Sunday, June 28, 2009
Ah. There's just so much to talk about right now, and by some strange twist of luck (pun intended), I managed to sprain my ankle and ended up being sent home. Positively thrilled actually.
It's been a whole week of angst for the 16 of us who had to go to ... You-Know-Where. Objectively, this period benefits none of us as we had already done more than 80% of what is to be done. Yes, a repetition. We have been immersed amongst a group of young boys, who have yet to see the world. We soon realised that the few of us are in fact very, very good - not where running or jumping is concerned, but rather in terms of brains and street-smartness. 姜还是老的辣 indeed! We're trying our best to herd them and keep them out of trouble, and it's now come to the state where the few of us are horrendously overworked (no one else wants to step up to take responsibility and leadership!). I'm glad we came up with a nightly meeting for all of us, where we would feast on some symbolic foods (kit kat, in particular), bitch about people and things, and do a ceremonial crossing out of the days. Dumb as this may seem, it is oddly therapeutic. A good chance to let out some steam instead of venting it on the young ones. There's been quite a lot of unhappy politics in the first 3-4 days - not among the 16 of us, but rather between us and You-Know-Where - but hopefully it'll all be sorted out. Anyway, what happened was that on Saturday morning, I was on my way to getting some ice in a bucket for safety stores, as they were going to have a run and the ice was meant for heat exhaustion / sprains (how ironic). It was pitch black, and I missed a step. Being docs, the other guys quickly gave me first aid but the next day my ankle was badly bruised, with blood tracking down to the heel area and the others advised me to get an xray to exclude a fracture at least. I was sent to NUH for the zap, and subsequently given 3 days of rest at home. How nice! Yx has been bandaging me foot twice a day, the bruising is better but the foot is still swollen like a salami. At least now I can walk around a little.
It's kind of nice that life still goes on despite this whole period of shit. The architect has submitted the blueprint for approval, and we've now received the structural prints. We've also received the quotation for the tiling and surfacing. Maybe the house might be ready for next year after all!
Also, Yx and I chanced upon this lovely product - freeze-dried maggots! Those of you at the ROM would know about the story of how Yx tried farming maggots to feed my plants. Those days are over! Going to try them to see if the plants like the maggots. Other stuff this weekend - I performed an amputation surgery for one of the scorpions. It got stuck while moulting, but things look pretty bad, and I'm not sure if the intervention had been timely enough. =( Maybe the substrate was just too dry for effective moulting to take place.
Wenky
9:38 PM
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
Quite a lot of stuff to talk about this weekend. Actually, I got home extremely late on Friday (10pm!) and didn't manage to do much, except to fetch Yx home from her band reunion thingy. I was actually too drained to do anything else.
Met up finally with Chris on Saturday! He passed us our ROM photos, and even did some basic editing which was nice of him. (Our original intent was to have the photos raw, and I'll be the one doing the editing instead.) Will post them up on the wedding blog. And as I realised from my previous post, I got myself dead drunk on Saturday night. It was Ariel's birthday, and her bf threw a surprise club party for her. We brought Yx's younger brother along too! He subsequently drank a bit too much and lapsed into a bout of talkativeness.
We also put down out deposit today to secure our booking. So yes, it's confirmed, our wedding dinner will be at Swissotel The Stamford. We worked out some of the details as well with the manager. Now to think about the general theme of things.
Father's Day dinner at home -
Just feeling apprehensive about the next 2 weeks. Running around with a bunch of 18 year olds. Bleargh.
Wenky
9:26 PM
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f*ing hell, I'm piss drunk again.
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Wenky
2:37 AM
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Had an early day out yesterday, which was so unanticipated. Next week will be hell for 16 of us though, so I guess a break was in order. Going to the doctor's again this morning, let's see what he has to say.
Wenky
9:35 AM
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
Ooh, had an early weekend out on Friday at 3+pm! It was GOOD. We ended up prawn fishing again but this time with Eugene & gf, and went skating the next day at ECP.
I succumbed and got myself a Nokia E51. It's the only phone that has no camera and with email capability. Shall spend the week trying to read the manuals.
Wenky
8:23 PM
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Sunday, June 07, 2009
Alvin's legendary Wrist-Flick Technique for tennis.
The Pro ..
And the Drama Mamma ..
OK, I have no idea why, but this picture just looks washed-out. Horrendous. I think the bounce card doesn't cut it when there's no ceiling to bounce the flash from.
