Go home early today

Today is last day of the month and by right, I usually work late in order to do some closing so that on 1st working day of the following month, I need not rush to do the closing.

However, today is a special day. I went home at around 7.45pm. Reason? Ha ha... because I wanted to watch the last episode of channel 8 drama at 9pm. I quite like the story and since I have been watching few of the recent episodes, it makes me don't care about work but to rush home. Had just finished watching the last episode at home. Good ending. :)

Today, I supposed to have massage in office (just 20mins session) but I completely forgot about it. By the time I realised, it was already late. No choice but to wait for another 2 weeks till it is my turn again.

Yesterday, I finally managed to complete the list of photos I wanted to develop for my last Japan trip in Nov 08. Went to Kodak shop during lunch time and able to collect them on my way home. However, the photos did not really turn out very good. A bit "yellowish" and the colours are not as bright as what I can see on my pc screen. Well, no choice lah. What to do. Don't know it is my camera or is it the colours the store using that didn't manage to give good printouts. Shall try another shop in future, if possible.

Now I can relax. However, I think I will be super busy tomorrow. Who to blame? Myself lah. Who ask me to run home instead of continue to work in office. Make sure no one comes to disturb me tomorrow. Ha ha.

PS : attached one of the photo I took at Goshikinuma Pond, Inawashiro in Tohoku.

Bad Bad News

BAD BAD BAD News!!!

Cherry blossoms started in Tokyo! The 1st bloom is on 21 March. Current report indicated that some trees around Tokyo are 10 - 50% bloom. Roppongi trees just started with less than 10%. Basing on current weather forecast, best viewing period in Tokyo will be between 28 Mar to 7 Apr. Think 90% we gonna miss it as by the time we reach Tokyo, it will be 23 Apr liao. Just hope the weather can turn a little bit colder so that it will slow down the blooming.

Perhaps we can view it in Toyama/Kanazawa instead. Forecast showing best view period for Kanazawa is between 4 to 13 Apr. Hence can take the chance of trying our luck at Chubu region. Cross our fingers...

2 years ago, I had missed the blooming period during my family trip. Supposed to catch the blooming period but because of the weather that turned cold suddenly, it slowed down and therefore we missed it by one week only. Hope this time round, I will not be disappointed. Although I tell myself that this trip is not to particularly to view cherry blossom but you know lah, greedy lor. Ha ha.
Hope I have the chance to walk under the stretch of Sakura trees like in the photo.

Sakura Sakura, ちょとまてください!

Location	Opening	Estimated Best Viewing
Tokyo	Opened March 21	March 28 to April 7
Kyoto	Opened March 19	March 28 to April 7
Aomori	April 24	April 30 to May 8
Sendai	April 6	April 12 to 21
Niigata	April 5	April 11 to 20
Nagano	April 6	April 12 to 21
Kanazawa	March 29	April 4 to 13
Nagoya	Opened March 19	March 28 to April 7
Osaka	Opened March 24	March 30 to April 9
Nara	Opened March 23	March 29 to April 8
Hiroshima	Opened March 22	March 28 to April 7
Fukuoka	Opened March 13	March 23 to April 1
Kumamoto	Opened March 16	March 23 to April 1
Kagoshima	Opened March 19	March 24 to April 2

It's Friday

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday. It's Friday! Yippy Yippy! It's movie time!

Today, we watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic". Very nice movie and we laughed from the beginning till the end of the show. The storyline is good and we enjoyed the whole show. Best remembered part was actor and actress dancing in a party. It was so funny. But don't ever becomes a shopaholic like the actress. She was heavily in debts to credit card companies. I don't think it is wise to follow her. But glad that the ending was a good one.

After the movie, we went for dinner at Harbourfront Centre foodcourt, Banquet. I was craving for the fish soup. Look how delicious it was.

Basically nothing much happened today. Just a bit rush during lunch time as we had to finish our food fast in order to go for our teleconference. Now shall relax and look forward for tomorrow where I can sleep longer and wake up later. Hee hee. :)

Lock position

Usual busy today as whole morning was involved in a training and after lunch, we had our monthly meeting with our boss's boss. Therefore left only a few hours to finish my daily work and ended up leaving office late.

As I rather "kia soo", told 小珠 that I would like to buy Japanese yen asap before it bounce back going up again. Just don't care how it goes later but would like to "lock my position" first. If it goes up, it is a blessing that I bought it today. If it goes down, then too bad lor. My target is to buy at below exchange rate 1.6 for next month trip to Japan. Hence, since I got it at 1.56 today, am satisfied although I think we may be able to get better rate if we arrived early. Due to all other money changers had already closed and left 1 doing biz only, this shop not willing to give better rate (钓起来买).

So finally, I bought 130000 yen for Sgd2028. With this done, my trip preparation almost completed. Now just left with washing my jackets etc.

Count down.... left 3 weeks to go!

Japan Rail Pass & Donut

Today, we decided to make a trip to JCB office at Takashimaya to purchase our Japan Rail Pass. Yen rate has gone down a little bit and we decided to "lock our position" today. Decided not to regret if the rate tomorrow onwards will be better than today ~ what's done cannot be undone. Ha ha.

We purchased the 7 day ordinary pass for 28,300 yen equivalent to Sgd442. Exchange rate is 1.56. My target exchange rate is below 1.6 hence it is still within my budget. Lucky lah. Just hope that yen can go down further so that the rate will be better when I change money for my trip. Perhaps will go to Chinatown soon to settle it.

Bought donuts from basement 1 that resembles the popular Mister Donut in Japan. So sad that it did not have my favourite type today again. Previous visit also don't have. Don't tell me they are not selling anymore. So sad so sad so sad. :(

This is one of those I bought today. かわいいね. Under the chocolate coating, there is a layer of rasberry/strawberry jam. Nice nice.











The type I can't find today looks like the one below. This is from Mister Donut. Too bad there isn't any store in Singapore.

Ordinary Day

Wake up, brush teeth, shower and then go to work. Usual routine for weekdays. Hmmm, nothing special happened today.

Lunch with team today at Vivo 店小二. Oops... growing fatter and fatter. Eat too much liao. Cannot cannot... must try to slim down so that next month trip's photos won't reflect a fatter me. Ha ha.

Left office a bit late today at 8pm but still ok lah. At least reached home at around 9.15pm. Keep it up and must improve the timing till my targetted 7pm or 7.30pm the latest.

Rather tired today hence think better sleep early. おやすみなさい.

PS : Isn't Haruma's smile lovely? :)

Monday 星期一 げつよび

It is Monday again. Time really flies. Weekend too short lah. How I wish it can be longer then I can sleep more. Ha ha. :P

Many of my team colleagues were on leave/business trip/mc. That made our area very quiet. Usually we are very very noisy and so worried that other teams will start complaining. Hopefully not lah, else we don't know how to survive in "cold palace".

Just heard today that our pantry has installed wii and some of our floor colleagues played it during lunch hour. We should try it some day. Yippy Yippy!

Not sure if age is catching up. I starts to feel sleepy now but it's only 10 plus. Still early and so wasted to sleep early. But seeing my nice nice bedsheet, really can't help lying on it for a short while. 漂亮吧.

あつい

Today's weather is so hot. Even cold shower can't make me feel any cooler.

My niece was so busy doing her homework today and therefore I didn't spent a lot of time with her playing. She took some break in between and what we had done was to play the magic cubes. This little girl can actually spent 1 hour playing the cubes. :O

In total, she was struggling with her homework for almost 5 hours until she said her fingers are numbed after writing for so long. Pitied her but my sister told me no choice, who asked her to play for the whole week and didn't do her homework until today. Tomorrow has to hand in to teachers. Poor girl. However, my sister did give her some time to relax in between that is why my niece did not really complain. Her dad even went out to buy her favorite sweets to reward her for being good girl to complete her work.

Was feeling so thirsty and luckily had this bowl of dessert to cool me down. Yum yum. :P

2 o'clock

Tick Tock Tick Tock.... It's 2 o'clock in the morning. Why am I still awake?

Feel like going to bed but afraid that my mind is still so awake that I will "waste" my time lying on the bed. Therefore, guess I will wait a bit longer before "retiring".

Oh... forget to visit Neopets... My pet is always starving and is dying but... I simply leave it as it is since it won't really die. Bad right? Ha ha.

Well perhaps I will play a few round of games first to earn some Neopoints. Will challenge the daily dare. Wish me good luck. :)

じゃね。　

My pet Haruyuki.

Happy Birthday to Takeru

Today is Takeru's 20th birthday. Many of his fans left their wishes in his blog. Current count is 24151. Wow.... real popular! From his blog, he is looking forward towards this day as he will be "an adult" once he is 20 years old. Below 20 years old is consider "teenage" in Japan. Wish him all the best. 健くん誕生日おめでとう.

