My Makura

Lee Da Hae on Drums!!!

2009-09-07T00:10:00.003+08:00

Wow...found this recently on youtube. WTH?!!? Lee Da Hae plays drums too?!??!! She acts, she sings, she models and she plays drums?!?!?! OMG, even her "sei" when she's playing drums is cool... This korean girl is uber cool...

hmm... looks like she uses Sabian cymbals too... *thumbs up*

Did I forget to mention she's hot??... *wiping blood from nose*

阿妹 - 掉了

2009-09-06T23:56:00.003+08:00

A friend recommended this song recently, think it's such a beautiful song so decided to share it. I have been promised Amei's latest CD as a belated birthday gift, but knowing my friend, I think I'll just have to settle watching it on youtube.

*Update: Wow, my friend actually remembered... Taiwan version somemore. After listening to the whole CD, still think this is my fav song in the album...

My Girl...

2009-07-13T01:09:00.005+08:00

My sis just got me hooked on watching the Korean drama My Girl. She has already watched the show like 5 times within a week and I have just finished watching it in 1 Sunday. Ok, I know I'm damn slow, this show is already like a couple of years old, haha but it's still good!!...

OMG, the lead character is soo cute. Totally my kind of gal... So bubbly, so playful....so cute! ...*drool*......

I'm not Harold!!!

2009-07-13T00:37:00.004+08:00

Today, my buddy just messaged me out of the blue after watching Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay with his girlfriend. As soon as he typed mentioned that show, I knew immediately what he was driving at. I'm not Harold!!! I do not know any Kumar and I certainly did not escape from Guantanamo Bay! Oh man, this is not the first time someone has pointed out that resemblance to me. Alright friends, laugh all you want and get it out of your system.

Ok, here's another resemblance pointed out by friends, this one I dun mind cause Ekin Cheng's good looking...haha... at least not some joker from some B/C grade movie...

Ok, this last one I cannot understand... someone pointed out to me that I look like Ah Ya, the Taiwanese TV host and she was so insistent about it. How can it be?!?!

Please...

2009-03-30T22:55:00.005+08:00

Just wanted to share this song by Alex Band... the lead singer from The Calling which had hit songs like "Wherever you will go" and "Adrienne". Alex has ironically dis-band-ed The Calling and is going solo. He has refused to sign on with major recording labels and has decided to release his solo album under his own label in order to have autonomy over his music direction. Quite a brave thing to do, which his why his solo album has been taking forever and he's doing it in small incremental steps releasing a 5 track EP in US only first. Crap...when can I get my hands on his album?!?

This is a song that has yet to be released but OMG, I just love the tone of his voice and the bridge in this song is just awesome!

Please

There's no pleasure without pain
There's no love without hate
Everything you give comes right back to you
But overseeing and space and time
Turning water into wine
There's a power looking down upon us now
But how do i find out
A way to say what i have to say

Chorus

So please
please tell me what i need
I'm asking please
oh please
tell me what i need to believe

We made fire from the flame
You put out our wicked games
All we wanted was to be close to you

But you're always in control
pulling strings over our souls
though we have
we're never alone now
but how do i find out
a way to say what i have to say

Chorus

If love is a temple
Then hope is a church
that binds everybody like the spine of a book
through the pages that cannot be turned
If we're here for a reason
than the reason is ours to know
but to say that it's better to not know and together
we keep living on and weather the storm

Chorus

If love is a temple ...

The day I got kissed in the rear by a girl... (it din feel good)

2009-03-30T22:32:00.003+08:00

As promised, I would take some pictures of my new Mazda 6 and post them on my blog. However, before I could get down to that post. I got kissed in the rear by a girl. It din feel good... =(

I was rushing down in excitement to meet a friend for XO fish bee hoon at Holland Village where I stopped right after a junction. It was quite an abrupt stop due to the cars in front and this car came rushing in from behind and crashed into me. Sigh, my first traffic accident in 8 years of driving! And on my 2 week old Mazda 6! Heart ache man... The lady driver moved her car out of the yellow box (guilty!) and came out of her car apologizing profusely. Felt quite bad for her also as she was driving her boyfriend's car. BUT! 2 week old car?!?! sigh buay tahan man..... Guess my Dad was right....car plates with the letter 'X' are unlucky....good thing I'm changing my car number soon....

Well, now my car is in the car hospital waiting for a bumper and boot transplant, in the mean time, ahem....the garage ran out of Mazda 6s to loan out....guess what they lent me in the mean time....haha....

Retail Therapy to curb the Recession Blues...

2009-03-17T23:33:00.006+08:00

Not sure if any of you caught the IT Fair last weekend, chances are you did. I made my way down on Sunday after learning that a Samsung LCD monitor 2494HS which I had been eyeing was selling with a $30 discount. The carparks at Suntec and Marina Square were full and I thought I did the smart thing by parking at Raffles City Tower and walking down by Citylink Mall. Guess wat?? I was greeted with a throng of people trying to get to the IT Fair and the picture above was not even that close to Suntec, it was just after the escalators near the adidas shop in Citylink Mall. I quickly made a U-turn and walked by Esplanade and braved the rain just to get to Suntec, all for a $30 discount which is only about 10% off. What can I say, times are bad, must maximise every dollar you spend.

And when I reached Suntec, guess what I saw?? I think Singaporeans are resorting to retail therapy to curb the recession blues. And the papers reported even higher revenues for the the IT Fair this year, I guess Singaporeans are patriotic and everyone is spending to help prop up the economy. I know I have done my part in the last few weeks. Have you???

Anyway, this is the new monitor I got, it's 23.6" with HDMI/DVI/VGA input and it has built in stereo speakers. Only realised it was so huge after taking it out of the box. Heh, think it was a bit of an overkill but at least I can stop the flickering of my old LCD, I can connect my PS3 in my room and I can connect my macbook to the same LCD as well. Oh yah, did I mention? I bought a macbook! The mac OS is really cool and I'm using it with VMWare with Windows so I can the best of both worlds. Seeing is believing, I'm officially a mac now...

I've just gotten a set of new wheels last Friday too, will try to post pictures after washing it this weekend. I will attempt to dispel the myth that the colour I've chosen is an "uncle " colour. The more I look at it, I think it's cool, it's looks almost black from far. Okay, I'm super tired from all the information overload after my 2nd day at work. Logging off...

Farewell Accenture...

2009-03-09T00:37:00.009+08:00

6th March 2009 marks the end of my journey with Accenture, just thought the picture above kind of sums up how I am feeling at the moment. Liberty to pursue life's next set of challenges, freedom to charter my own course and as the sun sets on NYC, it marks the closing of a chapter in my life.

I have started working in Accenture from 31st May 2005 and there has been a lot to be thankful for in the last 4 years. I decided to list down key highlights in chronological order, this will be a reminscence meant solely to remind me of the wonderful experiences in the firm. If you are keen to find out more about any of them, just chat me up the next time. ;)

Unit Trust and Core Banking Project in Indonesia:

1) Ushered into a room full of people and attended Finacle training on my first day. Had no time for introductions till I made my first boo-boo, unknowingly telling clients present that it was my first day on the job.

2) Flew to Jarkarta so often, made me feel like taking a plane was like taking a bus. Vividly remember once literally sleepwalking from my bed in SG all the way to the client site in Jarkata. Crazy 6 am flights!

3) Raymond starved me till my hands were trembling and my face had pins and needles, made up my mind to learn Bahasa Indonesia that night, at least sufficient to order food over the phone. Loved the konros and Bakmi GM there!

4) Was there pretty much on my own throughout the terrorist scare, anti-chinese threats and facing the wrath of clients. Remember feeling my heart race when there was a Indonesian man tailing me with a machete in his hand. I guess the opportunity to face clients alone at an early stage was an excellent training ground for me.

Strutured Products Project for SG and HK

1) Great experience working with a great team that is not only motivated, efficient and fun!

2) Had numerous activities from Night Cycling (ver 1.0: the race to Changi Village, ver 2.0: Meeting Fabian's future father-in-law), Steaking out at Morton's Martini Bar, Getting Tok-ed at Sin Huat, Drunken Prawning, Wii Party, Kayaking at Mac Ritchie followed by never ending Tree Top Walk, Skipping CNY Celebration at office to go Sentosa, Ice Skating, Bowling etc etc

3) Great trip to Pune in India followed by a weekend road trip in Mumbai. Great food, shopping and company and I guess the trip was made more memorable by our driver (refer to previous post). Almost got duped into going to Osho and was almost banged down by a motorcycle.

