One of the resolutions being to blog at least once a month, here's my contribution for this month:

Some of you probably read from Slayer's blog about the NYE stayover at Jubilee's house. Yea, it was great. :) No, I did not get wasted. No, I did not get drunk. No, I didn't fulfill stupid dares and go bartop dancing or kissing strange guys in the street or something or watch any erotic movies.

We just stayed at her place and played board games the whole night.

Somehow, I know there are some people who wouldn't quite believe that of me. Heck, even after typing it out, I don't even believe it myself!! ["You screwin' me or somethin'? You played Monopoly on NYE?? Oh get off my case you!"]

But it was fun. And what made it more fun was probably the simplicity of it all. A bunch of old friends together, with enough soft drinks and junk food to keep us well-fed through the night and enough board games for entertainment.

The high of the evening was getting locked in.

Before she left to church, [yes, I actually have friends who go to church. Regularly] Jubilee told me, "If you guys want to bathe, use the kitchen toilet. Keep this door closed, because of the heat from the heater. Aircon remotes are here, TV remotes are here, and if you want, lock the door from the inside but DON'T lock the gate, in case you guys need to get out."

And guess what I did right after she walked out. -_-!!! Yes, I LOCKED THE PADLOCK ON THE GATE.

It was such an unconscious action that I didn't even realise it myself, until Slayer needed to get out, and then something clicked inside me.

"I... think I locked the gate."

"You what?"

"Where's the key??"

"Er.... Jubilee has the key."

"You mean I can't get out???"

"........."

Slayer the actress-in-training tries the lock, tries several spare keys lying around to no avail, and then, faced with the possibility, no, reality of being locked in, rattles the gate, shouting, "HELP!!! I'M LOCKED IN!!! LET ME OUT!!!" And I have to pull her away before some well-meaning neighbour calls the police.

"Will you relax??"

"ARGH I WANT MY DOG! WHAT IF A FIRE BREAKS OUT?? WE'LL BE TRAPPED LIKE RATS!!!!!"

Eventually, though, Jubilee does return, lets us out, before we really do get burned to death in her apartment. And yes, right after midnight, so we managed to cross into 2008 without being roasted.

Zen Lesson of the year: Do not be trapped in potential fire hazards.

During a wedding celebration for Mr Er, his well-meaning friends [including Juls and I] decide to suan the bride and groom on stage.

Juls: "The game is as played! We will blindfold the bride, and then our friends will get 3 men on stage to kiss the bride on the cheek. What she has to do is to guess which one is her husband!"

And so we get the bride's father, a male relative and a 3 year old boy carried by his father. And she gets it!

Juls: "Congrats to the bride! And now for the groom's turn!"

But we are not as bad as that. To give the groom a good sporting chance, we don't get any other women on stage, but get the bride to kiss him 4 times instead. And who does the groom say his bride is?

Mr Er: "Er, I don't think any of them are my wife."

Audience's jaws drop. Audience is stunned into silence for a minute. And then

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOORRRRRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Juls takes off the blindfold off the groom. Who immediately sees that the same woman, ie his WIFE, has been kissing him all this while. Who then slumps back into his chair with this expression on his face (!-_-!)

I swear, we couldn't do it better if we had tried. ;)

Me: "So what did you get me for Xmas?"

Him: "I'm not telling you! You'll have to wait till Xmas."

Me: "A LeSportsac bag? That Armani bag I wanted?"

Him: "........."

Me: "Well, I hope you didn't get me jewellery anyway. You know I don't really wear it all that much."

And guess what he gets me anyway. :p Oh well, I still like it.

In 2007, I...

Good question, what have I done?

Or rather, what have I done?

There is a difference between the two, you know.

I would have done a lot of things. I would have gone to work for 45 weeks, done all that was required, had a hand in some meaningless little projects, marked thousands of work, counselled a few kids etc etc etc.