Rainy Saturday. I woke up late this morning as I am sooooo tired. After taking brunch, I just lay on the sofa watching TV. Daze there for many hours. Just don't know what to do and simply don't want to do anything. Too lazy to surf net too.

Went out for dinner with my parents and younger sis. My sis craved for the 粿汁 at Simei coffee shop so we decided to take our dinner there. However, what a disappointment that the store had already closed down. So the 4 our us ended up having dinner at Simei Sakae.

After dinner, we went to the restroom and I had a scare there. There are 4 cubicles with 3 occupied. Saw one of it was with door opened and walked in. What a shock when I suddenly saw a little girl standing just behind the door staring at me! My heart almost dropped and luckily nothing happened to me as I knew my sis was just right beside me. If I was alone, I think I will faint.

The little girl had no reaction and just closed the door. Don't know why but must be she also frightened by me. Ha ha. I told my sis that luckily my mum did'nt choose this cubicle. What a scare!

Told me parents about it and they had a great laugh. :P

Watch and Eat

Today we have watched movie " Marley And Me" at 6.45pm. Yesterday when we were buying the ticket, we were told that we got seats at middle seats at the last row. We were rather surprised that we still able to get such good seats and wondering if the theatre will be emptied since this movie launched quite some time already.

It ended up we were not taking the centre seats but the aisle seats. Very good defination of "middle seats". Ha ha. As the theatre is a small one, so the view is still not so bad lah. Thought the theatre will not be a lot of people but very shocked to see that it was almost full house. Maybe due to its school holidays week.

This movie is very touching. Though I am afraid of dogs, Marley is so cute and real hyperactive. Luckily not all dogs are like dat. Else no one will dare to keep them. :)

After the show, we decided to have dinner at Carl's Jr. Initially I thought of eating ramen but can't resist Carl's Jr fish and chips hence changed my mind. What a wonderful dinner. See photo of our food. :)

Income tax filing

Its time to file income tax again. This year, it is easier for us as our company has already transmitted all our income info to IRAS direct. Just need to click a button when doing e-filing. So easy uh.

Strange to find out that my income in 2008 is lower than 2007. Why like dat leh???

This year we have no pay increment across the board. Think next year, my income will be even lower. Poor me... Sob sob.

miSS mooDY

I am still feeling rather moody today. Tried to forget about what's making me upset yesterday but still can't do it completely. So tired too as I didn't get good sleep and my eyes are so tired today.

Do sense that my boss knows I am not happy cos I seldom talk today. He made testing by asking me some questions or check things for him. Well, I did response and just that my mood still not tune back to normal so a bit "cold" towards him. Not I said that.... is my colleague Ah Cheng.

Believe I should feel better tomorrow. Angry also no point. Still have to continue what's being asked to do. Hope tomorrow is a better day than today. :)

I reached home rather early tonight at 8.50pm. This is the 1st time I am home early ever since we moved our workstations to 2nd floor. Must make it a point to go back early!!!

So nice to sit down in front of my laptop now and can play Neopets games later.

Now must think of happy things. Hmmmm uh! Countdown to Takeru's birthday! 3 more days to go and he will be celebrating his 20th birthday. :)

PS : the skipping smiley sure makes me feel happier.

Sad Sad Sad

Today is a bad day for me. Don't like it and hope no more such day for me.

Morning started with unexpected meeting and ended with unhappiness. Not only me alone but together with my other same team colleagues. Just don't understand why we are always being "forced" to agree to do things which we know that it does not benefit us. Perhaps we are just "small flies" that can't go against "dragon flies". If we put up disagreement, we are being told that we are "negative". So.... we decided at the end that we are not going to be "negative" but to proceed with the "brilliant ideas".

Afternoon meeting made me even "hot". Idea is to lessen workload but at the end, I am given "extra" work. Angry uh!

The only thing I can do to make myself feels better is to complain to my colleagues who know what is happening. By doing that, it may help me to ease my anger and continue to work. Ai yah, no choice lah. We are just 打工仔.

Well, think of it, why should I feel so angry when bosses don't even know? Why should I feel so upset when bosses don't even know?

Ok lah. Forget about it. Start afresh tomorrow. Being angry will make me grow old faster.

Almost forget to add in that my mum boiled water chestnut drink today. Maybe she already anticipated I will be very "hot" today and needs this drink to "cool" me down. Hee hee.