4) Guess the ultimate reward was being able to go for our Awesomest US Road Trip, felt that was like a graduation trip for us. Still can't believe we all actually managed to make it for the trip, this is what I call collaboration. Hah! (refer to previous post)

Other Projects

1) Ira and I getting spooked by mentally unsound guy at IMH

2) Getting too familiar with the shops at Novena and never imagined having so much tea in my life

ECAs

1) Sport Captain for FS/Others - Heh we won for the very first time in FS history in true controversial style.

2) Golf Tournament Organizer - Organized one in Batam and the following year in Marina Bay. The Batam one is so dodgy! There is a massage parlour IN the men's toilet and the girls will peek into the toilet and they can see the guys changing.

3) Practice Meet - Organized day activities for the practice meet. Best tip: Hire a good events company. Best Lesson: Rain and transition from different location makes for disappearing participants.

4) Recreation Club - Was Secretary and then Chairman, had the opportunity to directly influence and contribute to my personal belief that the workplace is not just a place for work but a place for play as well.

5) Gold House - Was House Captain for the inaugural year, still think it's a fantastic idea. For those that do not know, it's a little like the Hall communities in University.

6) Formed the Accenture FS Band, later renamed to The Butterfly Effect and still in search of a new name.

I think I have been very blessed to have always had good mentors and who had always found the faith in me to give me the opportunities to excel at my work. As cliche as it sounds, anyone who leaves the firm states the people as the number one thing they will miss. I thought so too, however, I know we will still continue to meet outside of work as we have but I am indeed thankful to have known all my friends in Accenture. To all of you, farewell, take care and seeya outside of work!

I'm excited and finally feeling motivated again because my career change but more about that in another post...

What a Valentine's Day...

2009-02-14T09:47:00.008+08:00

Woke up on Valentine's Day and was shocked to find out in the papers that Class95 DJ Glenn Ong and Wife Jamie Yeo have split up. I have always liked Glenn's hosting, as he is uncanningly funny and witty, while Jamie just has that bubbliness in her that I love in a girl. They seemed to be a very loving couple, with Glenn often referring to her as his "Baby". This news has come at a very unexpected timing and I'm sure the couple must be going through a lot, standing before concerned friends, relatives and fans. But I guess what they really need now is time and space.

They say "Till the day you love....you never lived...." I totally agree, yet as wonderful love may be, it can often be fleeting and you can never be sure that it will last forever. You can never control how a person feels and even if she reciprocates, it may not last forever. Time changes everything. Changing with time changes everything. Not changing with time changes everything. It's been a sucky Valentine's Day for me personally, the truth hurts and it has been disheartening. I shall leave you with one of my favourite KTV songs:

张学友 - 如果·爱
每个人
都想明白
谁是自己生命
不该错过的真爱
特别在午夜醒来
更是会感慨
心动埋怨还有不能释怀
都是因为你触碰了爱
如果这就是爱
在转身就该勇敢留下来
就算受伤就算流泪
都是生命里温柔灌溉
Wooh爱
在回忆里总是那么明白
困惑的心流过的泪
还有数不尽黑夜等待
如果这就是爱
如果你
当时明白
后来的生命里
是快乐还是悲哀
特别在夜深人静时
想起未来
是否能平静不会像现在
只是因为你拥有了爱
如果这就是爱
在转身就该勇敢留下来
就算受伤就算流泪
都是生命里温柔灌溉
Wooh爱
在回忆里总是那么明白
困惑的心流过的泪
还有数不尽黑夜等待
如果这就是爱
如果这就是爱

Awesomest US Road Trip!!!

2008-10-19T14:30:00.041+08:00

Im back after not blogging for sooo long...just a combination of laziness and nothing exciting happening in my life. But finally there is something worth blogging about! I recently (hmm....seems like there's a huge time gap from when I started writing this post and when I finally completed) got back from a 2 week holiday in US and I just want to share some of the highlights of the trip.

Well, let's just start by saying that the air-tickets to US were funded by our company as we were actually supposed to go Chicago for training. But we got such a big group of us going together, we decided to have a road trip in US! So I think we can safely say that we are the largest group of colleagues/team mates/friends that have gone to US on a road trip partially funded by the company. Haha...below are the main conspirators:

Main Conspirators: Grace Lin, Karen Yiu, Connie Chia, Eric Kuah, Gabriel Khoo, Divya Balakrishnan, Steven Yong

Day 1 (12-Sep)

Grace in the "Walk of Shame"

It was a busy run-up to the actual flight, as we rushed out hotel bookings and visit plans. So the day before, all of us had hastily packed our bags for the trip. We were supposed to meet like 5 am at Changi Airport as we had an early flight, however, we were greeted by a phone call at 5:30 am that would set the tone for our entire trip. Grace (on the phone at 5:30am): "Shit ! I just woke up..." And the best part was she was not at her home in Bedok, she was at her boyfriend's place in Ang Mo Kio! She rushed down and managed to check in and after which we had breakfast and thought about getting some magazines from the bookstore, and thankfully we did not, as when we approach the departure gate, we realized that the plane was already having its final call! This time we ran to the gate! What a close shave!

Us at the "Worse than HK Times Square"

Our flight transited at HK as we "picked" Karen up, before our flight reached Chicago and then to New York. By the way, UA flights suck, the only in flight entertainment we had was some magazines and the seats were soo hard!! After we reached New York, we made our way to our hotel, the W Hotel, which was really nice!! It had a LCD TV, very modern furnishing and even its radio had an ipod dock. We decided to take a walk down to Times Square and upon reaching, we were greeted by some fellow travellers and this guy from HK told us, "hmmm actually Times Square is not that great, I think HK is better..." Dude, you do not tell people that have travelled 20+ hrs and have walked 30 mins just to reach Times Square that!!!

Day 2 (13-Sep)

Sums up how lost we were...

The plan was to visit the Statue of Liberty in the morning and we had marked our the ferry terminal on the map the night before. However, the train we took had taken a different route that morning and we ended up having to take a longer walk to the ferry. We did walked past Ground Zero which was not part of our plan (Yea...Score!), but it had nothing much there to see. Should have deduced from the name. As we walked to the north end of Battery Park, we realized the ferry terminal had closed down!!! We quickly checked our map and we realized right at the southern most end of Battery Park was "Ferries to Statue of Liberty". Doh!! We had booked our tickets online for 8am and there was no way we could reach there in the time, so we gave up went to Starbucks before taking a leisurely stroll down to the ferry. Thankfully, the people at the ferry service were kind enough to let us take the next available ferry. We realized that we were all photo sluts when in a single morning we took more than 300 photos at the Statue of Liberty.

In the evening, we caught Avenue Q based on Jiawen's strong recommendations and I must say we were not disappointed at all. The musical was throughly entertaining but the girls were already so tired from the day's activities, they kept falling asleep! I think the other people in the audience must be wondering why we looked soooo tired, cos we had that look on our faces that we were struggling just to stay awake. Oh, and I did managed to catch up with my JC friend, Yeen Teck, who was there on assignment.

Day 3 (14-Sep)

On Day 3, it was when we truly started our shopping. We went to Jersey Gardens which was near the airport, there were soo many branded goods at cheap cheap prices. Like what Karen and Connie would say throughout the trip "This is SOOOoooooo cheap....This is SOooooo cheap!!" The only thing that stopped us from shopping further was that we had to catch our flight, which when we reached the airport, realized that it was continually being delayed due to the hurricane that affecting parts of Chicago. What a waste, we could have shopped more!!!

Day 4 (15-Sep)

A day of boring and unimportant training...We did manage to check out Q-Bar after training for some drinks...

Day 5 (16-Sep)

A day of boring and unimportant training...There was a joint event with the other training classes that were going on at the same time. Made us realized how few asians there were at the school. And to our surprise, the majority were actually europeans.

Day 6 (17-Sep)

A day of boring and unimportant training...After class, we rushed down to the Premium Outlets for shopping!!! for short 2 hour session, you could see people running from shop to shop and all returning with huge shopping bags.

Day 7 (18-Sep)

A day of boring and unimportant training...After class the gals were busy snapping pictures of the campus while the guys went on a cycling trip around campus to explore the area. We cycled along Fox River (made famous by Fox Prison in Prison Break). When we got back, we realized the gals have gone missing, and only when they got back they told us of their mini-adventure, where they shopped till they missed the shuttle back and they were no cabs in the area and they tried to hitch rides from strangers... What a dangerous thing to do!! They even got chided by the salesgirl who saw them, saying they were crazy for doing that, and the reason why they refused to call the guys for help was they were afraid that we would laugh at them...of course we would! But at least that was the safer option!

Day 8 (19-Sep)

Just to show what I meant by boring...

