Now with weddings here and there, I’ve attended a few. Some of my collegues got married and there is one that requested me perform in his wedding. Yup we’re quite close and I would call him a friend more then just a collegue. He is my uncle Lawrence!

(Nope, he’s not old. I just called him that cause it’s fun…One of the few nick names I gave to my collegues.  He’s quite good looking too!)

Yup, he knew about my so called talent. (That’s cause I always brag about it to him, haha!) So far I think that this is my 4th public performance. (Private performances are restricted only to myself.) Well, I agreed to it and thought to myself, “This might be a good chance for me to scream and shout in public and nobody would care.”. Yes. I agreed and carry on to find a few nice songs that suited to occasion. No rock songs, I guess.

The weeks progressed on and I slowly and lazily prepared for it. My work took most of my time and practicing got me tired. Even my “feel” to play wasn’t there most of the time but I had to do it. A promise is a promise.

You and Me by Lifehouse, Here By Me by 3 Doors Down and Heaven by Bryan Adams. These are the songs that I would play and sing. Initially I had 5 in mind but as weeks go by, I lost my confidence in the other 2 songs. Probably due to my night shift that kinda constantly changes the tone of my voice. (Excuses!)

Okay. So the day came for me to do it. “Fulfill my destiny.”. Took the day off before the wedding just to prepare. Didn’t sleep much. Nor ate much either. I was pretty confident about it though.

The wedding was beautiful! Good thing I was there. I was happy to be part of it. To be able to contribute to such as wonderful event. I would like to thank Lawrence and his wife for letting me be part of the whole thing. And thank my cameraman, Kock Liang, for being my cameraman. Thank you all!

Here’s the video link….(mind you that it was very cold there, had to improvise my playing halfway through)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aylTrSlfSu8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjMRaUsMBP0

It’s PAYBACK, BABY!!!!

Well, I went there with 2 of my colleagues.

Taking a flight with Jetstar Airlines, we were headed for CKS Airport in Taipei. It was a 4 hrs long flight. Playing games on the PSP did not even cover enough time before we were restless and rearing to get off the plane. If we were not strapped to the seats, the three of us would probably be at the plane door while it lands.

When we arrived at the airport, it was as usual.

- Queue up. Smile at the custom officer so that my passport picture would match my real face. Get passport stamped. Try not to say bomb or anything related. Smile some more. Get on bus to Ximenting and mainly to our hotel. -

After our check in at TS hotel, we went to visit Ximenting shopping area.

Went to buy the MRT “Easy Card” a.k.a “Youyou Card”. “Easylink Card” in Singapore. After which we went to get some food. Dunkin Donuts! Yup…Food was hard to find there being a muslim. All I ate during my 7 days stay was sushi, McDonalds Filet O’ Fish meal, instant noodle and bread. Well, I guess that is quite a variety now that I think back about it…

The weather there was about 3-4 times hotter then Singapore and dry too. A lot of bottles of “Pocari Sweat” was comsumed by us. Moisturizers are a must if ya don’t wanna look like dried seaweed. We even encountered rain as it was nearing the Typhoon Season during our outing. 7 days was planned out for us by Mr. Tan. It was not a boring 7 days all thanks to him. Going there free and easy was a good idea. Due to the rain, our schedule was made flexible and rearrangement of the plan was made several times. I would suggest that all outdoor activities or visits to be done during the first few days. Cover as many places as possible before changes to the weather ruins your whole trip.

Places that we went to were Long Shan Temple, 228 Memorial Hall, CKS Memorial Hall, National Palace Museum, Martyr Shrine, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101(the tallest building ever)….reached floor 89 in 38 seconds @ Taipei 101……

Okay… I forgot the rest of the places that we went to cause I lost the itinerary…..But I do remember my favourite place up in the mountains. It was raining as well, my kinda weather. The whole atmosphere was almost perfect. I thank God for letting me experience the place. Oh yeah, the place is called Jiufen.

During the day we would go to these places but for the night time fun, we went to the night markets! It seems that they have a lot of night markets there. The used to be famous Xilin night market was not very famous anymore. A lot of shops there or vendors probably moved to another site. Now the best place to shop for anything was Wufenpu Clothes Shopping Area. We went there twice!

Getting a map at the MRT station would be a good idea as we frequently refer to it for directions. Even when it’s all tattered and torn….so get 2 at least. We used the Taipei Tourist Map. It has almost all the places that you would wanna go.

I did a whole lot of shopping there. Yes, people did ask me if I went to the clubs there. Nope, did nothing of the sort. Why? Just don’t feel like it….Kinda regret it a little bit though, hehe… And yes, the girls there were quite hot if ya ask me.

To finish off this post, heres a picture of another favourite place of mine. We sat there waiting for sunset cause they say it will be a beautiful sight to behold. It was well worth the wait. Here’s Lover’s Bridge

I didn’t find any lover there though….

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I’ve been snapping pictures every chance I get.

This is a picture that I took somewhere near Esplanade! I was out walking around with some of my colleagues. The quality is good and the time taken to snap a picture is very fast. I’m loving i. Now I bring it almost everywhere I go.

I’m still learning about the different functions and how to fully utilize my camera. Just like with the other gadgets that I have.

I even managed to capture a picture as I was with my friend Shajudeen when we saw an accident that had happened on the road.

Sony DSC-H3 with 10x zoom, 8.1 mega pixel and well…. the rest of the specs you can get it from Sony website. Good picture quality, fast picture taking. All in all I’d say it is good.

Thanks to my friend Khairil who helped me do a research on this camera. It was a good buy.

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Yes! Me and a bunch of workmates went to shoot each other in a paintball match. It was great fun! all of us enjoyed the event.

A workmate of mine thought up of the plan and went around finding players. A total of 20 people went for the event including a girl from china and a malaysian girl (yes…even though they were girls, they capture the flags when us guys were sniping each other out). haha!

The event took place @ Red Dynasty Paintball Challenge in Yishun, Bottle Tree Park. At 9am in the morning on 7 March 2008, the game lasted till 12 noon. We were divided into 4 groups of 5 people. We came as shift teams, 10 D team shift, and 10 C team shift. This was due to a rivalry of the two teams. Winner would be treated to Pizza Hut during our own shift.

There were personal grudges among the two teams like I have with one…. That was to be settled on the BATTLEFIELD! I didn’t get my target but some of them did get to clear their grudges.

I shot my workmate as he was running for cover. This is what he got after our match. Hehe….

And of course, the winner was my own D team. HahA! Enjoyed the game and the pizza at work! But for a couple of days, all of us suffered aches, bruises from the shot taken and lack of sleep cause we still went to work that night…..

One more thing, only 2 people didn’t get shot at all throughout the game… The commando trained workmate and me…

That’s how old I am now…or should I say how young I am now.

Even though I am considered an adult, I just found out that I’ve not grown much. Why?

Sitting on my off day in the rainy night, alone… I started thinking…I’m not actually happy with myself….Have I become better or worse as a person?

Answer : Worse (That actually came out quite easy…Cause it’s true)

I remembered back when I was still struggling as a teenager. I was stronger then. Even when I didn’t know anything much, I was able to fight and hold off my demons, raging hormones and problems that I can’t get solutions to.

Now that I’m older, I’m slowly losing control of everything. Maybe it is due to my work. Night shift. 12hrs. Working almost the whole week with only 1 day off. Less time for myself.

But I feel that all those are not really reasons but excuses. We’re suppose to become stronger and better. Able to take anything that comes in our way. Be more matured in our thinking instead of sulking and stomping about when emotions flared.

Yes. That’s what I do at work when I saw guys talking to a girl that I’m close to. No, we’re not together. But that is happening much nowadays and I’m getting tired of it. Giving in to emotions and desires… Time to change but still a long way to go…

Time to grow stronger, more matured and be a better person.

I guess I have to grow up again.

As do the rest of the world, I guess.

Yes…Life as a night shift maintenance is very tiring….Too tired to do anything….But need to write something in here….Fulfilling a promise to a good friend that I would do something about this here thing….Anyway doing night shift means that I can get away with a lot of crazy things like not having a girlfriend?? Or not attending important functions… But it also means missing out on a lot of things in life like finding a life companion…And going for gatherings….

Yes….I’m loving my life as and slowly taking my time in whatever I’m doing. Even when my parents are always on me about the things mentioned just now. What can I do? I guess writing in here may help me find a solution…Maybe not…But I like to feel that it is helping me in some way….Thanks Deen for letting me do this!