Siu Kai's Tummy, Xavier and other stories

Hi. I'm back. My apologies for the lack of posting; my dar dar came back from her holiday and I was busy making up for 10 days of lost time! Ha.

Yup, 10 days of not seeing dar dar, it's like not bathing for 10 days. Oh, wait a second, that didn't seemed such an appropriate comparison. Ha. Let's give it another try. 10 days of not seeing dar dar is like... how about it's like having no heart for 10 days.

Since I gave my heart to dar dar and she took it to Taiwan with her, so in her absence I had no heart. Ha.

Wow siukai, that is unbelievably crappy and kinda gross too. Ha.

Anyway, today's posting will be somewhat random because I don't really have a main topic in mind, I will just blog whatever that comes to my mind. And also, this might well be my last post for a while because I'll be starting my part-time job on Friday lasting a period of 10 days.

After that, I will be heading for my reservist. So, don't miss me when I'm gone. I'll try my best to update too so you guys who are bored (read no life) can be entertained by siukai's crap. Ha.

Talking about reservist, it's my first in 4 years! Yup. Actually I really dread anything that has to do with the men in green. Holding arms and drills have never been part of my forte. Make love not wars. Ha.

That is of course not meant to be taken seriously because if a need arises, you can bet your ass that I'm be defending my country, my loves ones and my fellow people! (That was just meant to make me sound more patriotic so people won't think I'm a selfish slob and coward. Ha.)

But seriously, if we really need to go to war, I guess we must do our part. A man has got to do what a man's got to do.

Eat less that is. Ha. That is strictly for my case. You can throw in exercise more also. :) I was trying out my army pants in anticipation of the reservist in 2 weeks time. (Anticipation seems too positive, change it to in response. Ha) and I was kinda shocked when I had to stop breathing for a full 15 seconds before I could button the pants together.

Actually, that's a bit exaggerating. I was not shocked. Ha. I kinda expected it since I had been gorging myself silly for the past few weeks. But still, it was not a pretty truth to take.

Looking at the bulge from my tummy, I was tempted to ask it where the hell it came from. I resisted asking it because I was sure 1) My mum would think I was crazy talking to my tummy. 2) I'm sure my tummy would reply(if he could) that it was all my fault. You greedy man. Ha.

What could I do? I had to secretly get rid of it. (I made sure my tummy was not looking at this when I typed. Ha.)

The master plan is rather straightforward. I will continue to feed my tummy normally so that it won't raise alarm bells. Then I will go jogging while slowly and gently stroking it, like how a mum will stroke his baby's back to facilitate the baby to burp. This is to reassure my tummy that everything is okay.

Then when it starts to complain that it feels hot due to the burning of fats, I will assure him that it's because of the weather. Darn the hot weather. Nothing to worry about.

Slowly but steadily, my tummy will become smaller and weaker until one fine day, it will simply cease to exist. Ha. He wouldn't even knew what hit him. I'm such an evil genius ain't I? Ha.

Okay, got to stop this topic now. I think he's waking up. Ha.

Moving on, I had a close encounter with the third kind while I was at the library a few days back. There I was sitting on this black couch minding my own business when suddenly he came along.

This strange guy with a laptop slung over his right shoulder and holding a thick comic book in another. I say he's strange not because he looks like ET or something since I thought you might relate "third kind" with aliens or supernatural stuffs. Ha.

He is strange because of his not normal behaviour.

Ha. If you are sharp enough, you will realise that the statement obvious is flawed. It's like saying A is stupid because he is not smart. Ha. Get it?

Anyway, when this guy strolled past me, he happened to catch my attention. So my eyes followed him to see what he was up to.

The strange guy walked a few steps towards the tables then glanced around, looking for an empty seat. To his disappointment, he did not find any. But then he did something rather amazing. He walked towards this lady at the last table and proceeded to ask her whether she could give up her seat so that he could use his laptop.

I was shocked. He simply just went up and requested the lady to move away. Maybe he thought he was professor Xavier of the XMen who could control minds. The lady did not budge of course. She kindly pointed out that she was doing some work and could not give up her seat.

Seeing Xavier's disappointed look, another lady who was sitting on the floor using her laptop kindly invited him to join her since there was an additional power plug.

To which Xavier replied, "May the force be with you."

Oh wait, that's from the Star Wars series. What the hell does Xavier say anyway? "I can read your mind?" Duh! Ha.

Xavier's reply was, "No thanks. There's a lot of germs on the floor." Gosh. There are germs everywhere prof! Maybe he was afraid that additional contact with germs would hasten his mutation. Ha.

