate X'mas till the 6th Jan! This was pointed out by the Mexican captain while we were having our New Year's Eve dinner. So you still see the town dressed up in X'mas trees and all that jazz, very festive. Ironically, the countdown to 2006 was a muted affair. No large celebrations, no countdown clock, no open air concert. Total number of fireworks? One. It lasted for, like, 3 seconds and we were at the wrong location to have a good view of it.

That didn't keep us from having our own countdown celebration. We popped the champagne, took many photos and wished each other well. Funny that we seem to be the only group amongst the crowd doing it though. Perhaps they have another day to celebrate the New Year, like in February? I dunno these kinds of things...

All things considered, the trip was one of my more memorable ones as I had good company to bring in 2006 with.

How about you??