千九百七十四：Festivities

View of the Esplanade from the SkyPark

The festivities are upon us! 2011 is coming to an end and it's been a lazy cheerful mode in the country. With so much excitement in the air, of many things that happened, the major incident being  the SMRT breaking down leading to people being unable to buy their presents - seems abit stupid to me because can't they take buses or cabs? or just that the news programs all happen to interview dumbos?

I haven't had a Christmas in Singapore for 2 years, and it was nice being around for gifts exchanges & Xmas dinners which really added to the atmosphere compared to me being alone at home during the non-public holiday in Japan usually. Visited the Art Science museum, managed to see the Titanic & Cartier exhibition as well, ($24 for Singaporeans - ask for the Singaporean prices at the counter!) and despite the wet weather over the past week, it has been pretty good in terms of events so far. I am feeling better in terms of health, perhaps I can resume light running in a week or so. Met up with secondary school friends as well, & despite the fiasco at the end of the dinner, we had a pretty good time catching up.

A wedding lunch on New Year's eve, parents' wedding anniversary dinner next week or today probably.. Seems like the year will end pretty well :)

千九百七十三：Kinect

everyone wanted a shot of the rainbow

I think I am very forgetful nowadays. I can barely remember what I did last week, or the week before. Last week was the xmas lunch on friday (received chocolates for the gift exchange) and the food was only so-so despite being at the Raffles Hotel Bar & Billiards room. Convinced my parents to buy the Kinect on Sunday after lunch, and it has been quite fun so far. I must warn everyone not to buy the 4GB system because it is a scam! 4GB is barely enough (became 1.2GB after I updated the XBOX OS) it's like buying a 16GB iphone only to realised the OS takes up 10GB! ... quite angry at this, no choice but to buy an external xbox hard disk.

Another exciting moment was when we went to see the A&F models on Wednesday before we went to shoot the xmas lights at Orchard. Thanks to James & his super camera, the shots of the models & me turned out great :D hehehehe, so happy to have managed to catch them just before they left at 7pm. Borrowed the Pen from Julius' brother, it was quite good! lightweight (lighter than I had thought) and good quality pictures generally, but the price is still the obstacle to purchasing it.

Desaru day trip tomorrow, hope I don't feel sick or anything in the car. Work has been slow so far (maybe everyone is in the Christmas mood already) ..

It's almost 2012, the year went by in a flash!

千九百七十二：Singapore Marathon 2011

Runners heading to the finishing line

I am sad (embarrassed) to say that I didn't run my last planned race of the year due to some unforeseen circumstances. However I did go to support my colleagues & friends.

After seeing a few races in Japan go smoothly, I must say the Singapore one seems very disorganised! Long queues at bag deposits; no cut off times, so many barriers to deter supporters, too many people for all events (too many people crowding the finishing area), too many walkers (blocking photos of the marathoners). The only thing better was the pacers which were very visible in SG (& GC) with their  balloons and costumes. I couldn't see the pacers in Japan at all, all they had were the timings stuck on their backs (who can see those from afar?!)

After a morning at the marathon we headed to Tiong Bahru market for lunch & I got to eat my favourite chicken rice. Not something big to be happy about, but I guess nothing beats the real chicken rice in Singapore.

a Jack Russell outside Tiong Bahru Market

It's been non-stop eating (or at least feels so to me) of my favourite foods so far, even though I haven't had much appetite since last week. The volume of food I can take in is reduced though, hopefully this gets better over the next 2 months.

Not much thoughts so far, been feeling tired easily & discovered some hurtful stuff that I shall try to not think about (which the more I try, the more I end up thinking about it & feeling angry and sad). argh!!!

The least I can do is not let myself be hurt by people I care about anymore. But how? Build a wall around me?