the entry about doing a good deed

it was just one of those days when i got so frazzled by the hectic urban lifestyle, attending a charity dinner would have been the last thing on my mind. and so, it was with extreme reluctance that i dragged myself, wedgie-d underwear and all, to sam & debra's singapore charity golf dinner 2008.

hot air to fill the occassion, strings attached to your donation. the symbolism of balloons.

the thing to note for such events is it would be duly wise to arrive fashionably late. this advantage would be two-fold: one could avoid the inconsequential chatter blabber with early guests, and at the same time, avoid direct contact with the organisers who would, through mind manipulation and the availability of alcohol, coaxingly coerce one into contributing even more.

despite that being said, in the words of my friend luke who once told me, "you are only as generous as how much you donate at charities." so i chugged two crisp 10-dollar bills into the donation box when i arrived. it wasn't a lot of money, but hell, i wasn't there to prove his point. the only charity that i could afford to donate, as at press time, was my not-so-regal presence.

the good thing about this event was that unlike those pretentious ones thronged with aristocrat-wannabes and its ilk, passing off with accents thickly laced with pseudo american/british/aussie accents, this was quite the opposite. it was a visual anomaly to see some of the guests decked out in hawaiian shirts, capri pants and even crocs sandals. cordial conversations were kept to a minimal as the exchange of banter between the guests showed how real the friendships were. the next best thing was having dj jamie yeo as the host for the evening, who upped the chic factor with her appearance.

being starstruck, jamie requests to take a photo with me. fyi, she was on heels that were 4-inches thick, so that explains...

don't ask me what was i doing for the last picture. i am equally clueless.

bestie raymond spices things up with his flamboyant presence.

a moment with gal pal, dorin aka barbara aka lcb

one of the event organisers, who was max by day, and mary by night...

one of the highlights of the evening, in their own parodied rendition of deal or no deal, mary (max) was certainly the starlet to bid.

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the entry about working the smart way

so today i am sitting in my business-wear's finest, attending but another of my company's arduously insipid training seminars. which really got me thinking: why do i have sit through 8 hours of laborious lectures, conducted by a professor who has a knack for pronouncing ruler as "looler", and the entire process as interesting as a bowl of salad can get? and then i remembered why. the credit card bill statements (!!!) laying conspicuously on my table that i had yet to clear, which was almost as stale as the professor himself.

however, my fellow esteemed colleagues and i felt nothing but a pang of immediate urgency to leave the auditorium as soon as possible, if only to save our drained souls and bleeding ears. the entire setting reeked with dreariness and the professor certainly didn't help with his snooze-inducing monologue, purveying his verbal sedative throughout.

in the end, the intrepid quintet (myself included) made the only plausible and sane, if not wise, choice: skive!



wide set smiles and summer warmth @ ikea after escaping from the clutches of the dementor-like lecture. sam and daryl (top) and pierre and david (bottom).

some food to pamper our stomachs, before we head on to skive destination two.

2nd skive destination: glow, four seasons hotel. new entrant joins our family of skivers, peiru, with head band and all. 

various cam skiving permutations. pierre gets his dukes up and rakes up a few hundred dollars worth of purchases from dolce and gabbana within minutes, and parades it atop his head.

ben (ben!) is visibly not in the pictures, as he was meeting a client. after all, we are professionals when it comes to work.

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the entry that picks up from where i left off

i can neither confirm nor deny the veracity of this statement, but it's completely asinine in my opinion. "to move on in life, one has to discard what he was burdened with."

if we do discard our past baggages, might we not just fall back into the very spiral we were trying to get out from, just because we failed to reflect and recall to steer away from these very faux pas that we committed?

here's the thing: our failures/mistakes/regrets/oversights/etc serve as pivots in our lives. they are flashing beacons of reminders not to commit these very same mishaps later on. to shrug them off nonchalantly would just be making ourselves susceptible to repeat this vicious cycle all over again.

thank god we do not badger ourselves everyday with conundrums of such. but if only there was something to help us to remember. someone get me some mental post-it pads!! 

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the entry about the break up

it's official. as of 15th jul 2008, i've been extricated from the ball-and-chains of being "in a relationship". needless to say, i will thus enjoy the privileges of checking "single" on all the social networking sites and indulge in some online polygamist flirting. right. like that would certainly help me get over lying on my tear-soaked pillows, having countless, sleepless nights that i would soon come up against.

five years. half a decade. sixty months. that would have been the amount of jail-time one would spend squatting behind bars for felony. (who am i kidding, what do i know?) or in my case, it would have been a roller-coaster gamut of emotions that ranged from relentless pyscho-torture to that tingling sensation that resonates in your heart which could only spell true bliss.

it wasn't meant to be, though. a series of miscommunications and mishaps had resulted in a relationship better left swept under the carpet. however, to untangle the web of five years and dissect it for scrutiny would be untangling the very crux upon which this relationship had been established on.

there were innumerable break-ups along the way (and trust me when i say innumerable, there were), uncivil words spat at each other, and fights that rendered more breakups and more uncivil words. by the same token, there were also the raucous laughters, the doting cuddlings and fond kisses, and the fuzzy, head-spinning sensation when you see the one you love.

meanwhile, i could only shrink into the shadows and let melancholy eat me up for the time being.

for all it's worth, thank you ay.