So, Xavier started to pace up and down looking for a seat but found nothing after like a few minutes. Then he went over to the other side to try his luck. I thought to myself, "What a strange man!" and continued to listen to my audio book on my mp3 player.

There was this auntie beside me who was reading a book too. The couch was a two seater. This is a very important fact as I will explain next.

I was engrossed in my audiobook, (I was listening to Duma Key by Stephen King, my favorite author) when suddenly a shadow hung over me. I looked up, it was Xavier. No rather it was Xavier's butt. He had his back to me. And you know what he did?

No, he did not tell me that he could read my mind. Ha. He did not even say a word but just sat down between the auntie and me, on a two seater couch!

I was like, what the?! The auntie was rather annoyed because Xavier's butt bumped into her leg while he sat down and proceeded to make himself comfortable. Despite the auntie's and my annoyance, Xavier felt nothing wrong and started to read his comic.

I was really in disbelief. Could he really read my mind? Ha. I guess not because if he could, he would have asked me about some of the profanities I directed at him. Ha.

I looked around, wanting to confirm that the couch was indeed a two seater and I did not wrongly accuse this man. Yup, it was a two seater because the couch was in fact two separate ones joined together. So, what the heck was this guy doing sitting in between of us?!

Anyway, since I was a magnanimous man and I suspect the auntie was not too picky herself, we decided to not make a big deal of it and let Xavier stay. Partly because I was afraid that he was indeed the REAL Xavier and he would call upon Cyclopes to shoot laser at me. Ha.

About an hour later, Xavier stood up and walked away to see whether the tables were now available. Immediately, the auntie and I kicked into action. The aunties shifted herself slightly to her left so that she occupied more of her seat while I crossed my leg to my right. Our combined efforts effectively blocked out any empty space in the middle. I started to wonder whether the auntie could read my mind. Ha.

Satisfied with our ingenuity, I continued with my audiobook. But guess what happened next?

Xavier came back a few minutes later and he approached our couch! I was thinking to myself, if he really comes here and asked to sit down, I will tell him, "Sorry prof. Can't you see that this couch is clearly meant for 2 person only? If you can read my mind, read it now and you will know what I'm telling ya. It's two words" Ha. :p

His distance from the couch shortened and his pace started to gather. Soon, we were face to face again. I braced myself.

"Excuse me, do you mind?" Xavier asked POLITELY.

This is it. I thought to myself.

I spoke.

"Sorry. You. This. Couch."

"Huh? Do you mind?" Xavier repeated glancing at the "middle space" of the couch.

"You. Couch."

"Err.. yah, I want to sit in this couch." Xavier smiled.

What could I do? I conceded and uncrossed my legs.

"Thank you." Xavier said.

I tell you, I'm sure he controlled my mind during our brief interaction. How else can you explain why I went down without a fight? Ha.

No lah, I did not talk to him but he really did ask me whether I mind. I stared at him but could not bring myself to say those nasty words. I was after all, a good guy. So I just reluctantly let him sit loh.

Anyway, the auntie left after a while and Xavier shifted to her seat. So, all was well. Until Cyclopes came along and demanded that everybody else gave up their seats to Xavier. Oops. I think that happened when I fell asleep. Ha.

Exam results will be released tomorrow. A bit nervous. Not too sure how I will do this sem. Will I aced it like back in the poly days? (Unlikely) or worse will I get relegated?! Ha. Most probably I think it will be another mid-table effort. The fight for the champions league spot continues. Ha.

Till then people, see you guys again! :)

Ha. I just saw this quote from our dear Kok's MSN. He's always full of crappy quotes. But I find them rather interesting. So this time round we have, "Why do human fall asleep, only to get up after that? Simple. Get your ass up after every fall in life!!" Ha. Nice. :)

Kings of Mahjong

Went to Alan's house yesterday to have a mahjong session with the gang. I think it was only the 2nd time I played with them. My Mahjong virginity was lost a couple of years back when Alan and I was introduced to this amazing/wonderful game during the CNY period.

I was not really into Mahjong after that first time cos the game seemed so complicated. So many rules to remember and the various confusing combinations to score points made the game more difficult to pick up.

It was only recently that I started to pick up Mahjong again, after Gys introduced me to this online multi player mahjong game, viwawa, which incidentally was introduced to him by Alan.

Dar dar loves to play viwawa too that's why after a few games of online mahjong with her, I got hooked. Ha.