A day of boring and unimportant training...but at least school ended early and we headed down to Chicago city for more shopping and sight-seeing. IMO, Chicago has nicer architecture than New York, although New York has more cultural hotspots, just find NY a little too dirty. I had to leave the group halfway through to take some phone interview for a new project and I roamed Chicago on my own, dashing across highways, walking through dark alleys, walking along the river just to make my way back to the hotel. And because of this I missed taking a photograph of the Jelly Bean in Chicago! Argh....even though I walked past it on my way back.

The Jelly Bean pic that I missed....arghhhhh.....

Nevertheless, I met up with the group later on for dinner at Morton's! Yes, Morton's from Chicago, and since we in Chicago, we thought we had to give it a go. The bill was as mind-boggling as it would have been in Singapore but the steak was just excellent. The meat was well-marbled and from the tenderness of the meat, we could tell it was at least a grade 9 piece of meat...Actually I'm just bull-shitting, have no clue about cows, but the steak was the best I ever had, cos it was so soft and juicy, and the meat was so tender and sweet. Yummy! Oh, and we did manage to catch up with Song Yang who was there for his MBA, we went down to this Jazz club, but I guess we were all too tired to appreciate it that night...except for Gabriel...

Day 9 (20-Sep)

The Ultimate Road Trip Machine aka The Shopmobile

We reached San Francisco in the morning after taking an early flight out of Chicago and we rented this huge SUV that looked almost brand new to me. (not the same condition we returned it in...haha) It was a Chevrolet Sub Urban or what I call the Ultimate Road Trip Machine a.k.a The Shopmobile.

The gang famished at the Crab Station

We spent our day at Fisherman's Wharf and we went on a Bay Cruise to see both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatrez. I guess we were really lucky as we took the cruise in the evening at the view at the Golden Gate Bridge was simply breathtaking. We had dinner at the Crab Station, a small stall which was selling crabs, they were huge and the meat was so sweet even though it was just boiled. I guess that was one of the better meals during our trip, maybe cos we were extra hungry from all the walking.

Day 10 (21-Sep)

Breathtaking sights along Highway 1

We began our road trip adventure early in the morning as we drove along the West Coast of US, along the scenic Highway 1. The scenery was gorgeous and every picture look like a postcard. We stopped a number of times to take photos till we got bored of it and we reached Santa Barbara where we had some difficulties finding suitable accommodation. We stayed at a motel in the end and it was a steal, even with it's free breakfast at the reception desk.

Day 11 (22-Sep)

In N Out... Enuff Said... (though the name led to other conversations)

We have heard rave reviews about the In N Out burgers and after procrastinating for so long, we decided to make a detour to an outlet in LA. The burgers were all very simple, in fact it was a very small menu but they all tasted sooo good. I think it's because the ingredients are all very fresh. Totally well worth the detour, and as many Singaporeans before us who have tried it, we quickly fantasized how much money we would make if we could bring it into Singapore.

left: Oops! I did it again... right: Eric and me in Zoolander!

Alright, this is actually my 2nd time in LA and it seems like there's as little things to do then, so we took a bunch of silly photos and decided to push on to the land of sin... Upon reaching Vegas, we checked into South Point hotel on the outskirts and we started on our gambling spree... however it grinded to a halt when our pool of funds disappeared instantly in our first bet at the roulette table. Bet Red, Opened Black. Poof!! Like a magic trick our money was gone.... We then split up to play blackjack, but as the old saying goes...."The casino always wins...", all of us ended in the red that night...

Day 12 (23-Sep)

Living it up at the Bellagio

The next day, we we checked into the Bellagio, it was our game plan of one night stay cheap the next night indulge in extravagance. We headed to the Premium Outlets...AGAIN....for more shopping and we racked up even more goodies. I think the return policy in US really promotes more spending....the girls ended up buying many items of similar shapes and sizes to decide on which one they really one in the comfort of their room....they usually keep EVERYTHING...

Afew of us decided to split up and check out the latest hotspot in vegas....the MGM swimming pool....boy did we get lost...AGAIN.... MGM is soo freaking big.... we went to the first swimming pool where it was littered with retirees and young kids....this can't be right....we walked up and down MGM, asked for directions and reconfirmed the directions given....After an exhausting hunt, we realised the place was just about to close.....but it was a ghost town....we ended up at the Bellagio swimming pool for a 15 min swim in freezing cold water....

Day 13 (24-Sep)

top: The Fountain at Bellagio

bottom: I like the ad by Paris Hotel "Everything's more romantic in Paris"

We spent much of the day walking around the Vegas strip, and while most of the folks were still in the gambling mood. Grace and I decided on some free entertainment, we went to catch the Bellagio musical fountain. The fountain is sooo romantic, I'm sorry Grace, but I wished that night that you were someone else...haha... Btw, I will seriously report Eric to the National Council on Problem Gambling, I can so imagine him in the TV ad asking Chloe for her piggy bank...

"你要相信我，这是最后一次。。。"

Having put in our own stimulus package to the retail and gaming industries, we decided to pull one last stunt. We decided to forgo our hotel stay on the last night and drive through the night to LA to catch our morning flight. The girls were paried up with each guy to keep us entertained and ensure we do not fall asleep while driving. My partner was Karen...she asked me funny questions...and later on in the night...she even asked me to entertain her?!?!? Well, we managed to stinge on petrol as well....just as we turned into the car rental shop to drop off the car, the emergency fuel light came on...Great Success!(in Borat tone)

Day 14 (25-Sep)

Flight back home... endured the rock hard seats of United Airlines again...

Day 15 (26-Sep)

We finally reached home and I had a few burning questions left unanswered:

1) Customer Service - I have come to understand what Customer Service means in the US and I wonder why are we so far off the mark??

2) Sephora & forever 21 - Why did the girls HAVE to go to EVERY Sephora & forever 21 outler in every state and sometimes multiple times??

3) Kenneth Cole & Ted Baker - Why I did not buy the Kenneth Cole bag and the Ted Baker T-shirt?? ...still regret till this day...

I've uploaded more pictures to my Facebook account, feel free to flip through the albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162942&l=af2dd&id=627050471

Finally!! I'm done with this post...took me like 4 months to write... Ok, I shall update more often since there are some exciting things happening in my life...Stay tuned... =)

The Butterfly Effect @ Harry's Millenia Walk

2008-03-03T00:18:00.003+08:00

Well it's really been a while since I've last posted and for a good period of time, our band had been practising for AiDrenalin, a charity band competition that benefits the Rainbow Centre. We had no idea what we had signed up for initially. Desmond somehow had the idea we were playing in some hospital in front of some old folks, while the rest of us thought it would be a much smaller event. But it turns out that it was a band competition with expected audience of about 200 and there would be 4 bands competing based on the number of votes/cash they could get.

The night before the event (1March 2008), we had such a huge scare from our lead singer, Michelle, when her mum called to say that she was in hospital due to food poisoning. We were naturally concerned about her well-being but we were desperate as the event was the very next day. We started calling people up frantically to find a backup but to no avail. We left it all to fate but we did have fun auditioning for the role of lead singer, well fooling around in the jamming studio is one thing, but singing in front of 200 people is another.

Thankfully, Michelle was able to perform that night, but we were all extremely nervous about our debut performance. Well, to be honest, I have not performed much in front of a live audience. (Once on drums playing an extremely simple song in hall, once on the guitar playing Now and Forever, ahem...once on tamborine in hall and oh yah playing the recorder in front of my primary school class which I believe I made of fool of myself ) So as you can see, playing in front of a live crowd of 200+ people in a band competition was a very new experience to me. What really helped to calm us down was that we had a lot of screaming supporters to cheer us on, made us feel like rock stars...heh....

But once the music got started, it felt very natural and those hours of practice just took over our bodies and it was almost zen like. See! Practice helps! Of course, we had a few minor cock ups here and there, not that many people noticed....haha....but overall I think it was an extremely good debut performance. And we almost won the competition as well, the winning band had $1,095 in votes and we had $1,005 (the other bands had $300+ and $100+). Plus we had a couple of offers to play for wedding/corporate events, haha potential side line... Think the 2-3 months of practice has really pushed us to a new level, can't wait to start jamming again!!

Well here are song clips taken froma handphone that night... will post the official videos once I get them from the organizers. Peace! =)

Song 1: Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional

Song 2: Who Knew by Pink

Song 3: Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie

The Butterfly Effect

2007-11-14T23:41:00.000+08:00

After many months of procrastination, our band had come up with an initial band name, "Choti Bachi" which means "Small Girl" in hindi and it was named after our lead singer Michelle. However, when we actually had to use the name we found it a bit too cutesy and after lots of brainstorming we have settled on a new band name! We are not called "The Butterfly Effect"!!!