メイちゃんの執事

Today I took a day off and work from home. Why work while on leave? Ai yah, is just to clear my previous year leaves. At least I can wake up late this am and do my work slowly at home. In between, I started to watch メイちゃんの執事 (Meichan no Shitsuji) epi 1. Then slowly epi 2, 3, 4 .... and finally just completed epi 9. Can't wait to watch the last epi that will be broadcasting in Japan tomorrow.

This J-drama casts include Hiro Mizushima and Sato Takeru. Hiro is so handsome.... and Takeru being his brother in the story has more scenes as compared to his other drama series like Rookies and Bloody Monday.

So sad that tomorrow is the last epi because not sure when will I be able to watch their new drama series. It takes time to wait for their next one. Luckily.... I have 4 idols. The other 2 should have new drama series coming up soon. Who says too greedy to have 4 idols is bad. At least I can keep watching their new series non-stop. Ha ha.

Bored

Just feeling bored and nothing to do. Suddenly wish to post my favorite idols photos on my blog. Here it goes...

Okada Masaki, Hiro Mizushima, Sato Takeru, Miura Haruma

Hair Money Bread

Finally finally finally! I have my haircut today!

Looking forward towards Saturday as I can no longer "tahan" my long hair. It has been almost 3 months since my last haircut. Though it is still managable (not curling unsightly) but I really can't stand it. Originally planned for last Saturday but my hairstylist was out of town so no choice but to delay by another week.

She went to Japan (Tokyo) and not for leisure but to visit her supplier's factory. Heard that she bought a lot of 2nd hand branded goods and almost half price during her free n easy days. The items are extremely new and you can't find any trace that they are 2nd hand. Maybe I should visit one of those shops next month when I am there. Hee hee.

With my "new" haircut (I have the same hairstyle for almost 10 years. Ha ha.), I took MRT to Orchard Road as I need to replenish my skin care. Each visit always cost a "bomb" and this time it is $350. No choice as I am comfortable with this products.

Went to Takashimaya to buy my favourite donut before I headed home. Popped by money changer booth and got to know current exchange rate for Japanese yen is 1000yen = Sgd16. Decided to wait for another few days to see if there will be better rates. Thought current rate shd be 1000yen = Sgd15.80? Maybe will get better rate in Chinatown...

Just have my dinner. Mum not cooking today and I've ordered from Pizza Hut. Bad luck that the delivery man did not send the garlic bread which should come together with the family meal. However since it is only a bread, I did not call to ask for the replacement.

Now is my free time to surf net again. じゃね。

A day that I can finally relax a bit

Today is a day after so many months that I can finally relax a bit and slow down my speed to complete my work. Usually my day will start with very fast pace to rush my morning reports and follow by many calls and emails which will end the day with tiredness. What an exception day for me! Hope more will come. :P

As usual, I went to watch movie "Race to Witch Mountain" with 小珠 at 7.10pm. I like fantasy stories and this is a must-see movie when I came to know about it. This movie never disappoints me. I like the whole show and is real action pack. Another reason that attracts me is the cast. The young cast, Alexander Ludwig, is sooooooo handsome. Very cool boy and I did find him rather familiar but can't recall where I've seen him before. Only after surfing net to find his profile that I finally knows that he actually acted in "The Seeker : The Dark is Rising (2007)". As for the other young cast, AnnaSophia Robb, she acted in "Bridge to Terabithia (2007)" which is also 2 years ago. Both are promising young actor and actress.

After the movie, we went to LJS (Long John Silver) for dinner. It has been a while since I last eat at this restaurant.

Very pleased with today. Keep it up man!

Yummy Ramen

It has been a long time since I last visit the famous ramen restaurant ~ Marutama at The Central. Our overseas colleagues were in town and missed the ramen they ate during their last visit here. We went to the restaurant at quite late hour hence there wasn't any queue.

Most of us ordered the spicy ramen with additional egg as topping, plus dumplings, char siew and fried sweet egg. It was so tasty and I added a lot of the fried garlic. Yum Yum. Will go there again. :P

Very Heavy Dinner

We just finished our team dinner at Hua Ting restaurant (Craig Road). It was a 12 course dinner and we are so full until we couldn't finish all the food. Many of us liked the 1st 4 dishes whereby the 1st is tomato from Japan with sesame and wasabi sauce. It is so juicy and nice. 2nd dish is beef cubes which are so tender that it "melts" in your mouth. 3rd is tofu with egg yolk sauce. Very tasty too. The 4th is pork ribs whereby the meat is very tender and the sauce is very unique. Following are fish, prawns, chicken, soup, crabs, vegetable, and 2 desserts.

