Blah Blah

Accumulated over a period in no particular order:

#1
My office was going to erect a new house for the manager of a project team that has moved over to my side. He was pleased to know that he would be getting a window seat and it's the only open-able window in the whole room somemore! When he returned from the weekend, his new house would be ready and perhaps we can have a house-warming party!

His happiness was short-lived. To his (and all our) dismay, the partitions essentially sealed off the windows because they must be positioned in a U shape.

__\ /___ wall with open-able window
+------+ dotted line is the new partition
|      |
|      |
Understand or not? Anyway, it means a few things:
1) No scenery. Haha Sotong the small fry still have scenery!
2) Cannot jump out of the window in case of fire. Fireman also cannot climb in to save us. Darn.
3) Someone who always hangs his wet clothings out when he's caught in the rain while on motobike, can no longer do so. Smelly!

********
#2
With my current project coming to an end, I was approached by a PM to do VB next year because "I am the person with the most experience in VB here".


I'M NOT I'M NOT I'M NOT!!! Can I erase VB from my list of competencies now? I so totally regret it. I'm supposed to be placing my future in Sun! KNS!

I could only give the huh look. As if she knew my concerns, she reassured me by saying I will still be doing some Java.

But optimistically speaking, it means I will have a job till May at least. Will I get a conversion?

********
#3
While walking with my boss to the car, he passed by a female colleague and they stopped to chat like super best friends. After they parted ways, he said, "这个人在背后捅我一刀。"

Wa O_O

At the lift lobby, there was another female colleague and they chatted for as long as the lift took to come. Not as super best friend-ish as just now. She was going up while we were going down, so I didn't have to stand around looking awkward for long. After she was gone, he said... I can't quite remember, something about she was quite a handful. And that in his position, everybody has to act friendly to everybody and talk to people they don't really want to talk to.

So does that mean the more you talk to the person, the more you dislike him/her?

I remember what he said about the politicking in this company. He better survive well so he can continue to take me home! I will always support him!

All this is so not for me. Isn't Sotong glad there's a pc for her to hide behind? Black face to all I don't feel like talking to!

********
#4
The secretary was busy photocopying stuff for the bosses' meeting over lunchtime. When lunchtime was almost over,
A: 你还没有吃饭啊？
S: 现在去吃！ (and she ran towards the photocopier)
A: 哇你吃纸啊？

-______-;;;

Crabs Again!

It's my project team's off day as well as back to Mellben day after 7mths! Slack the whole day and round it off with crabs, how's that!

The butter crab was good as usual. Unfortunately, this time the crab beehoon soup tasted somewhat diluted. But it was compensated by the crab shell, which had 2 biscuits of roe at each of the sides! Wa damn full after eating them! Poor potential crabs...

While we were eating, suddenly there was a voice repeating loudly over the speaker/loudhailer (didn't see what) "CARPARK LAI LIAO, CARPARK LAI LIAO". We spent a good moment wondering what is was about. Then we realized that it meant someone was coming to book illegal parkers. And yeah, the coffeeshop emptied by half ^_^'' So good ah, got special announcement service.

Sio Ah!

Move aside, 火舞黄沙 and Galileo! Heroes is here! Chiong ah!

The Reward For Working Hard

Boss: I will make sure we organize a BBQ for the team!

NO! Can he just make sure I get to go home at 6pm?

Rose Wine

Slurp~~


Dang! The cork broke.

When I Slack

Completed 山おんな壁おんな (Yama Onna Kabe Onna) last last week:

Very funny, yet not too low-class. Flying buttons, resting bosoms on the table, handbag with tits... >_<

Currently on 火舞黄沙.

Almost exactly the same cast as 金枝欲孽, also about people scheming against one another and revenge after revenge. Quite addictive lah. 32 episodes in all, I chiong!!! Because coming up next in the queue is...

Galileo.