Well, according to Wikipedia, "The Butterfly Effect" is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. This simply means how intial conditions can have a large impact on the final outcome. And how we interpret this is, is that the significance of the initial conditions of us being in the same company and in the same department have resulted in the formation of this band. I personally think it is kind of meaningful, don't do you think??

In any case, we did some last minute recordings for a competition that we decided to try for. We needed to submit 2 songs so we decided to give it a shot, plus it gives us more motivation to practise harder. Anyway, here it is, please feel free to give us your constructive feedback! =)

Pink - Who Knew http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3487309107357451947

U2 - With or Without You http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5226463747014747944

Cake - I Will Survive http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4455408164791122113

BrokeBack Mountain...

2007-10-22T00:08:00.001+08:00

Dun worry, I have not turned to the dark side, I'm still perfectly straight, just that I broke my back this week. It's really a freak accident, and to the people whom I told and laughed about it, it's not all that funny! It happens ok!?! Maybe more often to older men. Haha. Anyway, I was brushing my teeth and I coughed, the sudden jerk caused my lower back to freeze up. I struggled to reach my bed and after that, I could not move at all, not even roll to my sides. My aunt who is a doctor had to come down to my place to give me 2 jabs, her diagnosis is that I had gotten a slipped disc. Luckily it is it not pressing against any nerves so it should not require any surgery. Because of this I have been told to downgrade my army status, I'm no longer combat fit. *secret Hi 5s everyone!* Let's wait till it's official before popping the champagne. Getting too old for the running around in the jungle anyway.

In any case I have been resting at home for the past 6 days, I'm bored stiff but I'm glad to have this sudden break from work. Kinda feel recharged to take on the challenges of work again. But still got lots of follow up on my injury, like reporting to the medical officer in camp, going for MRI scan, visiting chiropractor. Sigh, my only worry is that it's gonna be a long time before I can take up sports again or swing another golf club. Guess I just have to be real patient till then. I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues for your concern and well wishes during this period. Cheers! You guys are da best!

Drunken Prawning!!!

2007-10-20T12:39:00.000+08:00

Alright, been neglecting my blog for a while now, think I've been spending too much time on Facebook. Nevertheless, a bunch of analysts and consultants on our project have recently decided to channel the negativity in the project to more meaningful activities like rollerblading, kayaking and last week, we took on "Drunken Prawning"!!!

First let me first explain the concept of "Drunken Prawning", this is not the typical drunken prawns you order at any chinese restaurant, as you can see from the picture below, it involves lots of drunk people prawning. 5 bottles of red wine, 1 bottle of expired white wine and 1 bottle of sake for 7 people is a recipe for disaster.

In any case, we made our way down after work to this "ulu sembawang" fishing pond at Marina South and we quickly realised that we were totally out of place with our business attires and our bottles and bottles of wine. We quickly grabbed a couple of rods and planted ourselves right in the middle of the prawning area. There we started having our Subway sandwiches admist the wonderful smell of seafood. And slowly, the glasses of wine started to take effect and we were having so much fun catching nothing at all while the rest of the patrons were all dead serious with their prawning. We were making so much noise with our jokes and laughter and so to *ahem* salvage the reputation of our firm, we decided to sing an "IBM song" which was *ahem* made up on the spot.

After many attempts, Mich a.k.a Choti Bachi caught the first prawn. She even shook hands with the prawn and apologised to it. Dun ask me why. Well, that was the first of the only 3 prawns we caught the entire night and all 3 were caught by the girls.

As you can see below, "stylo milo" Eric and I did nothing but feed the prawns the entire night with the "JUICY" see-hums we prepared for them. Oh well, one thing I know for certain, we suck at prawning!

Love this picture, another one to add to my secret cache of crazy pictures. Hahaha.

Here's the girls acting cute! Kawaii ne!

Here's the guys acting cute, but not to the same effect. *sorry i just puked again...*

Hmmm...Eric and I were demonstrating how spanking on Facebook works. Even though it looks so real, it was all an act. Damn our natural acting abilities!!!

And here's a picture of us on our way to "Selegie", Mr Eric insisted he was on the right way and drove past a Bangla worker who was waving frantically for him to stop. Errr, let's just say we had a good preview of the IR that was still under construction.

It was a night filled with joy, laughter, some puking and very little prawns. I want to thank Jiawen and Sharon for sending me home that night. = )

Pune Holiday!!!

2007-09-09T04:39:00.000+08:00

Every good trip begins with good preparation. For my business trip to Pune, India, I had stocked up on the essentials, from the packets of Mamee instant noodles (For those of you who dun already know, my dad distributes Mamee and I literally grew up on this) to the lifesaving medicine. There in the top right you see Mr Po Chai, he really deserves a Nobel Prize for all the Chinese lives he has saved. And on the bottom right are my anti-malaria pills, which I am so in trouble for not following the prescription. It's not my fault when I pop one the week before travel as instructed only to learn its been postponed, 3 times!

We flew to Bangalore to transit for a night and the flight there was soo bumpy. It was really hilarious as Eric and I were really greedy and we ordered 2 drinks each. What to do, Singaporeans must be "kiasu" mah. We had to hold on to both our red wine and Singapore Sling/Tiger beer and kept sipping to prevent any spillage. In Bangalore, we stayed at a really nice hotel which cost us about$400 for 3 hours of sleep before we had to catch our flight to Pune. We reached Pune and by the time we were in office we were all dead tired, and at lunch time I hit an all time low. I was forced to choose between:

1. Vegetarian
2. Diet Meal
3. Non-Vegetarian (EGG curry)

For those that do not know me well enough, me no like Vegetarian, me no like Diet and me no like eat Eggs. It was a very painful decision and I decided that the lesser of the 3 evils would be Egg curry, at least I can have curry with rice. After the totally unsatisfying lunch, I was skeptical if I could last through the 2 weeks on Indian food.

My morale rebounded like the STI when we were brought to Thousand Oaks for dinner, I had the most delicious Indian food in my life. The garlic naan was just too good, I had 4 huge pieces and I almost died when I mixed it with the Kingfisher beer and the Barman's Pitcher. The garlic mushrooms also left all of us begging for more. On the last day we went back to Thousand Oaks and we ordered double the portions of garlic mushrooms. Mmmm yumyum...

Over the weekend, we decided to take a drive down to Mumbai to do some shopping. But before I share any details of our shopping trip, I must first introduce someone very special and that is the Horniest Man in Pune (Some say Mumbai too), Bharat!!!

Bharat a.k.a Horniest Man in Town

Bharat's our assigned driver and no it's not because of he is well skilled in the arts of the Kamasutra but he uses the horn as often as he steps on the gas pedal. Every driver/motorcyclist/cyclist that he horns and zooms past has the same pissed off look. But Bharat takes them all on, he is extremely good at the staring game. Seriously, sometimes I swear there is nothing in front of him and he still gives out a few honks. And it is not just how frequent he horns, but the intensity, blasting the horn at full volume for 10 - 15 seconds. It is not just saying "Careful! Watch Out!" but more like "Hey @#$!$#! Get the hell out of my freaking way!!!!" I have tried to take some clips of him in action but I am afraid I would get beaten up by him, so I did not manage to get any good footage. Along the way to Mumbai, he even got out of the car, scolded another driver and spat in front of him. Bharat is the King of the roads!!!

Shopping at Mumbai was excellent and I was in top form that day, exceeding all expectations and I bought so much more stuff than the girls. Let's count the damage:

1. 3 T-shirts and 1 belt at Mumbai Fashio Street - $20
2. 1 Puma Polo T-shirt - $24
3. 1 Levi 517 jeans - $76
4. 3 shirts from Zod (Indian Designers) - $171
5. 2 adidas T-shirts from SGS mall in Pune - $36
6. 2 Tantra T-shirts from Pune Central - $20
Total damage for this trip (just on clothes) = $347

Eric tried very hard to stop me and I had to fight off temptations from the staff at Zod offered their Premium pants to go along with the Premium shirts I bought. And again I was soo close to buying this pair of white pants with shocking pink trimmings that would have been just absolutely funky for playing golf, if only the cutting was just a bit better, I would have flashed my credit card for the umpteen time that day.

We were recommended to try out a famous restaurant in Mumbai for lunch and that was Trishna restaurant. And we were constantly being pushed to order their seafood and the waiter was visibly perturbed "You come all the way to Trishna and you dun order our seafood, you come here to order chicken??!!?!" But we stood our ground, because our per diems could not afford the wonderful seafood on offer and we were afraid of getting ripped off. Well, after the trip, I found out from my brother-in-law who frequents India, he says "What?!? You all go all the way to Trishna and never try their seafood?!?! They are very famous for their butter crabs!" Oops! Looks like we were a little overly suspicious. But still, the waiter recommended us to try one of their local beers, Cobra beer, the beer was excellent and for someone who does not drink beer very often, I was very impressed indeed.