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the entry about fallen beauty

oops! i did it again...

is falling on one's asses the latest tradition for syndicated tv programmes celebrating women's beauty and (lack thereof) brains?

for the second year in a row, miss usa busted her act by planting her ass cheeks firmly on the floor when she was doing her walk during the evening gown competition at the miss universe pageant. getting up and trying to clap it off didn't help much either, evidently, as crystal stewart from texas was whittled away after being in the top 10.

i am beginning to wonder if this slip-up is a trend for american beauty queens, the land of the free (falling)?

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the entry where taipei says it all pt. 2

the vernacular expression "supermodel" refers to a successful fashion model who has reached the status of a celebrity. in my rendition though, it refers to getting a quick hair fix whilst being inundated with stuffing phalanxes of commuters aboard the subway. this is no mean feat, considering the time and space constraints, maintaining steadfastness every time the train jerks, and utilizing indistinct reflections of oneself in the windows as a mirror. my friend richard (a.k.a. 罐頭) took these harsh elements in his stride and demonstrated taking limp, parched hair, and styling and mangling the follicles with aplomb.

all preened, quaffed and buffed to face the masses

for the naturally talented ones, style is an unconscious way of dressing impeccably. safe to say, it's not a math problem and is done without really much brain matter. on the other hand, yours truly require conscious attempts to get my style right. so, every once in awhile, when all the stars are aligned in my favor and somehow i manage to succeed in this enterprise, how could i not condone some cam-whoring? (cameo appearance: neil)

taipei 101 (台北一零一) was a muddling galleria. everyone, from the bourgeoisie to the everyday man in the street, and even tourist groups, made this very venue their must-see go-see on a saturday afternoon. i practically had to arm-jostle my way through the maddening crowds after lugging purchases from dsquared, polo ralph, lacoste and y-3 (sales were going at a bargain-grabbing 50% discount for some). the plethora of boutiques leaves one's pocket gasping for breath as well. mental note: never bring a plastic card to places like such.

my calloused feet after walking (insert: shopping) around the colossal 101 in Taipei.

their affinity for english is pretty much established from this picture below. i barely understood what the sign was trying to convey had it not been for the chinese words. pity the non-english folks.

?????????

more savoury local delights. from top to bottom: springy noodles with congealed pig blood and offals, super-size-me watermelons, and traditional rice dumplings with extra serving of garlic paste. in general, taiwanese food was a succulent affair.

scenic view of taiwan from the summit of yang ming peak (揚明山). my 5.0 megapixel camera/phone did little justice to what our eyes could take in. the appeal of being on higher ground was looking at skylit taiwan sans the cacophony of city noise, and chowing down on bbq-ed, skewered beef with friends.

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the entry where taipei says it all pt. 1

i had the intent to travel out of singapore to escape the dark clouds and rainy weather, only to arrive in taipei drenched every single day from their rain. indeed, the first week being in taipei was a fatiguing, relentless effort to duck from shelter to shelter, finding rainless spots to chuck myself away till the cloudbursts would cease. but nevertheless, albeit this being the 3rd time this year alone, taiwan! taiwan! here i come again!

hours and hours of cumulo nimbus-like clouds at changi airport terminal 3 foretell showery days to come.

pictures of taipei taken from the plane. anyone looking at these pics would have been fooled into thinking the weather forecast for taipei would be sunny 24/7.

this portly gent sure has a way to draw crowds. his big, bold moves are a potent distraction away from the throngs of stalls lining up the streets of xi men ding, a popular respite amongst the taiwanese youth. he wears his apparels so tight that it looks like he's donning on a wetsuit. according to urban legend, said performer and two other weirdoes that roam xi men frequently, one being a wizened, scrawny folk decked in yellow overalls, that is of the taoist garb, are affectionately labelled the 西門三寶, otherwise known as the famed triple treasures of xi men.

ximen by night.

travelling in taipei couldn't have been more convenient with the taipei rapid transit system (台北大眾捷運系統). this guy was probably praying to the heavens above for being granted the expedition of travel via the subway, also known as the mrt (metropolitan rapid transit).

food galore in shilin night market (士林夜市), the largest and most well known night market in taiwan. clockwise from top left: papaya slices with viscous passion-fruit goo, iced shavings with red beans, red bean paste buns, and more iced shavings with chewy matter within.

this particular stall in taipei main station (台北車站) grew in popularity for the mere fact that you pay pittance for an extra generous serving of dough, egg and gaoli vegetable. the outcome of such an equation: having to take a queue number to buy grilled chinese pizza, and an overworked owner and his beloved wife grinning from teeth to teeth behind their oronasal masks. but these folks are real professionals. they even have a screen flashing one's queue number!

my friend roy, the thomas ong lookalike, and i were waiting for our number to flicker on the screen. on the screen, it read 418, and our magic number was freaking 446.

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