I don't even know if it's nice, but I'll find out in due time *watches the % completed bar fill up*

Ajitei - Real and Fake Food

Met up with W and J again! It's been such a long time... and it's been a long time since I last saw open shops in a mall. Ya, lifeless, I know.

Carrefour@PS. Just stretch your hand in when you are thirsty. Wonder if there's a sensor above the entrance though.


Food time! Main course first.

My jaws were TIRED from eating this. It didn't help when I finished most of it. It's not soft like tofu by the way.

Raw salmon~~ *Slurp*

A slice of smooth and soft tofu covered in melted cheese. This dish is sinfully oily. We also had the potato version, which I preferred.

W had a bowl of salmon rice and J had some sushi with cheap ingredients, as we called it.

Desserts!


Really admire the Japanese for coming up with such realistic-looking fake food displays, which look better than the real thing sometimes. We wouldn't mind so much even if we had to queue for a table, can slowly think of what to eat! How come Singaporean restaurants don't do this?

Maybe because the portions we get change over time, cannot give us false hope.

A delicious-looking shop in Kappabashi Market, Tokyo.


As if all that weren't enough, we went to Daiso and looked at more FOOD! Bought 2 new Tohato snacks, but couldn't find the 黑糖 candy I had before... :( Passing criteria is a chunk of 黑糖 in the centre. Where... 在哪里 >_<

I'm *Almost* Affluent!

From the ST:
"Affluent S'poreans are mostly 'executive warriors'
THE affluent in Singapore are mostly 'Executive Warriors' - typically middle-aged male, like golfing, and travel frequently for business purposes, a survey by global research company Synovate has found.

The regional survey of 11 Asian countries, tracked 1,700 Singaporeans with a minimum monthly household income of $6,500 and grouped them under five main consumer segments - the Executive Warriors, the Work to Live's, the Gimme's, the HUMmers (Hungry, Urban and Mobile) and the Luxury Loyalists.
....
"

Minimum household income of *only* $6.5k is considered affluent? Their household got 1 person only right?

Time to Start Shopping!

Limited choices of overpriced earrings. Being ripped off by having to pay $2 PER HOOK (WTH!!!) for requesting to change the hooks to silver. A not-so-bad time when it's $1 per hook at SOC bazaar. Yes my ears have expensive taste, but I won't have anymore of this crap! Where can I buy cheap sterling silver hooks so I change them myself?

I came across a spree to buy jewellery components at Firemountain Gems.

The cheapest and simplest hook. USD1.49 for 5 pairs. If shipping isn't too ex, it would be worth it. *crosses fingers*

Browsed around and saw many interesting designs. Why not add more variety instead of hooks, hooks and hooks all the time?

Hinged earwire, USD1.60 per pair. Aiyoh so ex...

Hoop earwire, USD2.84 per pair. I dunno what I can hang on it, but for the sake of variety! Heartpain...

Decided against getting studs to save the trouble of working with glue.

$11.73 items + $1.44 shipping + $0.83 GST + $0.70 postpac + $0.50 postage = $15.20

Surprise #1: How come GST is 6.3%? How they count one? But since it's less than 7%, I'm fine with it heehee.

Surprise #2: Firemountain sealed the items very nicely in plastic packets. Must cut open one.

Surprise #3: After factoring the extra costs, my primary objective (the hooks) cost $0.61 per pair! Yay! But if anywhere is selling cheaper, I would like to know. And oh, fuck that pushcart in Bugis Junction for charging me $2 PER HOOK. Hope they have closed down already.

Should have asked not to use postpac. Don't think my items can get smashed since they are flat to start with. Unless they got twisted lah...

Can start expanding my collection now!

The I-Was-Here Evening

The HR organized a BBQ at a club near my office, commencing at 5pm. I think everybody didn't feel like going because they didn't enthusiastically reply "I'M COMING!!!" to the RSVP. I know, we get to get out of the office early, but we already have too much work to do and would rather not. What more, it's not for going home. I think our boss know us very well lah, he said we should recognize HQ's efforts and go if we can make it. What a subtle hint.