On Sunday, we wanted to visit Osho, which is a world famous meditation school. Unfortunately, when we reached they were already out of tickets and we were turned away. Days later when we mentioned that we were refused entry to Osho, the locals laughed at us. Apparently, Osho is world famous as it started as a nudist camp and although today the government has banned nudity, they still practise free sex where every student before enrolling has to take a HIV test. The aim is to banish all your desires to attain nirvana. I don't know but it sure sounds like a boring life not to have any desires, thankfully we did not manage to get any tickets that day, although Chui Yee was visibly disappointed. Ahem.

Ok, we knowingly bought the same Polo T-shirt and belt but we did not arrange to wear both on the same day. This is not the first time this has happened, on the first Casual Friday that we had, I called Eric in the morning, "Hey, it's casual Friday, let's dress in something casual", we both ended up wearing brown Zara Polo T-shirts with blue jeans and similar brown belts with our track shoes. It was embarrassing yet funny as even our clients laughed at us ,"Ay Marcus, today you all Investments team wear uniform ah??" Well this time, in Pune, it's no longer funny, it's just plain embarrassing. The girls had such a laugh over it. Eric, next time for casual fridays, I will give you a call first. For starters, the brown Zara Polo T and the Puma Polo T are out of bounds.

Here's another Steven classic, on receiving his temporary pass, his immediate reaction was '"Hey wait!! I'm not Swarnim Singn!!"

Found out Raymond has been doing good business in India, just look at his shop in Mumbai, he even has branches in Pune. I have showed him these pictures and he has promised me discounts the next time I'm at his shop.

Last but not least, I shall leave you with a picture which I took during breakfast at the open area just outside of our hotel. Look closely, do you see anything?? I know what I saw, can you confirm the same??

This has really been an enjoyable trip, had lots of fun, laughter, good food, shopping and way too much booze.

For more pictures, please click on the link below.

Pune Trip Sep 07

Wii Parties Galore!!! (Part 2 of 2)

2007-09-02T11:49:00.000+08:00

Ok, I have been very busy with work lately and have had no time to blog at all. Anyway, I'm posting this entry from Pune, India from my hotel room. Will post more details on my trip soon. = P

As for the 2nd part of my Wii parties, I had invited my dear C4 gang to my place for some Wii action. It was immediately met with skepticism from Mr (Lo-Tech) Teck who has seriously only played 2 games (Diablo 2 and San Guo) in his life. But once you get him started, he can really go crazy. Evidently so, when he took to the boxing ring with Mr Christopher Cool, both guys were throwing furious punches without anyone really hitting each other. And within a minute, both of them were drenched in perspiration, no wonder they say the Wii can help you lose weight.

That night, boxing took on a whole new meaning when pilot Chong demonstrated his self invented boxing style. We would like to call it the "Para Para Boxing" complete with side steps and all. Power sia! Check it out below, emulate at your own risk!

Wii Parties Galore!!! (Part 1 of 2)

2007-08-13T00:14:00.000+08:00

It's been a few weeks after I added the Wii to my growing inventory of gadgets and since then I have already had 2 extremely fun Wii parties. The first Wii party was with the Investments team where we met up to have dinner at Geylang before coming over to my place.

Dinner was at Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant which comes recommended by Mr Anthony Bourdain himself. For a place with such a reputation, it sure was a lot less crowded than what we had expected. We were greeted by the owner whom promptly recommended us some dishes and kept reassuring us that the portions were small. However, when the first dish arrived, it was a enormous plate of scallops and we immediately knew that dinner was gonna cost us a bomb. $80?? $100??? We pondered as we kept on chewing on our $50 dollar notes. Dish after dish arrived, and we were served a ridiculously sized plate of Gong Gong and 2 humongous plates of prawns. The finale was the crab beehoon than housed 3 monster crabs, when the waitress brought the plate out, I almost blurted out "Is this a joke?!?!" Well, I guess I'm not the only one as the table beside us had the same look of disbelief when their crab beehoon arrived. To be honest, the food was quite nice, but the final price tag of $65 per person wasn't. This place is an obvious rip off and we paid the price to find out why there wasn't a crowd. I strongly advise against eating at this place unless you want to rip your boss off.

After dinner, our team of 7 performed an acrobatics freak show as we all squeezed into one car to head off to my place. We started our Wii party with a little wine and some bowling action. But the highlight was really the boxing game which deserves a round of commentary on its own.

Grace vs Divya:

Grace showed off her dominant right hand and grooved to a fist pumping action only seen at rock concerts. Divya on the other hand, had "Catfight" written all over her face, as she was determined to tear Grace apart with her 2-handed punches. Amidst all the laughter, Grace went to ground and her determination did not let up as she continued her fist pumps with her back on the ground. (Thanks Nintendo! I think you guys did a good job on the range of your motion sensors here.) Grace was duly rewarded for her perseverance as she emerged victorious over Divya.

*Grace getting all pumped up as usual.

Semil vs Michelle:

Semil is Divya's boyfriend and he stepped up to avenge Divya's defeat. We sent in the little girl a.k.a Michelle to put him in his place. The round started as Semil started throwing punches furiously, Michelle on the other hand was giving her own commentary while boxing, "Aiya, how ah? Am I hitting him? I cannot see. Am I losing? How ah? How ah? Ay I think I'm hitting him." Sure enough, Michelle's commentary confused Semil as he was knocked out by the "Choti Bachi". Tsk Tsk. Embaressing.

*Semil on yet another one of his extended losing streaks.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Wii parties as I reveal the latest boxing sensation to hit the skies.

Wow Wii!!

2007-07-30T02:35:00.000+08:00

Welcome to the latest addition to my arsenal of gadgets. Just got the Nintendo Wii over the weekend after many recommendations from my friends. I must really say the Wii really lives up to its hype as it exudes universal appeal. It's got fun gameplay and its controls are easy enough for any newbie to just pick up and play. I even managed to get my parents and my brother-in-law to have a mini-bowling tournament. If my parents can pick up the game, I am sure anyone can as well.

Never the less, it's very interesting to see my parents so excited over a console game, full credit to Nintendo for breaking the age barrier. And thanks to my Dad, he gave my 30-minute old Wiiremote a good smash against the marble coffee table in his excitement. *grumble grumble* The Wiiremote came out unharmed and I suppose it's a testatment to the good build quality. And well, my brother-in-law was really into the tennis game as he was striding around the living room with great realism, must say that he came close to smashing our new 37" lcd tv on numerous occasions.

Need to get more games before I invite some friends over for a Wii party. *rubbing hands in anticipation*

* Health warning: could hear my bones creaking after a couple of baseball pitches. Always remember to do your warm ups first.

Rawa - Picture Perfect!

2007-07-22T03:35:00.000+08:00

Well, contrary to what Jiawen googled, I'm not refering to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Rawa is a beautiful island off the eastern coast of Johor, Malaysia. Took a short trip there this week with my long time pal who was back from UK for holiday. We took a 4 hour bus ride to Mersing Ferry Terminal. I KOed throughout the whole bus ride, only time I woke up was to check if I was still alive from the reckless bus ride. The speedboat to Rawa took about half an hour as the speed boat came closer to shore, we were greeted by the lovely island of Rawa!

Seriously, this place is picture perfect, had a field day with my new digital SLR. Here's more pictures if you're interested.

http://picasaweb.google.com/marcus.ang/RawaTrip1617Jul07?authkey=DOKS_kPB294

This is Colin whom has been my buddy for about 15 years! Let you in on a secret, we call each other "Ah Soh" and it all started back in secondary school when we were hooked on a British sitcom "Mind your language". There was this Japanese character that always says "Ah Soh!" and we were very amused and we started addressing each other that way. Well, nevermind the fact that years later, I realised it actually means "Ah, I see" in Japanese, we're too used to it already. Haha.

And to my golfing pals Chris and Hansen, there is nothing gay about going on a trip alone with a male friend! I am very comfortable with my sexuality unlike ahem Hansen, whom over the years has been a bit grey.

We tried snorkelling during the day and it was my first go and it. Drank quite a bit of sea water, well all I can say is that the sea water is very salty! The corals were not fantastic but there were lots of interesting fishes. We also had a go at windsurfing but it was frankly embaressing, we were given a beginner board with a pro sail and with the strong winds we could barely hoist the sail up. The people around us had a good laugh watching us make a fool of ourselves. Heh.

And as the sun drew a close to the day, we just spent our time chilling out on the beach and soaking in the wonderful scenary.

