Round 32: Updates finally!! Short Note: Yes, Stan the Man is back!! It's really been a long long "vacation" from Hajime No Stan - my vacation being office-work and lessons. Yes yes, I'm painfully aware how long it has been since the last update. Rest assured, I will be grinding my ass to update the blog and bring it up to date as hard as I can.Now what did came into your head ? No naughty thoughts eh !! ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*So, after a whole day for Nagoya, the gf and I thought it a good idea to unwind in Kyoto despite the local rainy forecast. After all there were still a lot more for me to sight-see here.We took the bus and headed to the city centre. First up was a quick lunch.Kayo ordered spaghetti, I a hamburger steak with egg and we shared a little pot of shrimp gelatin. Nothing too fancy but at a tag of around 2000 Yen, it was satisfying.The rest of the day was pure window shopping and enjoying the urban treats of the shopping malls. Kayo led me into a Manga book shop and once inside, something familiar caught my eye.Bleach!This got me pretty excited, although on hindsight, given that the anime was broadcasted by TV Tokyo, it was only logical. A few minutes of searching, and I found my the Manga series from my favourite Anime.Hajime No Ippo! The Fighting!I was so tempted to buy one of the Ippo Manga, but decided against it. Perhaps once after I've improved my Japanese to reading level.Along the way, we also saw a girl band, doing what seemed like a promotional gig.Before we decided to head home to cook dinner, the gf and I saw something, which we knew we had to do today, and especially in Japan too!Any ideas what it could have been?....................Print Club! of course !CW: Me taking a shot of the ceiling inside the photo booth,the gf programming the styles for the photos anda shot of myself in front of the camera lensIn the next post, which I promise, will not be like, in another 4 months or so, the spoils and joys of Osaka from my eyes shall indeed be shared.Bis gleich!! Round 32: Updates finally!! Short Note: Yes, Stan the Man is back!! It's really been a long long "vacation" from Hajime No Stan - my vacation being office-work and lessons. Yes yes, I'm painfully aware how long it has been since the last update. Rest assured, I will be grinding my ass to update the blog and bring it up to date as hard as I can.Now what did came into your head ? No naughty thoughts eh !! ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*So, after a whole day for Nagoya, the gf and I thought it a good idea to unwind in Kyoto despite the local rainy forecast. After all there were still a lot more for me to sight-see here.We took the bus and headed to the city centre. First up was a quick lunch.Kayo ordered spaghetti, I a hamburger steak with egg and we shared a little pot of shrimp gelatin. Nothing too fancy but at a tag of around 2000 Yen, it was satisfying.The rest of the day was pure window shopping and enjoying the urban treats of the shopping malls. Kayo led me into a Manga book shop and once inside, something familiar caught my eye.Bleach!This got me pretty excited, although on hindsight, given that the anime was broadcasted by TV Tokyo, it was only logical. A few minutes of searching, and I found my the Manga series from my favourite Anime.Hajime No Ippo! The Fighting!I was so tempted to buy one of the Ippo Manga, but decided against it. Perhaps once after I've improved my Japanese to reading level.Along the way, we also saw a girl band, doing what seemed like a promotional gig.Before we decided to head home to cook dinner, the gf and I saw something, which we knew we had to do today, and especially in Japan too!Any ideas what it could have been?....................Print Club! of course !CW: Me taking a shot of the ceiling inside the photo booth,the gf programming the styles for the photos anda shot of myself in front of the camera lensIn the next post, which I promise, will not be like, in another 4 months or so, the spoils and joys of Osaka from my eyes shall indeed be shared.Bis gleich!! Round 31: Nagoya, Toyota and Dinner with an old Friend. It took me a good 2 days of resting and lots of warm simple foods, before my system finally recovered well enough to be digesting normal meals. During which, the gf, like the good nurse she's thinking of training to become, took my care, made my meals and even brought me to a hair salon for a new hair style.Because of my food poisoning, Kayo and I had to call up the Toyota factory in Nagoya and cancel our tour appointment originally planned on Tuesday. Instead we changed our itinerary to the Toyota Museum of Industry and Technology, which was located in the city centre instead. It was also a better decision so that the whole mechanical mumbo-jumbo wouldn't bore Kayo.The Friday morning started out slightly cold and foggy. But seeing the mist at Kyoto Main train Station(Hbf in German for short), I felt relieved. Foggy or rainy mornings are a sign that the weather later of the day would turn out just fine~~Nagoya is some 105km from Kyoto. To reach there, we had to make 2 train transfers, the station names of which I have conveniently forgotten. I will correct this line of the post once I get to ask the gf again lol.Because of the 2-hour long trip(which accidentally ended up taking up more than 4 hours because our dear Kayo-chan read the wrong signs*ahem*), we decided to buy lunch to eat in the train. So at Kyoto Hbf, we looked around and decided on green tea and onigiri.It wasn't my first time trying these flavoured rice balls as Kayo and I had made some during summer for our trip to Paris. I picked two - Tuna with Mayo and salmon while Kayo got 2 of her favourites - Umeboshi(sour plum) and Okaka. We always laugh whenever we see or say Okaka onigiri in supermarkets, simply because the German word "Kacke", which is pronounced as "kac-ka", means "scheiße" or shit. LOLWhen we finally reached the Toyota Museum, it was close to 4pm. Despite the lateness, we entered and started our tour of the museum.In a nutshell, the museum consists of 3 sections: the early days of Toyota when the first automatic looming machine was invented and the technical developments from there...The first automatic Looming MachineA German AC Generatorthe shift to automobile production....Gallery of engine modelsGallery of earlier Toyota Modelsand the development of the Toyota Production System(TPS).The Toyota Production System Process Flow for AutomobilesThe Automobile Assembly LineI couldn't glean as much insight about their TPS, other than the visit to the Ford Production Plant in Michigan and subsequently to the supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly when the pioneers formed their first inspiration, information which wasn't new. But it was certainly interesting for both Kayo and I.We were almost ending our trip when we saw this sign:Technoland? *Imagines dark room streaked with white strobe lights and brimming with hordes shaking their bodies and heads to the mixes of Van Dyke and Tiesto*But of course, in the Toyota Museum, you have to expect something else..A room full with mechanical toys!Kayo and I went in like excited kids, peering curiously at the different equipment. We eventually tried almost everything that was there on display. Some required us to pedal slowly to rotate mirrors, cycle as fast as we could to melt ice and create a mini-shower and play with blocks to connect some circuit. It reminded me so much of the Singapore Science Centre from my primary school days.The sun had already set when we finally left the museum at 1645. We were to meet up with an old friend, Martin, for dinner at 1700 hours. The meeting point was the Nagoya Hbf which was a couple stops away.Hurrying inside the spacious Hbf, we were greeted with a sea of human traffic. It was rather incredible for me, been accustomed to a more relaxed rush hour in Mannheim, where the people, just don't really rush that much. Making our way through the buzz, I felt for a moment, I was back in City Hall in Singapore lol.Although Martin is roughly half a head taller than me, locating him in this madness was no small task. So we called him on his phone and after a couple of false turns, we found him waiting for us right at the centre of the Hbf.Presenting: Martin Siebenhaare ( meaning: Seven Hairs, literally!)It was really good to see him again after some 18 months. He had left for Japan for exchange in Summer 2006 and had extended his stay there after 6 months. We shook hands and hugged. The feeling of seeing another familiar face in a foreign land, and speak German(well,ja again!) was quite awesome. I could see that he was also excited to meet someone from Mannheim again.Chatting animatedly in German, we made our way out of hbf and into the streets. For dinner, we let Martin pick out one of his usual eateries. Unfortunately amid the excitement, I forgot the name of the restaurant or to take photos of the exterior.Aiya, like it matters to you anyway, right?After all that travelling and walking around earlier today, Kayo and I did had a good appetite. A little something to awake the taste buds: fresh peas in pods and tako wasabi !