Review - Hanakimi (J-Drama)

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise

Introduction
Translated, it would read as "For you in full blossom: Hot Men Paradise." Alright, as weird as the title might sound it is also known as Hanakimi in short and is based on an insanely popular girl manga. I've personally never read the manga and don't intend to because the artwork is too shojo (girly) style for me so I guess I won't know how accurate the drama portrays the manga.

The Taiwanese have already made a drama out of the same manga starring the tomboyish Ella from the SHE girl group. Let's just say that I tried watching the first episode of the Taiwanese version and couldn't even get through half an hour of it because somehow something just wasn't right. Perhaps the Taiwanese version didn't do the manga justice so the Japanese got fed up and decided to make their own version. And thank goodness they did.

The Story
The show starts with the introduction of the protagonist, Ashiya Mizuki. Played by the oh-so-adorably-cute 20 year old Maki Horikita, she's obviously the only reason why I decided to watch the show in the first place. Apparently she seems to be infatuated by Sano Izumi, a record holding high jumper who sustained an injury and dropped out of the scene altogether. Unable to accept this, she literally cuts her hair short, packs her bags and flies from California to Japan to seek out her idol. Unfortunately, Sano studies and stays in an all boys school (Osaka High School) thus she disguises herself as a boy and enrolls in the school. Will she be able to make Sano jump again and make him her true love?

*Spoilers start here*

Extremely early in the show, the first person to find out Ashiya's true gender is none other than the school doctor. She sustains an injury during a marathon, passes out and is brought to his office where he finds out that she's not a boy. But after finding out her reason for being crazy enough to enroll in an all boys school he decides to keep everything a secret and let her stay.

Later on in the show we find out that Ashiya is actually the cause of Sano's injury. Apparently while Sano was doing a training stint in the US he gets his leg injured when trying to save Ashiya from a bunch of thugs. Thus, Ashiya feels that considering she's the cause of his downfall, she should be responsible in convincing him to jump again.

While at the school she meets Nakatsu, one of her classmates who starts having a crush on her. Not knowing that she's actually a female, he starts thinking that he's gay and tries to come to terms with himself. Sano on the otherhand learns about Ashiya's true gender really early in the show but keeps it to himself anyhow as he's moved by the fact that Ashiya was prepared to go through so much to get him to jump again.

The Review
Before the start of the first episode, there's a "warning" that reads, "This story is entirely fictional, please excuse the foolishness." Now the common problem when a manga is ported to live-action is that what might've been funny in a manga can come out horribly daft if re-enacted in real life. Unfortunately Hanakimi suffers from this quite badly, half of each episode is dedicated to the relationship between Ashiya, Sano and Nakatsu while the other half is dedicated to the supporting characters which consist of the 3 Dorm heads and the student extras. They are usually preparing for one school activity after another (Best Looking Student, Spring Festival, Beach Outing etc...) and try hard to make you laugh with a lot of Jim Carrie style slapstick humor. Perhaps high school girls find such humor funny but it doesn't really work for me. There were times I was tempted to fast forward to the serious parts because the humor was getting so cringe-inducing. Sometimes I think that the only sane people in the school are Sano, Ashiya and Nakatsu.

Anyhow here's more background about the school. You see, Sano's school supposedly chooses their students primarily based on looks than grades, thus the "Ikemen Paradise" in the title. As ridiculous as it sounds that's how it goes as this drama caters more so to girls than guys. So you've got a lot of bishie looking guys walking around with their shirts off, carrying weights, running on the track, doing drag (no kidding) and what not which serves as eye candy for the girls (Urgh). Thankfully all is not lost as there's a girl group from St. Blossom's High (The Sister School of Osaka High) called the Hibari 4 which consists of the leader, Hibari Hanayashiki, and 4 other girls which pop in every now and then to add some gender balance. I liked the character of the leader because she's type cast as a Britney Spears bimbo kind of girl, is shorter than her followers and is ironically worse off in getting a date than her followers which makes her a funny character to watch.

About the other supporting characters I'll just make it brief. There are 3 Dorms in Osaka High School. One is run by some martial arts nut, Sano's dorm is run by some Casanova girl magnet while the other is run by an arts freak who goes around in a cape reciting Shakespeare. Other characters include some guy who takes after Death Note's "L" by being all mysterious and creepy, a gay guy and some other guy who is some silly inventor. They all try to inject humor into the show but I didn't really find any of them very funny at all. In my opinion, it'd probably have been better if they didn't try so hard to make the audience laugh.