Besides "training" online, I also started playing the hand phone version on my Nokia Mobile. Heck, I did not even know such an incredible game existed in my hand phone all along! I had to make up for lost time as I dutifully play whenever I had free time on the train, while waiting for lectures or even when having big conferences in the loo. Ha.

So, armed with my new found confidence after about 2 months of intensive training, I took up the challenge when Alan suggested heading over to his house for a game of Mahjong. I think they were all happy that they had found a new "victim" to "slaughter" Ha.

I was determined to prove them wrong.

However, let's just say that Mahjong online or the mobile version is way different from the real life one. Ha. Had no idea how to stack up the tiles and it was only after some rather patient guidance from the guys that I slowly picked it up. :)

Incredibly, the first real "noob" mistake of the game did not come from me, rather the honor fell to our one and only Figo. Ha.

For non-believers of Mahjong, there is this rule in the game which specifys that whoever fasely declares a win (Zha Hu) will have to pay for the whole game. The guys were kind enough to grant me a one time "Get out of Jail" card should I declare a false win since I was afterall a Noob.

Figo however, let's just call him the Zha Hu King, was way too experienced for that. Ha. He won the first game but it was only after some sweat inducing moments.

"Hu!" Figo declared triumphantly. But when Kok asked him, "Are you sure or not? You got any Tai?" (Tai is the Mahjong way of keeping score. To win you need at least one tai.)

Instantly, Figo tried to covered his tiles rather desperately with his hands and succeeded partly. Ha. Peeking at his tiles, he heaved a sign of relief after what seemed like mahjong eternity.

"Heng ah, got one tai." he exclaimed.

Ha. It was then that Alan and Kok told me that it was normal that Figo will Zha Hu and we just have to wait for that one chance to win all his money. Ha.

My first noob mistake came after a few games when I forgot to discard one tile after a "Pung" (In Mahjong, Pung is when you have 3 identical tiles") but instead drew another tile. I ended up with 14 tiles and therefore could not win the game anymore. Ha.

This mistake came about because in online mahjong, once I "Pung" I will AUTOMATICALLY be directed to discard one tile whereas in real-life mahjong, I was on my own! Ha.

Overall, I think I won about 3 games, including one Big one with 4 Tais. Figo was the ultimate winner despite his infamous Zha Hu reputation. Incredibly, he had a near perfect game that whole afternoon with no Zha Hu to his name. Ha.

The guys were telling me stories of how Gys used to play Mahjong with them and it made me feel regretful. Regretful that I never had a chance to play mahjong with Gys. Haiz.

Apparently, Gys was darn good at Mahjong and he will normally win everybody's money. Kok said that there was one time that Figo threw his wallet at Gys in frustration because he really lost badly.

"Take lah! Take everything in my wallet!" Figo screamed.

And you know what was the best part? There was not enough money in the wallet to cover his losses! Ha.

Well, things will never be the same again now that Gys has left us... It's almost 4 months now... Sometimes, I think that maybe deep down inside there's still a part of me that has not fully accepted that he is gone forever. When I think of him, it seemed so surreal.

I think I've blocked parts of my emotions because if I don't, the flood gates will open. I guess this is for the best.

No doubt that time will heal the pain and there's little purpose in lamenting what could have been. Just have to appreciate the gang I still have more and remember Gys in my heart.

Next time man, when our journey on this place ends we'll seek you out and we'll have endless sessions of Mahjong. Ha. Don't worry about losing though, there's always Figo the Zha Hu King. :)

Missing you.

Dar dar and other stories

Dar dar will be coming back in 3 days time! Yeah! Really miss my dar dar. :) Though she likes to nag at times, I'm starting to find my new-found peace a bit too much for my liking. Ha.

siu kai ah siu kai, talk crap when dar dar is not around ah, wait till she comes back then u noe. Ha.

Kok was fooling around on msn a couple of nights back and he commented that I was a "free" man this week and asked me how I was going to "enjoy" the sudden freedom.

My reply was simple.

"I'm 100% committed."

That earned me a "wah power" comment from Kok and a virtual pat on my back. Ha. Yah, I'm not getting any younger and dar dar meets my requirements. She's smart, independent, can cook. Good enough for me. :)

Ha. Yah, siukai is a simple man.

I always feel that ppl who can do maths are smart. How they can come up with instant solutions just by glancing at the problems really fascinates me. Dar dar told me it comes with hours and hours of practice. I beg to differ. I'm sure it must be some kind of sixth sense or something.

Maths sense maybe. Dar dar is particularly sensitive to numbers. She can smell a prime number miles away from her. Whereas I wouldn't even know if a complex number sneaked up from behind me and attacked!