But then, that one that pays my monthly salary, my bonuses and gives me job security and enables me to plan for the future is not that important. [well, not in the way I'm thinking anyway] I'm more concerned about the others. Thus, here are the:

Things I'm Happy About

I would also have watched a number of films, read thousands of books [ok, maybe more like a couple hundred] read that same number of comics, walked millions of shopping miles [why can't they give frequent shopper miles?] and spend billions of hours gossipping, complaining, whining, laughing, guffawing and collapsing over helpless laughter with friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

I learnt to swing my butt, both in Lindy and Exotic. :p though none of you will be seeing the exotic moves anytime soon, [and I forgot them anyway] I did manage to take away other things from that class. How to move, how to stand, how to thrust your butt out, though the degree of flatteringness really depends on the butt. :s

I watched 2 great concerts, Linkin Park and the Black-Eyed Peas. I paid for it the next day with my lack of sleep, but I still think they were worth it. :p

I acquired a new camera, a new bag and a PDA. They all cost me a crazy amount of money but considering how much I've used them, more than made up for what I paid, so I'm happy. :)

I had my heart trampled on on Valentine's Day, and then healed subsequently. I'm glad to say that as a couple, I think the DF and I are really moving on. :)

Things I'm NOT happy about

I did NOT fulfill half my resolutions from last year, namely to lose weight [yea, right] and to go to the gym. [yea, YEA right] Either it's time for more resolution, or for realistic resolutions where it concerns my weight. :p

Resolution: To join at least 1 fitness class once a week. And to actually LOSE WEIGHT.

I did NOT draw much, write much or blog much for that matter. The blog suffered, the art suffered and my creativity as a whole suffered. Maybe it didn't make a difference to my paycheck or my stomach, but I felt the difference to my mind and my heart. Life was not as satisfying, and even lacking something.

Resolution: To blog at least once a month, not counting Twitter updates, and

Resolution: To complete one illustration once a month.

And I still need to save money and increase the value of my portfolio. I refuse to retire in bankruptcy!

Resolution: To continue saving my income at the same rate.

Other than that, I also want to keep my relationships alive. I'm lapsing into the bad habit of getting into a social rut and I end up doing a lot of the same stuff every week. I would like to go to Pitstop more often, for one, and I would also like to meet up with some of my friends more often than on the usual birthdays. :p

Resolution: To actually call people, instead of waiting for people to call me.

Other than that, I've got nothing else to wish for the new year. Oh yeah, other than the usual love, peace and heaps of blessings upon everyone. :) Doomo arigatou gozaimasu for continuing to read my humble blog and please continue reading!

[heck, I know that with some of you, that's the best and only way you keep in contact with me anyhow......]

Hey all! Thanks to my dad, Candle and Yenn who came down on Saturday to see the stall.

We had a dinky little table and umbrella to ourselves on Saturday, but feng shui wasn't good. They placed us towards the back of the fair. Grrr.... The way I saw it, most people came, looked around the first few stalls and went back to Cineleisure. Damn! We had a few *interesting* characters who looked around the stall, including a garrulous Chinaman who came twice to our stall, talked a lot about film and DVDs and codes, but didn't buy anything [???]

Not helping was the rain as well. There was a light drizzle at first and then this torrential shower came at 4pm. :s By then I had decided to pack up anyway cos ain't nobody gonna buy stuff in this shower. I think Slayer packed up somewhat after I did.

BUT! On the bright side, I managed to make the rent on the pieces I sold [barely :p] so not a total loss. In a way, I was kinda doing this for *fun* rather than money. This being a selling game whereby your points come in dollar form instead. :p So I made a few bucks, sales-talked to a bunch of people and learnt to set up a proper stall to attract customer eyes. Not a total loss, and a good deal of a bargain as compared to my biz degree :p

Will I do this again? Yea, I think I would. It's...... invigorating talking to the various customers, trying out different approaches and seeing what was the one line that would click the sale for me. Plenty of eye candy and different things to keep me occupied. And the money at the end of the day is a good motivating factor too. :p

Gimme a few more days and I'll be posting up the stuff I didn't manage to sell. Anyone out there needs to buy a cheap and good gift for someone? Hehehe.........

LIME Bazaar 22nd Dec 11am to 7pm
[Next to Cineleisure]

If you haven't seen my shameless self-promotion efforts by now, you wouldn't have known that Slayer and I are setting up a stall on 22nd Dec from 11am to 7pm next to Cineleisure.

