The runup to X'mas

I really hate shopping for 'mandatory' X'mas presents. Every X'mas, my office goes through this obligatory drill - pick another colleague's name out of a hat, buy him a present up to a value of $15, and surprise him with it during the X'mas party.

What usually happens is:
1. More often than not, you pick a name of a person that you don't know very well and won't know what he really wants
2. You end up looking for a "generic" present like toiletries, towels or X'mas treats
3. The person that receives the gift thanks you and tries to look pleased (and chucks it into a corner of his cubicle/car once he gets the chance)

I think the only people that benefit from this "secret Santa" game are the retailers. Every year, I see ready wrapped "$10 presents", "$20 presents" and such popping up in the stores, no doubt targeted at busy, clueless or simply bochup people who just want to get a gift, ANY gift, for their colleagues and get it over with.

X'mas is really getting commercialized, methinks.

Bah, humbug.

Any xxx for you, miss?

I read an article in The New Paper about being stopped along Orchard Road every 20 steps of the way. Man, those folks haven't seen anything until they've been to Raffles Place!

In the (extremely and excruciatingly) short distance between Raffles Place MRT and Caltex House, I was stopped (accosted) by no less than:

1. 5 flyer distributors
2. 4 promoters (credit card for you, miss?)
3. 3 ppl trying to do a survey (oh, congratulations, you've won our BIG prize for the day!)
4. 2 ppl soliciting for donations (I feel bad about rejecting these kids, but I see them every day now and frankly, I'm not rich enough to donate each time they stop me)
5. And a partridge in a pear tree :p (Haha, you all saw that coming!)

I really feel sorry about those folks that work in Raffles Place and have to put up with this everyday.

And, woe betide those who choose to take a seat at the "walls" bordering the lawn upstairs of Raffles Place. You've just triggered the *easy victim alert* of these promoters, who will zoom straight in, figuring that since you've nothing better to do than to sit there, you have time to listen to their spiel.

Yes, I know these folks have to make a living too. But it really would be nice to get to/from Raffles Place without being badgered every 5 steps of the way.

Wouldn't it be nice?

To buy or not to buy, that is the question

I'm going to KL over X'mas and to HK in January, yay! The problem is that my old camera isn't all that great (2 megapixel only - come on, handphone cameras are now 1+ megapixel even!) and I would like to get a better camera to capture those holiday memories. Suvena told me about a Sony Fair @ Suntec this weekend, and I also chanced upon an advertorial for a Canon Fair @ Expo. I guess it's camera shopping time this weekend :) Although I'm not sure whether I WILL end up buying a camera in the end because I am really broke! Haha. Talk about irony.

Besides the camera problem, I am feeling bad because I am going to miss out on yet another of my "gang's" outings because of work/outside commitments. Arrgh! That's the story of my life: when there's fun activities to be had, they all come together and I have to choose which to go. And subsequently, there's a dearth of activities and I'm hard pressed to find stuff to do :p

Being a hamster sucketh.

JB Adventures

A few of coursemates/friends (John, Toto, Allen & Peter) and I made a day trip into JB over the weekend. It was good to see them again, I kind of missed my "study group" coursemates after the exams ended. I was really surprised when some of them told me they felt the same way! I guess we've all gotten (too) used to each other :)

My Uni coursemates and I were never this close. I guess that's because we weren't "allocated" a fixed set of modules, and so we usually saw a different bunch of people during each class and didn't get the chance to know each other better. Well, hopefully my MAF class of 2005/2006 will stay close and keep in touch even after the course has ended :)

Ok, I digressed. Back to topic. Though I've been into JB countless times, this trip was a real eye-opener for me because it was the first time I took public transport into JB! We took bus 160 from Kranji MRT to the Woodlands checkpoint, where we joined the (long) immigration queue. There were 5 of us and we split up to join 3 separate queues. John and I were in the same queue and we chatted about our respective "queue curses":

1. The person in front of you has a problem with his/her passport
2. The immigration officers change shift while you are in that queue
3. You realise the queue you're in acually merges with another queue as you near the immigration counter

Of course, Murphy's Law prevailed and we were struck by Curse #2 and #3. Arggh! The other 3 were luckier and cleared customs fairly quickly. Of course, that didn't help them much because they still had to wait for both of us to clear anyway. Haha!

We then spent more than 1 hour waiting for SBS Bus 160/170 to bring us across the Causeway. $*@&#*@!! There were 3 buses you could have taken to Woodlands - TIBS 950, Causeway Link & SBS 160/170, and only ours took ages to arrive!

(Tip 1: Take 950 or the Causeway Link bus to JB next time. The frequency is much better!)

Anyway, when the bus finally arrived, 2 of my friends started clapping and cheering and making a big hoo-haa about it. The funny part was that some others in the queue followed suit and started joining in the commotion. Haha. I guess everyone was equally peeved and had to let off steam.

When we reached the JB checkpoint, we found out (to our horror) that the queue for Singapore passports was extremely long, so much so that it snaked out of the building. 3 of my friends (being foreigners) were able to join a much shorter queue for Foreign passports. I think our queue was at least 20 times longer than theirs, not to mention that our queue seemed to be 2 to 3 deep (refer to Curse #3 above). We estimated that the queueing alone would take us around 1.5 hours! Luckily, we met a friend who took us through an alternative route past the border :)

(Tip 2: Don't take the bus into JB! Noooo! It's much better to go to Queen St. and take one of the "yellow" M'sian cabs)

(Tip 3: If you're changing $ in JB, make sure you exchange big notes - at least SG$50 - and not SG$10 notes, because you get an inferior rate if you use "loose change")

Well, after all that "adventure", the rest of our trip was pretty sedate. We went to City Plaza to cool down, had lunch at a duck restaurant, took a bus down to Holiday Plaza (where Allen bought RM$30+++ worth of Ricola!!) and had KFC for dinner before heading back to SG.

Thanks for a fun trip, guys! :)

Feeling Vile and Vulnerable

After 4 weeks of mental torture, the exams are finally over. Strangely enough, I now find myself feeling empty, confused, at a loss. The freedom I craved so much during the past month I can now enjoy in abundance - but how come freedom feels alien, unfamiliar and discomfiting?

During the exam period, I had so many ideas floating around in my mind - so many grand plans, so many things to do, but totally no mood nor inclination to pursue them now. Sigh. I hope this shell-shocked stage passes through because it's making me totally depressed.

It doesn't help that the Significant Other hasn't been having a good week either. He's up to his ears in work and can only get away close to 8pm these days. After dinner, he ends up logging in too late, misses out on raids & XP, and goes to bed moody and feeling as if the evening's been wasted. I feel bad for him, but what's making it worse is that there is nothing I can do to help. Paying $25 for a month's subscription and close to $75 for a game expansion that I'm only going to touch for a month just isn't an option for me, especially since I'm totally, absoultely broke this month.

Bleah. Enough of feeling sorry for myself. I shall comfort myself with a root beer and come back to re-open my blog properly when I'm in a better mood :P