Dar dar's maths standard is God-like compared to mine. Ha. However, I have not always been that poor in Maths; I aced it when I was in primary school. Then something happened during sec school.

And I never looked back when I was introduced to A-Maths. Additional Maths. I really have no idea why we needed Additional Maths. Can't we have subtractional Maths. Ha. Less maths? Get it? Ha.

Just for the record though, I aced my E-Maths, passed my A-Maths and got a distinction for my poly maths. Ha. So it seems that my maths actually not that bad what. Well... back then maybe not that bad but now... bad would be an understatement. Ha.

Dar dar is independent too but she also leaves some problems for me to solve. Ha. You see, we guys are problem solvers so we like to solve problems. If a girl becomes too overly independent, the guy will feel that he has no problems to solve, then it will result in a problem. Ha.

Yah, seriously, girls CANNOT be too independent. Leave something for us guys. Like most girls are clueless when it comes to electrical appliances or DIY stuff like drilling holes etc. That's when the guy can come in and fix the light bulb or nail the picture to the wall or choose the latest HD TV.

That is the realm of the man, if the girls enter and worse dominate that realm, the guy will feel that he is no longer "important" because the girls can do EVERYTHING by themselves. Since our cavemen times, it has always been the men who went out to hunt and bring back food. So I guess it's built into our system. That's why most men are "head of the household." Though most of the times, it's just in name lah. Ha.

I'm not crapping you! I read that from a book! Ha. Yah, if a guy feels that he can no longer contribute to the girl, he will go to someone else's place to drink soup.

Third important point I like about dar dar is that she can cook. Not gourmet standard but at least she tries. Mind you, I'm not expecting dar dar to cook like a maid when we get married. In fact, I don't mind cooking myself. :) I love to cook.

It's just that if a girl learns to cook for a guy, it's shows her commitment, determination and that she don't mind getting oily and dirty so that she can feed her family. That is good enough for me even if it means I have to eat the same dish for everyday for the rest of my life. Ha.

Told you I was a simple man. :)

You see, sometimes it's the actions and thoughts that matters. Not really the end result. As long as you remain committed to your cause, one fine day, you will get the result you desire.

That's why I'm working hard for the past few weeks because I want to buy dar dar a nice present for our 3 years anniversary in July. :) Ha. 3 years lei, that's really quite a milestone for us, considering it's my first relationship. :)

Love you dar dar. Muacks!

Had an "impulse moment" on Wednesday and I decided to discover the Southern Ridges as NParks put it. From the NParks website, "The Southern Ridges comprise a 9-kilometre chain of green, open spaces spanning the rolling hills of Mount Faber Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park before ending at West Coast Park."

So, they recently completed the development and opened up the place to the public. The trails link Mount Faber to Telok Blangah Hill Park and Alexandra road.

I suddenly felt like going for a short trek after my interview at Boon Keng. So I boarded the train to Harbor Front. Armed with a 1.5 liters bottle mineral water which I bought from Vivo and an Curry O from Old Chang Kee I started my "adventure" in smart casual attire.

I must have looked a bit strange, in my G2000 long sleeves shirt and jeans. Nobody treks in a long sleeve shirt! Ha. I tried hard to ignore the stares I was getting. Ha.

The impromptu trek was still quite okay, not really THAT tiring. The terrain was relatively "friendly" except the stairs at the beginning that nearly took my life. Ha.

My best record so far is still the crazy long walk I had with Gys a few years back when we trekked from Commonwealth to Tampines that spanned 12 hours! Ha. It was inhumane.

Saw some interesting animals and there was this beautiful bird in particular that really took my breath away. (I'm not sure whether it was really the bird or due to the climbing of the stairs.) Alas! I had no camera with me! But wanting to share this beautiful sight, I decided to give my best artist impression of the bird.

It's really a beautiful bird!

Of course I forget to mention that I was not exactly the model student when it came to art. Ha.

I'm also currently trying out an experiment to determine the effects of mind power. I'm planning to use my mind power to get rid of the distracting looking tummy that has popped out without my authorization.

Of course I'm not going to just sit there and use my mind power solely. That might work but I fancy it would take maybe like one or two eternities. Ha. I'm going for regular jogging sessions and I visualise the fats burning in my tummy while jogging. The results seem favorable so far. Will update you guys of the progress. Ha.

I've got other stories to tell but it's almost afternoon now, got other stuffs to do. So I'll cya guys next time!

Remember, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." "You can do it!"