Spare some change, guv?

Yes, the blog looks a bit different now. I'm a lousy coder (despite the degree in Computer Science) so I couldn't be bothered to mess around with the XML. Thank goodness Blogger has some easy to use (if slighly limited) tweaking facilities.

But beggars can't eat Fillet Mignon or be choosers.

I wish I was a girl

I needed to do a load of laundry before a very important fact embedded itself into my thick skull - I now own the apartment upstairs. It's mine, baby!

Actually I've done 3 loads of laundry this weekend. Whites, colours and cat-peed bed linens. I love Jada and her unfortunately permanent cone fixture, but why did she have to use my bed as a litter box?

So now all I have to do is renovate the apartment, furnish it (all I really need is a beanbag and that 40" LCD TV I saw today), move in, throw a few kick ass housewarming parties and then accept the mantle of adulthood that has been hovering over me for the past few years.

I have made an attempt at growing up - I behaved myself (for the most part) at BUM last weekend which meant no one in ACN saw my ass or had to start intensive therapy after seeing me in a bikini. I was subdued but had fun anyway. I'd never been into the pool dunking "tradition" at BUM but this year I decided to join in the fun since I was only there for 1 night. I apologise to Rahayu, Siu, Amran, Nadia, Grace, Yinsern et al for making you wet. After all, I am a sexy beast and it's impossible to resist my fireman's carry and/or dragging expertise.

Now the reason I only spent 1 night at BUM was because my buddy Bong decided to put all the boys to shame by being the first to get hitched. Bong and his wife Rose were the epitomy of radiance on 7.7.07 and I was honoured to be the master of ceremonies alongside Su Yin at their reception. I got off to a shaky start (although Su Yin thought I was being my "usual confident self") but we pulled it together eventually. I'm not ready to quit my day&night job to be a full-time emcee but at least I know all those days spent preparing for the few public speaking activities I participated in whilst at school did not go to waste. Rahayu made a very interesting observation - apparently all my nervous energy redirects itself to a particular part of my body. So I appear calm and collected but 1 appendage on my hot bod does something repetitively. Let me know if you notice this the next time I'm on stage.

My camera is starting to misbehave again so it might be time for another trip to Canon to get it fixed or replaced. I can't decide between sticking to a Powershot (better grip, easier access to controls, pain in the ass to carry around) or switching to a more compact point-and-shooter (looks cooler, fits in my back pocket, I can't grip it without cramping up my fingers). The SLR dream still lurks in the back of my mind but I can't afford an expensive toy right now.

My next toy after the apartment's furnished is a lump of coal. I'll also need Superman to add pressure. I bet no one knows what the flying heck I'm talking about, but what else is new?

Triple threat

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. They also say a picture is worth a thousand words. So who'll win a ladder match between a Jedi Knight wielding a lightsaber, a blogger writing shite about himself and a photo-journalist armed with a digital camera?

I thought of this analogy coz I'm obviously not a regular writer and most of the time my posts are incomprehensible anyway. My Flickr page on the other hand is updated pretty much every time I snap a few shots on my rapidly aging Powershot and every now and then I write a witty description to explain the photos. The points I'm trying to make are:

• Jika A = I post photos more often than I blog (especially since I've paid for a Pro account on Flickr)
• Jika B = My photos are probably more interesting and coherent than my writing
• Maka C = You'll find out more about my life if you browse my photo collection

I'm too lazy (and tired, but mostly lazy) to write a full-blown account of the 2 weeks I spent in sunny USA but here's the abbreviated summary. (It's abbreviated and it's a summary?? This ought to be interesting):

St Charles
My first trip to the Q Center was certainly memorable. Fulfill Demand was an interesting course coz the lecturers were fantastic. I don't use that word lightly. If you ever get the chance, sign up for it. If you don't work for ACN, why not? Send me your resume and I'll hook you up with HR.

I met some cool people, played beach volleyball and footy with some dudes from London (we kicked some French arse), played video golf with the same guys, hung out in Cadillac Ranch and took limo ride to Chicago with 3 Argentinians, a German, an American and a Russian I think.

Chicago
Chicago's architecture is amazing and I liked the way every city block was exactly the same size. I know I can walk from one traffic light to another (1 block) in about 2 minutes. I hung out in a bar called The Loft with Paula (my Argentinian classmate), Dave (another ACNdroid working in Chicago) and Dave's 2 friends whose names escape me. Let's call 'em Al and Gore. The Loft is the venue of the greatest dancing spectale known to man and once I get the pictures from Dave I'll post them (along with the videos I took). You heard it here first. Don't come running to me for a copy of the footage when you see the "Youtube Made Me Famous" show on VH1.

San Francisco
Wow. I don't have enough words in my vocab to describe how freakin' cold San Francisco was when I was there. Nonetheless, it was my favourite stop on my trip. What I did:

• Rode the cable cars. Awesome!
• Biked across the Golden Gate Bridge. Great experience and I'll do it again if someone can guarantee that the fog stays away from the Bay while I'm there.
  
• Saw some lesbians making out. They did not look like anything I may or may not have downloaded off file-sharing services in the past.
• Ate yummy burittos. I'm not using a double entendre for a change.
• Froze my balls off for 3 days.

Los Angeles
The main reason I went to LA was to see my friend Roya who went to King's with me back in 2000. She's a doctor now so I spent 4 days calling her Dr. Roya (actually I only did this once) and comparing her knowledge of medicine against the first aid training I received as a Boy Scout. I also discovered first hand that she meant it every time she said "LA is huge" or "public transport in LA sucks". I walked to Glendale Galleria (that's about 10 blocks from the Hilton) everyday and had to wait for Roya to finish work every night before I could be driven into downtown LA (which took anything from 15-45 minutes, depending on traffic). Catching up was cool and it felt like I was in Hampstead all over again. I also obtained the essential summer souvenir - sunburn.

I'm back at work now, semi-broke and looking forward to a 3 day week. BUM's coming up and so's Bong's wedding. More photos and stories to come in a future post. Now it's time to floss.