Settled a couple more things this weekend. We had a lovely time at PageOne buying books, and I came back home to find that one of the scorpions has had babies! It's a small clutch, maybe 8-10 babies at their 2nd instar stage. Still, it's not bad, considering the lack of food for the last 2 weeks - my bad. I'll try to get some mealworms or something for them next week. In fact, mom just came back today with yet another scorpion. I shall have to put this one in a separate glass aquarium for now.
Wenky
6:46 PM
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Saturday, June 06, 2009
Ooh, coming back on a Friday really makes a whole lot of difference! It actually feels like a proper weekend, for once. And not to mention how much impact it has on morale, like you can look forward to getting 5 more days done and over with.
We had a catch-up BBQ at Ta's place on Saturday, which was really great. And it's even nicer that his other half came over too - Yx finally had a chance to interact with her. We had tonnes of food which we couldn't finish, and Yx and I brought the prawns that we had caught on Fri night. It really wasn't a bad catch at all - 30 in 2 hours. Of course, the Bitch and Alvin went nuts over the Wii tennis game. OK, more pics to come soon. I shall get that done after dinner.
Wenky
11:57 PM
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
It was a fun catch-up weekend! On Saturday, we met up with the lab people for a wine-and-cheese session at Clarice's, and met Christian for the first time. I confess, it was a bit of a let down initially when it was all fruits and healthy stuff. The pace finally picked up though, when the cheese and wine came out! The usual chit-chat and games followed. Ooh, we played this new game called Cash & Guns, which was quite fun - definitely can play it during games nights in future. Gotta look out for good games to buy ...
Also had a thank-you lunch today. I did a quick meal with stuffed peppers (managed to get these cute little peppers!), risotto al funghi and baked rainbow trout. It's actually very nice to catch up with good friends, and to hear about life outside this pathetic existence.
Headed down to the Stamford for a quick look, and pretty happy with what we saw.
Wenky
3:09 PM
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Night out!! =D I just had to come home, even though it's a mere few hours out.
Brownie's having a really bad tick infestation now, I'm using sprays (for the house), shampoo and Frontline. He's scratching all over - it's about the first time he's ever had such a bad one. =(
Wenky
7:30 PM
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
As usual, the weekend just streaked right past. Had an enjoyable time at Mustafa's yesterday - it was the first time Yanxian and I went, and wow .. it's really crowded. We took the chance to buy ourselves a new quilt and a quilt cover though. It's cotton (I really couldn't bear to fork out $40 more for a down one), and gets quite warm in the day. We got ourselves a King sized one cos apparently I always end up snatching the blankets away at night.
Brownie's down with a new mite infestation! =( He never used to have this problem, and for some reason, Frontline didn't seem to work. We got him a mite shampoo and a home spray to get rid of them.
Wenky
5:00 PM
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Part 2 of the cardiac investigations today. My ECG yesterday showed a new P mitrale, so I'm going for an echo today and getting rid of the darned Holter machine. It was a bittersweet event yesterday, going back to the department where I knew everyone like the technicians etc. Sometimes you just itch to do some proper clinical practice, and at others, it just aches inside like what it felt yesterday. Of course, it didn't help that my consultants were having a meeting next door and came in to find their ex-MO running half-naked on the treadmill - how unglam.
Weekend's coming!! Can't wait.
Wenky
10:05 AM
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
A quick entry for an extra few hours out - will be visiting Cardio, let's see what comes out of it.
Wenky
9:36 AM
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Sunday, May 17, 2009
The theory of relativity. I swear it's true - time outside goes much faster than time inside.
Wenky
8:12 PM
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Oh dear, time passes AWFULLY slowly in there. Maybe cos I wake up so early, that the day seems extended? Each day seems to pass like 2 outside. The good thing (in the short term) is that I'm not allowed to engage in physical activity yet until I resolve a couple of issues.
Anyway, once again I'm so very happy that Yx spends her weekends with me. =) And planning for the banquet - it really stops me from going round the bend in La La Land.
We ended up watching our very first midnight show together last night! Hehe, it was Xmen, and wow - it's really quite good. Both of us were bleary-eyed already though.
Before that, we had a nice family dinner at Picotin. Oooh, I only just realised last night that we supply their fowl. I had a wagyu steak at a steal, it was going for $32 or so. What's nice about Picotin is that the boss actually welcomes you when you come, reservation or not. And somehow he remembered that Yanxian and I had been there before. Impressive.
My dad had rabbit:
A new outlet for Sin Swee Kee chicken rice has just opened along Kitchener Road, and we were there for its soft launch today. Once again, the quality of the steamed chicken and the rice is fantastic. The roasted is good too, but I'm not the kind who is appreciative of roasted chicken. A few pics!
Wenky
4:32 PM
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Sunday, May 10, 2009
WOW. I'm out again.
It's just a measly 4.5 hours out, but so worth its minutes in gold. Nice of them, I must say. =)
Wenky
5:08 PM
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Saturday, May 09, 2009
Hee ... people say that marriage preparation is a pain, but I'm actually very glad I've still got the banquet coming up. Doing other stuff, especially things like these, makes me really happy. =) More on the wedding blog, but just a head's up that after the ROM, our wedding blog (
click here) is still going on!
Wenky
1:31 PM
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Something a little belated - last Sunday we headed off to a restaurant near the Esplanade for an early Mother's Day celebration. It was a Chinese-fusion buffet that was quite good (and very filling), and best of all was the avocado dessert! That's the one my mom's drinking. We kind of swept their entire stock of the dessert, since all the other tables didn't seem too interested in the gooey green drink.
Also, the sunbird's nest right outside the window. Mommy Bird usually sits in there, but she just doesn't like the camera and took off before I could take a shot of her. I'm guessing there should be eggs in there?
Wenky
1:26 PM
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I'm back, and must be grateful for this extra little sweetening of the deal, thanks to Vesak Day. So far alright, but as again, I detest the regimentation and stupidity. The latter is, by the way, ameliorated by the fact that all of us do have a little something in our craniums. But that doesn't mean that whoever that are up there have adequate grey matter, and that's the main tragedy of the whole thing. =p
Still have a few things to mop up regarding getting gear etc. Brownie went mad last night, barking into my ears and scrambling around - that's his way of scolding, by the way. Was thinking of counting down/crossing out dates, but not a good idea at this point in time; it just makes the whole thing look impossibly long.
Wenky
9:23 AM
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
The day is come. Oh well. Wish there were wifi access so I could blog! =)
Wenky
5:41 AM
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Monday, May 04, 2009
Feeling really happy now. Yes, happy. Amidst all the gloom. Yanxian's staying over! Haha .. I complained how insomniac I got yesterday, and she decided to stay over to coax me to sleep.
Brownie's throwing a gloom-and-doom fit though. He saw me packing my bags, and now he's grumpy as anything, and watching me closely to make sure I don't scoot off.
Gosh .. 20kgs of stuff to lug around. Shit.
Wenky
9:06 PM
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My boss gave me an early day off today. Said my goodbyes, and unbelievably, I'm actually a little sad to leave. Maybe cos I'm getting out of the frying pan, into the fire. But cardiology wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I left with a little something to show for the work. It's nice to be appreciated.
Got most of my miscellaneous things in order. Bills. Pets. Work-related stuff. I'm just left with my car insurance and road tax, which I will need help with.
Wenky
3:51 PM
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On a happier note, Yx made this nice bounce card for me yesterday using foam paper. It's still not perfect, but I'm loving it to death. Tried it out during dinner last night, and indeed the flash quality is less harsh. The DSO gang also gave me a nice photography book, which I shall be bringing in. At least I'll feel like I have something to read.
Wenky
7:24 AM
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90% of my stuff's packed, with little bits to do here and there (which is actually the annoying part). Feeling a little upset right now. Oh well. They really should give us say 2 weeks of break time before starting on this, rather than having to work right up to the day before.
Wenky
6:47 AM
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Sunday, May 03, 2009
Ah, they're back! After the pair of green pigeons, my balcony is now playing host to a pair of olive-backed sunbirds. I'm not sure if they are the same pair as the ones a couple of years ago, but I don't think so. Maybe their babies? By some strange coincidence, they built their nest at almost exactly the same spot as our original sunbirds - I'm assuming they're a different pair. Fun to hear birds chirp outside my window, and to see them flitting around. I won't be around to see the babies, I suspect, but I'm glad they like the place.
Wenky
11:09 PM
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Trying to squeeze in a few more posts before I end up in the Land of Great Stupids on Tuesday. It's been fun after the ROM, and Yx was staying over the last few days, for once! =) Really great to wake up with your wife beside you. And these days, it's been of indescribable consolation to me.
The H1N1 flu's underway now, and we're on orange alert. Things like these are bound to happen once every few years, but we still don't know how bad it can get. From the looks of things, it seems to have some genetic predisposition for Mexicans eh? But nonetheless, just be careful.