As much as I would like to be as late for the BBQ as possible, I had to leave for it at 5.30pm because I had to lompang my boss' car over. If I purposely missed the ride, I think it would be too obvious lah. Nevermind, I plan to leave at 8pm latest!

Food was not bad. Got mee siam, fried rice, fried beehoon, salad, packet Yeo's drinks, the usual fare like chicken wings, otah, marshmallows, and unusual stuff like sotong, salmon, crayfish, brocolli, lamb, beef.

It was really a show-face event. Almost everybody from a particular department has disappeared by 6.30pm. Some people want to lompang other other's car, so they left with the driver who happened to have to leave early. Some big bosses came and also left soon. By 8.15pm, there were probably not more than 15 people at the pit, excluding any who might be in the chalets.

Home-sweet-home.

Edited on 01/01/2008: That night, I was offered a lift home by a new guy claiming to be my new boss. Looks too young (and the car too beng, as I found out when I saw it XD). I was thinking "Are you sure you are my new boss? Do what one?" the whole time. Hope it wasn't written all over my face *whistles*

Sweets Review

Bought some candies from sprees recently. I dunno why, but each of the sprees were fraught with difficulties.

From USA, Tootsie Rolls and Brach's Root Beer Barrels.

From Japan, 王妃の白葡萄 (Ouhi No Shirobudo).

Tootsie Rolls
I originally order Tootsie Rolls Midgees during the period that I was super busy with work. So busy that I neglected to send the spree organizer my address, and this person also never remind me. Think I'm gonna treat you to candies? Wait long long! I emailed her about it and she took ages to reply me that my candies were no longer available (expected, I think they would have melted if she were so honest as to keep them for me) and she could either refund me or send me Tootsie Rolls in replacement. So I opted for the replacement.

So my sweets came via mail... the envelope broken. Apparently the postman tried to stuff it into my old-style mailbox, so hard that a wee bit of chocolate could be seen almost-oozing out of the wrapper. Got 20+ sweets for $3, inclusive of postage.

Review
Tootsie Rolls are chocolate flavored chewy candy, meaning I'm supposed to chew them, but they stick to my teeth, so I would rather suck. The chocolateness fell short of my expectations. Must put in the fridge or it will melt in my room.

Will I Buy Again?
No, I'm not that into chocolate-flavored candies anyway.

Brach's Root Beer Barrels
First, the supplier the spree organizer ordered from forgot her order. When he was reminded of it and sent out the candies, they got sent back to New Jersey because her address was written wrongly. It would cost USD73.50 to ship back. WTF!! But after investigation, it was found that the supplier was at fault phew~ They finally arrived, like more than 1 month later.

10 sweets*$0.20 + postage $0.50 + handling fees $0.20 + bubble-wrapping $0.30 = $3

Review
Brach's Root Beer Barrels are made with real concentrate from A&W Root Beer, to give you great old-fashioned root beer taste. It's a hard candy, melt-resistant. Yeah I taste the root beer, but it's a bit like Sarsi (which I don't like) minus the fizz.

Will I Buy Again?
No. Real root beer is cheaper.

王妃の白葡萄
Spree organizer emailed on 28 Aug (Tue) that the candies have arrived and said to give her till Friday (31 Aug) to mail out. But by 9 Sep, there was no word on whether she has actually done the mailing and nothing has arrived. I emailed her about it.

The very next day, I had a bulky package note on my table. Must be it already! It's my last outstanding spree. The postman had given up on stuffing it into my mailbox and no one answered the door when he went up to my house. Either my mum was out, or she couldn't hear the door (sometimes they "shout" like ants) or my sister was still sleeping (I won't be surprised). Anyway, I didn't want to risk the above 3 scenarios from happening again if I requested a resend, so I told my sister to collect from the post office.