(CW): Fresh raw octopus marinated in wasabi. Absolutely delicious!Something similar to claypot rice & grilled pork - the latter was good!Fried Udon with white cabbage and bacon - Yum!After this much and 2 beers, I was still hungry! So I ordered one more...Fried Udon with white cabbage and bacon!That hit the spot, and I was finally satisfied. As expected, Martin and I spent a great deal catching up on the going-ons we had.After dinner, Martin offered to show us around. Which reminded me - Kayo and I had not explored the city nor the Christmas decorations yet! Translation = Photo Op!(CW): Christmas scenery on a mall, the symbol for Nagoya: A Golden Orca or "Kin no Shachihoko",a Christmas tree formed from office lights on different floors of a building.Unsurprisingly, 3 hours just went past just like that *snap*.Martin had classes the next day, so he had to be heading back to his hostel, which was about 1 hour from the city. It was also already late for tired us. He accompanied us back to Nagoya Hbf and left shortly after we boarded our train.On the ride back, Kayo and I didn't speak much - we just went through the photos we had taken. To stay awake till we reach Kyoto, we took turn playing Germ Buster on her DS Lite.Some 100 minutes later, we stepped into Kyoto Hbf and were greeted with this huge Christmas decorations. Seeing the other couples gathered on the steps, Kayo couldn't resist and had to pull me along to just join the other couples on the steps and bask in the warm glow.** Otsukare sama desu ~~ **And so on that exhausted note, we ended our day with a hot bath together back in her apartment. In the next post, I'll be blogging about our trip to Osaka, Famous City of Grilled Crabs and having the Japanese version of Wally from "Where's Wally?". Now give yourself a nice pat on the back for having read all these. Go grab a beer - you know you've deserved it! Round 31: Nagoya, Toyota and Dinner with an old Friend. It took me a good 2 days of resting and lots of warm simple foods, before my system finally recovered well enough to be digesting normal meals. During which, the gf, like the good nurse she's thinking of training to become, took my care, made my meals and even brought me to a hair salon for a new hair style.Because of my food poisoning, Kayo and I had to call up the Toyota factory in Nagoya and cancel our tour appointment originally planned on Tuesday. Instead we changed our itinerary to the Toyota Museum of Industry and Technology, which was located in the city centre instead. It was also a better decision so that the whole mechanical mumbo-jumbo wouldn't bore Kayo.The Friday morning started out slightly cold and foggy. But seeing the mist at Kyoto Main train Station(Hbf in German for short), I felt relieved. Foggy or rainy mornings are a sign that the weather later of the day would turn out just fine~~Nagoya is some 105km from Kyoto. To reach there, we had to make 2 train transfers, the station names of which I have conveniently forgotten. I will correct this line of the post once I get to ask the gf again lol.Because of the 2-hour long trip(which accidentally ended up taking up more than 4 hours because our dear Kayo-chan read the wrong signs*ahem*), we decided to buy lunch to eat in the train. So at Kyoto Hbf, we looked around and decided on green tea and onigiri.It wasn't my first time trying these flavoured rice balls as Kayo and I had made some during summer for our trip to Paris. I picked two - Tuna with Mayo and salmon while Kayo got 2 of her favourites - Umeboshi(sour plum) and Okaka. We always laugh whenever we see or say Okaka onigiri in supermarkets, simply because the German word "Kacke", which is pronounced as "kac-ka", means "scheiße" or shit. LOLWhen we finally reached the Toyota Museum, it was close to 4pm. Despite the lateness, we entered and started our tour of the museum.In a nutshell, the museum consists of 3 sections: the early days of Toyota when the first automatic looming machine was invented and the technical developments from there...The first automatic Looming MachineA German AC Generatorthe shift to automobile production....Gallery of engine modelsGallery of earlier Toyota Modelsand the development of the Toyota Production System(TPS).The Toyota Production System Process Flow for AutomobilesThe Automobile Assembly LineI couldn't glean as much insight about their TPS, other than the visit to the Ford Production Plant in Michigan and subsequently to the supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly when the pioneers formed their first inspiration, information which wasn't new. But it was certainly interesting for both Kayo and I.We were almost ending our trip when we saw this sign:Technoland? *Imagines dark room streaked with white strobe lights and brimming with hordes shaking their bodies and heads to the mixes of Van Dyke and Tiesto*But of course, in the Toyota Museum, you have to expect something else..A room full with mechanical toys!Kayo and I went in like excited kids, peering curiously at the different equipment. We eventually tried almost everything that was there on display. Some required us to pedal slowly to rotate mirrors, cycle as fast as we could to melt ice and create a mini-shower and play with blocks to connect some circuit. It reminded me so much of the Singapore Science Centre from my primary school days.The sun had already set when we finally left the museum at 1645. We were to meet up with an old friend, Martin, for dinner at 1700 hours. The meeting point was the Nagoya Hbf which was a couple stops away.Hurrying inside the spacious Hbf, we were greeted with a sea of human traffic. It was rather incredible for me, been accustomed to a more relaxed rush hour in Mannheim, where the people, just don't really rush that much. Making our way through the buzz, I felt for a moment, I was back in City Hall in Singapore lol.Although Martin is roughly half a head taller than me, locating him in this madness was no small task. So we called him on his phone and after a couple of false turns, we found him waiting for us right at the centre of the Hbf.Presenting: Martin Siebenhaare ( meaning: Seven Hairs, literally!)It was really good to see him again after some 18 months. He had left for Japan for exchange in Summer 2006 and had extended his stay there after 6 months. We shook hands and hugged. The feeling of seeing another familiar face in a foreign land, and speak German(well,ja again!) was quite awesome. I could see that he was also excited to meet someone from Mannheim again.Chatting animatedly in German, we made our way out of hbf and into the streets. For dinner, we let Martin pick out one of his usual eateries. Unfortunately amid the excitement, I forgot the name of the restaurant or to take photos of the exterior.Aiya, like it matters to you anyway, right?After all that travelling and walking around earlier today, Kayo and I did had a good appetite. A little something to awake the taste buds: fresh peas in pods and tako wasabi !(CW): Fresh raw octopus marinated in wasabi. Absolutely delicious!Something similar to claypot rice & grilled pork - the latter was good!Fried Udon with white cabbage and bacon - Yum!After this much and 2 beers, I was still hungry! So I ordered one more...Fried Udon with white cabbage and bacon!That hit the spot, and I was finally satisfied. As expected, Martin and I spent a great deal catching up on the going-ons we had.After dinner, Martin offered to show us around. Which reminded me - Kayo and I had not explored the city nor the Christmas decorations yet! Translation = Photo Op!(CW): Christmas scenery on a mall, the symbol for Nagoya: A Golden Orca or "Kin no Shachihoko",a Christmas tree formed from office lights on different floors of a building.Unsurprisingly, 3 hours just went past just like that *snap*.Martin had classes the next day, so he had to be heading back to his hostel, which was about 1 hour from the city. It was also already late for tired us. He accompanied us back to Nagoya Hbf and left shortly after we boarded our train.On the ride back, Kayo and I didn't speak much - we just went through the photos we had taken. To stay awake till we reach Kyoto, we took turn playing Germ Buster on her DS Lite.Some 100 minutes later, we stepped into Kyoto Hbf and were greeted with this huge Christmas decorations. Seeing the other couples gathered on the steps, Kayo couldn't resist and had to pull me along to just join the other couples on the steps and bask in the warm glow.** Otsukare sama desu ~~ **And so on that exhausted note, we ended our day with a hot bath together back in her apartment. In the next post, I'll be blogging about our trip to Osaka, Famous City of Grilled Crabs and having the Japanese version of Wally from "Where's Wally?". Now give yourself a nice pat on the back for having read all these. Go grab a beer - you know you've deserved it! Sick and Resting Something's wrong with my digestive system today.For some reason, I woke up this morning at 4am with signs of food poisoning : dizziness, a pounding head, churning stomach like I'm seasick on board some sampan on rocky waters and loose bowels.'ve been sitting and wondering and tracing of all the foods I've touched with my hands and put into my mouth. Was it the donuts yesterday? Or the exposed pickles from the Nishiki market? Argh damm...wait!!*runs to hug the toilet bowl and unleashes another hurl of ...you-know-what.