Mobile and Internet

As you all know internet is essential for life so after I got my employment pass signing up for an internet connection was my number one priority (I was using my house mates wifi but it drops out a lot and is quite unreliable).

The minimum internet plan from Singtel was 60 bucks a month unlimited data- wayy out of my budget. So I decided to sign up for a mobile plan first. To my suprise, the minimum plan with data was 40 bucks a month with 12gb. 12gb!

I thought to myself - wouldn't it be great if I could use that data on my laptop? I mean mobile data speeds in SG are ridiculous. After a bit of searching I discovered this tethering business and long story short it works.

This shit is the bomb! Only downside is my phone gets hot as. =(

Mr Tai

Never felt more grown up in my life.

Gonna ride my bike untill I get home

Bought that bike today! 50 bucks... sick maateee

The chain fell off as soon as I got on and got stuck badly between the gears but after a bit of jigglin wigglin with my handy dandy pliers (thanks Amanda) I got the chain back on and rode to the hawker center in my thongs (old man sick kent style).

After a chicken steak I went for a fat cruise down the river path. Sick views! Gonna take it to the East Coast park next week. Can't wait, hope it doesn't get stolen before then!


Feels like: 

Happy friday!!!

Went to Universal Studios on Friday for a uhh site visit...

Was koota! The facades are well done and it really feels like your in a different world. I really liked just walking around and exploring the detail in each land. My favorite was probably New York - so many alleyways ;)



My colleagues had to leave so I walked around by myself for a while and ran into Kung Fu panda. Lucky!







On my way home I got a haircut at this place called qb. Was quite novel.

First I payed ten bucks into a machine that gave me a card which I gave to the hairdresser. Then she cut my hair and instead of washing my hair she vacuumed the loose hair out. Then when I left I got to keep the comb that she used to cut my hair. Bonus!

Moving upstairs

Our whole office is moving up stairs from the 33rd floor to the 39th floor. The desks are heaps smaller and there is like zero privacy. Looks a lot like a library study area... =/

 I can see my apartment block from my work place now and my work place from my room window. haha



Oh and I might be buying a bicycle on the weekend,

In the ghetto

one of the good things about singapore is that although the public housing doesnt have first class gym facilities, they still get something.

Some of them are pretty hard core like this one. This one lets the old kents go hard on the cardio.



Others are more stock like this inclined sit up bench.


And my favorite - the chin up bars. In the background you can see a river I jog along and a pole on a tire i tried to lift but there's no comfortable position to do it. Any ideas? I was thinking just holding it and doing squats. 

My area has a large elderly population and a fair few of them are pretty fit. I see a fair few topless old kents struttin their stuff around the local food market.

Midnight snack

2 dollar cheeseburger, 2 dollar mc chicken and a 300 meter walk. Kootaaaaaa

Same same but different

Today I spent the day with a dude from a choy lay fut team. It was their anniversary so he invited me to come see some performances and have lunch/dinner. Really nice people. One of the dudes bought me breakfast and didn't eat himself.

SG, SG, Ipoh,

Besides the Singaporean school, teams from KL, Ipoh, HK and Canton came to celebrate with them. All up there were about 250-300 people all under the same name. Their LD is pretty good - lively and very traditional.

Elemental Chang - they put oranges on the characters and a lettuce in the middle

 In the morning they had a ceremony where all the elders made offerings to Guan Gong, lighted incents and prayed. I checked out their training hall which had some pretty koota looking weapons. I asked around annd found out that they get their lions from Canton and Singapore. A lion head here is about $200SG although it looks smaller and slightly lower in quality than the Siows we have back home.

Entrance and top of the altar. Koota Guan Gong painting

I watched a Dim Jing during dinner that went for about 15 minutes. The lion was blind folded, they read poems and threw 2 small bags of some kind of white powder on the floor.They full on wrap the leaves and ribbon to the horn with industrial sticky tape.

Blind folded lion before dim jing

 During the dinner representatives of the schools performed forms -juniors first then more senior as the night progressed. The quality of the KF was really good. Good stances, good power, good energy. The dudes from Ipoh and KL are top notch. are-ee-ess-pee-ee-cee-tee

My phone was going nuts and so this guy is headless

 Among the crew there were 3 daughters of one of the Sifu. Honestly when i first saw them I thought they were pampered princesses but then they did some pretty fkn good forms and later we were talking in a group. I have got to say they were extremely passionate about their LD and their KF.

Sorry boys no pic for this one but here's a fish they kept at the back

 I have a whole bunch of videos but I probably won't upload them. I'll show you guys when I get back.

All in all I was quite happy to see a group of people dedicated to tradition and traditional fut san in a country dominated by Hok San style and have been thoroughly motivated to start training by myself. Might join that Hung Gar school Tjia was talking to me about. I've already been going for runs and light workouts but I think its time to start doing KF again. To all my Xiong Di back in Melbourne - go hard or go home.

massive selection of broad swords

No waste.

So first class honors for engineering at Monash is 75 and I got my results today.

kootaaaa

Mingaassmm

Visited the Minga yesterday.

For those who weren't there, she was our receptionist when we were on holiday here. aaand She's doing "fishball cheeks".

She had a fever and still worked 8 hours no break. Wot a haaaard kenttt.

Umm yea. Pillows and toast. It's pretty good.

MTV Cribs

Welcome to my crib ya'll. Let me take you for a tour.

1. On the left is my double bed. Sometimes I sleep on it.
2. Next to the bed is my suitcase/ bedside table. It can support AC/Fan remotes, phone, tissues and cans of beer
3. On the wall is a poster from my most righteous friend - you know who it is.
4. On the table:  
• bottles of 100 plus - essential for ion replacement after 2 litres of booty sweat a day
• Cereal for eating
• Laptop for doing laptop things
• Toilet paper for... blowing my nose...
• Fake paul frank towel which is so thin it doesn't really dry but its better than shake-drying
• Tiger beer for drinking 
5. Bottom right corner, my pile of dirty clothes - haven't bought a laundry basket yet. 

Banana

The other day i bought some bananas. Four for 99c.

Last night they started to get too ripe so i ate them all.
Probably shouldn't have cause today when i got off the bus I had to run to the office toilet.  

Biggest shit ever.

Today i was walking and

I saw a frog.

Maybe I should buy a tank and keep him... 

I will name him Kermit. There will be many like him  but he will be mine.

Fairprice is a supermarket

I eat home brand cocopops for breakfast out of a mug. Milk is like 4 bucks a litre here so pretty ridiculous.

Working in a engineering office feels like working in a uni comp lab. Everyone is heads down doing their own thang except a few kents arguing for an hour about some shit.

8:30am - 5:30pm + unpaid overtime. Chock n rolllllllll!!!!

New life new closet

Pretty neat huh? See how long this lasts... Daily work attire in sg is pretty informal - no jacket, no tie. I wore a tie on my first day. After my 2 minute walk to my bus stop i was drenched in sweat. Was the caaaaaactus.

Farewell

A shift work bbq was followed by an awesome night with awesome friends at Goldband kareoke "restaurant" in Box Hill.

Many good sessions. MVP goes to the Hau/ Ivan duo who sang  for about 11 hours straight.

Miss drinking with these guys...

Oh and thanks to Jamie (i think) who teleported me home.

Feels like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAjiiEOzOV8