This is gonna be a long ass entry (it’s been awhile since I’ve the mood to type these!) about this new (or old?!) friend of mine… I’ll just call him B in my future blog entries. :P

So, where do I start?

Let’s see.  I was having fever and on MC on 18^th Aug, when I was browsing a local forum out of boredom.  I was browsing through and poking my head into random threads, when I saw someone posted a photo of a lovely looking cup of coffee.  So, out of curiousity (and the way he wrote about the café really sounds as if the coffee and desserts are REALLY good), I PM-ed him and asked for the location of the café.  So one thing led to another, and we started to chat a little in PMs.

First impression – he’s a nice guy.  I’ve seen some of his posts in the forum before and he struck me as a rather wise person, with mild temperament.  I always had the feeling that he was older than me lol!  After a bit of chatting, we both found out that we have eye appointments at SNEC, and at the very same clinic C too!  What a coincidence!  So apart from loving artisan coffee, we go to the same eye clinic as well.  Then he found out that I actually play D3, which he ALSO plays as well.  So, wow, one more topic to talk about.  (But he’s a damn hardcore player, I’m not.  :x)

At one point when we were chatting in D3, I found out that… I actually knew him long time ago, during the CS days.  D:  I knew his then-CS nick, and I’ve seen him before. He doesn’t remember me though, which I’m not surprised, as I was way too low profile back then.  But wow, just that knowledge alone opened us up even further lol.  We were talking about old mutual friends, the old days of CS, etc…

Then we arranged a meet up as we’ve agreed to share a box of mooncakes among ourselves, and at the same time he’d bring me to the café he introduced to me.  It was rather nervous to meet someone for the first time (I mean, it really had been too long since I last saw him – he was still a young boy back then!), yet kind of interesting and exciting at the same time because he’s someone I know (or used to know).  He told me he’s fat (like, used to be 190 kg!) but from his FB I can see his weight has already dropped down to 99kg (and that’s an awesome achievement, I’d say!), and he does powerlifting and all that.  And he kept telling me he looks old.  So okaaayyyyyy, I painted a picture of a buffed, big-sized, bald (he sent me a pic of his shaved head D: ), bespectacled, old looking dude in my mind.

I remembered as I exit Orchard station, I was still asking him on Whatsapp if he had reached.  I didn’t get to see his reply when I looked around the station to see if I can see anyone resembling him.  Well, I can’t really explain it but the moment my eyes land on him, I knew it’s him LOL.  And he’s NOT the way I imagined him to be.  So don’t ask me why I know it’s him, I just do.  (Woman’s instinct, probably?!)

All right, so let’s see.

He’s buffed – Yup that’s right.

He’s big sized – Yup that too.

He’s bald – Nope.  His head ain’t as shiny as the pic he sent me lol.

He’s bespectacled – Yup.

He’s old looking – like hell he was =_=  He was youthful looking, especially when he smiled or grinned.  Goodness, which part is uncle sia?!  =___=

I’d say the first 15minutes was a little awkward… like both of us still trying to adjust to each other.  But after that, the conversation started flowing and… everything was great!  He was absolutely charming and honestly, I haven’t been laughing so much since god knows when.  He had me laughing throughout lunch, and my jaws seriously ached from laughing so much during the two hours we were at the café he recommended.  He was so funny!  In some ways, he reminded me Daniel, the only friend I had back then in poly.  Daniel played CS as well, was a chao camper too, was “round” in size too, loves to imitate people too, loves to irritate people too… lol!

I don’t know. In some ways it was like so weird and uncanny, the way we got to know each other (again) and how quickly we’ve became buddies.  But yet it’s quite heartwarming to know I’ve actually got a new (or should I say old?  Damn this is awkward lol) friend, one whom I barely knew for a month but yet we have become really fast friends.  Hopefully this new friendship can last! Like, really last.  :)

And I’m also hoping something positive would happen between him and the girl who’s been with him for so many years as well.  He really, really deserves some happiness in his life after all that shit that happened to him when he was young.

Anyway here are some pics of the café which he brought me to.  What can I say?  Awesome latte (definitely one of the best I’ve ever drank), sinful desserts and lovely ambience (or maybe it’s due to the company I had!  XD). The Portland cold brew was his, of which he let me sipped a little. It was surprisingly smooth, with only a slight tinge of sourish and bitter taste. I was so intrigued that I took a second sip. It’s really good! I’m tempted to give it a try the next time I visit this café. Thanks B, for your recommendation!

So. *cough* I know I said I was going to post up the pics from my TW trip. But um… *cough* yeah I got lazy again. :x

So. *cough* The haze is getting bad.

Bleh.

Going JB this Sat, most likely. Hope the situation isn’t too bad there either. I want to eat my hang he!!

I should like, really start blogging more often.

*cough* curse this @#£%&* haze.  >(

Like, wow, it’s really been a long time since I last blogged.  Close to four months, actually.

So what have I done so far?  Nothing much, really… went to Taipei and back.  :)  I haven’t been keeping logs and journals of my trips these few years… sometimes really feel too lazy to get my ass down in front of the PC to relive the journey and to sort/post the pictures, etc.  There are times when I really feel like doing it, but the moment my ass gets down on that chair, my mouse automatically go click on that Diablo 3 icon instead… :x

Oh yea, one of my besties got married!  In May!  And she’s already pregnant now!  And Reko’s sis is pregnant too!  Like omg, babies popping up everywhere.  XD

Damn, I should really get the hang of blogging back.  I’ve always love to write, so why am I giving it up?  And why am I paying for this webhost if I’m not gonna use it?!

Uh huh!

I’m gonna go organize the photos now and find some day to blog about them >_<!  Yeah!  That’s what I’m gonna do!

Let’s see…

First, I had the eye infection last year, that plagued me even till now.  I’m still putting prescription eye drops, and will have to keep this routine on till June, before another review will determine if I should be taken off this medication.

Two, after a bout of antibiotics (thanks to my overnight full-blown sorethroat caused by secondary infection), I’m now suffering from post-antibiotic IBS.  I’d alternate between diarrhea and constipation, despite eating probiotics every day.

Three, as if I haven’t had enough of health issues, I’m being diagnosed with bilateral ovarian cysts. Roughly 4cm each in my left and right ovaries.  Meh.  Not too big for a surgery, but not that small either to leave them be.  Gynae gave me a box of 21-day hormone pills, which was supposed to suppress the growth and hopefully make them smaller.  It does seem to work… I don’t have the urge to pee that often anymore.  Review is on the 12th, so hopefully the scan will show them either smaller or gone.

So what’s left is that irritating IBS-like syndrome.  I certainly hope it’s not gonna stick with me forever….

There are just way too many analysis, speculations, rumours going on everywhere now. I shall not add to the ruckus, but just hoping that the plane can be found soon, and closure for the victims’ families please. :(

On a side note, the haze is getting bad again. Sigh.

Suddenly feel like writing these down…. A wishlist that I hope to get some done before I leave the world.

1)  A stay at Maldives

2)  Catch the aurora borealis

3)  Explore the world as much as I can with someone whom I can click well with

4)  Have a karaoke room within my own house

… And a couple more that’ll stay in my heart.

Sigh.

The Year of Horse is upon us!

Indeed, in about 3.5 hrs time, we shall welcome the Year of Horse with wide open arms.  Hopefully I’ll be healthier (no more eye problems, please :( ), so that I’ll be able to take care of my aging parents better!

Work is… well work.  I’ve managed to request (successfully) for remote access, so that I’ll be able to work from home if the situation arises.  Hopefully this year I will make less mistakes at work as well!

There’s a lot to talk about… as usual, but I always get lazy when I come to this page, lol!  So hmm, well I’ll leave it at that for now, and we’ll see when I’m in the mood to blog again!