*scheiße scheiße scheiße....And in this light, I think I am very justified to be one of those "lazy bloggers", and shall proceed to write a few lines and just post a video.This is one of the songs that the gf and I both enjoy. Not too sure if the song was themed on that, but for those who are also in long distance relationships, it might tug at more than just a few heartstrings.Waking up to find another dayThe moon got lost again last nightBut now the sun has finally had its sayI guess I feel alrightBut it hurts when I thinkWhen I let it sink inIt's all over meI'm lying here in the darkI'm watching you sleep, it hurts a lot& all I know isYou've got to give me everythingNothing less causeYou know I give you all of me[CHORUS]I give you everything that I amI'm handin' over everything that I've gotCause I wanna have a really true loveDon't ever wanna have to go & give you upStay up till Four In The Morning & the tears are pouring& I want to make it worth the fightWhat have we been doing for all this time?Baby if we're gonna do it, come on do it rightAll I wanted was to know I'm safeDon't want to lose the love I've foundRemember when you said that you would changeDon't let me downIt's not fair how you areI can't be complete, can you give me more?& all I know isYou got to give me everything& nothing less causeYou know I give you all of me[CHORUS]I give you everything that I amI'm handin' over everything that I've gotCause I wanna have a really true loveDon't ever wanna have to go & give you upStay up till Four In The Morning & the tears are pouring& I want to make it worth the fightWhat have we been doing for all this time?Baby if we're gonna do it, come on do it rightOh please, you know what I needSave all your love up for meWe can't escape the loveGive me everything that you have& all I know isYou got to give me everything& nothing less causeYou know I give you all of me[CHORUS]I give you everything that I amI'm handin' over everything that I've gotCause I wanna have a really true loveDon't ever wanna have to go & give you upStay up till Four In The Morning & the tears are pouring& I want to make it worth the fightWhat have we been doing for all this time?Baby if we're gonna do it, come on do it right(Give you everything)(Give you all of me)PS: Video credits to the lovely Stefani of course, and also to chrmd777. The lyrics are from www.azlyrics.com Sick and Resting Something's wrong with my digestive system today.For some reason, I woke up this morning at 4am with signs of food poisoning : dizziness, a pounding head, churning stomach like I'm seasick on board some sampan on rocky waters and loose bowels.'ve been sitting and wondering and tracing of all the foods I've touched with my hands and put into my mouth. Was it the donuts yesterday? Or the exposed pickles from the Nishiki market? Argh damm...wait!!*runs to hug the toilet bowl and unleashes another hurl of ...you-know-what.*scheiße scheiße scheiße....And in this light, I think I am very justified to be one of those "lazy bloggers", and shall proceed to write a few lines and just post a video.This is one of the songs that the gf and I both enjoy. Not too sure if the song was themed on that, but for those who are also in long distance relationships, it might tug at more than just a few heartstrings.Waking up to find another dayThe moon got lost again last nightBut now the sun has finally had its sayI guess I feel alrightBut it hurts when I thinkWhen I let it sink inIt's all over meI'm lying here in the darkI'm watching you sleep, it hurts a lot& all I know isYou've got to give me everythingNothing less causeYou know I give you all of me[CHORUS]I give you everything that I amI'm handin' over everything that I've gotCause I wanna have a really true loveDon't ever wanna have to go & give you upStay up till Four In The Morning & the tears are pouring& I want to make it worth the fightWhat have we been doing for all this time?Baby if we're gonna do it, come on do it rightAll I wanted was to know I'm safeDon't want to lose the love I've foundRemember when you said that you would changeDon't let me downIt's not fair how you areI can't be complete, can you give me more?& all I know isYou got to give me everything& nothing less causeYou know I give you all of me[CHORUS]I give you everything that I amI'm handin' over everything that I've gotCause I wanna have a really true loveDon't ever wanna have to go & give you upStay up till Four In The Morning & the tears are pouring& I want to make it worth the fightWhat have we been doing for all this time?Baby if we're gonna do it, come on do it rightOh please, you know what I needSave all your love up for meWe can't escape the loveGive me everything that you have& all I know isYou got to give me everything& nothing less causeYou know I give you all of me[CHORUS]I give you everything that I amI'm handin' over everything that I've gotCause I wanna have a really true loveDon't ever wanna have to go & give you upStay up till Four In The Morning & the tears are pouring& I want to make it worth the fightWhat have we been doing for all this time?Baby if we're gonna do it, come on do it right(Give you everything)(Give you all of me)PS: Video credits to the lovely Stefani of course, and also to chrmd777. The lyrics are from www.azlyrics.com Round 30: Day 2 in Japan After a hard back-massage, courtesy of the gf, and a good night's sleep, Kayo and I hat breakfast and got ready for my little introduction to the city of Kyoto.We rode the number 37 bus in the direction of the city centre. First agenda?a Spot of Shopping!The original Takashimya is really huge. I've forgotten how many floors the one in Singapore has, but there are more than 5 floors in this one. Although I didn't take any further pictures once we got inside, the first thing I noticed when I entered were myriad of jewellery that somewhat overwhelmed me. Of course these gleaming and glittering stones did not escape Kayo's eyes and she turned to me, beaming expectantly. Talk about strategic product positioning...geez :PAfter buying what we were looking for - tom yam ingredients, Kayo proceeded to lead me to Kyoto's famous "Kitchen" : the Nishiki MarketIt was quite spectacular in its own right. The passageway, of which both sides are lined with different shops selling various varieties of food and items, stretched seemingly endlessly. Armed with Kayo's digi cam, I did not hesitate to shoot to my heart's content. :)The original form of wasabiThe Nishiki market is your essential "wet-market" or the day version of "Pasar Malam". Although I must admit, since I lack shopping experience at shopping for fresh produce in Japan, I have no idea if the prices are a bargain. For those back in Mannheim, think of it as an extended, cleaner version of Marktplatz.Like in some markets, you get to sample some of the food before you buy. Kayo's a fan of pickles and being curious myself, we stopped and tried a few.At a junction of the Nishiki market, Kayo wanted to show me a special shop."Left or right?" she had forgotten the exact location."Let's go left." I replied. Minutes later, we came to this shop."Wow, how did you know to go left?" Kayo marvelled at my instincts. Just a little. Oh well.So at this shop, it seems, they sell donuts....made from Tofu!!The donuts were appetizing and had a light crispy aroma to them. Eating 4,5 of them was suddenly abit filling.We walked on, drinking in the sights before us. After some time, we reached the end of the passageway.I turned into a corner and noticed a curious spot."Where's here schatz?" I pointed and asked.It turned to be one of the thousands of shrines found in Kyoto.Here, you first wash your hands and mouth with water, to cleanse yourself.Then you step up to the praying platform, toss in a donation, clap your hands twice and pray, and finally you tug onto a thick rope and ring the bells tied to it at the top to seal your prayers.The whole walking and sight-seeing got us tired. We strolled around and decided to try out the Mega Tamago("egg" in Japanese) Burger that, together with Mega Tomato, was being promoted at that time.Because it's "Mega Tamago", the egg is supposedly to be extra large. But as always, MacDs is never a case of WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.Ok, maybe except for Hello Kitty, that famous cat with no mouth. How people even find it attractive, I can never comprehend.When we were done with lunch, we walked our way from the city to one of Kyoto's highlights:the Gion District.Entering the well paved grey-bricked road, it took a while for the significance of the area to hit me. I wasn't immediately aware that we were in a national historic preservation district of Kyoto. It was the faded brownness of the wooden door frames, the antique-looking architecture and an air of ancientness that made me realise I was in a significant part of Japan.We walked for some 15+ minutes before reaching our destination:the Yasaka ShrineThe shrine façade was huge, imposing and impressive. Basking in the evening rays, it loomed firmly ahead with a pride of its own.As the skies were slowly getting darker, the lanterns inside were lit. Within the golden glow and a slightly chilly wind blowing, it actually felt more romantic than our ascent up the Eiffel Tower in Paris.After a while of strolling and shooting, we decided it was enough for a day and decided to head back. Day 2 was exhausting, but nevertheless, simply lovely and I enjoyed every single minute of my mini-tour. Coming on the next post: Our trip to Nagoya and meeting an old friend! Thank you for reading, folks! Round 30: Day 2 in Japan After a hard back-massage, courtesy of the gf, and a good night's sleep, Kayo and I hat breakfast and got ready for my little introduction to the city of