Now for a detailed review of the main characters

Ashiya Mizuki (Played by Maki Horikita)
First up, it's not easy playing Ashiya, you gotta act like a boy and you're basically the character that all the girls want to be. Though she has to act as a boy in this drama, she still looks very feminine even in a male school uniform and her actions are still very female like (not that I mind). Also, she's rather short so almost everybody towers over here which makes things rather comedic. In reality she definitely can't pass off as a boy but it's a drama anyway so it's alright. (If she did look so much like a boy I won't be watching the show in the first place.)

Otherwise she portrays Ashiya as a very happy, positive, lovable character whom everybody would wanna make friends with. Her chemistry between Sano and Nakatsu are very natural and she doesn't seem to be holding back in her acting. She looks very natural when she's fooling around with Nakatsu or having a serious talk with Sano and her heart really looks like she is all for Sano.

As I watched the show I felt that I was on a journey with Ashiya, a journey that would sadly have to end when Ashiya finally manages to convince Sano to jump again. The last episode of the show is perhaps the most moving as Ashiya, having completed what she has to do, bids farewell to everyone and returns to the US. Certainly a very good performance by Maki during the last episode as you can't help but shed a few tears at that scene unless you're heartless.

Definitely two thumbs up for Maki and I'm not suprized that she snagged the Best Actress award for the 54th Television Academy Awards for her role in Hanakimi.

Sano Izumi (Played by Shun Oguri)
Sano comes to me as a very aloof, brooding character who doesn't really say much most of the time. After being injured in the US he drops out of the high jump scene as he thinks that he'll never reach his personal best again. And later on we learn that he's also not on talking terms with his brother and father and is pretty much an angsty, depressed kid. Think of him as the emo character of the show.

As Ashiya works at trying to make him jump again you somehow don't seem to connect with him because he doesn't really say much and when he does it is just a few lines here and there. Later on when he declares to Ashiya that he's willing to train again to beat his high jump record just for her you just don't seem to know whether he likes Ashiya as much as she likes him. Even at the last episode he doesn't openly declare that he likes her but says that he will go visit her in the US soon. He seems too controlled as a character and plays hard-to-get and you just don't feel that he has any feelings towards Ashiya. As a main character he doesn't make a very big impact in my opinion.

Nakatsu Shuichi (Played by Ikuta Toma)
As a soccer player, Nakatsu seems to be a girl's dream boyfriend, possessing a positive personality has cool dyed hair and a sense of humour, Nakatsu always tries to be jolly even when he's hurting inside. Unlike Sano who finds out that Ashiya is actually a girl early in the show, he only finds out about Ashiya's true gender much much later so it's funny seeing him getting attracted to Ashiya while trying to stop himself at the same time. It's just hilarious when he tries to sneak close to Ashiya all the time and he gets reminded that he's "too close" and has to back away.

According to wikipedia, in real life he and Maki are actually very good friends so it shows very well on screen when they're together fooling around or what not. You can just feel real chemistry between the two characters and everything comes out very naturally. For the final episode of the drama when everybody is wishing Ashiya farewell he makes a very moving, emotion filled speech to Ashiya which will bring tears to your eyes.

Not surprisingly he won the best supporting actor award for his role in Hanakimi. He certainly comes out as the better actor as compared to Shun and I think he did a good job.

Conclusion

The Good
- It's something different from the normal, run-of-the-mill romance dramas
- Maki is cute and lovable and does a good job in acting as Ashiya. Gotta love her in the uniform
- The comedy between Ashiya and Nakatsu is hilarious
- The Hibari 4 is funny
- A very good final episode. I'm a sucker for happy endings.
- Drama doesn't drag unnecessarily
- Nice BGM, opening & ending themes.
- Nice scenery and filming locations

The Bad
- Slapstick humor is lame
- Some lesser characters seem redundant
- For guys, if you don't like Maki then there's no reason to watch this drama at all

Overall conclusion
If you're able to ignore the lame slapstick humor and purely focus on the relationship between Ashiya, Sano and Nakatsu, Hanakimi makes a nice romance drama with a twist. Oh yes, did I mention that Maki is cute?

Rating: 8/10

PC Show 2006 Report

Went to the PC Show at Suntec and as usual it was crowded as heck at 1.30pm

Anyways, just some random observations on why HALF of Singapore decides to make their quarterly pilgrimage to Suntec to squeeze into a room with a whole bunch of sweaty and grumpy people.

