Mayday Rocked Indoor Stadium!

hav been wanting to catch mayday’s concert for a long long time! so when i heard they are having their Mayday NOWHERE world tour stop in singapore in feb, i decided to get the tix! but jus nice, i spotted the super appealing OCBC titanium promotion – 75 pairs of cat 1 tickets to be given to the first 75 cardholders who charge a min of $3000 to the card! woohoo, thats easy cos i can jus arrange with merchant court hotel to make partial payment towards our wedding banquet hah. so on the first day of the promo, i charged $3000 to my card.

however, the whole promotion is quite lousily carried out. it doesnt make sense that they will only announce the list of winners on 10 feb (when the promo starts on 15 dec 2011). wad if i didnt win the tix? it will be way too late cos tix will be sold out by then, since the concert is on 25 feb! somemore the 75 pairs of tix are given on a first-come-first-serve basis, so im pretty sure the list of winners shld b out within a few days after the promo started. though in the end i was one of the winners, i still felt that the whole promo was badly managed. i sent them my feedback, hope they will improve next time haha.

 

thanks OCBC for the free cat 1 tix!

anyway, back to the concert. was sooo super looking foward to it haha! the concert started pretty prompty at 8.10pm and lasted a good 4 hours (almost)! mayday totally rocked the indoor stadium with their popular and new hits. the whole atmosphere was great as most (or issit all? hah) ppl were standing almost throughout the whole concert and it was totally enjoyable!

finally got to catch mayday concert!

there were also great interaction and engagement with the fans. of cos there were the usual banter with the fans. but there were more! during OAOA,  giant rubber animals and balls were released onto the audience, bouncing ard. during 倔强, it was a mass singing session and the whole stadium turned into a sea of blue with the piece of song sheet provided. and halfway into the song, the stadium transformed into rainbow colours as all of us flipped over that paper. nice! and wad was also good was that there were subtitles throughout for ppl to sing along and totally immersed in the whole performance. and the highlight gotto be them running down the stage to a specially-built platform to be near to more fans! super close hah! overall very well-thought and well-executed to make the audience feel very involved.

great audience engagement!

from sea of blue to rainbow

the stage designs were simple, made up of many LED screens and with a but overall the effects were good. many of the animations shown on the screens were nice too! and the lightings and the occassional pyrotecnices jus enhanced the whole stage effects. oh and one thing i liked was that there was a strong theme that runs throughout the whole concert. nice!

overall, the whole concert was a blast and with many great hits! enjoyed every min of it, though got a bit sweaty at some points of time haha. mayday rocked!

Of Titanic and Kumar

yest was a pretty packed day filled with activities hah. after hearing positive reviews of the titanic exhibition and MBS’s art science museum, we decided to make a visit there too. ticket was $16.80 per adult (after 20% OCBC discount). before we reached the musuem, we walked past the nice ship-inspired LV shop and went in to look see. nice shop, but everything so expensive hah. and we saw how a chinese tourist pay for her purchase with cold hard cash. gulp.

window shopping at LV

anyway we reached the museum at abt 5plus pm, bought our tix and headed to the gallery. there was an optional 1-hr documentary on titanic that cost $5 each, but we didnt take that due to lack of time.

visit to the titanic exhibition at art science museum

before we entered the gallery, we were each given a boarding pass, and an identity – of an actual person onboard the biggest ship in the world at that time. the boarding pass also contains details like where the person was travelling from and the purpose of the trip, the cabin class etc. interesting!

there were quite a few artefacts being exhibited. and it tried to transport the visitors back into history with its life-like settings of various parts of the ship, like the cabin deck, the grand staircase etc. pretty cool. there were also quite abit of write-ups abt the tiatanic.

another interesting exhibit was a large block of ice for visitors to experience  the coldness of the sea at that time. along the ways, videos were also screened to show the process of retrieving those artefacts from the super deep seabed (at more than 3,000 feet! scary). overall, i find the exhibition not bad. but the price is indeed abit steep hah. we finished the exhibition in 1plus hour. oh ya, and at the end of the exhibition, there is a list of survivors and ppl who perished in the disaster, so u actually find our if “you” survived hah. i did, so did dear hah.

goodbye titanic

after titanic, it was a mad rush to esplanade to catch the kumar’s amazing race. reached there jus in time, abit breathless though with all the running hah. i hav high expectations of this show cos it is kumar. but the 1.5 hr show left us pretty disappointed. not really laugh-till-stomachache funny and many jokes were actually not too fresh and original. ichesnuts 15, which we watched a few weeks back, were far more entertaining hah. quite a waste of money for this boohoo.

the not that amazing race

after the show, we headed to C Nai hong kong cafe at east coast park. reached there and realised that it has closed down! damn sad. it was one of our fav haunts with its live mandarin pop performance, affordable HK food and late opening hrs (was it 24 hours?). so in the end went to old hong kong cafe at east coast rd for our late dinner. sinful! hah.