In the name of shameless self-promotion, therefore, here are the stuff I'll be selling:

Shiny dangling pendants. Comes with black leather thong [not seen]

Necklaces with beads and black leather thong. I converted these from dangly earrings.

Beaded strings. I was unsure at first whether to make these necklaces, bracelets or belts, but I decided if I left them untied, then they could be used as all 3.

I'll be selling these along with some beaded bracelets [not shown] so let your friends know, and pop by! The Slayer will also be selling DVDs, shirts and beanies that have been hardly used, so you're bound to find something at our store.

Hey, if anything, at least you'll leave with some cheap presentable gifts for the xmas parties. :p

Melbourne Part 3: The Wild, The Wonderful and the Just Plain Weird
The 3rd part of my trip was really a wild shopping trip all over Queen Victoria Market and much of the shopping Swanston street [sheepish grin] Instead of subjecting you guys to that, here's a short list of miscellaneous photos taken in Melbourne:


Taken at Grandma's house. I think this is where I got my work attitude from.


I love Australia's frank humour in advertising.


A fountain. Looks unassuming till you get near it and notice the detail.


"Aw f'crissakes! Stop pissin' on me!!!" Those are some evil cherubs, alright.


At a nature reserve: 2 walking feathered balls. Someone call KFC and report 2 pieces of escaped popcorn mutant chicken.

At same nature reserve: The first albino peacock I ever saw. Ain't she a beauty??

And my all-time favourite:


Return of the Psycho Kanga!!! This guy looks as though he could be in some Australian-Chucky-the-Kangaroo flick.

Final thoughts on Melbourne:

This is a city that I must come back again, and not entirely for the usual family reasons either. There are several things about the experience in Melbourne that I would just love to see again.

People here are friendly. In most of the shops I went to, even the most jaded shop assistant still managed to put a somewhat friendly tone in her voice, and they don't trail you all over the store as if you were a potential shoplifter. It also helps that Melbourne has a very diverse population, almost similar to Singapore, and Asians here don't stand out as much.

Shopping is FABFABFABBABY. Unlike Singapore, which is dominated by large shopping malls with the same number of large brands in each mall, Melbourne city has a lot of small stores and small brands each with its own unique brand identity and look. I LOVE this. It means you can walk from one end of the street to the other and shop in about a dozen different stores with different stuff. It also means you are in grave danger of burning out your credit card.

Strangely enough, I also like the cattle and sheep. I'm a city slicker through and through. I lived in urban space all my life, and if I ever had to seriously live in the country for an extended period of time, yes, I will die real bad. But while I'm on a temporary trip, and taking my time to drive through the country, I cannot get enough of green rolling hills, and herds of cattle and sheep just grazing idly, because I have never seen so much GREENSPACE before.

And having been to a number of cities, I daresay each one, although being an urban jungle, has its own character and identity unique to itself. By the same logic, Melbourne has its own look, its own personality that you cannot find in London, Paris or Berlin. Its a smart casual kind of city that knows how to work hard and slack hard as well. They work through the day, but they know when to switch off the PCs and head for the pubs. No wonder everyone else finds us Singaporeans incurable workaholics. Melbourne is the city, for us slackers. :)

I realise the part 2 of my Melbourne trip took me ages to publish. Apologies. :p I've been preparing for the LIME bazaar on Saturday 22nd Dec where I'll be selling my self-made jewellery alongside Slayer's DVDs and beanies from 12pm to 4pm. Slayer will continue from 4pm onwards. We're hoping our stuff will be sold, because they're all in good condition, and would make great gifts for the right person.

Yes, shameless self-promotion over. Here's Part 2.

Melbourne Part 2: Birds, Penguins, and one psychotic Santa Kanga

Melbourne's summer weather means that it's a great time to get outside and view the flora and fauna. This is also where I saw some of the most beautiful blooms I have seen.

So it was that part of our trip was a sort of nature retreat, away from the traffic and noise [and temptful shopping] of the city. For this, we took a day tour outside of the city to the Dandenong ranges, to feed birds, sit an old steam train and see the penguins on Philip Island.

Our first stop was the Dandenong ranges, a 'young' forest where the trees reached 6km into the air. :s [If those are young trees, I wonder about the old ones]


There we stopped for morning tea and scones [tasting like a slightly buttery muffin, but excellent with jam and cream] but the real draw for me was to feed the birds.