1) Media Hype - About a week before the show, the newspapers hype up the whole event by telling everybody about all the great bargains you can get at the show etc... So before the first day, everybody is near death with anticipation.

2) The Great Singapore Sale - Fantastic timing, the PC Show is held just when everybody is in the "MUST BUY BECAUSE IT'S THE GSS!!!" mood.

3) Crowds Attract Crowds - It's pretty strange but I find that crowds attract crowds. I'm sure some people went to Suntec not with the intention of buying anything but just followed the crowd to the PC Show to "check it out."

4) Clever Advertising - Not everything at the PC Show is being sold at discounts. They just MAKE you think you're getting a good deal by printing prices on huge neon banners to make you think that you're getting what you're buying at a discount.

5) Girls - What's a skimply clad girl got to do with Epson printers? Don't ask me... I swear some people head to the PC Show just for the girls.

6) Family Outing - Some parents think that pushing their kids in a stroller amongst thousands of people makes a good family outing. For goodness sake, leave your kids at home.

7) Everything Under One Roof - One good thing about such shows is that it's easier to compare pricing / specs of products. Just walk over to another brand's booth to find out more (Providing you manage to actually walk through the crowds though).

8) Brand Competition - As the days wear on, prices start getting slashed and more freebies get thrown in to attract buyers. If you want, you can hang around till one hour before closing to experience the chaos first hand.

9) The Buying Frenzy - When everybody around you is buying something you're somehow urged to buy something as well. Pretty strange.

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Tips for surviving similar PC Shows

1) Take leave on a weekday and wait at the door before it opens. Then rush in, do your shopping and get the heck out before the lunch crowd surges in.

2) Leave your kids in strollers at home for goodness sake.

3) Computer accessories (Keyboard, mouse etc...) are probably selling at the same price elsewhere. Not much of a point squeezing in the crowd for small ticket items.

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Don't ask me why I wanted to type this all out. I guess I was bored...

JJ's Birthday

Well, yesterday was JJ's 21st birthday! Hooray for the birthday guy, he can finally watch R21 movies LEGALLY now. But I think he's seen a whole lot more than R21 films during the Tokyo trip... hehehe... *wink*

Yeah, so met up with the JCISD folk including Mdm Janis, Mdm Chris & Jia Hui for a buffet dinner to celebrate his birthday and also for Mdm Chris's farewell. (Finally managed to pass Jia Hui her possibly mouldy Hello Kitty sweets we got for her from Japan) It's nice meeting them again, it seemed like I ORD'd so long ago even though it has only been less than 1 month. Imagine I can even forget the current HJCIS name... I must've really did a reformat of my brain or something.

Alright, on to the exciting (nauseating) part, after the dinner, Mdm Janis, Mdm Chris and Zhi Xuan and Jia Hui went home while the rest of us went to have drinks. It was a small pub at Novena Square and the guys ordered jugs of beer. Well, yeah we had a few drinking games and stuff and since I don't like the bitter taste of beer, I thought to myself, "Hey! Why don't I just gulp it down faster so I don't have to taste the darn thing!" Unfortunately, unknown to non-drinkers like me, if you gulp down beer too quick the after effects hit ya like a brick later on. So, 3 glasses of beer later the world starts spinning, I'm feeling sick, I can't stop grinning and I can't walk straight. (Jia Hui I KNOW you're laughing ok!!!) I feel like puking at the Novena Square toilet but somehow I can't. I can remember JJ puking and downing a vodca shot. I half expected him to faint in the MRT train or something... But heck, you only turn 21 ONCE in your life man. I can't remember what I did for my 21st birthday, it must've been something uneventful because I can't remember it in the first place!

Yeah, so everybody heads back home or to club or something and I stagger to the main road to get a cab. Mr Mak accompanies me in the cab back to my place (thanks Mr Mak) and I stagger up to my room past my mum who's up late watching Korean dramas again and collapse onto my bed.

Fast forward to about 2am. I wake up with a throbbing headache and a generally sick feeling. I toss and turn on my bed and all of a sudden I get the urge to puke and rush to the toilet. Thinking that the worst is over I take two penadols and try to sleep, puking round 2 comes. That's it, I don't dare to take anymore penadols and try to ease my headache with ice cubes. I think I must've knocked out again because it's 9am when I next came to. What a night eh? Ahahah... well I guess everybody's gotta experience getting wasted. Well, I guess Jia Hui would say that my experience was nothing though... hehe...