When “Bonus” is a Bonus

the year 2011 has been a tough ride for the banking industry with the increasingly stringent regulatory requirements and the challenging market conditions. our bank is not spared either. in fact, we are in a worse position than many peers due to our unauthorised trading incident which made the bank lose $2.3 billion.  hence, our bosses keep reminding us to manage our expectations (or rather, dun expect anything) when it comes to compensation. indeed, it was announced to the media that bonus pool for IB was cut 60% as compared to last yr.

i got my performance evaluation a few weeks back, and my grade was kinda within expectation. i personally felt i hav not achieved much and was kind of slack hah. and somemore, im pretty new in my new team. and so, it was expected that i wun get promoted (cos in our batch of grad trainees of 3, 1 got promoted to AO). i wasnt disappointed or wad, really. damn, im such not ambitious hah.

and today was the day everyone was waiting for. but knowing our bank’s situation, we really dun dare to expect much. any bonus they give us is really a bonus alr. people start going into the respective rooms to get their letters. and many ppl were disappointed expectedly. some got donuts. seriously damn sad. my turn came at 2plus pm and i got my big envelop too.

the moment everyone is waiting for

upon opening, was glad at least i got sth. but as compared to last yr, this yr really sucked. my bonus was down 60% from last yr! and increment was also pathetic. sigh. banking industry is really gg downhill man. civil service and local banks are paying far greater bonuses. so when it comes to total compensation, i think we are not really earning as much as ppl perceive.

anyway, immediately after work, i went to get myself a nautica watch that i hav been eyeing hah, as a reward for myself.  hopefully next yr will b better though. and i really needa work towards earning my AO man!

Our 5th Valentines’ Day

we took leave yest to cele the valentines’ day, cos i originally will b having a call from 8pm – 9pm on valentines’ day itself (but it was subsequently rescheduled).

thanks to ms wee and bf who lost $40 to me over mahjong on sun, we got to drive out hah (as you noe, it is expensive to drive out an off-peak car on weekday afternoon, and somemore to city area where parking rates are scary). and this yr valentines’ day was abit different, we decided to do away with buying each other expensive gifts since we are saving up for our wedding. great, cos no need to crack my brain so hard to think of wad to buy hah. anyway we had lunch at this restarant called recipes by shatec, at the treasury (city hall area). as the name suggests, it is a restaurant helmed by shatec students as part of their course curriculum. didnt noe that they serve only set lunches and no ala-carte items in the afternoon. we ended up jus ordering 1 set to share since we were not very hungry hah.

our $16.90++ set includes a carrot soup (nice!) with bread, shepherd’s pie (so-so, still prefers the one from brewerkz alot hah), chocolate tart (great!) and coffee/tea. quite not bad i think.

lunch at recipes by shatec

next up, we headed to bugis for some KTV! dear needs to satisfy her singing itch hah. so we went to the atas K Suites at illuma. it was our first time there and quite a nice place. the system was not bad and the room was prettily done up for a great K session. the room charge was $10++ per hour and we need to order at least 2 items. we each ordered a pot of tea at $11++ each (cheapest drink is soft drink at $10++! blood-sucker). quite a gd 3-hour session we had hah. and thanks to a monday promo where only the first hour is chargeable, our bill was cut from $73 (gulp) to $50 hah.

3-hr K session at K Suites

dinner was at Gyu-Kaku, a jap BBQ restaurant. there are a few outlets and we went to the newest one beside anchorpoint (where zhou’s kitchen used to be). quite a nice place but we thot the food was so-so only. maybe cos we didnt order their top-grade wagyu beef hah. anyway we had beef, pork belly, chicken and assorted mushroom. cos we were still not too hungry, that was enough to fill us to the brim hah. we still miss the “gan bei” BBQ we had in taipei! thats seriously gd stuff man!

jap BBQ dinner at Gyu-Kaku

and though we hav agreed to no gift-exchange, we still prepare sth small for each other.

our little gift exchange

she hand-made sth for me hah. this was the 2nd time she attended a workshop in order to make some handicraft stuff for me hah. really appreciate it and totally love it! thanks for all the effort. as for me, i got her 2 little cans of garrett popcorn and a card hah. a simple valentines’ day celebration for us, but i enjoyed every min of it. thanks for being a part of my life.

our 5th valentines day and counting

happy valentines’ day!

A Gem in Changi – The Coastal Settlement

this pretty new restaurant-bar located in changi was featured in sat’s Life! section of ST. and we decided to check that place out on the very same day hah. called The Coastal Settlement, this place has great decor (think vintage and modern-chic) and has both indoor and outdoor dining areas. interesting decor items include 4 vespa scooters! and lots of small retro-vintage items on display everywhere. also, with many diff seating arrangements available, this restaurant-bar is great for a grp of frens to chillax.

hidden gem - the coastal settlement

great place to chill the night away

we reached the place at abt 7plus pm without reservations and it was fully booked. damn. we decided to take the bar counter instead of sitting outside hah.  the food they served include asian-local stuff like laksa, and also western stuff like pizza, pasta, fish and chips etc. dear had sausage with rosti and a hot mocha, while i had prawn aglio olio with a pint of ice cold kronenbourg lager hah. they also hav beer served in a nice eiffel tower (3 litres!) hah. so nice, hope can try next time. food are decent, but prices are not exactly cheap.

our dinner

think this is a place i will return, though it is so far from our place hah.

