embarrassing moment

it is still a long way to the year end, but i suspect this incident that i am about to share would go down as the most embarrassing incident for this year, and if not, for the decade. now try to think of the following context/ situation:

• my phone whatsapp default setting was to downloard images received automatically. so, although i tend to delete images i receive mostly without even opening them, i often do end up with images in my photo albums that are foreign to me cos they were downloaded automatically.

• i have chat groups of close friends or ex-staff who, at times, share very raunchy photos. one such example was last friday when a friend texted me in the morning with an image of a mesh g-string underwear. he told me excitedly that he had wanted to purchase such an underwear and finally got to do it. he shared further that he was worried if he was sufficiently well-endowed to fill the cup of the g-string.

now, this was what happened. 

i had organised a lunar new year gathering for my department and had invited my boss. she (my boss is a "she") had informed me prior that she couldn't attend and had send her apologies. so during the dinner, we had the traditional chinese lou hei. and i took several photos showing how we toss the raw fish salad. i proceeded to excitedly send the images to her. as i attached the image, i noted one particular image icon that didn't look familiar. and curious me clicked on it without thinking nor realising i was in the "attached image" mode. i clicked too fast and it got send to my boss. once it got send, and to my horrors, the image of my friend's jewel (yes, read - cock) in the half-filled mesh g-string pouch appeared! apparently, he had send the message to me as i was sending images to my boss and the photo got downloaded automatically!

at that very moment, my instinct was to delete it off from the chat thread with my boss. but i fumbled cos my hands were trembling. and in that state, you know how challenging it was to press and get a "delete" to delete message in whatsapp... and to make it even more challenging, i noted my boss was "online" as i struggled... omg! it took me a few seconds to finally delete it. and i quickly send a message to her to apologise for the picture, as i had been spammed. she didn't reply after that (which was very unusual), and she kept quiet through the whole weekend (which was superbly unusual). i was so embarrassed by this whole incident and worried if she thought i was sexually harassing her! first thing i did when i went to office after the weekend was to head right up to her office and apologise to her and told her how embarrassed i was!

she claimed she did not see the photo and even gamely took out her whatsapp thread with me to show me that particular "deleted" message. and then, she added that that even if she did, she's cool about it cos at her age, she'd be a grandmother if her children marry early, and thus there're not many things she had not already seen. i was like... errrr... of cos, i apologised profusely again and excused myself. something in me told me she saw the pic and was basically pretending not to have seen it. of cos, i was thankful she provided me an exit to this whole embarrassing incident.

black panther

this was such a pleasant show to watch at many levels. i got to see african culture (as real as it gets), a near complete african/ african descent cast, predominantly woman in powerful roles (apart from the two male leads), scenes similar to lotr, avatar, narnia, etc etc etc... what more can i say right? watched it before cny and watched it again over the last weekend. yeah, i am one of those who watched this show twice and boosted the ticket sales for the film.

a must watch show.

monkey king 3

you know the film is trying too hard when you walk out of the cinema feeling like you've been cheated. well, cheated not necessarily because the show was not good. but rather, the story of the monkey king has been well documented, told and retold. after all, it is one of the four great chinese classics and celebrated for its creativity. but in this adaptation, a new storyline was used. it's a story that is foreign to many and while it is not necessarily a bad thing, the inclusion of many into-the-face lame characters and scenes made certain parts of the show quite painful to watch. then again, one will be able to better enjoy the movie if one were to take a step back and take a philosophical look at it. but frankly, who would do such a thing normally?

:-)

weird dreams

i had a series of weird dreams last night... and as in all dreams, i cannot recall most parts except that a lot of things happened through the dream. nonetheless, there were 2 parts that i recalled quite vividly - one of which involved a car, a bright red car and another a doll. here're the details...

this was towards the end of my "dreamful" night. i was driving this car and as i drove, i had to navigate a lot of twists and turns and the road was at times bumpy and at times so narrow that i had to squeeze my way through it. interestingly, the car was also quite magical as it was able to squeeze through tight gaps. i recalled there was one particular part of the road where its width was just about as wide as my car, and that there was a hump slightly off the center-right of the road. both sides of the road was rather steep and dropped rather vertically (not sure to where though). as my car approach this hump, for some reason, i was able to squeeze between the hump and the side of the road without dropping off... and... the scene changed.

that the end of the dream involves an animated character, or rather, not an animated character per se, but a real life character that resembles a plastic doll. it was white in colour and looked like a flat marshmallow man, or a gingerbread man. and it was certainly a rather irritating character for some reasons - possibly its looks or its behaviour (cannot recall exactly what behaviour). and in my dream, i was trying very hard to get rid of it, or at least keep it out of my sight. i tried all means - by hitting it, throwing it away, etc, but i simply couldn't. at one point, i even took a gun and shoot it. the gunshot went though the leg (i recalled left leg). a gunshot hole was created and water started pouring out of this hole. nonetheless, it continued to make faces at me, dance around and got me even more irritated. and a voice rang out - perhaps the issue is me myself, and to solve the issue is to stop feeling irritated by this doll... embrace it.

i woke up after that... 4am. darned, a timing that was neither here nor there.

but yeah, that was my "dreamful" night.