Kyoto.We rode the number 37 bus in the direction of the city centre. First agenda?a Spot of Shopping!The original Takashimya is really huge. I've forgotten how many floors the one in Singapore has, but there are more than 5 floors in this one. Although I didn't take any further pictures once we got inside, the first thing I noticed when I entered were myriad of jewellery that somewhat overwhelmed me. Of course these gleaming and glittering stones did not escape Kayo's eyes and she turned to me, beaming expectantly. Talk about strategic product positioning...geez :PAfter buying what we were looking for - tom yam ingredients, Kayo proceeded to lead me to Kyoto's famous "Kitchen" : the Nishiki MarketIt was quite spectacular in its own right. The passageway, of which both sides are lined with different shops selling various varieties of food and items, stretched seemingly endlessly. Armed with Kayo's digi cam, I did not hesitate to shoot to my heart's content. :)The original form of wasabiThe Nishiki market is your essential "wet-market" or the day version of "Pasar Malam". Although I must admit, since I lack shopping experience at shopping for fresh produce in Japan, I have no idea if the prices are a bargain. For those back in Mannheim, think of it as an extended, cleaner version of Marktplatz.Like in some markets, you get to sample some of the food before you buy. Kayo's a fan of pickles and being curious myself, we stopped and tried a few.At a junction of the Nishiki market, Kayo wanted to show me a special shop."Left or right?" she had forgotten the exact location."Let's go left." I replied. Minutes later, we came to this shop."Wow, how did you know to go left?" Kayo marvelled at my instincts. Just a little. Oh well.So at this shop, it seems, they sell donuts....made from Tofu!!The donuts were appetizing and had a light crispy aroma to them. Eating 4,5 of them was suddenly abit filling.We walked on, drinking in the sights before us. After some time, we reached the end of the passageway.I turned into a corner and noticed a curious spot."Where's here schatz?" I pointed and asked.It turned to be one of the thousands of shrines found in Kyoto.Here, you first wash your hands and mouth with water, to cleanse yourself.Then you step up to the praying platform, toss in a donation, clap your hands twice and pray, and finally you tug onto a thick rope and ring the bells tied to it at the top to seal your prayers.The whole walking and sight-seeing got us tired. We strolled around and decided to try out the Mega Tamago("egg" in Japanese) Burger that, together with Mega Tomato, was being promoted at that time.Because it's "Mega Tamago", the egg is supposedly to be extra large. But as always, MacDs is never a case of WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.Ok, maybe except for Hello Kitty, that famous cat with no mouth. How people even find it attractive, I can never comprehend.When we were done with lunch, we walked our way from the city to one of Kyoto's highlights:the Gion District.Entering the well paved grey-bricked road, it took a while for the significance of the area to hit me. I wasn't immediately aware that we were in a national historic preservation district of Kyoto. It was the faded brownness of the wooden door frames, the antique-looking architecture and an air of ancientness that made me realise I was in a significant part of Japan.We walked for some 15+ minutes before reaching our destination:the Yasaka ShrineThe shrine façade was huge, imposing and impressive. Basking in the evening rays, it loomed firmly ahead with a pride of its own.As the skies were slowly getting darker, the lanterns inside were lit. Within the golden glow and a slightly chilly wind blowing, it actually felt more romantic than our ascent up the Eiffel Tower in Paris.After a while of strolling and shooting, we decided it was enough for a day and decided to head back. Day 2 was exhausting, but nevertheless, simply lovely and I enjoyed every single minute of my mini-tour. Coming on the next post: Our trip to Nagoya and meeting an old friend! Thank you for reading, folks! Round 29: Arrival Haha yes, this is certainly well overdue. Given that the last post was actually...last year. LOL But still I will be backdating my posts to the times they actually took place.It was certainly a great relief to be cleared from customs and be allowed to pass through without any further hiccups. With my luggage I entered the arrival hall, looking around like some lost kid. I walked around, looking for my savior.And there she was, sitting on a seat, engrossed with her Nintendo DS in hand. I walked towards her and touched her hair:"Hey liebling (German for darling)."She looked up, saw me, and scowled: "Mou! Nandeyo ~~du."Turned out that the immigration senior-looking officer, who was actually an inspector, had dialed her number and, like me, posed her questions, to confirm if I was actually telling the truth. And seemed like he also asked her the same personal questions: Where and how did we meet, if I would be staying at her address and so on."That was so embarrassing you know!" Kayo complained. "Hahaha..."was all I could answer. Then I kissed her, just to stop her from complaining, for a while. Hahaha...Having taken the 6am bus to come to the airport in Osaka without breakfast, plus my one hour delay, the gf was naturally starving. We decided to scout the restaurants located one floor above the arrival hall.It was somewhat surreal to be looking at all those plastic almost real-looking food models on the window display, with the thought in my head: I am actually in Japan! The varieties were plenty: traditional soba and udon noodles, italian pasta and pizza, the typical sushi fare, purely tempura shops.After a round, Kayo and I decided on sushi. Something easy for the newbie heh.This was my order:Ta-daaa!Chirashisushi: Sashimi, Tako and Ebi on top of rice with Miso Soup.It was really delicious and yet filling. At under 1000 Yen, it's quite a good deal for famished travellers.Kayo had this:Udon and different sushi varieties.Needless to say, it's sure to make one full too. And at around 750 Yen, it's also another good budget meal that makes the taste buds do the river dance.The exact damage for both? It was some 1800 - 2000 Yen(12€/USD18.35/RM60/SGD26). It was only when I was blogging this post did I realize how cheap our meals were, in comparsion to a 20€ Chirashisushi meal in a Japanese restaurant in Mannheim (expected lah tho) or prolly even in Singapore.Satisfied and the gf finally pacified(hehe), we made a beeline for the coach that would take us from the airport in Osaka to Kyoto. After viewing the scenery together for a while and admiring my luck to arrive in Japan in sunny weather and clear blue skies, I slept like a log till we reached our stop at Kyoto Main Train Station.The rest of the day unfolded uneventfully. We reached Kayo's apartment, unpacked and rested a while. The evening was spent grocery-shopping at a nearby supermarket Vivre.So Tiny! Smaller than my finger!At night, feeling much fitter, I decided to cook dinner for us. Nothing too spectacular - just chinese cabbage with peppers and Ma Po Tofu. It's interesting to find made-ready Mapo Tofu sauces in little packages.Well, that's it for now. I'll post the rest of my blog drafts as soon as they are done. Thanks for reading and bearing with me guys! Round 29: Arrival Haha yes, this is certainly well overdue. Given that the last post was actually...last year. LOL But still I will be backdating my posts to the times they actually took place.It was certainly a great relief to be cleared from customs and be allowed to pass through without any further hiccups. With my luggage I entered the arrival hall, looking around like some lost kid. I walked around, looking for my savior.And there she was, sitting on a seat, engrossed with her Nintendo DS in hand. I walked towards her and touched her hair:"Hey liebling (German for darling)."She looked up, saw me, and scowled: "Mou! Nandeyo ~~du."Turned out that the immigration senior-looking officer, who was actually an inspector, had dialed her number and, like me, posed her questions, to confirm if I was actually telling the truth. And seemed like he also asked her the same personal questions: Where and how did we meet, if I would be staying at her address and so on."That was so embarrassing you know!" Kayo complained. "Hahaha..."was all I could answer. Then I kissed her, just to stop her from complaining, for a while. Hahaha...Having taken the 6am bus to come to the airport in Osaka without breakfast, plus my one hour delay, the gf was naturally starving. We decided to scout the restaurants located one floor above the arrival hall.It was somewhat surreal to be looking at all those plastic almost real-looking food models on the window display, with the thought in my head: I am actually in Japan! The varieties were plenty: traditional soba and udon noodles, italian pasta and pizza, the typical sushi fare, purely tempura shops.After a round, Kayo and I decided on sushi. Something easy for the newbie heh.This was my order:Ta-daaa!Chirashisushi: Sashimi, Tako and Ebi on top of rice with Miso Soup.It was really delicious and yet filling. At under 1000 Yen, it's quite a good deal for famished travellers.Kayo had this:Udon and different sushi varieties.Needless to say, it's sure to make one full too. And at around 750 Yen, it's also another good budget meal that makes