What's this white stuff from the sky?

It's snowing!! yeah...how cool is that? ah well, it's time to make breakfast... gonna go romp around town later!

Reflections : what was, what could have been, what is yet to come...

It's one of those surreal days. The moment when you reflect on what has happened in the course of the year...what was, what could have been....what will happen in future. I started 2004 with the intention to FINALLY get FINISHED on my studies (which i managed to do! Praise the Lord!!), to start on a few more projects - namely the anti multilevel marketing one, the sports car feature and various printing/design projects... i've completed the anti MLM book, albeit not printed yet, never made it to the car mod book and did a couple of projects with Edmund (Sim)... but NEVER, EVER had i have had the slightest inkling of an idea that I would be bloody living in England!!

Let's see what happened in the year so far :

January : Sports Extreme Singapore was released, spent most of my time distributing to customers, associates and benefactors....

February : Started working on the other project for Harry, got jobs for other design and marketing projects.

March : School starts, intensive studying for Advertising Management.

April : Had a go at Walton International selling land space in Canada. Hooked up with Edmund to do more marketing/advertising projects, got some deals with sports companies.

May : Spent a lot of time visiting the LTA, URA, HDB to try and clear some traffic summons... started term 2 of school; Social Psychology, Linguistics, Human Mass Comm and Dynamics of Mass Comm.

June : Met Angela on 3rd of June over a meeting with Ski Ventures, met her again soon after for drinks at Mitre Hotel (yeah, the old scruffy thing). Celebrated my birthday at Palawan beach, had a barbeque with Edmund...and a whole bunch of other people.

July : Spent a lot of time in the Courts trying to settle my car parking fines. Exams are due this month.

August : Arranged for a snowboard trip to Melbourne, changed my plans from Falls Creek to Mt. Hotham instead. Started Term 3, with subjects like : Television/Radio production, Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising.

September : Been going to do reservist a lot, Remedial Training, Recalls...blah, blah. Preparing for my London trip... wanted to go to Australia initially, but they don't give out working holiday visas to Singaporeans. The Australian economy is doing real well i suppose, so they've got to control entry of foreigners.

October : Nothing much, clearing exams, projects and preps for my trip.

November : Farewell to South East Asia! Hello Northern Hemisphere!

December : Mad rush with the Syon stint, getting acquinted with London...and here I am in this room in Kroonlan writing a summary of the year!

Merry Christmas to one and all! The year has been kind to me, generally. Late nights of coffee with Eugene, Alvin, Edmund, Yi Qian at random places like Bedok Nrth Coffeeshop, Marine Parade coffeeshop, Toa Payoh coffeeshop...Ah..i miss all these places...Simpang...hougang...Upper Serangoon nasi lemak....mnmmmmm.... prata at jalan kayu!! arrrrgh!!!! it's no point if i get to make them here, it's just not the same atmosphere!! the heat...the noise... the smell of car emissions mixed with the fragrance of your food...mmmmm....

Location check : Belgium, Brussels

Madam, monsiuer...bonjour... met vriendelijke groeten...

It's so weird to be in Eurpe, everything is topsy turvy!! To start with, they drive on the left hand of the vehicle, then there's this strange keyboard that i have to deal with... you know how the traditional keyboard starts on the left with QWERTY ? this stupid keyboard starts with AZERTY... and all the other keys are misplaced...can't find all the bloody punctuations!! Had to change the configuration to US 101 to suit my fingers...

Oh, by the way, some of the people mentioned here will sound strange to my Singaporean pals, but you know who you are you ....you SYON PIKES!!!! I CONT HEEAR YU!!! KEEP MAKING PARTY!! MAKE LONG DISTANT PARTY!!

Anyhow, I'm now in Brussels! After collecting my kash from the waitering job, I moved into a hostel with Martins, then shopped for presents for my cousin and uncle.
then the next morning we were supposed to head to 1st Contact to get our bank accounts set up...but we were late!!! Damn...but just as well, cause we all don't have the relevant documents... so we spent the next 3 hour hanging around Victoria station checking out mobile phones and stuff.

Then i got on the EuroStar, the long and massive trans European train service. Got a little of England on the way...then i remembered what Jo said about England... "there is England...and then there is London..." yeah, i think so too.... If England is the beautiful country farm...then London is the blood soaked abotoire. You don't see many English people in London, just a messy array of people from so many different countries and cultures. I used to think that Singapore was multi-racial, I don't think so any more after being here. I guess this is it, places like London, New York and Tokyo are gigantamungus cities that people arrive in droves to eake out a living. Which is perhaps what i'm trying to do as well....

So when the train arrived at the Bruxxels Midi station, i caught a cab to head down to Kroonlan, Hoeilart, my cousin's place...

Today is Christmas eve, i finally geet to spend Christmas in a cold European country!! I'll just wait for my Christmas dinner tonight, see what i'll get...ha...

I've got access to a computer for this week, will update soon then! Yagalotni...(that's Russian for "i'm hungry")...gotta go find food...

We make party!

Oh no, oh no!! My stint at Syon Park is drawing to an end!! Although i'll be glad to be rid of enduring kegs of beer, chairs and glasses on my back, i think it'll be kinda sad to split from this happy bunch of people i worked with, especially when you know that you'll probably never run into these friends ever again in your life... ah well, only fate can tell!!

Anything eventful last night? Let's see.... a guy fainted and smashed into the bar and blacked out a bit, there was a fight, a woman got so drunk she scant made it out of the door... same old, same old...
Sometimes i think i'm a little hard of hearing, this bloke came up to me and asked me to "pour some Coke in it"...and i heard it as "pour some coconut"....blah...and when I served someone a glass of vodka, he asked me for "the same again"....and i heard "a San Miguel", and bloody served him a bottle...ah well, at least big laughs = tips...haha...

I'll be going to Belgium next week! I had the EuroStar (international train from U.K to Europe) tickets booked this morning. Can't wait to see my european cousin and uncle!!

Oh, and here's a bad joke to end it all off :

What milk do invisible cats drink?

....evaporated milk...

Cheers!

Cheers!

...and then I got a job! The Tube ticket to the Debden Station really cost me (11 quid, day travel) but at least i landed meself a job! I'll be starting on the 5th of January, and I'll be posted to Germany (or some other European Union nation) by February for a couple of weeks. I can't believe it! Now i'm an auditor! Geez, talk about a completely irrelevant line of work -and not to mention my very professional handling of numbers-, but if things are fine, i'll be promoted to area manager by summer!

What's more, this leaves me time to go visit my cousin in Belgium this coming Christmas! Yay!!

So after the interview, I took a walk down Oxford Circus, whilst waiting for a friend. A very unsuccessful walk indeed, cause i ended up buying a scarf, 3 pairs of socks (to replace my MISSING SOCKS - who the fuck would want to steal socks man?), a couple of christmas cards and a 2005 planner. But not before I had a pathetic dinner of a...how should we say, lame attempt of curry chicken rice, and it bloody cost me 4 quid for it! Geez, i'm never gonna trust chinese takeaways anymore ever again!

Back to my slave camp tomorrow! Update you folks again! Hope I manage to brave the cold and turn up alive come Monday!

On a cold and frosty morning...

Another fantastically muscle tearing week. Moving chairs in and out of the marquee, rolling 4ft, 5ft and 6ft tables all over the floor and serving pissed drunk party people. How exciting. Last night however was absolutly charming, drinking games all the way till 9am in the morning! ...and I learnt one thing, red wine, white wine, barcadi breezers, black current, Strong Bow and beer do not taste proper at all, not in one cup at least. The Aussies have a funny song they sing when they make you down a pint, I can't really remember how it starts but it goes something like: "Here's to (name) he's true blue, he's a piss pot through and through, he's a bastard so they say... tried to go to heaven but he went the other way... he's going (ben: and here's when you start downing the drink) DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!" Heh, heh....

Christmas is coming as well! Now for the big decisions: to spend time with friends here in England, or join my cousin in Belgium? Ah well, whatever, it all depends on the interview that i'm going for tomorrow, travelling all the way to Zone 6... this is going to cost me.

Back to work

Looking at this skycam image of the ECP, i suddenly realize how far I am from home. *sigh*... suddenly all that heat and humidity is not such a bad thing after all!

0735hrs East Coast Parkway 

Midnite Madness at Trafalgar.