lny overseas

i spend my lunar new year in hong kong again this year.

told myself that no matter what, i will be away before daybreak on the first day of lunar new year. the flight out was 6.05am and i had to check in at 4am. everything went smoothly. took a one-hour nap after the midnight movie and managed to get a grab to the airport. surprised that people actually operate at that time of the morning. and it was the usual drill - arrived at the airport, checked in, cleared the immigration, change to hkd, eat something light and board the aircraft. the flight itself was all too routine for me, and it was a good time to catch up with some sleep before i arrive at hong kong.

having been to hong kong so many times before, this time round, i decide to just not plan anything and take things as it comes. and so, i took my time and wondered around the airport after i landed. had a plate of fried rice, got myself a sim-card/ prepaid phone number... ya, all the mundane stuff, except that i did all these with a relaxed mind as i savour in the new year mood there. hopped onto a bus that took me to somewhere unfamiliar and i had to hop onto the mtr to get to my hotel! i had booked a new hotel that i had never stayed before and managed to check in by 2pm, after wondering around for almost 5-hours! and after checking in, decided to just watch tv and relax in bed. uneventful day chatting with friends over the phone and taking a walk at the night market. hong kong is really a place that never sleeps. it was ever so crowded, even on lny. 

day two was just as uneventful. but i decided to pay a visit to the temples. visited the ten thousand buddha temple (man fatt tze) at sha tin and the tian tan buddha at ngong ping, not too bad a visit. visiting temples is a must for me during the new year period. and i make sure i do the same even if i were overseas. and as for day three, i simply stayed in my room at watch the tv, well, apart from heading out to the nearby library cafe for a carbonara and later in the evening to the nearby shop for a quick beef noodle! but yes, that was what i did. it might sound superbly crazy to head overseas and then to spend a whole day in the room watching tv, and to me, it was exactly this absolute lack of pressure to do what i don't want to do that makes travelling alone such a pleasure. 

the 4-day getaway ended in no time. very restful, very uneventful. and despite bringing my laptop and work phone, i did not even turned them on. had told my boss i will stand by to clear work and work on my slides if there's a need as the annual approval of my department's workplan will occur this coming week and everyone's jittery about it. thankfully my proposals had been cleared just before the new year but just in case, i promised i'll be on standby.

time to prepare myself mentally to get back to work tomorrow.

开工大吉!

新狗年快乐

今年我在香港过年。祝大家一个快乐的大肥年！

:-)

2 shows

it was lunar new year eve and everyone had gone home for their reunion dinner. for myself, i had joined my aunt for a reunion lunch and was not about to feel sorry for myself for not having a reunion dinner. so... i went for movies! two shows in a row! and it was after i booked my flight and hotel for a trip to hong kong! 

:-)

overseas... or not?

i have yet to find a good place to head to for this lunar new year period. have went away for the last years and wanted to do the same this year cos i have not gotten over the whole thing about not spending the new year with mum.

anyway, i had initially wanted to go to hong kong but the hotel rates are simply too high! imagine this - for a small 10m2 room that i usually pay s$70 a night, it is going at 3 times the price now. crazy. i might just stay in singapore this year... it's probably time for me to get over the mum thing. but for now, i'll just continue to search.

haiz.

shape of water

watched this last night. the whole production was really beautiful.

it was funny how after the show, i googled about the guy who played to role of the amphibian man and found out that he has a history of playing all these weird amphibian characters. heh...

jumanji: welcome to the jungle

frankly speaking, i didn't expect anything too much for this show, considering it also starred the rock (i think he's called "the rock")... whatever. i'm not a huge fan of the guy (as you can see). lol! but the show turned out more interesting that i thought. and i actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

the post

watched this show sometime back. very powerful performances by both tom hank and meryl streep in this show. really enjoyed it.

missing my dog

i miss sapphie...

my ns - overview

i was enlisted into the army and was posted to infantry training depot (itd) for my basic military training (bmt). that was in tekong. mar 1985. i was posted to lion company, platoon 41 section 3 bed 5. 

 after my bmt, i landed in officer cadet school (ocs). i was in the 2/85 iocc batch and served my 9 months as a cadet in echo company, platoon 15. section 1. bed 9 (i was the only one to retain this room from junior to senior term). ocs was hell. i wouldn't go through it again if i had a choice. but it certainly holds a lot of good memories for me. how we were tekan-ed. how we were stripped of all our dignity from the start, go through 9 months of hell and emerged as young officers. 

following my ocs, i was posted to infantry training depot (itd) as a platoon commander (pc). itd trains recruits and i was the pc for platoon 26, gryphon company - the siao on company. took two batches of recruits before assuming the concurrent appointment of company 2nd-in-charge (2ic). after my company tactics and basic intelligence course, i was posted back to itd as a project officer in the headquarters until i went for my uni studies in jul 87. 

well, the following links elaborates the details of each stage of my nsf days...

• 1985 - my bmt 
• 1985 - 2/85 iocc (1) 
• 1985 - 2/85 iocc (2) 
• 1985 - 2/85 iocc (3) 
• 1985 - 2/85 iocc (4) 
• 1986 - 2/85 iocc (5)
• 1985 - 1986 - my ocs songs
• 1986 - 1987 - completing my ns