the taste buds do the river dance.The exact damage for both? It was some 1800 - 2000 Yen(12€/USD18.35/RM60/SGD26). It was only when I was blogging this post did I realize how cheap our meals were, in comparsion to a 20€ Chirashisushi meal in a Japanese restaurant in Mannheim (expected lah tho) or prolly even in Singapore.Satisfied and the gf finally pacified(hehe), we made a beeline for the coach that would take us from the airport in Osaka to Kyoto. After viewing the scenery together for a while and admiring my luck to arrive in Japan in sunny weather and clear blue skies, I slept like a log till we reached our stop at Kyoto Main Train Station.The rest of the day unfolded uneventfully. We reached Kayo's apartment, unpacked and rested a while. The evening was spent grocery-shopping at a nearby supermarket Vivre.So Tiny! Smaller than my finger!At night, feeling much fitter, I decided to cook dinner for us. Nothing too spectacular - just chinese cabbage with peppers and Ma Po Tofu. It's interesting to find made-ready Mapo Tofu sauces in little packages.Well, that's it for now. I'll post the rest of my blog drafts as soon as they are done. Thanks for reading and bearing with me guys! Round 28: Hajime No Stan in Kyoto, Japan! Man man, how the heck do the others blog when on trips? At the end of the day, after all that walking and point-and-shooting with the digi cam, you are prolly shagged and dying for a nice hot shower and a warm bed for the night. Blogging's like the last thing you'll be thinking of doing, ain't it right??Heh, ok excuses aside, this is the First blog post coming to you....from Kyoto, Japan!!It's been a week since my arrival in the land of the rising sun. And right from the very beginning did I receive doses of excitement. Unbargained for, some more...The flight from Helsinki to Osaka Kansai Airport was uneventful, save for my interesting and somewhat straining conversation in japlish with my 2 female japanese neighbours.The fun all started after touchdown and I had brushed my teeth and got refreshed for the gf waiting for me in the arrival hall. I walked towards the immigration counter and presented my red Malaysian passport, of which I'm kinda proud - after all, with it, Malaysian citizens are allowed to visit EVERY country in the world without a visa, except Israel.Or so I thought.The immigration officer flipped through the pages and asked immediately: "Where is your visa? You come with no visa?"I stared back blankly and answered: "No, no visa."The officer grimaced: "Ah, no visa? Ah...is problem. Please, please follow me"The officer brought me to the working office and gave me a form where I was required to record every freaking detail from my name, residing address to the amount of Japanese yen I brought with me. When I was done, he told me to wait, bowed and left.Now, at this point, you might be thinking: Damm is Stan sure an idiot! How can he come to a foreign land without checking out the visit requirements??Being made to wait with 2 other gai-jin in the holding area and the slowly but surely realization that I was an illegal alien in Japan was suddenly very nerve-whacking. Because of my experience that visitors from Malaysia automatically had a 3 month tourist visa upon entry into Germany, I admit I assumed it was the same for Japan too.Waiting in the holding area with the different outcomes that could await me, I was for certain i wasn't gonna be repeating this assumption mistake again.A short while later, another somewhat senior-looking officer came in and beckoned me to sit down. He asked me why I had not gotten a visa and I answered what I had assumed was the case, as written above. He understood my mistake and probed me for details like where I would be staying and if I knew anyone here in Japan. Earlier in the form I had given the details and handphone number of my gf. He asked me how I met my gf and asked if she would be receiving me. It was weird and somewhat uncanny to being interrogated, for the first time, save for the "good cop-bad cop" roles.After listening to me, he then said: "Ok, we understand it's your first time to Japan, so it's an accident. This time we can make for you, a special permit, to stay for 30 days. But please understand, just for this time, so we cannot make it a second time, ok?"I was nodding away and going: "Hai hai!" so much, I think he might have thought I was bluffing to be holding a Malaysian passport.I still had to had my fingerprints scanned and a profile picture taken before the ordeal was finally over.The officer accompanied me to the entry of the arrival hall. 65 minutes after touchdown and after I said to him my:"Otsukare-sama des! Arigatou gozaimasu!", I was finally allowed to pass through customs and, be allowed legal entry into Japan.Talk about a dynamic entry! This one is sure for the books - or the blog, in this case ;c) Round 28: Hajime No Stan in Kyoto, Japan! Man man, how the heck do the others blog when on trips? At the end of the day, after all that walking and point-and-shooting with the digi cam, you are prolly shagged and dying for a nice hot shower and a warm bed for the night. Blogging's like the last thing you'll be thinking of doing, ain't it right??Heh, ok excuses aside, this is the First blog post coming to you....from Kyoto, Japan!!It's been a week since my arrival in the land of the rising sun. And right from the very beginning did I receive doses of excitement. Unbargained for, some more...The flight from Helsinki to Osaka Kansai Airport was uneventful, save for my interesting and somewhat straining conversation in japlish with my 2 female japanese neighbours.The fun all started after touchdown and I had brushed my teeth and got refreshed for the gf waiting for me in the arrival hall. I walked towards the immigration counter and presented my red Malaysian passport, of which I'm kinda proud - after all, with it, Malaysian citizens are allowed to visit EVERY country in the world without a visa, except Israel.Or so I thought.The immigration officer flipped through the pages and asked immediately: "Where is your visa? You come with no visa?"I stared back blankly and answered: "No, no visa."The officer grimaced: "Ah, no visa? Ah...is problem. Please, please follow me"The officer brought me to the working office and gave me a form where I was required to record every freaking detail from my name, residing address to the amount of Japanese yen I brought with me. When I was done, he told me to wait, bowed and left.Now, at this point, you might be thinking: Damm is Stan sure an idiot! How can he come to a foreign land without checking out the visit requirements??Being made to wait with 2 other gai-jin in the holding area and the slowly but surely realization that I was an illegal alien in Japan was suddenly very nerve-whacking. Because of my experience that visitors from Malaysia automatically had a 3 month tourist visa upon entry into Germany, I admit I assumed it was the same for Japan too.Waiting in the holding area with the different outcomes that could await me, I was for certain i wasn't gonna be repeating this assumption mistake again.A short while later, another somewhat senior-looking officer came in and beckoned me to sit down. He asked me why I had not gotten a visa and I answered what I had assumed was the case, as written above. He understood my mistake and probed me for details like where I would be staying and if I knew anyone here in Japan. Earlier in the form I had given the details and handphone number of my gf. He asked me how I met my gf and asked if she would be receiving me. It was weird and somewhat uncanny to being interrogated, for the first time, save for the "good cop-bad cop" roles.After listening to me, he then said: "Ok, we understand it's your first time to Japan, so it's an accident. This time we can make for you, a special permit, to stay for 30 days. But please understand, just for this time, so we cannot make it a second time, ok?"I was nodding away and going: "Hai hai!" so much, I think he might have thought I was bluffing to be holding a Malaysian passport.I still had to had my fingerprints scanned and a profile picture taken before the ordeal was finally over.The officer accompanied me to the entry of the arrival hall. 65 minutes after touchdown and after I said to him my:"Otsukare-sama des! Arigatou gozaimasu!", I was finally allowed to pass through customs and, be allowed legal entry into Japan.Talk about a dynamic entry! This one is sure for the books - or the blog, in this case ;c) Round 27: Just another Wednesday evening It's close to 9pm on a Wednesday night. Dinner was simple, the hot shower was, as usual, invigorating. Must be the after-effect of over-listening to R&B singers and to the ambient croons of Amel Larrieux and Jill Scott, that I have decided to break my habit of weekday-unwinding by catching up on Heroes Season 2, poker, anime and what-have-you, to blog again.That was more than 20 words in one line. Ok, you can tell, it's really me lol.You know, I have to admit, I never thought that doing an internship would be so lonely. My morning routine each day goes somewhat like this:1. 04:30-04:45 : Wake up2. 04:45-05:20 : Warm-up and train.3. 05:30-06:00 : Shower and make breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.4. 06:05-06:15 : Boil water for coffee and warm up the Berliner in the microwave.5. 06:32: Board bus to start the trip to work.I knock off between 15:00 to 16:00, or even as long as 18:00 on evenings that end in heavy discussions meetings or work sessions. Reach home, turn on the pc, check emails, play the usual chill-out tracks and stretch the joints for abit before kicking the legs back to chill.After a while, it's time to make dinner. As you might imagine, I turn in quite early. Eating a late dinner also means a later lights-out.Me having to turn-in early also translates to cutting short MSN chats or turning down meet-ups or parties with buddies who are having lessons during the week. While many understand, it's only inevitable of the case: Out of sight, out of mind. I do really cherish the times I get to hang out with the boys, and the girls, once in a while heh.I haven't blogged or mentioned it to many yet, but there's a good possibility for me to start my bachelor thesis with John Deere too, immediately right after my contract for the internship ends. If that happens, it will be another semester with the some-what similar routine as I've been experiencing these few months.The bright side of that, literally-it will be in spring and summer- is that with daylight savings, I don't have to rush home to chat with the gf online. And of course, meeting up with friends might be easier too.Naja, its 22:00 now. Although my eyes aren't yet heavy, I sure feel I can sleep almost immediately.Ok, just one more episode and then I promise, I'll go sleep, ok? ;c) Round 27: Just another Wednesday evening It's close to 9pm on a Wednesday night. Dinner was simple, the hot shower was, as usual, invigorating. Must be the after-effect of over-listening to R&B singers and to the ambient croons of Amel Larrieux and Jill Scott, that I have decided to break my habit of weekday-unwinding by catching up on Heroes Season 2, poker, anime and what-have-you, to blog again.That was more than 20 words in one line. Ok, you can tell, it's really me lol.You know, I have to admit, I never thought that doing an internship would be so lonely. My morning routine each day goes somewhat like this:1. 04:30-04:45 : Wake up2. 04:45-05:20 : Warm-up and train.3. 05:30-06:00 : Shower and make breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.4. 06:05-06:15 : Boil water for coffee and warm up the Berliner in the microwave.5. 06:32: Board bus to start the trip to work.I knock off between 15:00 to 16:00, or even as long as 18:00 on evenings that end in heavy discussions meetings or work sessions. Reach home, turn on the pc, check emails, play the usual chill-out tracks and stretch the joints for abit before kicking the legs back to chill.After a while, it's time to make dinner. As you might imagine, I turn in quite early. Eating a late dinner also means a later lights-out.Me having to turn-in early also translates to cutting short MSN chats or turning down meet-ups or parties with buddies who are having lessons during the week. While many understand, it's only inevitable of the case: Out of sight, out of mind. I do really cherish the times I get to hang out with the boys, and the girls, once in a while heh.I haven't blogged or mentioned it to many yet, but there's a good possibility for me to start my bachelor thesis with John Deere too, immediately right after my contract for the internship ends. If that happens, it will be another semester with the some-what similar routine as I've been experiencing these few months.The bright side of that, literally-it will be in spring and summer- is that with daylight savings, I don't have to rush home to chat with the gf online. And of course, meeting up with friends might be easier too.Naja, its 22:00 now. Although my eyes aren't yet heavy, I sure feel I can sleep almost immediately.Ok, just one more episode and then I promise, I'll go sleep, ok? ;c) Round 26: A belated Birthday post Part 2 Waking at 4:30am as usual on Wednesday, the 21st, which was my birthday, on a whim, I decided to start my day a little different.I boarded the 6:32am bus and rode the tram to work, like every other day. Getting off at Diesterweg, I made a small detour to a common german bakery chain, Grimminger. The christmas tortes were already on display ready for sale, with Christmas being a month away. I looked at the pies on display and after a few inquiries, headed to the office with a small purchase.Ever since starting my internship at John Deere, I haven't had much of a chance to really get to know the other colleagues working in the same office as I am. That's because we all work in different departments. As such, save for the daily "Guten Morgen", we interact with each other pretty much on a minimal level.Die Mannheimer Nuss TorteI brought the cake to our common kitchen, and wrote a sign telling the others to help themselves to it. Throughout the day, the colleagues came up, thanking for the cake and giving a hearty handshake of congratulations and making small talk. It felt kinda weird at first, but as the day went, we all got to know each other much better.Now, the reason there's a part two Post, is because, I didn't just get one present. But I'm sure you might have guessed that, right? Hehe*grin*2 Sunday mornings ago, I was checking out the Sunday Current Tabloids distributed FOC, when a half-page ad caught my eye. It was a ad for Desktops and laptops from some never-hear-before company called CLS Shop. There was a few Desktops with pretty advanced specs going for under 500€. My laptop died a few days ago after an too-intensive night of online poker. At that point of time, I was still deciding between DTs or notebooks, so after glancing at it, I chucked it aside.2 days later, after some research on notebooks, I was more or less convinced I wasn't going anywhere. At this point, I've got to digress abit and stress that when shopping for a electronics, it's almost difficult to really point your finger at one particular product and say: This is the perfect one. There will always be another one, with somewhat better features, abit more expensive or might have better reputation of their after-sales service etc etc; ie: the chase almost never stops. Unless of course you are like me, in which case, the price is the limiting factor. I fixed my budget at 500€ - 550€.Now at such a budget, depending on your luck, you can either find a pretty decent DT, or a low-end notebook. My family were still insistent on the idea of a notebook, which I agree, would be more practical, given that I am finishing my studies soon. I thought about my circumstances in the short-term future: Currently being an Intern at Deere & Company, I have access to a HP Desktop at work. Even when I take my last 4 exams or write my bachelor thesis, my computer-needs will still pretty much be home-based; after lessons at school, I either hang around the PC labs in school or head home or to the library.And considering the fact how I've abused my notebook all this while by treating it like a Desktop - come home and switching it on for more than 4 hours till I head to bed -what was there to ensure that a new notebook wouldn't be treated the same way? I know many of us students pretty much do that. Being connected and online has become so much a way of life for us, I'm betting not many of us have the discipline of restricting ourselves to using the laptop for 3 hours or less per day.I googled this CLS Shop and found 2 branches. One is in Mannheim and the other is in Käfertal, some 5.4km away. It wasn't difficult to locate the Mannheim branch using Google Maps. I quickly found under "Office PCs" a few Tower models that suited my needs - Internet, Document-Processing, Movies and of course, online poker. ;c)I printed the selected models and spoke to my parents on Monday evening. Although they still felt buying a notebook in Germany would have been better for me, the fact that I saw a Dell Inspiron 1520 with Intel Core Duo Processor and 2GB SDDR2 SDRAM and 160GB from Malaysia costing 300€ more (RM3200/650€, shipping incld.) than a Desktop with almost the same specs from CLS convinced us not to get the notebooks from here.So on Tuesday, my parents sent me my birthday present - enough cash to buy a CLS Büro(= meaning Office) Intel Dual Core E210. The specs are as follows:° Asus P5VD2-VM SE, FSB 1066MHz, Sound,LAN, 2x PCI, 1x PCIe, 4x S-ATA,1x IDE Anschluss, Micro ATX Board° Intel Dual Core E2140 (2 x 1,6GHz), FSB 800MHz° CPU Cooler Fan° Elexier 1024MB DDR2-RAM, PC-667° 160.0 GB Excelstor Harddrive, 7200 rpm° LG DVD-Brenner 18 +/- Duallayer°256 MB Graphic Card on Board° 6 Channel Sound on Board° 10/100 Mbit LAN on Board° 2x Front USB 2.0,4x USB Hinten 2.0, Seriell, Parallel° ATX Mini Tower 400 Watt Netzteil, Front USB 2.0 und Front SoundThe whole package included hard disk partition, genuine Windows XP Pro installation(98€), 48 months guarantee and 3 years service AND a free microphone-because I was chummy enough with the seller at CLS. Total Damage = 397€ (USD582/SIN844/RM1952)I forgot to take a photo before plugging the desktop in, so now it doesn't look so cool with all the cables and wires. But it looks exactly like in the photo above. Appearance-wise, it's pretty uncool. But hell who cares? Main thing for me: it runs, fast enough for me not to be cussing when I want to prepare my presentations or meeting minutes, watch my animes or study boxing pros in their matches on Youtube.So there you go - my birthday present from papa and mama. Thanks to them, I'm able to be writing this. Not that they will read this, but to my parents, thank you very much. After all