So after that night, note to self: Don't drink too fast!!!

Note: I'm not blaming anybody in this post. I had fun hanging out with you guys... I just drank too much that's all. Peace!

Tokyo Trip Photos Uploaded!

My Tokyo Trip photos have finally been uploaded! Check it out at the link below!

Uploaded the pics to a new website as the old one kept shutting down due to bandwidth overload issues

http://p7m13.xoompages.com/tokyo.htm

Japan Observations

Hmmm... since JJ (www.chenjj.blogspot.com) is already doing a detailed rundown of our Tokyo trip, I'll proceed to blog about interesting things I noticed when I was there.

1) Schoolkids - They seem to be everywhere at any time of the day. In shops, game arcades (nobody stops them)... everywhere! Even on weekends! It makes me wonder whether they ever attend school in the first place. On weekends, they probably wear their school uniforms for the fun of it! Can't blame them though, they have really nice uniforms... and yes, their skirts can get dangerously short too. Some even sport dyed long hair and painted nails. Perhaps they have much lax school rules than here?

2) Vending Machines - They have drink vending machines all over the place so you'll never get thristy. Unfortunately, drink prices start at about S$1.70. Expensive! They also have vending machines for beer and cigarettes. Talk about easy access.

3) UFO Catcher Machines - Unlike the Singapore ones where they make sure that you never ever get any of the prizes, the ones in Japan are much easier to win stuff. I even saw some people ask the arcade attendants to place the prizes nearer the prize deposit "hole." Naturally, they make the smaller prizes easier to get than the large ones. I have no idea how people get the large prizes but it IS possible.

4) People flood - People are just everywhere in Tokyo, during lunch or dinner time there's an almost neverending stream of people entering the various eateries. Streets are still crowded at 9pm and department stores and shops are somehow always crowded even on weekdays.

5) Expensive Japan - Things in Japan are generally expensive. A cheap meal would cost about 500 YEN which is about S$7.00 But after awhile your brain starts telling you that 500 YEN is pretty cheap for a meal and 120 YEN is a reasonable price for a Coke. I have a feeling that to the Japanese, 100 YEN is equivalent to $1... I saw someone at a store piling 1000 YEN t-shirts into his shopping basket. I guess that's cheap considering the average t-shirt goes for about 3000 YEN.

6) Kinky Cosplay - Nobody bats an eyelid at flier distributers dressed in French Maid outfits. Pachinko (The Japanese gambling game which is kind of the equivalent of pinball) parlor attendants sometimes wear French Maid outfits or School Uniforms and it's perfectly OK. It's time Singapore should stop being so conservative...

7) Adult Products - Adult stores can consist of 7 floors stocking adult DVDs of any genre you can imagine. If you're not looking for adult products they'd find you... they're everywhere!

8) Carrefour Japan - The Japanese equivalent of Carrefour sells French Maid outfits, school uniforms, adult DVDs and adult products. Way cool! :D

9) Anime Attack - Anime is really really really big in Japan... Akihabara is full of stores selling nothing but anime related products and comics.

10) The More Workers The Merrier - It takes two eldery traffic cops with light sticks and loud hailers to guide pedestrain traffic across a one lane street! And they were really enthusiastic about their job too!

What takes the cake was when I saw 6 traffic cops put in charge of directing cars out of a car park. 1 would wave the car out of the carpark, 4 would stop pedestrains from walking into the path of the car (there weren't any pedestrains around at that time!) and 1 would make sure the coast would be clear before allowing the car to join the main road.

I guess when they've got nothing to do... they find something to do!

11) Teach Your Kids Gambling - Arcades have certain sections dedicated to pachinko, slot machines and black jack machines. The only catch is that you can only use game tokens to play and there's no way of exchanging any tokens you've won into cash or prizes. So what's the point of playing? I have no idea... Parents are welcome to bring their kids in to play though.

12) Remove Your Shoes Please - You have to remove your shoes before entering a fitting room. We also had to remove our shoes before entering our hotel. Perhaps this is only practised in more traditional Japanese hotels?

13) Cutesy Is In - Japanese are the king of cute, go into a Japanese toy store and they'll have all these extremely cute and cuddly soft toys begging you to buy them. You can't help but feel all mushy inside when you stare at them too much.