There was a blackout after dinner and the whole island was pitch dark. And in the darkness, the sky was set alight by millions of glittering stars. It was simply a breaktaking sight, extremely romantic but unfortunately I was with the wrong company. Sigh. Tried to capture it on camera but the results did not do it any justice.

It was a throughly relaxing short trip and if any of you are interested, let me know!! I might just be tempted to pay a visit to this beautiful island again.

Long Overdue Farewell to the Investments Team

2007-07-02T00:05:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since my last post, well, I've been terribly busy and I shall compensate by making a long post today. Truth is, I've been stuck on this post for a long time now because I've been trying to squeeze my workplace experiences over the last year into one post, and too many words make me sleepy.

Well, it's been over a year when I first joined the Structured Products team and I remember spending countless hours with Clare looking at term sheets and figuring what the hell Structured Products are all about. Well, it wasn't very encouraging when even the bank staff told us "Oh, it's so complicated, some of our Relationship Managers don't even know what they're selling."

After many weeks of Strike, Spot, Knock In, Knock Out, Call, Put, Target Redemption, Tranche, Evergreen, ELD, ELC, ELN, RELN, PD, CLI, CDO, Accumulator, Plain Vanilla, Typhoon, American Option, Bermudan Option, 3x1, 3x3..... I guess we can be qualified RMs now. Well, we always tease our Investment Team counterparts how easy Unit Trusts is compared to Structured Products, well Michelle, since you are working on Structured Products now, I'm glad you realise the truth. Hah!

It has really been a hectic year with lots of blood and sweat poured to meet our ever changing timelines, but there has always been something special about this team, that we will always take the time to have some fun. Looking back on the number of team events we have had, both official and unofficial, there has been lots of wonderful memories from the infamous "Up and Down story" during our first buffet dinner, our ice skating trip, the crazy night at Butter Factory, the oh so delicious wagyu burger at Uberburger, Crab night at Melben, Grace's "Marcus, you got new shoes?!?!" Lychee martini, the stake out at Morton's Steak House, and many more... Of course not to mention that a couple of us ODed on farewell parties, who wouldn't when we can have up to 3 farewell parties for each person leaving the team.

Here's the main cast of the Investments Team, I apologise if I have left anyone out, it is probably because I do not have your picture and there is too much to write already, like I said, too many words make me sleepy:

1. Clare the "Teetotaler"

Clare's my Australian team leader who's most remembered as the "I cant eat wheat but I can drink beer girl". Well, "Teetolaler" is her nickname with her frisbee friends and it refers to someone who cant hold her liquor, she sure proved it at her farewell party. Tsk tsk.

She's extremely witty and has always put her debating skills to good use, I'm sure the rest of us picked up a couple of things from her. But of course, over time, she has gotten the hint that none of us really get her Australian humour. Sorry, we tried. Also, she suffered from poor health during her stay here, it's something people call a hang-over and also a rare ailment called "workshop flu", something which has yet to be scientifically classified.

2. Divya the "Linguist"

ahhh....Div, my fellow stock analyst, we survived our ICBC warrant adventure together. At times, we were making more than our day jobs, which is why I want to retire as a PI. Hahaha. She likes to nag about my investment strategy, but I'm more like an opportunistic investor. I think holding for the long term is better after a market crash mah. But anyway, I still only buy what I can afford, ahem unlike someone who had the bank knocking at her door.

Div's a very smart girl who has been to lots of different countries and can speak many different languages. Our team has been very kind to let her in on the local lingo, but I believe her creativity in languages has let to her own downfall. Please stop calling Grace Lin a "Hou Zi Ku Ku" aka "Monkey's Genital", "Hou Zi" + " Ku Ku" does not equate to "Crazy Monkey". She's been a great friend listening in to my sob stories and always giving me good advice when I'm in need of them. By the way, I'm still traumatised by the girl that you and Semil wanted to introduce!

3. Grace the "Piker"

Grace has been officially dubbed the "Piker" as she always conjures some crappy excuse to leave early from events. She also holds a phd in how to avoid drinking at a drinking party.

Tip #1: Ask for coke, and tell the whole world that it is actually whiskey coke
Tip #2: When the bosses come pouring hard liquer into people's glasses, make a quick switch to bottled beers
Tip #3: Holding the beer bottle for a long time to create the impression that you have been drinking, when asked, say its your 2nd bottle. Laugh or talk loudly to enhance that image.

She will be releasing her book on this soon and it will be available at all major bookstores. Watch out for it!

Grace is a big fan of food, just like the rest of us. But man, she can really eat, she is often seen cleaning up the other girls' plates and please note, she does not like it when people pinch too much of her food. Along with Div, she's my trusted counsellor although the both of them always give very differing advices, which is good, at least I have options. Heh.

4. Steven "Record Holder for Quote of the Day"

Our team has a habit of scribbling on the white board whenever someone makes a funny remark. Steven has seriously been hogging that white board space, here's a list of his more memorable quotes:

i) "Eric is hotter than Superman"
ii) "Ay ay Marcus, you go to the toilet and I shoot you from behind"
iii) "Guys, I've just raised an issue against myself"
iv) Calls our client up and says "Hi Steven"
v) "That time I ate so many durians that I whole night keep on Up and Down, Up and Down"

Please refresh my memory on those that I've missed out, this is definitely one list worth keeping.

Steven also has an unique way of looking dead serious when he's telling a joke or when he's chatting about something casual. I have been asked to speak to him a couple of times, it always sounds serious that I bring my pen and paper to take down notes, but it typically goes like this, "So for the PSP, do you think this auction is good ah?" Doh!

5. Eric the "Model"

Err, well it's true, Eric used to work part time as a hot model, and he broke many hearts when he recently tied the knot. He's now part of the band of brothers to be heli-inserted into Pune, India for our over-whelming missions. Glad that his wife bought him a PSP, looks like it's gonna be lots of Winning Eleven for us. Bwahaha.

From now all it's just the 2 of us remaining to hold the front, I'll be counting on him for all the statement updates and he can count on me for all the process updates. Man, this does not look good... haha

6. Karen aka "Eric's Karen"

Karen is one of the founding members of the Investments team but she has since been reassigned, yet she remains as an "alumni" member of our team and will often be seen at our team events. Karen is also our regular supplier of Krispy Kremes, chewing gum and Lao Po Bing. We always look forward to seeing her when she's back from Hong Kong, heh, for obvious reasons.

Also, Eric has officially introduced Karen as "His Karen" to his wife on his wedding night. This is why people should not force the groom to drink, things like this go wrong. And that is apart from telling me in front of his wife that he is not interested in Indian girls and that Steven should stop looking at his butt. Man, I cannot imagine how much he drank that night.

7. Michelle the "Chief Toilet Inspector"

Michelle and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum, I typically go in early in the mornings to dirty the toilets but she goes in to conduct a detailed inspection of each cubicle. According to the girls, she has been giving regular status updates on which cubicles should be used, often including explicit details. I hear she is getting herself certified now and she should soon be qualified to inspect the 4-cubicle sized toilets, that's 1 more than the ones we're used to. Way to go Mich!

Mich is super picky about her food, always worried about putting on weight. her catch phrase is "Aiyo, so sinful." We have heard that catch phrase way too many times now. Though we have recently discovered her kryptonite which is the almighty Satay! "Aiyo very sinful but I cannot help it!"

Mich has since left the firm but she is still the lead singer of our nameless band. She has a really nice voice but I still cannot believe she has never heard of "With or Without You". For songs that she has not heard before, she tends to add in her, ahem, own flavour.

8. Kathy The "Founder of the DD Chart"

Kathy joined our team much later and she has since founded the "DD Chart" which has been used to map "Extraordinary Events". I have been experiencing some "Extraordinary Events" myself, but I do not have the discipline to use the "DD Chart".

Well, her next role is interesting, she is expected to learn what we've learnt in months in just 2 weeks and she has to clean up the mess that has been left behind by our ancestors. Well, errr, good luck, Eric and I will be here to help you as much as possible if we are not busy saving ourselves. Heh.

9. Raymond the "Big Brother Wong"

Raymond has been my boss and comrade since the time we've been stationed in Indonesia. I have had the most memorable dinners with him in Indonesia, once when I waited for him for dinner till my face and hands were all cold and trembling and another time when we had Valentine's Day dinner together and we were frowned upon in the restaurant. Looks like Jakarta is not that liberal yet. But seriously, this dude can work non-stop and can go on and on without any food or water.

I think everyone was duly impressly when he created this illegally sized spreadsheet to clean up all the mess that the analysts created. That is by far the King Kong of all spreadsheets I've seen.