those 23 testing and trying years of road bumps and uneven paths, I'm proud to be your son. Round 26: A belated Birthday post Part 2 Waking at 4:30am as usual on Wednesday, the 21st, which was my birthday, on a whim, I decided to start my day a little different.I boarded the 6:32am bus and rode the tram to work, like every other day. Getting off at Diesterweg, I made a small detour to a common german bakery chain, Grimminger. The christmas tortes were already on display ready for sale, with Christmas being a month away. I looked at the pies on display and after a few inquiries, headed to the office with a small purchase.Ever since starting my internship at John Deere, I haven't had much of a chance to really get to know the other colleagues working in the same office as I am. That's because we all work in different departments. As such, save for the daily "Guten Morgen", we interact with each other pretty much on a minimal level.Die Mannheimer Nuss TorteI brought the cake to our common kitchen, and wrote a sign telling the others to help themselves to it. Throughout the day, the colleagues came up, thanking for the cake and giving a hearty handshake of congratulations and making small talk. It felt kinda weird at first, but as the day went, we all got to know each other much better.Now, the reason there's a part two Post, is because, I didn't just get one present. But I'm sure you might have guessed that, right? Hehe*grin*2 Sunday mornings ago, I was checking out the Sunday Current Tabloids distributed FOC, when a half-page ad caught my eye. It was a ad for Desktops and laptops from some never-hear-before company called CLS Shop. There was a few Desktops with pretty advanced specs going for under 500€. My laptop died a few days ago after an too-intensive night of online poker. At that point of time, I was still deciding between DTs or notebooks, so after glancing at it, I chucked it aside.2 days later, after some research on notebooks, I was more or less convinced I wasn't going anywhere. At this point, I've got to digress abit and stress that when shopping for a electronics, it's almost difficult to really point your finger at one particular product and say: This is the perfect one. There will always be another one, with somewhat better features, abit more expensive or might have better reputation of their after-sales service etc etc; ie: the chase almost never stops. Unless of course you are like me, in which case, the price is the limiting factor. I fixed my budget at 500€ - 550€.Now at such a budget, depending on your luck, you can either find a pretty decent DT, or a low-end notebook. My family were still insistent on the idea of a notebook, which I agree, would be more practical, given that I am finishing my studies soon. I thought about my circumstances in the short-term future: Currently being an Intern at Deere & Company, I have access to a HP Desktop at work. Even when I take my last 4 exams or write my bachelor thesis, my computer-needs will still pretty much be home-based; after lessons at school, I either hang around the PC labs in school or head home or to the library.And considering the fact how I've abused my notebook all this while by treating it like a Desktop - come home and switching it on for more than 4 hours till I head to bed -what was there to ensure that a new notebook wouldn't be treated the same way? I know many of us students pretty much do that. Being connected and online has become so much a way of life for us, I'm betting not many of us have the discipline of restricting ourselves to using the laptop for 3 hours or less per day.I googled this CLS Shop and found 2 branches. One is in Mannheim and the other is in Käfertal, some 5.4km away. It wasn't difficult to locate the Mannheim branch using Google Maps. I quickly found under "Office PCs" a few Tower models that suited my needs - Internet, Document-Processing, Movies and of course, online poker. ;c)I printed the selected models and spoke to my parents on Monday evening. Although they still felt buying a notebook in Germany would have been better for me, the fact that I saw a Dell Inspiron 1520 with Intel Core Duo Processor and 2GB SDDR2 SDRAM and 160GB from Malaysia costing 300€ more (RM3200/650€, shipping incld.) than a Desktop with almost the same specs from CLS convinced us not to get the notebooks from here.So on Tuesday, my parents sent me my birthday present - enough cash to buy a CLS Büro(= meaning Office) Intel Dual Core E210. The specs are as follows:° Asus P5VD2-VM SE, FSB 1066MHz, Sound,LAN, 2x PCI, 1x PCIe, 4x S-ATA,1x IDE Anschluss, Micro ATX Board° Intel Dual Core E2140 (2 x 1,6GHz), FSB 800MHz° CPU Cooler Fan° Elexier 1024MB DDR2-RAM, PC-667° 160.0 GB Excelstor Harddrive, 7200 rpm° LG DVD-Brenner 18 +/- Duallayer°256 MB Graphic Card on Board° 6 Channel Sound on Board° 10/100 Mbit LAN on Board° 2x Front USB 2.0,4x USB Hinten 2.0, Seriell, Parallel° ATX Mini Tower 400 Watt Netzteil, Front USB 2.0 und Front SoundThe whole package included hard disk partition, genuine Windows XP Pro installation(98€), 48 months guarantee and 3 years service AND a free microphone-because I was chummy enough with the seller at CLS. Total Damage = 397€ (USD582/SIN844/RM1952)I forgot to take a photo before plugging the desktop in, so now it doesn't look so cool with all the cables and wires. But it looks exactly like in the photo above. Appearance-wise, it's pretty uncool. But hell who cares? Main thing for me: it runs, fast enough for me not to be cussing when I want to prepare my presentations or meeting minutes, watch my animes or study boxing pros in their matches on Youtube.So there you go - my birthday present from papa and mama. Thanks to them, I'm able to be writing this. Not that they will read this, but to my parents, thank you very much. After all those 23 testing and trying years of road bumps and uneven paths, I'm proud to be your son. Round 25: A belated Birthday Post Part 1 Waaaaaaaaa..........*Flavour Flav style*Goodness, it's been ages since I've blogged. More than 4 weeks now. Kinda find it incredible I could be so neglecting of Hajime No Stan. Lazy excuses and half-assed reasons aside, there's something I can definitely declare: working more than 1 job everyday is almost, never fucking easy. Regardless if Job number 2 is labour-orientated or a desk job, the toll will play havoc on you and your system after 2,3 weeks into it. If you are looking for a no-life, go ahead, be my guest.Ok, that said, I will be posting more regularly within these months. I've been brimming with ideas for future blog posts. Will just try see how they turn out.On Tuesday evening, after enduring 4 hours of a mass-seminar at work and insanely cold winter winds - Mannheim is notorious for them- at 3°C, I came home and from habit, opened the letter box for the usual mail. There wasn't anything inside, save this:I immediately recognised the handwriting and smiled. It can only be from one person. My one and only baby.It felt light but somewhat thick at the same time. On the way to my floor in the lift, I was happily grinning and going like: "Hehehe..". What could it be? New photos? A collection of love letters? Cash possibly?? Hahaha...:PKayo had sent me a thin hard-bound japanese book. On the cover are the words: Happy Song for You.At first glance, my initial impression was that, it looked like something for toddlers.Turning the pages....On this page: 23 years ago on this day.....erm the rest dunno liao. :PThe Rainbow. Just for me ;c)A delightful surprise awaited me towards the end....I recognised the photo and grinned immediately. It was in the summer this year, when we and a close friend Wei Chieak went to Heidelberg for the bi-annual Castle Fireworks. This was taken in the restaurant where we had a light dinner while waiting for the event.Nothing too spectacular this time round, but no doubt, the best presents come from the heart.Kayo anata, hontoni arigatou. Du bist und wirst immer die Liebe meines Lebens. *kuss* Round 25: A belated Birthday Post Part 1 Waaaaaaaaa..........