Review
The brand is Kasugai, never heard of till now. Made from a mixture of chardonnay flavor and concentrated juice of highly prized white grapes. This is one special candy man! Upon opening the package, I could smell the wine-like aroma. This hard candy is actually FIZZY (funny that this is fizzy while those root beer candy makers cannot do the same). The strong flavor and fizz lasts from the outside right to the centre, where there's jelly. Chew on it! I love sweets with centres! It has 106g of vitamin C, but I don't care about this.

I left it on my table for everybody. My sister said my mum took one and later returned to grab a handful. Does she know it costs $0.38 per pcs -_-;;

$6.90 + postage $0.70 = $7.60. 20pcs in each packet.

Will I Buy Again?
YESSS! But not from sprees if I can. I think the organizer ripped me off. I googled a few websites and if I did not misunderstand the Japanese, each packet costs 180yen, which is approximately $2.40. The price disparity is so great! $4.50 for shipping? Yeah afterall, the organizer stated that the candy price is inclusive of shipping. But if shipping will not jack up the cost by 87%, I would like to import it myself. Is anybody going to Japan or has somebody in Japan?

Edit: The back of the package

Porte

Mmm~~ Light and airy cookie.

First 歌台/Auction Experience

Haven't met up with J and W for a long time. J suggested going to AMK Botak Jones, so there we went. It's the Hungry Ghosts Festival, but who says we shouldn't go out at night?

I could hear a 歌台 as I approached, but I didn't expect it to be right outside the very Botak Jones coffeeshop! Japanese-like hokkien songs, voices with no power shouting out songs... we didn't want to listen, but we had to.

The worst was yet to come. The auction ran concurrently with the 歌台. Sitting in between the 2 stages, we were blasted left and right. The auction was exceptionally loud for unnecessary human reasons (maybe they wanted to attract ghosts from afar). Maybe they were helping the sound system rental company test the limits of their systems, because I'm certain it wasn't that loud when they were doing the testing 123. As per industry standard, the host talked non-stop, promote the item, how much, repeat the current bid price *100, let out a HUAT AH, promote again, say 来，repeat the bid price again, ask people to bid.... but the people below were more interested in the food. Made the host look like 自high.


They sold a trophy for $2k. Said to help students score and do well in school. That person's kid needs it so badly? Aiyoh trophy got use meh? At least charcoal can be used in a bbq.

Needless to say, we couldn't hear ourselves the whole night.

Need a Better Name?

Looks more like Daily Giving.

CurL

Yeah, the Challenge ur Limits actual day! Learning from previous experience, I was "late" on purpose. Supposed to meet at 9am but I reached at 9.30am. Changed into the event tee and went for a spin at the pasar malam to look for breakfast. The oyster mee sua was not bad.

Before I had time to finish applying my sunblock, it was time for the preliminary race already. Like the previous time, it was just a man-powered cruise down the river for me. We came in second, which meant we qualified for the finals at 2pm. At this time, the sky darkened very quickly.

The floating platform. Don't bother looking, I'm not there.

I think this is a fireworks firing gadget.

Shortly after we got out of the water, it started raining. Sianz. We waited at a corridor to be told which holding room to go. The coordinator tried to occupy us by suggesting that we play peace by the river.

...

Thanks for the effort, but I think I've already outgrown that.

We were ushered into a carpetted, air-conditioned room with some sofas. Wow not bad! I played game on my handphone, chatted with the rest, stoned, but it soon got boring. It was just noon. The speed time passes is inversely proportional to your expectation.

Packet lunch came to occupy us. Rice with fried chicken, egg tofu and chilli kangkong I think. Not bad! Next up was goodie bags. Got not-so-nice JJ drink, beef 午餐肉, salty biscuit, mints, 1-for-1 happy hour voucher at Echoloft (dunno where), gym vouchers, some other stuff and the best of all, free scoop of Haagen Daz azuki ice-cream! But they purposely said not valid at Esplanade. Win liao lor.