I like this part! The guide gets a bowl of bird seed, and you put some in your hand and let the birds eat out of it.Watch out for the white cockatoos, though! That bugger in the photo above became too greedy and bit my finger, thinking it was some kind of worm. Argh!

The cockatoos are really the big bullies of the playground. Every time people threw seed around, it would troop over in a big-boss kind of way and the little red and pink ones would scuttle in fear out of its path.

After the Dandenong ranges, our next stop was Puffing Billy.

This was not an exhausted bird, but rather an old steam engine ran by and preserved by volunteers.

The volunteer conductor who stayed in our carriage.

Now our carriage was probably a first-class carriage, since you can see from the photo above that there were seats for us, like in the Hogwarts Express. However, if you were flat broke and you had to sit in one of the cheaper carriages, you might end up in a tight squeeze during your ride. Or if you were too poor to buy tickets, you might try to hitch a free ride. In either case, you ended up sitting in the lower class carriages, like this:
See the legs???

The DF thought it a highly dangerous activity. Which is of course, why I thought it rather grand. :p

Then we stopped by an animal farm for a while, before heading to Philip Island.

Philip Island is a great place for animal-watching. The three most popular spots there are the koalas, the seals and the penguins.

Koalas are one of the laziest creatures alive. When you look at a gum tree, the koala is basically that lump of grey fur lodged in the crook between the branches. They spend their days stuck in the tree, chewing on nearby gum leaves, and only moving when the leaves around them are done and the nearest food is out of paw's reach.

I envy them. :(

How do you spot the koalas? You walk through the park and look at where everyone is pointing their cameras.

Bingo!!! Took all the powers in my camera to take this shot, they were that high up.

The next animals you try to see are the seals at Seal Rock. Although it must have been the wrong time or something, because when we went there, the only thing we saw were seagulls. The place should have been named Seagull Rock.


Nonetheless, the view of the rock is pretty good.


The only animals seen at Seal Rock. Sheesh.

However, I confess, I only went to Philip Island to look at penguins. The island is littered with penguin burrows, and every morning, the father goes out to sea with all his penguin dudes to look for food for the wife and kids. Then at night, they come back in huge groups to feed the kids. This nightly return is what tourists [like us] flock to Philip Island every night for.

Pic from http://www.affiliate.viator.com/brochure/product_show.jsp?ID=1010&PRODUCTID=1016&CODE=2230M10&AUID=3830

This is not my photo, because tourist photography is forbidden there. Reasons being that if you were to use your cam and the flash came on in the dim evening light, the flash would blind one of the poor critters.

This has more consequences than one flash-shocked penguin. The penguin could be blinded for life, and once that happens, it is unable make its way back to its burrow to feed its mate and kids. This means the whole family goes hungry for that night. And penguins mate for life, [no penguin divorce lawyers] so even if the mate doesn't come back, the wife doesn't look for a new man, but instead waits futilely for its own mate, even if they starve in the burrow. :(

Nonetheless, even with repeated warnings, there are still idiot tourists who will insist on taking their own shots of the penguins. And a couple of times, we saw a few heartbreaking scenes of dazed penguins wandering around after some dumbbell used a camera on him.

Boredslacker always advocates RESPONSIBLE TOURISM. Please always respect local rules and wildlife.

Else risk being killed by psychotic kanga killers.

Melbourne Chapter1: Meeting the Grands

I got back from glorious Melbourne summers, cool in the mornings and evenings, and wonderfully warm and dry in the afternoons with clear blue skies, colourful birds and some of the most stunning blooms I have ever seen --- Back to a Singaporean winter, where the snow melts before it reaches us on the ground, resulting in endless wet rainy days, where the sun don't shine, and the clothes don't dry.

Should I start hunting for airtickets back?

But yea, it's good to be back home in a way. Blog updates will be forthcoming, so let's start off with Chapter 1: Meeting the Grands

**Image heavy! Let your browser load!**

We arrived at Melbourne on the morning of the 2nd Dec, and rent a car from the airport. We drove around the city first, and then we go to my grands' house.