Signing of Agreement for Lease

after much waiting, we finally got the appointment to sign the agreement for lease for our segar palmview BTO last sun! our appt was at 9.40am and we reached HDB hub at abt that time. we then took a queue no. and loitered ard the area with the 3D models of diff HDB BTOs. the wait wasnt long. abt 10mins or so later, it was our turn alr.

signing of agreement for lease

the whole process was pretty fast and smooth too. the HDB officer explained to us some stuff and we signed many times on diff documents hah. and everything was over in like 10mins, and we were each abt $8,000 poorer. thank goodness is CPF and not cash hah. as first-timers, we only need to pay 5% of the purchase price. the next payment wll be when we collect our keys alr – expected to be at end of 2014 hah. cant wait!

the plot of land, where our future hse will b located, was jus being fenced up a little while back. and as of now, seems that construction has begun! good that there is a facebook page hah. future neighbours who live nearby will update the page with photos of the progress. nice.

our future home!

CNY at Home

besides the JC gang visiting, this yr my house also hosted the impre programmers and my UBS colleagues hah. quite shiok to hav ppl coming for visit, cos no need to travel.

the CNY gathering with programmers were on last sat. to thank their help in my wedding proposal last yr, i promised them a treat. but it has not materialised cos all the gatherings cfm hav at least one who couldnt make it. so 4 feb was set way in advance to ensure everyone can turn up. and so we decided to give them a treat that day. it was CNY, so of cos it will be steamboat hah.

went to the mkt with my mum early in the morn to get some steamboat stuff – prawns, squids, fishballs, meatballs, chicken thigh meat etc. then in the afternoon, went to NTUC with dear to get some more stuff like salmon, tofu, mushrooms and a bottle of moscato hah! tgt with some other stuff left over from the reunion dinner, shld b sufficient to feed them ba. oh and we also got yu sheng for tossing too!

we started our dinner at abt 8pm (with some ppl coming late). without xiaowei and bf, jieen and cindy, cos they will be very late due to some other plans. tsk tsk. it was a simple dinner, but was nice and filling. great that we finished most of the food hah. u noe how steamboat usually resulted in wastage. after dinner, while waiting for the rest, we started with ban luck (wad else ha). xiaowei + bf joined at abt 10plus pm and we continued with the ban luck. almost 12am alr but jieen and cindy still hav not reached! cos hianyin worked that day, she was damn tired and decided to leave first. after cindy and jieen finally joined, we had the yusheng and had a short catch-up before calling it a day, since it was alr pretty late.

CNY with impre programmers

would be a perfect gathering if everyone could make it early! oh well, as we all grow older and get busier, that is the sad thing. failed to get a complete grp pic, again.

sun was my colleagues’ turn to visit! that was the first time they came over to my hse (except ade) and thanks everyone for coming! some all the way from tampines and punggol and ang mo kio haha. everyone was fashionably late as usual. supposed to reach at 12.30pm but most reached like 1 hour later. damn. it was another bonding session over ban luck (again!) and with some pizzas. lost almost $50 lo! haha but in the spirit of CNY, nvm la.

CNY with UBS ETD colleagues

too bad teng ee, aoi and james could not join us that day. and i think that would be the first and last time they will come to my house hah. as kailun said, “go ur hse is like gg JB lo!”. haha.

anyway CNY is over! looking forward to the next CNY where i will b distributing angbaos haha. huat ar!

A 13-hour Gathering

huixia was back in sunny singapore and of cos, we needa meet up! time flies, she has been in perth for mths alr, and has successfully set up a bustling massage parlor there haha. she’s back home for CNY and we planned mths ago for this meetup. it was on last fri, and all of us took leave (except guangjun who could not).

and our plan of cos mus incl mahjong to cure huixia’s itch hah. so we met for lunch first at JP before making our way to my home for mahjong. we played 50 cents, $1 instead of the CNY rate of $1, $2 hah. actually this rate jus nice la, if too big play also very stressed. it was a slow and long game with quite abit of diao zhng. hence, we only played one full round. and without surprise, huixia and i emerged winners on the mj table hah. we then switched to ban luck and guangjun joined us at abt 6plus 7pm. we continued our ban luck and left for dinner at abt 8plus pm.

we headed to balestier road there, planned to eat founders’ bah kut teh, but too bad it was still closed for CNY. hence, we made do with anothe bah kut teh stall down the road. it was quite lousy seriously hah. the meat was not tender at all and the pig trotters actually still hav hairs on their skin. gross.

JC buddies

our next activity was KTV at ten dollars club (HomeTeamNS – JOM @ Balestier) at 10pm. with some time to spare, we headed to the beer garden beside for some ice cold beer. we then sang from 10pm till 1am and it was pretty enjoyable. super worth it at abt $15 each, with free flow drinks hah. and finally after KTV, we went to hav some tao huay at rochor rd before calling a night.

a super long gathering that stretched 13 hrs! haha. but for our dear fren who we will only see mayb abt once a yr, how tired also worth it la. think the next time i see her will b next yr 5 jan alr hah. huixia, u better fly back for my big day i tell you!