Waited and waited and waited. Entertainment was balloon sculpturing, caricature drawing and face changing. The face changing fake one lor, I could hear a click, swoop and the face disappeared into the fellow's costume. Looking closely, he had layers of mask on his face -_____- 骗小孩子one.

It was still raining at 2pm. Upon enquiry, we found that we were to wait until 4pm for the prize presentation where everybody would be a winner. WTF? What medal? Boey tahan liao! Must get out!

Went Marina Square! Bought jeans! Smell perfume till my nose turned numb! Then to Millenia Walk, then to Suntec. Looked at Nissan cars. Dinner was at Sizzler. Quick, before the crowd comes!

The current Sizzler meal promotion comes with vanilla ice-cream potatoes! How special!


The ribs are dryyyy.

While we were blissfully eating, hungry souls queued outside. Wait for us, ya?

Do our stuff weigh 40kg?

Now to get home before the fireworks crowd did. For the first time, we made a mistake of calling a cab instead of queuing for one. Our cab seemed to be stuck in the Suntec roundabout jam while the taxi queue was shortening...

End of the day :D More like shopping trip hurhur.

Work <-> Life

Today at my company's annual brain-washing session, the big big big boss announced that they are going to focus on work-life integration.

Work-life integration indeed.

Non-stop OT since May.
Occasional Saturdays.
Work from home so that I can see the office 1 day less a week.
I miss having my dinner at 8pm.
I miss my friends.
I miss my computer.
I have a backlog of entertainment.
I have a backlog of blogs to enter and I don't wish to forget what I want to write. This entry is a backlog too btw, it's made on 2^nd Sep actually.

My work is becoming my life. I congratulate my company at their success.

Impossible deadlines, with the complexity of the system. Rephrasing, I'm incompetent.

This is really a weird place.

People who cannot differentiate between reason and excuse.
This guy is from the Pastes team, the project I joined when I first joined the company.
CM: Why did this-this-this happen?
Me: Because like-this and...
CM: That is not an excuse.
Me: I know this is my mistake and this is what happened. I don't mean this as an excuse.
CM: So what is your reason?
Me: (names reason #2)
CM: No, that is not an excuse. Can you stop finding excuses?
Me: (so wtf should I be saying? Care to tell me your idea of a reason?)

The moody middle-aged woman
She's been mentioned before here. When she's in a good mood, she's very nice and takes good care of me. But when it's foul, ha! Luckily she doesn't act up often, but it could become more frequent with age.

L suddenly popped by to say there's a problem with my work.
Me: Yes, I'm aware of that already. I am fixing it with the next release.
L: Ok, so let me test something else. (*press press*)
Me: No no, you can't do that yet, that problem is affecting the rest.
L: (angrily) Why can't I do that? I want to do that. (continued pressing) Why is it not working?
Me: ... (will I be insulting her intelligence if I repeated myself?)


The PM who knows his Math.
A conversation between PM and R at noon.
PM: So how long will you take to finish this?
R: 7 days.
PM: So today is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, next Tuesday can finish lah?

I wasn't sure if the PM was joking.

BTW, the brain-washing session was a total waste of time. Dangerously crowded, I had to wade through a sea of people to register myself, wade through another ocean to get to the buffet which I can't eat because I was standing, and punish myself by standing for almost 45min to wait for the fucking doors to open. Then listen to the big big big boss talk about the company's achievements and how they aim to do more for the people. Ya, whatever they are going to do, I'm sure will not apply to contracts. I should have just stayed behind to get more work done, impress my boss and maybe become a perm. And do I care how well the company is doing? Got bonus for me meh? Doesn't matter at all, unless it's doing so badly that they are retrenching.

No Grape Is Created Equal

2 champagne grapes from the same bunch. The smallest vs the biggest. There are many raisins too, but no pictures of them, because they look like, well, raisins. And taste like raisins too.