Ah. And I finally got my computer back, and I'm in the midst of re-loading it with all my usual software etc. First up would be all the photo software - Canon's RAW converter and Adobe Photoshop. I may consider buying Lightroom later on, but that'll really depend on how prolific I am at taking photos - as of now, the workload is manageable on Photoshop.
We got ourselves a room safe today! We were actually shopping for a mother's day present, and saw this nice safe going for a reasonable price. It's like one of those hotel safes that you can input a different password each time.
Wenky
5:43 PM
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
OK, I actually have a lot of updates, but my computer is currently being repaired and I shall be back in 1-2 days' time. Feeling slightly grossed out in the meantime. Stay safe, everyone.
Wenky
3:54 PM
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Thursday, April 16, 2009
Had a really tiring day, rushing around getting things done. Essentially I had from between 10am to 2pm to buy things, take a passport photo, send out a letter, head down to the Thomson florists and back, complete a bouquet, and receive a delivery package. Managed all these in the end, but now I'm dead tired.
Brownie was taken ill this morning. He gave everyone a scare last night already - as he was bunny-hopping out of the gate for his evening walk, his foot hit part of the gate. He started limping on 3 legs, whining, and licking his foot. It was probably just bruised, but he made such a deal out of it that everyone got extremely alarmed. The vet wasn't available after hours though, so I decided to wait it out. He later recovered however, after I threatened to unleash the vet on him. There was still no escaping the vet, unfortunately. After his morning walk today, he started pukung and straining and shivering. He refused food and spent the entire day sitting out in the garden, which was very odd behavior. The consultation took a whole hour, including waiting for his blood test. Turns out he was having some sort of infection, probably infective gastroenteritis. The boy was prescribed some metronidazole, but he is currently refusing medications. Arghhhh!
Now, we were supposed to do our photo shoot tomorrow afternoon. We were promised an afternoon of aircon, photos, food and music. Unfortunately, Yx's boss sprang some stupid meeting on her, and we had to cancel. After all the effort of renting stuff and lenses!! =( I'm actually feeling extremely upset about it. In any case, i set everything up this evening and did some test shots. Initially Yx was posing as the model, but during round 2 Wei very sportingly did all sorts of fun poses and variations. Not too bad huh?
Wenky
12:32 AM
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You
will not believe what I just did. I went to buy myself some ridiculously specialised equipment - I actually bought a studio strobe. A Made-In-China one, mind, not one of those that you pay through the nose for.
So, right now I have a huge stash of equipment sitting around in my room.
Umbrellas. A massive strobe. A foam board. Several metal stands. Oh, and a roll of paper 2.7m long, propped up somewhere in my garden.
That, and the fact that I just spent a good half hour just now struggling with a gigantic box made of fabric.
I must be nuts, that's what I'm telling myself right now.
Wenky
11:22 PM
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
It's almost 1 am and I am sleepless. The silly Earl Grey I have in front of me sure won't help either.
It was a fun day of sorts! First of all, I really indulged by purchasing a carbon fiber tripod today - it's so light, I want to bring it everywhere! (which is sort of the point, isn't it?) It's a much better alternative than my rickety old one, which came FOC. I actually have been putting off taking photos due to the difficult tripod - it can't take the (almost negligible) weight of the camera even, and kept falling off to one side, which was extremely disturbing. I'll probably still keep the old one though - first of all, it won't fetch even $10, and I could always use it as a scapegoat when I feel the urge to wade out to sea again.
We subsequently had a fun evening of games at Mind Cafe. I shall remember WJ's "purr purr meow" and Monty's "Hoo Hoo Hoo" for a long time to come. It's much nicer than Settler's, I think. At least the drinks were free flow, although once again the food leaves much to be desired.
Talking about food, as an aside, we over-indulged at Valentino's on Friday night. I must say though, that the cooking was SUPERB. I almost fainted after eating the beef, and I'm not kidding or exaggerating. It came in 1" bite-sized chunks, with fresh porcini mushrooms (where do they get them from??) and a light drizzle of truffle oil. It was a tad more expensive than an average meal, however - but honestly I would charge the same too, if I were the one cooking. What I particularly liked was the level of service, and I thought it so sweet that the owner's mom was part of the waitressing staff too.
Anyway, I am sooooo going to be tested tomorrow. Yes, I decided to bring on a semi-nouveau Falsomagro for the picnic tomorrow. (YX, I finally discovered the name of this dish. Turns out it is a Sicilian classic! My version's a little different though. We'll see how it turns out.)
Wenky
12:43 AM
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