Japanese girls almost always have cutesy voices. Is it their natural voice or are they speaking like that on purpose? Cute is nice....

14) Birds of a Feather Flock Together - People of the same fashion style hang out together. The hip-hoppers hang out with similarly dressed people. The hippies hang out with the hippies and so on and so forth...

15) Forever Silent Mode - Come to think of it, I have not heard a single handphone ringtone in Japan. People are always glued to their phones but I've never heard them ring. Perhaps it's because the announcer over the train is constantly reminding people to keep their phones on silent and to refrain from talking on their phones.

16) Irrashaimase and Arigato Gozaimasu - Enter any shop (Even and adult shop) and the shop attendants will greet you with a loud "IRRASHAIMASE" (Welcome!) I felt pretty strange at first but somehow got used to it. In fact, once we went to someplace for dinner and we weren't greeted it felt strange. I don't think it was just us as the cooks didn't greet anybody else that came in after us either.

Make a purchase from anyplace and you're thanked with a small nod and "Arigato Gozaimasu!" (Thank You).

17) Valet Parking - Valet parking means that you leave your car in an elevator and it'd somehow park your car for you.

18) It's Raining - We were at Harajuku when it started raining and people started buying 500 YEN (S$7) umbrellas from this store as fast as the store attendant could restock the shelves. Madness...

Hmmmm that's all I can think of for now... will upload the pictures later...

Yet Another Blog

Join The Green Side
I was never a fan of Starhub but as my ORD (and the end of my mobile phone contract) draws near, the K750i beckons. In the newspapers it whispers to me, tempting me with its sleek curves and 2.0MP camera. When I read that Singtel finally slashed its price of the K750i to $368 I rejoiced! Jubilation! It'd be only awhile more before it finally falls within my $300 budget. Then, as an act of defiance, Starhub reared its evil head.

"The K750i, now $298 $268 with 2-yr contract!" screamed the Saturday newspapers. The Green Side grows stronger by day but no, I shall not wavier! March 27 is the day, the day where I make a choice. Would I again pledge my loyalty to the Red Army? I hope my loyalty to Singtel won't be in vain...


Japan Trip Planning
5 days to the Japan trip and planning is still ongoing. They say that going on a holiday is supposed to be relaxing but somehow there's still a lot of planning involved when you're going "free and easy." Double that when you're going to a country where you're unfamiliar with the language.

I can't believe myself, I'm actually compiling a folder with all the necessary maps and information. I think some bits of the army have permanently rubbed off on me. But I must say that there's a sense of achievment when a holiday is well planned. It's a good feeling knowing that you didn't waste time during the trip thinking of what to do next or eating Mcdonalds because you couldn't think of other options.

One thing that I'm particulary looking forward on the Japan trip is the hot springs [don't try anything funny JJ ;) ] and the trip to Hakone where I can finally experience some nice Japanese scenery in person. It's just not the same seeing fantastic scenery on Japan Hour.

ORD Blues
2 months to ORD and counting. One thing about being an NSF is that you don't really need to think about the future. Just do your crap, get your allowance and rinse, recycle and repeat. Then when ORD comes around, they remove your allowance and throw you out in the wilderness.

Most people will be glad to ORD but to be honest, I'm feeling a little down as it's basically the end of another chapter in my life. My bosses have been basically pretty nice to me during my time in the army and overall, the experience wasn't as painful as I thought it'd be.

Anyway, mushiness aside... It's job hunting once I get back from Japan. I need the money...

Laptops and Wireless Internet

Had a really busy day yesterday! Woke up at 6am to continue working on my presentation for my SIM class which was due at 2.30pm. Worked on it till 10am, took a cab to Suntec to collect the C4I Asia photo CDs from the professional photographer while lugging along a Laptop borrowed from my office. Checked that the photo CDs worked, took a cab again to SIM. Hid in the library and worked on my project till 2.30pm. Thank goodness for wireless internet access and my laptop!

I was pretty nervous while waiting for my turn as it's been a while since I've done a presentation by myself... but... I managed to pull through. I started talking and it basically flowed from there... phew... now I can breath again! Now, time to plan for the Japan trip before JJ kills me. :D

It Ain't Over Yet

Just when I thought I could sit back and relax after Asian Aerospace has blown over I was wrong. With about a month before I clear leave and about a week and a half before I go to Japan I'm still getting arrows from all over. Whatever happened to ORD mood? I've still got to write out the darn AA debrief minutes and compile the AA debrief CD! Heck... what can I say...

What the heck happened

Time now is 5.20am.. I can't remember how I went to sleep in the first place. Must've been so tired that I just knocked out. I find it pretty weird when that happens. You wake up to find your room dark, you're under your blanket, your aircon is on and there's nobody around...

It's Raining, It's Pouring

It's been raining the whole day. Haven't seen that happen for quite awhile... Though it's nice and cool the dark clouds make the day so... gloomy.

Had some Executive Empowerment Program thing at SIM today and it was not as bad as I thought as the lecturer was very engaging. It's the usual self improvement program where they teach you about improving your art of persuation so on and so forth. Since the cost has been added into the school fees I might as well go for it.

SIM classes are gonna start up again and classes will now fall on Tue, Thurs and Sat. So my weekend is basically blown... which sucks big time. After my last big army project on 20 Feb I might as well prepare for my ORD and my transition to the working world.

All through life everybody has had a set path laid out for them. Kindergarden to primary school to secondary to poly to army to university. Then after army, you're thrown out to fend for yourself. When you've been following a straight line for so long and suddenly you're told you can go anywhere you want, you can't help but stand there and say... "Oh crap... now what?" It's pretty ironic that during my school days I was moaning about how I'd wanted to stop studying and go find a job. Argh... I'm feeling depressed and worried at the same time.

Happy New Year!!!

Here comes 2006! Another day closer to ORD!!! Hope that I'd be able to find a job and accomplish what I couldn't accomplish back in 2005. Finding work is scary....

The party at my place went pretty well. It was rather short as I could only be back to get the party started at 9pm but I hope that everybody had fun. It's nice celebrating the New Year with your friends around. All cheers to 2006!!! This year is definitely gonna be different.

Here comes Christmas...

Hmmm... not too sure what I'd be doing for Christmas apart from having my annual Christmas Eve dinner with relatives.

I was looking through all of the MTVs I burned onto CD when I was back in the US and they sure bring back memories. You somehow link up certain time periods to certain songs, for example, whenever I hear Britney Spear's - Lucky, my mind flashes back when I was JC 1 when the song first hit the airwaves. Yeah it's a silly song but it still brings back memories anyhow...

Was looking through a bunch of random pictures I've collected from the net and I came across this one. I just think this person's fashion style is pretty cool! A jacket and tie with military bermudas. Gotta hand it to Japanese street fashion as they dare to try whacky combinations... :D

Me and My Sister

You know... I think she's more photogenic than me......

I haven't even posted up the WORSE looking pics...



She looks like finding Nemo in this pic.

Back back!!!!

Whoopee! Back again after a 2 month hiatus. Basically been too lazy to blog or probably didn't wanna blog because nothing much has happened.

Anyways, in a blink of an eye Christmas is in a weeks time and everybody is out shopping like crazy thanks to the advertising hype. I too got caught up with the crazy buying and bought a bucket load of comics from Kinokuniya on Friday. It's been a really long time since I've read comics or watched any anime so I just decided to say "crap it" and forked out cash for them. Good stuff!


On Saturday, I followed mum to John Little to take advantage of the 20% storewide discount. Bought myself two pairs of formal pants and a shirt, then went to do my own stuff as my sister and mum went scouring for girls stuff. Saturday was pretty much a "chiong shopping" day. Muahhaha... I've come to realise that spending money is therapeutic... and don’t forget the evil ATM/Credit cards….

ORD is coming in a few months, the working world waits. I hope that I’d be able to land up with a decent paying job. And I must dye my hair once I get out of army, gotta do this at least once in my life man! Damn… how I wish I were back in university / poly. I should’ve done all this stuff earlier! What was I thinking?

Oh yes, if anybody is going to “chiong” on New Years Eve, do let me know. My past few New Years Eve’s have been pretty sad…

Back on the net again

Did quite a lot of stuff this weekend. I FINALLY got myself a decent phone after I left my T105 on the bus. My ancient T28s were too unreliable as they shut off for no reason whenever they please. So I finally managed to source for someone who was selling a T290i for $100. Met up with him on Saturday morning and I'm now happy with my phone. Yayyy! Phone timeline below!



Unfortunately over the weekend our ADSL modem decided to die on us. I gave the Singnet helpdesk a call and was put on hold forever before I finally managed to talk to someone. After checking a few things on his computer he suggested that maybe our modem was faulty. So a quick trip to Sim Lim later I am back online!!! Gosh man, it's scary how dependable we are on the internet these days.