By the way, champagne grapes are yummy. It's so fresh that there was even a dead spider among them, complete with something white, which I assume to be its web. It better not be bird shit or what...

Edit on 2^nd Sep 2007:
More inequality from my 2^nd box of grapes.

I find that ordinary grapes no longer taste as good as before. Hmm...

Equinox + 店小二 + Gloria Jean's

Equinox
The day didn't start off well. I almost wanted to cancel the reservation, but in the end, my family made it for the high tea at Equinox to celebrate my mother's belated birthday.

Our table was at private dining area on the 69th storey. Not that I specially paid extra for it or something, just that they were out of tables at the main area. Might as well, since the lift stopped right outside. If we got the main area, I would have to walk down a flight of steps. Although the buffet was a distance away, I'm not the one doing the walking :P It's just a pity that the table was not right next to the window :\ In a corner of the room was a table with well-behaved children eating quietly. Why, I was pleasantly surprised. Such well-brought up children!

Aha, no pictures of the food. There was main course food like porridge, sushi, which I didn't have much, because I was there to pig out on desserts :D~~ There was fresh, crispy waffle with MMM~~ ice-cream, wa dunno what brand one! The carbonara pasta was thick and creamy. Nice, but good thing it came in a small serving. The thin-crust pizza was delicious, but hey, I think it's hard to go wrong with pizza :X There's a chocolate fountain, but I only had a strawberry. No point filling myself up with fruits! Not into chocolate fountains at all. It's just chocolate-coated food, which means you eat more of others than the chocolate.

Lots of desserts but unfortunately I neither have their names nor their pictures. Most are tasty. A memorable one was an airy puff soaked in dunno-what (and you can't tell visually that it's soaked) which melted in my mouth. For drinks, there were the usual coffee and tea, Dilmah infusion teas and punch. There's only so much that a 25-yr-old stomach and entering decline can take. O I found that chamomile tea is excellent for washing away flavours so that I could eat somemore.

O ya, those "well-behaved" children went wild after they filled their stomachs and had nothing to do with their recharged bodies. So the usual running around, screaming and laughing ensued, their parents throwing half-hearted "hey, stop it, sit down" because they were too busy talking. The parents finally did something when one kid started bawling. Ya the usual ending.
The bill which gave me a shock.

What is that Mineral charge that costs a whopping $15?! Water? Their water so expensive ah?

Went to admire the view and took some photos before leaving.

Actually, if my mental sums skills are decent, I would have realized that everything still added up to $35 each. Luckily I didn't make any noise about it. It's not my nature anyway.

Something interesting: There are fruit flies in the restaurant. Neh, the drosophila lor. Very irritating.

After that, I went for a spin at Raffles City Convention Hall to look for a toilet while away time before meeting my friends. Wow they have nice, big and clean toilets. There are even comfortable sofas. Next time can get a drink from downstairs and laze here! Cheaper than Starbucks, less people and noise.

Met my JC classmates at 店小二 for early birthday celebration for E. Learning from our lesson, we ordered a set meal meant for 8, although we had 10 people. Or make it 9. Sigh, actually I suggested that place partly because I haven't ate there before, but I was too sugar-overloaded to eat anything already. I just had the white fungus pork soup (can taste the MSG), a piece of mushroom because it looked toooo inviting, and the dessert. The dessert was honey sea coconut, with SPRITE. Yeah, fizzy sprite. Peculiar. We were allowed to eat in peace. No over-zealous table clearers. Very good.

Then it's Gloria Jean's coffee. Shared a ice-blended chocolate with E. Not nice one. Spinelli~~
Partially described in my JC class blog.

Certified!

The blur, lazy programmer is finally a Sun Certified Java Programmer!

As previously posted, I originally resolved to get my certification before I got -argh-, but the planned got shelved because there was no crisis. So I slacked and studied on-off, never intensively, thus it my skills never seemed to improve.