Which turns out to be about 6 hours drive, since the DF is also terrified of getting slapped with hefty speeding fines, so he sticks strictly to the speed limit all the way. :s

And despite the speed limit, we still kill an ungodly number of flies on the way there. Something about the weather makes them more sluggish than our local flies. You could almost touch one of their wings, and they wouldn't fly off until you were actually touching them. Weird huh?

Which also explains why, our rented car:


Kills this many flies.


Gross eh? And that's just the licence plate. You should've seen the windscreen.

Anyway we reach my grands' hometown, Casterton towards the evening.


Casterton is a town dedicated to... a dog. The kelpie, one of the smartest breeds in Australia.


My Grands' house. About the size of the first floor of my house but large enough for them, 2 Singaporean visitors and the dog.


My Grands' dog, Butch. The poor thing is diabetic, and completely blind, but can acutely smell food dangling from your hand under the dinner table, and can acutely hear his collar and leash dangling from your hand, signalling the start of a walkie.

I think the DF and the Grands are all right with each other, though my Ma's lasting impression of the DF is now how he a) doesn't eat pork and b) doesn't touch alcohol. She was up on the phone that first night exclaiming to my mother in dialect about how he didn't eat pork! My god! I've never met a Chinese who didn't eat pork! while both of us stifled our laughter behind her.

Ma is a great cook and I think one of her greatest satisfaction is seeing people enjoy her cooking, as evidenced by our conversation:

Ma: "You should lose some weight! Look at you!"

Me: "Yes, Ma."

Ma: "You're gonna have an Aussie bum in no time if you continue like this! Better eat less and exercise more!"

Me: "Yes, Ma."

Ma: [peers at my plate, where I've almost finished eating a hefty portion] "You want more mashed potatoes? There are some more in the bowl."

I stare at her. "I thought you said I had to lose weight?"

"Here in my house you eat as much as you like! When you go back then you lose weight!"

"..............................."

But then again, you gotta love the Grands. They have a sign with my name on it on the front gate, over 20 years old, they put photos of you all over the place, even the ones of you in awkward phases you'd rather forget, and they grow your favourite potatoes in their garden.

Yup, Grands are always the best. :)

Next chapter: Birds, Penguins and one Psychotic Santa Kanga

Away From Blog

Owner away on holiday, 1st Dec to 8th Dec.

Will not be back on blog till jet lag fully recedes.

In this period of time, owner may prove uncontactable.

Please leave well-wishes, comments or requests in comments field, or in email.

Senders of spam are asked to leave the mail in the trash bin.

Will be back with photos, and stories. :)

Any rich Santas out there?

I swear, watching the first few seconds of the Youtube video almost made me cough out my phlegm in ecstasy. [Not the most endearing of images, I know]

I love the design. I love the stand behind. I love the fact that I can draw anything I want directly onto the screen no need for scanning no need for mouse drawing colour shading everything directly on to it

But I hate that it's only available in Europe. -_-! And that it looks blardy horrendously expensive -_-!!!!!!!

*sigh* Back to the paper and pencil and plenty of dreaming..................

note: Due to changes in blog, loading may take slightly longer than usual. Gomen! Tell me if you encounter any real problems in viewing this blog: boredslacker@gmail.com

Renovations in progress

I'm finally getting down and dirty again with HTML and Fireworks to work on some long-overdue renovations to my blog, and my first thought is: I'm getting too old for this. -_-!!!!!

The HTML changes were simple enough, because they were relatively minor. I've cleaned up some of the really old links to the right, and updated some of them. Some of the changes:

- The Twitter blogroll has a spanking new image of a bird. [hey, either u get the pun or you don't.]

- Portfolios have been rearranged so that they are all arranged in one tidy line. Added a rolling image of my Artwanted portfolio as well. [Now when am I gonna add new images to that portfolio.....?]

- Next big change is the Bloglines blogroll. I've been using this feeder to read most of your blogs and a bucketful of others, and now I've put all of them on my blog, for easy linkin' and readin'. Now you can see what crap I read on a weekly basis.........

The hard parts:

DOING THE DAMNED TWITTER IMAGE. I can't believe I've been that long away from working with imaging software but just to create that one damned singing bird nearly burst several of my arteries. You know how hard it is just to align one damn leaf with another?? Or to fix that damn bird to fit into the button?? Some bright idea I had.........

*ahem*

Which is why you may not be seeing too many other image buttons soon.... Gomennasai......

Other changes are behind-the-scenes, which will not be immediately visible here, for instance:

Blogging on the Go

In response to the many complaints about my blog gathering dust, I've enlisted two friends to help me in the updating problem.

1.
Yes, my humble phone, which is where the Twitter roll on the side comes in. The Twitter updates come via SMS to my humble blog. So whenever I see something weird outside, or some earthshattering philosophical thought strikes my mind, all I have to do is reach for the mobile, and up it comes on the blog.

2.
The second is a new addition to the family, say hello to Suss.

Suss is an Asus PDA [no phone] and she was bought because she can a) support Word, and allow me to type potential blog entries and b) go online with Wi-fi capabilities, although this admittedly depends on the networks floating around me at the time.

The keyboard is a bluetooth fabric keyboard, yea, made of fabric. It does work but so far it's given me more headaches than convenience, so less said the better.

So far, blogging by SMS and email through Suss has been going smoothly, as you can see from some of the slightly more frequent updates on this blog. [The thing I still don't like is that uploading pictures is practically impossible so far. Working on it, working on it... ]

I'm now hoping that if I get a smooth enough rhythm going during the hols, I'll be able to keep this up much better when school starts again. Then you guys won't have to worry whether I've been hit by a car or murdered at my doorstep or something. :p

Gimme some comments, though, on what you like and what you would like to see! It's nice to know that, well, people are reading this blog after all. :p

Quick updates:

1. Linkin Park RAWKED da house. 8) With a good mix of new songs plus classic favourites. I almost wished I was one of the teenypubes in the standing area so I could really thrash with the rest 'o them, but I'm too old...... I need my sitting space every now and then. :p

2. My holidays started with a good bout of flu. -_-!!!!! It's getting better but I've been sorely tempted to take MC, though I haven't......

3. It feels good waking up at the late hour of 7 for a change.

4. Have been doing a good bout of bloggin' on the go, through mobile and PDA. Will do a write up over the hols about that.

5. Am thinking that I haven't been too creative over the last couple months. Maybe it's time to do something......

6. Animation Nation starts next week. Am starting with a character design workshop on Saturday. Anyone else who is interested in going, look at the website for the events. I've already booked some shows so lemme know if you're going to any of them too.

TTFN!

Linkin Park Concert 13th Nov

845 i'm sitting in the indoor stadium waiting for the 8pm concert to
start. Anyone noticed the time discrepancy? N to think I got so
panicked when I missed the bus abt 30mins b4 the concert.... Bleah...

A few differences between this and the Black-Eyed Peas concert...one,
2 categories of standing room. Yes, some pple paid the same price I
did to stand n squeeze for a 2hour concert... Sorry, but i'm too old n
tired to be a groupie...

2nd, the crowd seems more enthusiastic about the passing-your-time
music. It's like, crowd mingles n waits, DJ changes song, crowd
screams, then some guy behind the curtain tunes a guitar, crowd
screams again... OMG we have the makings of a manic mob here. If Mike
Shinoda suddenly throws his tee out I will run for my life I tell
you...

Well closer to 9 already... I'm gonna let me eyes take a break now.
Hopefully the next post will be about the concert...

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

technology irritates me

Because sometimes tech probs are the hardest to fix. You can't fix a
Lego tower out of bricks, u can see which are the foundation brix
giving you probs. U have a prob with your PDA or the keyboard u bought
to go with it, even if u took it apart, u still might not know what
went wrong from the mass of circuitry n wires b4 u...... ARGH!!!

--
Check out my crap:
Blog is http://boredslacker.blogspot.com
Art is http://boredslacker.tripod.com

mobile testing

Gmail is testing this out - Aki

3 wrong turns and no anime

I know it's been last Saturday since I posted that twit about getting lost in JB, so I told myself I had to finally settle down and write the whole story down before I totally regaled it to the back of my mind.