Here Kitty Kitty!

Hahahah... today me, Leroy and JJ went to return some stuff to... guess who... Kitty! Heheheh... First time I've spoken to her before and actually stood so close. *Blush* Today was a good day. :P

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Wow, as I was typing the doorbell rang. It's 7.24pm and a postman came to my place to check on a parcel he delivered to my Dad in the afternoon. He said that he needed the serial number or something.... I didn't know they worked till so late. Tough job man...

Exams are finally over

Exams are over! I can breath again... the last one I did today didn't go too well... but ah what the heck.

I've been away from work since Friday last week. I somehow felt pretty odd walking to work after today's exam. It was as if I had been gone so long and was entering a strange place. Maybe it's the lack of sleep and the brain abuse I've been giving myself over the past few days.

Anyhow, the office was empty again because everyone is away for some exercise. Sadly, the whole bunch will be back tomorrow. I hope my boss doesn't go into a fit and throws me all the work that he wasn't able to arrow me for the past few days. Thank goodness the weekends are coming.

The Story Thus Far

Haro! Haro! Ahhaha it's been quite awhile since I last blogged. Dear me... so let me update you all on the story thus far..

1) 1 Oct 2005 (Sat) - Went with Leroy, Jun Jie and Joel for the HSBC treetop walk. JJ had warned me that it was a LONG walk to the bridge and I found that I had come overdressed for the event! Everybody was in running gear but I was in berms and t-shirt... arghh! Well, I figured that my berms would help against kamikaze dengue mosquitoes. Thank goodness Joel drove his Toyota Harrier over to get us to the entrance of the treetop walk. The Harrier is one sweet car... I'd call it the gentle giant because it's big yet extremely quiet on the inside... mmm...

After the whole event my feet were aching from the rugged terrain and everybody was drenched with sweat. I must agree that it was a nice view from the suspension bridge but the walk in would make you think twice about coming back again. I guess it's one option if you're totally sick of hanging out at shopping malls and watching movies. Enough... picture attack!!!







2) 3 Oct 2005 (Mon) - Went to catch Corpse Bride with my secondary school friends. It's a pretty standard show, no surprises regarding the plot but the animation was pretty good if you can appreciate Tim Burton's creations. His creations tend to be rather dark and gothic like Emily Strange... hmmm

3) 4 Oct 2005 (Tue) - Celebrated Jiahui's 21st birthday at some Thai restuarant at Marina Square. It was probably the 100th time she was celebrating her 21st birthday that month but it was still fun anyways. The food was really good though some dishes were too spicy for me.


I look stupid as usual... hey I just noticed that Leroy has the same type of jacket as JiaJia...


The birthday girl with her present... must show us what you bought ah!

Ok, I guess that's about all folks. My SIM exams are coming up in 1 week's time. I gotta get cracking...

Gomenasai

Urgh... haven't been blogging much as I didn't have the inspiration to do so. The past week has been this flurry of compiling reports and making presentations for my SIM classes. Creating powerpoints and editing reports is a lot more tedious and time consuming than I thought.

I must say that I'm eternally grateful to my Maam at the office for letting me use the colour printer, the binder etc... The officers have somehow also been kind enough to leave me to my project work as well. I guess they must've figured that I was busy with something judging from my frowns of concentration and my flurry of typing on the keyboard. Now that's all over, I have two weeks of NO class till my exams. In a way I'm happy that the semester is coming to a close. I'm pretty sick of religiously making my way to SIM three days a weak for the past 3 months. It's very draining...

I just wish I could be a wandering samurai. I will just drift from place to place till I finally decide to settle down or when I finally find a purpose in life.......

Gomenasai.........

Weekend plans

Did my group project presentation last night and I found out that having not done a presentation for so long I'm pretty rusty. Will make sure I'm more prepared for the other two presentations this coming week. It also kind of sucks being the LAST group to present because almost all the other groups had gone off, and the lecturer was tired and probably wasn't paying much attention.

Anwyay, I've jotted out a list of stuff to hopefully accomplish this weekend.

1) Pack up my room (It's in a sorry mess now)
2) Format my computer (Damn you spyware! DAMN YOU!)
3) Pack up my sister's room (It's also in a mess despite the fact she's not here!)
4) Continue with my room decoration... I abandoned it months ago...
5) Buy clothes? I really need new jeans & pants.

Woohoo! I love weekends! :D