祝大家新年快乐，恭喜发财！

Something new landed in my hands!

I wonder what it is?!

Lol, OK I think its very obvious, isn’t it? Yup, its an iPad mini (with Rock case and Momax glass protector)! Nope, not the retina version. I still don’t think its worth to pay an extra $100 just for a clearer and sharper screen. And its just a WiFi version too – I’m not gonna pay extra monthly subscription charges to get another data plan for it!

Took the plunge last Friday when they had a one-day only sale at their online store. This only had about $30 shaved off the usual price, but it goes down under $400, which I decided is actually a pretty good price, considering other BNIB sets that many are selling are priced at $400. Not to mention the fact that free express delivery is included!

I had been eyeing the mini since last year, especially when the reading experience on Android is less than satisfactory, regardless on my Note 2 or Tab 2. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Android for all its functionality and customizations, but when it comes to reading ebooks or digital magazines, it just fall way short due to the fact that there’s just so many variants of Android out there and the developers can’t quite have an app that works equally well on all devices. Zinio for Android is fine as it is, but the digital magazines seemed as if they were just scanned and uploaded into the app. No matter how big the screen is, I always have to zoomed in at every page to be able to read comfortably. It will always take about 5 seconds to render each page, and another 5 seconds to render each zoom. It was really kind of frustrating.

I contemplated on getting either a Kindle or Nook as an alternative, but its hard to buy books or magazines in Amazon as they don’t allow sale of such for Singapore customers. And since I’ve already got a couple of digital magazines subscriptions on Zinio, it doesn’t make sense for me to get a Nook and subscribed again to the same mags which I’ve already paid for! So yeah, Mini it is.

First off, I’ve used iOS before. Prior to making the switch to Android, I was using an iPhone 3G. Albeit some features have been changed / added in, the feel of it is the same. It does, however, take some time to get used to it. And I still hate the fact that there’s no back button or proper exit of apps. =_=

The first thing I did was, of course, to download the Zinio app and see how beautiful my digital magazines are gonna look. Epicure was a disappointment. Although I don’t need to zoom in to read now, there’s black borders on the top and below, making it feel again, as if its just scanned PDF pages.

(Pardon the tilt as I don’t want the light reflections on the screen.)

Yup, that’s Epicure. Not good.

Fearing the worst, I loaded AppetiteAsia and crossed my fingers.

Full screen experience! Phew! The layout and everything else looked so much smoother, as if its especially designed for iOS. Very nice.

But I still didn’t get the interactive experience that I saw on demo sets with Wired magazines and the likes. So I banked all my last hopes on a US magazine, Cosmopolitan.

I had to manually tilt this to avoid the reflections while getting a clearer pic on the words.

This is interactive! On this page for example, you can tap on each male celebrity picture to see their respective favourite fragrance. Now, this is the experience that I was looking for! Local magazine publishers sure have a lot to work on, seriously.

Now, with digital magazines out for the way, I then proceeded to check how ebooks are gonna look like on my new toy. I hardly touch ebooks on Android simply because my Note 2 screen is really too small for ebooks. I mean, just a couple of lines for each page. Really? Anyway, I googled a little for some eBook reader recommendations for iPad mini, and I decided to go with Kobo. Partly also because they have an extensive eBook shop as well, so if I ever run out of books to read, I can always buy from within the app.

The kobo app follows the theme of kobo itself (I’m Captain Obvious, sometimes), which is a nice turquoise colour. I loaded my Dean Koontz and Michael Crichton’s titles into it, and it seems to work just fine. I haven’t tried extensively, but it looks nice overall.

My favourite book – Phantoms by Dean Koontz.

Looks good eh? With these two apps and endless magazines and eBooks online, I guess I’ll never be bored on train trips or onboard flights again! :D

That’s what I’ve been doing since New Year Eve.

And I wonder how long more do I have to do it…

Sigh. I wanna recover fast. I wanna go sing!

:(

Sending from mobile… Let’s see how this works out to be, yeah? :P