Here's our award winning video, which we spent the prize money on yummy Honjin sushi buffet.. Mmmm...

Disclaimer: I was not Wasted! I was supposed to be appreciating fine wine!

Think we've outdone ourselves on this one, too bad we din win anything for it.

Lastly, I would really like to thank all my team members for making the past year a whole lot more bearable and for seeing me through my darkest times. Really appreciate it. Cheers!

ZAI!!!!

2007-06-11T01:36:00.000+08:00

Well, our band had a practice session this weekend but instead of our usual hotspot which was fully booked, we headed to a new jamming studio in the midst of an indutrial estate and the studio was aptly named "ZAI Studios". The name sure caught my attention while I was searching for studios over the net.

And as usual, our guys came late and slowly trottted in one after another. We began by practising U2 and Mary J Blige's "One" which soon after we got a call from our lead guitarist, Desmond, who informed us that he would not be able to join us as he was busying playing another U2 favourite "Vertigo" at Gleneagles Hospital. Desmond, hope you get well soon, it sure sounded weird without you.

Late on in the session, our first ever audience arrived and we were keen to give her a good show. Daphne sure made herself comfy and promptly sat down on the drummer's stool. Err... by the way, that's where I kinda need to sit to play the drums. We played a couple of songs for her and it was hilarious cause all of us were so nervous, Michelle forgot the tune, Gabriel kept looking down, Clare looked extremely intense and I could feel my right calf almost cramming up. All goes to show one thing, we are not ready to perform live. Well guys, if we can overcome our fear of Daphne then we are ready to take on a live audience!

After our 3 hour session, we proceeded to pay up and the owner, an elderly lady which I shall name, Auntie Zai, chatted with me and Gabriel:

Auntie Zai: Waah you all very good hor??

* Gabriel and I turn to look at each other with a blank look on our faces *

Gabriel: No la.. we are not good

Auntie Zai: Are you all professionals??

* I could feel my jaw hit the ground in disbelief *

Marcus: Errr... no, actually we are just colleagues playing together

Auntie Zai: oh, that you all must have been playing since you were very young

Gabriel and I were flattered but were completely speechless after trying so hard to explain that we were not as good as she had imagined. After much deliberation, I could only come up with one conclusion, and that is:

Uncle Zai has a bad snoring problem and Auntie Zai left for work that morning without removing her ear plugs!

My Anthem: Over You

2007-05-29T01:14:00.000+08:00

I think I've found my anthem and I've got this feeling last year's American Idol contestant, Chris Daughtry, wrote this song specially for me.

Over You
By Chris Daughtry

Now that it's all said and done,
I can't believe you were the one
To build me up and tear me down,
Like an old abandoned house.
What you said when you left
Just left me cold and out of breath.
I fell too far, was in way too deep.
Guess I let you get the best of me.

Chorus:
Well, I never saw it coming.
I should've started running
A long, long time ago.
And I never thought I'd doubt you,
I'm better off without you
More than you, more than you know.
I'm slowly getting closure.
I guess it's really over.
I'm finally getting better.
And now I'm picking up the pieces.
I'm spending all of these years
Putting my heart back together.
'Cause the day I thought I'd never get through,
I got over you.

You took a hammer to these walls,
Dragged the memories down the hall,
Packed your bags and walked away.
There was nothing I could say.
And when you slammed the front door shut,
A lot of others opened up,
So did my eyes so I could see
That you never were the best for me.

Chorus

Well, I never saw it coming.
I should've started running
A long, long time ago.
And I never thought I'd doubt you,
I'm better off without you
More than you, more than you know.

Well, I never saw it coming.
I should've started running
A long, long time ago.
And I never thought I'd doubt you,
I'm better off without you
More than you, more than you know.
I'm slowly getting closure.
I guess it's really over.
I'm finally getting better.
And now I'm picking up the pieces.
I'm spending all of these years
Putting my heart back together.
Well I'm putting my heart back together,
'Cause I got over you.
Well I got over you.
I got over you.
'Cause the day I thought I'd never get through,
I got over you.

Issue #1032: Tornado Approaching!!!

2007-05-29T00:29:00.000+08:00

Not sure if any of you caught this in person, my office was fortunate enough to have a good view of this "tornado". I totally enjoyed this experience when everyone in office displayed one of Singapore's top Core values..."Kaypo" (translation for the expats: busybody). Everyone dropped what they were doing and rushed off to the windows. (that includes abandoning their conference call! Sheesh!)

Steven was the first person to notice it and he has been on a roll lately, after successfully raising an issue against himself in the project, he raised an issue against Mother Nature for the "tornado". No Steven, Mother Nature will not update the issue log with the details and PMO expects you to close issue #1032 off. I think Steven was visibly distraught by this experience, later that evening, he called one of the clients up and asked to speak to himself. (i.e. Steven: "Hi Steven")

Well, as the rest of us were busy snapping photos and exchanging our grand theories on what the "tornado" really was. I felt some theories are really worth mentioning, first prize goes to Kah Leong for his "Norr...the cloud too heavy la, thats why like one part drop down" and closely followed by again Kah Leong's "UFO theory".

And here's a message to the government, Singaporeans are not ready for natural disasters and our next campaign would go something like this "Dear citizens, you are supposed to disperse when you encounter natural disasters, not congregate with your handphone cameras and talk cock. Anyone caught will be fined $500, payable at any AXS station. Have a nice day."

And by the way, if you don't already know, the "tornado" was really a harmless water sprout which dissapates when it reaches shore and is only dangerous to small boats out at sea. We are still safe, for now...

Time for a career change???

2007-05-21T00:15:00.000+08:00

Sigh. It's been such a long week. Seriously, falling sick when the project is at its crunch time is no laughing matter. But I would still like to make some time to talk about some thoughts that I have been having lately. Well, my company's pitiful bonus scheme and the recent exodus of colleagues from the project are the main reasons that have prompted me to rethink my career. So today, I will share with you my childhood ambition. I am not sure if any of you already know this but my childhood ambition was.......

that's right! A NINJA!!! Ok, laugh your head off, but the only thing stopping a 5-year old from pursuing his dreams in Japan was his fear of earthquakes.

I shall now make a detailed analysis to decide if I should just tender and submit my application to join the men in black.

Consulting vs Ninja
1. Salary: Consulting
Ninjas don't work on a "lucrative" performance bonus scheme like consulting. It really depends on how many jobs their business developement team can clinch. They have no regular income and so for days when the economy is bad, you could be sitting on the bench without any pay for weeks. Because of this, Consulting goes 1 up over the Ninja profession.

2. Working Hours: Ninja
I would say the Ninja comes up on top in this category, they have more flexible working hours and usually only have to work short periods of time at night. Of course, that would depend if they have been assigned any overseas assignments.

3. Prestige: Consulting
Consulting would definitely be more prestigious as compared to being a Ninja, helps that my idol is fronting the company. "Go on. Be a Tiger." Who could resist that? Anyway, the way Ninjas are wrapped up, no one knows who is on the job anyway.

4. Travel: Consulting
Due to the weapons that Ninjas carry, they are not allowed on board flights and have to seek alternate modes of transport and that usually means walking on foot. And being an infantry man, I'm sick of walking on foot! I'd rather chalk up the Krisflyer miles anytime.

5. Job Satisfaction: Ninja
I think both occupations are similar in a way that they are both about issue resolution. But Ninjas just go ahead and resolve the issue and do not waste too much time tracking them in spreadsheets. Also, Ninjas tend to have shorter project stints and as such they receive gratification a lot quicker.

6. Training: Ninja
Training is very important for Ninjas and they invest more heavily on training to remain competitive/alive.

7. Social: Consulting
Alright, Ninjas are a bunch of guys wrapped in black and do not have any female counterparts. Think being a Ninja would be bad for my already shrinking social circle.

8. Work Environment: Consulting/Ninja
I would say that this would be a draw since both involve working at client side. Does not really matter how nice your head office is, you're only back there for meetings and trainings anyway.

9. Business Outlook: Consulting
Business outlook for Ninjas is bad. The only openings currently are in the Ninja Village in Togakushi, Japan. And that is more like an amusement park, so instead of leading the highlife of being a trained assassin, you'll have to perform your arts for kids and tourists. It's like being promised business consulting work when all that we've really got is systems integration. Hah!

10. Career Prospects: Consulting
Think there's a better route of advancement in consulting, there's more chance of being a Senior Executive as compared to being a Hokage where there's only one in each Ninja village. Hmm...wait, have I been watching too much Naruto?!?

Alright, the 7-4 scoreline seems to imply that my current job still edges out my childhood ambition of being a Ninja. Sigh, looks like its back to my spreadsheets and beloved GL issues.