The final push came when my exam voucher was approaching expiry. We are talking about $266.70. Unfortunately, I have been very busy of late, OT-ing almost daily and obviously not in the mood to study after I got home. Left with no choice, I booked my exam for the very last valid day. *the power of procrastination*

So it's more intensive studying than usual for 3 weeks. I bought my exam during a promotion where I can retake once for free should I fail, but it would be more convenient to pass it at the first sitting, right? No movies! Cannot watch my new Jap drama! T_T

I was primarily practising at the JavaRanch Rule Round-up Game, where I should be scoring 100% before attempting the exam. Horrors of horrors, I was scoring like 60% or worse consistently. I seriously suck at modifiers, classes, interfaces, inheritance, threads... Aiyah sibeh jialat lah. It's like I'll still fail CS1101 now, and that I've learnt nothing during my years of work. So demoralizing. Practised repeatedly, until I sort of memorized some answers and starting scoring 100% more often. Moved on to a 45-page Word document of practice questions I compiled when I was last enthusiastic about it. Only had time to go through half of it.

The big day came. I took annual leave instead of exam leave because I didn't want anyone to ask me about it. Like, what if I failed? So paiseh right!

My test centre was NTUC CertCentre@International Plaza. Took my sister's precious Nike jacket along as I recalled almost freezing to death doing an interview test 3 years ago. The staff is friendly and helpful. They have colored CCTV! Wa seriously, no cheating! There's even a switch on the table to buzz the staff to come in. I settled down, familiarized myself with the exam format (my FIRST time seeing the format *blush*) and off I went.

Time whizzed by and it was over. I decided to be kind and fill up a feedback questionnaire, which had odd questions like how I found the temperature of the room. Can change meh? Light a fire? I know can change a test centre, but I doubt they would go to that extent. I received my result slip at the reception (yes, it's instant) and went back to work. Yeah, although I was officially on leave. I didn't want to be accused of slipping the project schedule. Haven't looked at my results yet. Shall save it for later, when I get home.


Yeah my result. What if my boss ask me how come just pass only? *stress* Glad that it's over, and I didn't waste my money lah.

Auntie Sotong

Got to know from a forum that Triumph would be having a warehouse sale from 27^th to 29^th July, at Jalan Pemimpin! So near my house! Must go! I know I just bought 1 new bra barely 2 weeks ago, but 1 is not enough! And I still want to get more panties :P Told the other ladies in my family about it and they couldn't resist as well.

Plan for the day: Hit the sale once it opens in the morning at 10am, grab something within 30min, pack lunch and fly off to work. Perfect.

The organizers gave us transparent bags to hold our trophies. There weren't many people when I reached, so I browsed leisurely. So wrong I was. The crowd swelled quickly and it wasn't long before I had to squeeze my way to the baskets. It was hot (would have been worse if the sun were blasting), stuffy (at the lower deck of a double-storey carpark, which provided shade, ironically), crowded and tiring. So I just looked at the design and dispatched my sister to find one of my size (the reason why she HAS to come). At a sale, you just want to buy everything, so we put anything we vaguely wanted into the bag first. Take first, think later. Chiong ah!

The panties section was horrible. Everything was in a heap and women were furiously performing the routine of fishing-inspecting-discarding/keeping. I joined them. So auntie.

When we were done, we went to a side to filter the stuff. If only I could afford all, then no need to waste my brain cells to think and 忍痛割爱. Shape a bit funny, out. Color too bright, dunwan. No, cannot keep this, got a similar one already...

I think I spent more time filtering than grabbing. Went to take a seat around bored men and children while my sis and mum paid.


I ended up leaving the place at 11.30am. My mum was so happily shopping that she decided to forgo an interview, but ended up the interviewer was late, so she still had the interview. I went for lunch before leaving for work.

Total damage $58 only. Impressive! *applause*