It was last Saturday that Quet, Yenn and I thought of taking a day trip into JB just for the sake of it. We drove into the 2nd Link, intending to go to Jusco Tebrau, City Square, and then back to Singapore.

Well, the trip just to find Jusco was bad enough. We followed a bunch of road signs that led us to....... Carrefour. Part of the problem being that the Malaysian government puts road signs telling you that yes, continue on this straight road and you will end up at Jusco.

They don't put up road signs at, say, traffic junctions, telling you whether to go left, straight or right in order to go to Jusco. And you would think there would be a more logical place for a road sign, innit?

So we drove straight, good, right direction, straight, right direction, confirmed by another road sign, and then once we reached a major junction......... leftorright?leftorright?leftorright? Aw screw it! and we'd just choose one and turn.

First turn, we ended up u-turning to Carrefour. We walked around and then asked for directions, which turned out to be too vague to be of much use to goondu Singaporeans.

Second turn, we became a bit more adventurous, and we ended up in the midst of one of the suburban towns, in which Quet took so many turns, I lost track of where Carrefour, the main road and Singapore was altogether.

And ironically, it was in the middle of making the 2nd turn that I spotted the elusive Jusco. "There it is!!" I screamed triumphantly...... as Quet turned away from it, and into the wrong turning. Bleah......

Third turn, we finally reached Jusco Tebrau. [Whoop of excitement upon hearing that we were not lost, or en route to Malacca] Citizens of Singapore, if you thought Vivocity was big.... Please check out Jusco, which is bigger. Although most of the major brands here can be found back in Singapore, their sales are timed differently from us, which means if you head at the right time, you can hopefully find some stuff which has had its season over in Singapore, selling at a discount.

Stuff, say, like in a Mango sale.... Whip out those ringgit!

Then we drove to City Square, where Yenn and I found to our dismay that the anime store had been replaced by a spa........... ( T_T ) Instead we bought some at Popular and then spent all that anime money on clothes instead.

Well, besides getting lost 3 times and finding no anime, it was a pretty good day at JB... now we're thinking of how to cajole Juls into driving us in for the next round of shopping, especially since his car has the bigger boot..... heh......

Look to the right sidebar...

Look carefully and see if there's anything different....

Holy cow! There is! How did I miss that before??? *You slap your forehead*

After all these weeks of non-blogging, and people complaining about dust on my blog, this is my little attempt at housekeeping. [sort of like using a dustbuster to clean a maisonette, but well, at least I tried]

The little dinky service is thanks to Twitter, and I've used it to send updates via handphone to my blog, so at least, even if I'm out, you'll [hopefully] get to hear about what I'm doing. This means you don't have to wait until I actually go home, switch on the laptop, wait for it to boot, IM with friends, read blogs, play Sudoku till I actually blog.... :P

So let's see how this works!

Some Monkey Business

You've gotta love a good concert, especially when the group is the Black Eyed Peas. :) :) :)

I caught the concert on Monday night at the Indoor Stadium, a concert for which I paid a pretty packet, but all so worth it.

Opening act Click Five was so-so-ok-la, but they did manage to get the crowd slightly rowed up, which meant that when the lights went out and the Peas came out, BANG! Everyone started to get really wild!

It's also good that the songs that the Peas sang that night were danceworthy tracks, thumping good songs that made you just have to stand up and shake your humps in your seats! Once it came to the especially popular ones, that was what everyone was doing!

Fergie and Will.I.Am also sang their respective hits, Glamourous, Fergielicious, Big Girls Don't Cry, and I Got It From My Mama. Good to see a group that respects each other's breakaway solo hits as well.

But one thing they did during the concert was really cool: They dimmed the lights, got everyone to take out their handphones and wave left to right in the dark. So we waved our phones [my phone was dead. I waved my IPod] to the beat while Will.I.Am sang "wave your phones, now Singapore... Wave your phones, now Singapore..." [Or something to that effect, I may have forgotten the actual words] The effect was like, well, NDP lightsticks but with better music. :P

And that's why I think I prefer to pay good money for good seats. After all, in concerts and theatres, it's not about getting a product, it's the experience of actually hearing them live that counts. And as long as I can afford to do so, I think I want to maximise that experience as much as I can.

That's good money well spent. :)