Total 29 pax of us including our overseas colleagues who flown here for a meeting. We have fun during the dinner as we joke and talk "rubbish". Ha ha.

However, there is a "price" for this dinner. As I have to leave office early, I can't finish my paperwork. Hence, have to 打包 home to work. Just finish most of my work and now going to sleep. :)

Movie Departures

Went to watch movie "Departures" on Friday. This is a good movie and I like the story and the soundtracks. The casts are good too. No doubt it can win Oscar award for Best Foreign Language film.

It enable us to understand a little bit more on the Japanese ceremonies for the departed ones. The movie consists of laughter and tears. Second part of the movie contains more touching scenes and the whole theatre is so quiet as all audience are "absorbed" into the show.

Hope there will be more such good movies coming up. :)

Happy Happy Day

Today I am so happy. Why leh? Because I managed to save some $$$...

Story is like dat... 小珠 and I booked SQ airtickets online on 9 Feb for our Japan trip. There was sweet deal at that time that costs each ticket to be $967. However due to the restriction that we had to transit via Bangkok for Singapore to Tokyo and we were unable to book the outbound evening flight from Tokyo back to Singapore, we decided to book the higher fare which is $1119 each. At that time, we were glad that we managed to book the flights that we wanted so it was ok to pay a little bit more.

Yesterday, I was surfing net hence check if there is any new promotion by SIA. Guess it is better not to check fares again if you have booked earlier. To my surprise, SIA having super deal for Tokyo which costs $818 per pax (2 to fly)! After getting to know that, I was so heart pain that we have actually paid additional $303 each and the promotion started from 12 Feb which is just 3 days after we booked ours.

Finally told 小珠 today and after some discussion, we decided to call SIA to check if it is possible to cancel the original booking and re-book a new one that we can enjoy the new cheaper fare. To our favour, the fare that we booked earlier can allow cancellation but has to pay an administrative fee of $75 per pax. We don't mind paying that as at the end of the day, we are still be saving $228 each. Due to I am asked to take more days leave, we extended one more day stay at Tokyo. This allows us to pay cheaper fare and yet be able to enjoy one more day. After paying for the extra one day accommodation, we are still saving around $150 per pax! Worth it right?

So it is some time no harm doing busybody check like what I have done and luckily we try our luck to cancel and do re-booking. Luck is with us :)

Now I am amending our itinerary to add in one more day of fun in Tokyo. This time, we are covering the Chubu region + Tokyo. Covering Toyama prefecture more. Hip Hip Hurray!

Yokoso! Japan

Its weekend finally

It has been a very very busy week for me. Work and work from Monday to Friday, almost everyday 9am to 9pm. Finally can watch movie on Friday night as a time for me to relax. This week, we watched Slumdog Millionaire and indeed this movie is worth watching and glad that it can win 8 Acadamy awards. The show ended at around 11.35pm and we missed the last trains home hence have to take cab. By the time I reached home, battery flat liao and went to bed immediately after taking a bath.

On Saturday morning, woke up early as we planned to go to my sister house in Jurong East. My younger sister is planning to get a car so my brother-in-law offered to accompany her there. So the whole group of us (myself, my younger sister, my mother, my brother-in-law, my brother-in-law's sister and her husband) went to Leng Kee for "car sourcing". My sister has not been driving and the last time she drove was 3 years ago when she took part in company's defensive driving test. She got her licence 1o years ago. She was rather nervous when test drive the first car but subsequently, she was more confident. My brother-in-law and myself joined her during her test drives.

She test drives for Mazda 2, Mitsubishi Colt, Hyundai i30, Subaru Impreza, Honda Jazz and Nissan Laxio sport. The 3 shortlisted cars are Mazda 2, Subaru Impreza and Nissan Laxio sport. If Honda Jazz price is not that steep, she will choose this car immediately. This is her dream car.

However, she will give her some time to think about it and not going to rush to commit though the next bidding is coming Wednesday and high chance that car price will go up due to recent hike in yen plus COE will go up too.

Well for me, I like Honda Jazz and Nissan Laxio sport. These cars have wide leg rooms at the back passanger seats. Mazda 2 is a little cramp at the back seats. However, any car is ok for me as I don't drive and can be passenger only. Passenger has no say... ha ha.