Accenture FS Band!!!

2007-05-06T01:30:00.000+08:00

Well, as promised, here's a short introduction to our newly formed band. We are all colleagues from the same department looking to having a good time outside of work. Think it really helps to break the monotony of staring at Word, Excel and Powerpoint. However, till now we still have not come up with a band name so we are generically called Accenture FS Band for the time being. Well, it din help that our recent suggestions got laughed at by our fellow colleagues. So I guess it will take us a while before we come up with something.

Michelle - sadly, she's leaving the firm but she will still be our lead singer. Trust me, this girl is crazy about Disney. I hope she wun suggest to call ourselves "The Mickey Mouse Band". And P.S. she is very good at washing toilets.

Desmond - Our lead guitarist who is honing his skills in Bangkok. Heard he's mastered some new moves from his pole dancing classes. He has promised to give us a private show, everyone's invited!

Gabriel - Our bassist who is the only person to have some experience playing in a band. His band had won the JamX competition before. Dun play play ok. By the way, Gabriel, I know what is happening on 12th of May already...bwahahahaha

Group photo
Absent with apologies:
1) Clare (Keyboard)
2) Vinson (Rhythm Guitar)

Alright our band has not had a lot of practice together and we are always unprepared for our jamming sessions. And although we are still not very good, it still has been tremendously fun!! Already looking forward to next week's session. Kudos guys, think we have been improving a lot with each session. = )

Included some clips from our sessions in the podcast link on the right. The quality of the recording is quite bad though, it was recorded using my already obsolete Sony Ericsson K700i. Cheers!

Time to smell the flowers...

2007-04-28T00:08:00.000+08:00

When was the last time you taken the time to smell the flowers and appreciate where you're at and where you're headed in life?

After my crappy last post, I've decided to post some of the random pictures of flowers caught on my new camera. Somehow, the camera just makes the flowers look more beautiful and you realise that things that have often been overlooked can bring out a fresh perspective if you bothered to take the time to appreciate them.

Hmm... ok as for this grotesque looking thing below. After seeing it, I was kinda lost for words, and so were the people that have seen this picture. So if you're thinking "What the !$@!?$!@", "It's looks like a swollen red ####!", "I din know these things grew on trees?!", I can assure you that you are not alone. This thing has caused me permanent psychological damage and I refuse to step anywhere near it, but if you're feeling adventurous, you can drop me a note, and I can pinpoint exactly where you can find it.

Thankfully, our government did not decide to plant this all over our island. It would have been really embarressing.

I apologise for any emotional distress that may have been caused by this picture.

One Night of Madness - Another proud C4 Production

2007-04-22T15:25:00.000+08:00

What was orginally planned to be a normal night out with the Eusoff C4 guys for board games really turned out to be a night of madness. Here's what happened...

After a round of Settlers, the guys brought out the birthday cake to celebrate my 27th birthday.

Marcus: Wah... You all civil servant so rich ah, so much bonus still got pay increment. Even better than private sector sia. This cake is bought with tax payers' money you know?

Teck Horng: What?! You neh neh!! We buy cake for you, you still complain?!? (pushes Marcus's face into the cake)

Dennis: Quick Teck, let's use our ultimate lock on makura! This is what the police academy teach to handle illegal immigrants!

Marcus: AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not an illegal immigrant!!

(Marcus wrestles himself free...)

Marcus: Ultimate lock!?! Hah hah! This is what I learned from the Ultimate Warrior!

(The Police Inspector and the Army captain being more experienced in Unarmed Combat, counters the move and Teck lets out a loud cheer!)

Teck Horng: Hardo Gay!!! Woo!!!

Marcus: Aiya.....Sian

Dennis: Ahh...see la! Who ask you to sneak into Singapore!?! Make me do more unnecessary paper work!!

Teck Horng: Hardo Gay!!! Woo!!!

Marcus: You got the wrong guy!! See my shirt...I was from the army too... Let's get Chris the Malaysian. He's the only one without any military training!!

Chris: huh?!?! Wah piang!?! What did I do???

A proud demonstration of our powers when mobilised.
(Jarrod from Airforce, Dennis from Police Force, Teck from Army and Marcus the unfit NSman)

This is another production by the members of C4 (Crazy Corny Crappy Cast). The following actors have been nominated for the Oscars:

Best Actor
1. Marcus (for his role as the helpless birthday boy)
2. Teck Horng (for his protrayal of his idol, Hardo Gay des)
3. Dennis (for his protrayal of himself)

Best Supporting Actor
1. Chris (for his role as the innocent punching bag)
2. Jarrod (for his attempt to win the award by being the least dressed actor)

Best Film Crew
1. Geri (for teaching me that photos without flash look warmer)

Best Lighting and Sound Crew
1. Zhiwei (cause that's what he always does)

Best Backstage Crew
1. Rachel (for her role in bringing the cake up 3 floors from the fridge)

For more behind the scene photos, please go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/marcus.ang/OneNightOfMadness?authkey=WwXlw67t4lQ

Retail Therapy!!!

2007-04-15T23:24:00.000+08:00

There are moments when girls go absolutely crazy and splurge on shopping frenzies. Well, truth is, guys have their moments of weakness too and I myself have recently been on retail therapy.

Heh... so for my first blog entry, I would like to share some of my recents purchases and review just how therapeutic they have been for me:

1. Yahama DTX Explorer Electronic Drumset 2. Nikon D40 Digital SLR

3. Rollerblade Astro 6 Inline Skates 4. Puerto Rico Board Game

5. Taylormade R5 with Aldila 65-R shaft

1. Yahama DTX Explorer Electronic Drumset
Therapeutic Rating (9.5/10)

Bought 2nd hand for $875 from an ad placed on Luthor Music classified ads. Still think its a good deal as a brand new set costs about $1300. This scores high on therapeutic value as it allows me to thrash all my frustrations on the drumset with out disturbing my neighbours. It has also proved useful in upgrading my skills for our newly formed band (more on that another time).

2. Nikon D40 DSLR
Therapeutic Rating (8/10)

To be honest, I have never been a camera buff but wanted to try something new so I have decided to dabble in photography. Bought this brand new for $970 from John 3:16 at Funan Centre, it comes with a 2gb memory card and a UV filter. This camera really produces excellent photos and the results clearly outshine my non-existent photography skills, only problem is that it is bulkier than compact cameras and is quite a chore to lug around. Expect this to be a excellent travelling companion for holidays and my impending overseas assignments.

3. Rollerblade Astro 6 Inline Skates
Therapeutic Rating (7.5/10)

Bought this brand new from skateline warehouse for about $275. Used to rollerblade quite often back in secondary school. (well that's like many years ago) So this pair of rollerblades with its enormous 80 mm wheels has already given me its fair share of near death experiences. Stunts like hockey brake or power brake which were much easier with my older pair are a no-go on this monster. Giving it a lower rating as it has been under-utilised, my friends keep "flying aeroplane" on blading outings. Well, at least I have been using this to scare residents in my area by blading at unearthly hours. Hah!

4. Puerto Rico Board Game
Therapeutic Rating (7/10)

There has been a recent craze with my hostel friends where we gather at Jarrod "The Carrot"'s place for weekly "Nerd parties". All thanks to Chris Khoo "The Kuku" for spreading this madness. After starting off with Settlers and Citadels, I have added to our collection by buying this brand new set from a seller on Yahoo auctions for about $75 with the expansion set. Though entertaining, Settlers still remains my firm favourite as I seem to have better odds with that game. Puerto Rico has gotten a little dry of late because all of us keeps using the same "Coffee - Corn" strategy or the "Factory"strategy, maybe its time to throw in the expansion set which we have absolutely no clue how it works.

5. Taylormade R5 with Aldila 65-R shaft
Therapeutic Rating(9.5/10)

Bought this brand new off Yahoo auctions for aboutt $285. It is the R5 neutral bias version with 10.5 degrees. It comes with the Aldila 65-R shaft which is absolutely sweet. Even though I have not been playing golf very often, this baby has really cranked up my drives, at least I am now comfortably hitting within the same timezone as my long hitting golf kakis. Scores high on therapeutic value as it makes golf so much more fun, hitting from the fairway with a short iron is way better than trying to punch out from forbidden grounds on the golf course. Feeling inspired to play more golf already.

Well of course, all this would not have been possible if not for the recent bull market, as such I would to extend my thanks to the following companies for their generous contributions to my cause:

Cosco
ICBC
Gems TV

Hoping for more good news from the stock market as there are already new acquistions planned in the pipeline. Heh...

New Handphone (still cannot decide which model to get)
Nintendo Wii

Stay tuned... =)