*Flavour Flav style*Goodness, it's been ages since I've blogged. More than 4 weeks now. Kinda find it incredible I could be so neglecting of Hajime No Stan. Lazy excuses and half-assed reasons aside, there's something I can definitely declare: working more than 1 job everyday is almost, never fucking easy. Regardless if Job number 2 is labour-orientated or a desk job, the toll will play havoc on you and your system after 2,3 weeks into it. If you are looking for a no-life, go ahead, be my guest.Ok, that said, I will be posting more regularly within these months. I've been brimming with ideas for future blog posts. Will just try see how they turn out.On Tuesday evening, after enduring 4 hours of a mass-seminar at work and insanely cold winter winds - Mannheim is notorious for them- at 3°C, I came home and from habit, opened the letter box for the usual mail. There wasn't anything inside, save this:I immediately recognised the handwriting and smiled. It can only be from one person. My one and only baby.It felt light but somewhat thick at the same time. On the way to my floor in the lift, I was happily grinning and going like: "Hehehe..". What could it be? New photos? A collection of love letters? Cash possibly?? Hahaha...:PKayo had sent me a thin hard-bound japanese book. On the cover are the words: Happy Song for You.At first glance, my initial impression was that, it looked like something for toddlers.Turning the pages....On this page: 23 years ago on this day.....erm the rest dunno liao. :PThe Rainbow. Just for me ;c)A delightful surprise awaited me towards the end....I recognised the photo and grinned immediately. It was in the summer this year, when we and a close friend Wei Chieak went to Heidelberg for the bi-annual Castle Fireworks. This was taken in the restaurant where we had a light dinner while waiting for the event.Nothing too spectacular this time round, but no doubt, the best presents come from the heart.Kayo anata, hontoni arigatou. Du bist und wirst immer die Liebe meines Lebens. *kuss* Round 24: Evil Saturn! Heh, the title of this post isn't a typo or any fictitious cartoon character. If you read my post about getting the OMX 70 Sennheiser Sport earphones, you'll remember it as the location where I purchased them.For the past week, Saturn has been running mysterious 10 seconds-long TV ad spots, with the slogans: "You will...love and hate it!" It was all to build up a suspense of consumerism, what's new...And so today Saturn started its promotion. And one of them got me really good. And I meant Real Good.The Casio Exilim EX-Z75 from Letsgodigital.orgThis camera has been around for quite a while now. Earlier this year back in February, when I was back in Malaysia for CNY, I spotted this little bugger, with SD Card and camera pouch, for close RM1000 (208 euros/USD299/SGD435).And today, Saturn started offering the exact same model for: 129euros!!For comparison, that's :USD185 or SGD269 or RM619 !!!Yes, fine, so this offer comes without an SD card or a camera pouch. But still...*wrings hands haplessly*And if you might have guessed, Saturn's tag line was:..."We love Hi-Tech...and we hate High Prices!"-_-"Now I've done some homework and scoured the Net for reviews on this product. Opinions from cnet.com and Crunchgear.com mainly scream one thing: Don't get it - not worth the price. I've browsed forums and read readers' comments about the Anti-shake not functioning properly till how poorly the Z75 fares in comparison to older Kodak models.Reading and receiving so much information about one particular thing or product doesn't really make one better at making informed choices. On the contrary, it blurs your judgement out of focus. In my case, literally - and that sucks. So you guys out there, any advice for clueless me? Should I get it? Or perhaps not? Round 24: Evil Saturn! Heh, the title of this post isn't a typo or any fictitious cartoon character. If you read my post about getting the OMX 70 Sennheiser Sport earphones, you'll remember it as the location where I purchased them.For the past week, Saturn has been running mysterious 10 seconds-long TV ad spots, with the slogans: "You will...love and hate it!" It was all to build up a suspense of consumerism, what's new...And so today Saturn started its promotion. And one of them got me really good. And I meant Real Good.The Casio Exilim EX-Z75 from Letsgodigital.orgThis camera has been around for quite a while now. Earlier this year back in February, when I was back in Malaysia for CNY, I spotted this little bugger, with SD Card and camera pouch, for close RM1000 (208 euros/USD299/SGD435).And today, Saturn started offering the exact same model for: 129euros!!For comparison, that's :USD185 or SGD269 or RM619 !!!Yes, fine, so this offer comes without an SD card or a camera pouch. But still...*wrings hands haplessly*And if you might have guessed, Saturn's tag line was:..."We love Hi-Tech...and we hate High Prices!"-_-"Now I've done some homework and scoured the Net for reviews on this product. Opinions from cnet.com and Crunchgear.com mainly scream one thing: Don't get it - not worth the price. I've browsed forums and read readers' comments about the Anti-shake not functioning properly till how poorly the Z75 fares in comparison to older Kodak models.Reading and receiving so much information about one particular thing or product doesn't really make one better at making informed choices. On the contrary, it blurs your judgement out of focus. In my case, literally - and that sucks. So you guys out there, any advice for clueless me? Should I get it? Or perhaps not? Round 23: Blogging in German for a change As the title says, this post will be in german, for a change. And no, I'm not showing off either. This is my blog - I'm darn entitled to blog whatever and however it pleases me. :)Tja, es ist Freitag Nacht. Habe gerade ein Paare Runde Poker bei Pokerstars gespielt. Habe auch kurz vor ganz einfaches zum Abend gegessen - Reis mit Hähnchen in Spinat. Bin heute nicht zum Boxen gegangen - habe leider verschlafen als ich ein Schläfchen wollte. Aber ich habe noch im Zimmer Liegestütze gemacht und mit Hantel trainiert.Ein König-Vierling(Four of Kings) bei Pokerstars!Die Woche war schon etwa anstrengend. 3 Stunden-lang Präsentationen 2 Mal in diesen Woche - schon eine Herausforderung immer wach zu bleiben! Haha, aber das kennst du schon vor mir, ist nichts neues.Mitarbeitern bei SchulungDas Wetter wurde auch Tag nach Tag kalter und kalter. Heute allein, noch mit der Sonne, war es nur 12 Grad. Und du weißt auch, wenn es kalt geworden ist, tut mein Ruck weh. Jetzt auch. Haha, ein 23-jährige mit der Kampfgeist von einem 18-jährige aber mit dem Korper von einem Opa! Hahaha...naja=PHeute, ich weiß, haben wir über uns diskutiert und es war ziemlich seriös. Ja, wir beide haben immer Fragen gestellt, und wahrscheinlich auch Bezweifeln von beiden Seiten. Aber ich habe nicht gelogen, als ich dich gesagt hatte, dass ich dich vertraue. Du bist, wer du bist. Ich weiß von ganzen Herz, ich habe nichts zu fürchten. Ich weiß, du warst treu zu mir und bleibst jetzt noch auch so.Tut mir Leid, wenn ich dich traurig gemacht habe. Ich vermisse dich auch sehr, ich bin auch sehr einsam, deswegen kenne ich deine Gefühlen.Ich weiß auch , dass jetzt es nicht so viel wir beide machen können gibt. Bis wir beide mit unseren Studium fertig sind, geht es so weiter, leider. Aber es dauert auch nicht so lang...nur noch ein Jahr oder so.Schatz, lass wir uns ein Tag zu dem nächsten zusammen laufen. Ich freue mich schon sehr, in 2 Monaten bei dir zu sein. Ja es ist leider etwa kurz, aber ist noch besser als nicht, oder? *smile* Round 23: Blogging in German for a change As the title says, this post will be in german, for a change. And no, I'm not showing off either. This is my blog - I'm darn entitled to blog whatever and however it pleases me. :)Tja, es ist Freitag Nacht. Habe gerade ein Paare Runde Poker bei Pokerstars gespielt. Habe auch kurz vor ganz einfaches zum Abend gegessen - Reis mit Hähnchen in Spinat. Bin heute nicht zum Boxen gegangen - habe leider verschlafen als ich ein Schläfchen wollte. Aber ich habe noch im Zimmer Liegestütze gemacht und mit Hantel trainiert.Ein König-Vierling(Four of Kings) bei Pokerstars!Die Woche war schon etwa anstrengend. 3 Stunden-lang Präsentationen 2 Mal in diesen Woche - schon eine Herausforderung immer wach zu bleiben! Haha, aber das kennst du schon vor mir, ist nichts neues.Mitarbeitern bei SchulungDas Wetter wurde auch Tag nach Tag kalter und kalter. Heute allein, noch mit der Sonne, war es nur 12 Grad. Und du weißt auch, wenn es kalt geworden ist, tut mein Ruck weh. Jetzt auch. Haha, ein 23-jährige mit der Kampfgeist von einem 18-jährige aber mit dem Korper von einem Opa! Hahaha...naja=PHeute, ich weiß, haben wir über uns diskutiert und es war ziemlich seriös. Ja, wir beide haben immer Fragen gestellt, und wahrscheinlich auch Bezweifeln von beiden Seiten. Aber ich habe nicht gelogen, als ich dich gesagt hatte, dass ich dich vertraue. Du bist, wer du bist. Ich weiß von ganzen Herz, ich habe nichts zu fürchten. Ich weiß, du warst treu zu mir und bleibst jetzt noch auch so.Tut mir Leid, wenn ich dich traurig gemacht habe. Ich vermisse dich auch sehr, ich bin auch sehr einsam, deswegen kenne ich deine Gefühlen.Ich weiß auch , dass jetzt es nicht so viel wir beide machen können gibt. Bis wir beide mit unseren Studium fertig sind, geht es so weiter, leider. Aber es dauert auch nicht so lang...nur noch ein Jahr oder so.Schatz, lass wir uns ein Tag zu dem nächsten zusammen laufen. Ich freue mich schon sehr, in 2 Monaten bei dir zu sein. Ja es ist leider etwa kurz, aber ist noch besser als nicht, oder? *smile* Round 22: New running accessories on a rather special Sunday So, for some reason, the shopping bug has clamped its jaws on me. Since 2 weeks ago, starting with the purchase of my air ticket to Japan for Christmas till last weekend, I think I MAY be starting to have some idea, the kind of kick women get when they enter shoe shops or fashion boutiques.Ok fine, so maybe the air ticket doesn't really count. But honestly, since then, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for good deals in shopping ads and newsletters, somehow seemingly looking for some reason to spend money. Heh.Well, like everyone else I guess, I, too do have a wish-list. Topping the list is a new laptop.The prime days of my 4-year old Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 are certainly over. From those days of playing Gunbound on the NUS campus to the hard disk getting infected with 5 viruses from the same network, the damage does not look nice: a broken cooler fan, un-original hard disk drive(that runs painfully slow, but still runs nevertheless), un-original XP OS...Ah well, enough of the wishing thinking. Now where was I again?Ok anyway, my MP3 player is my iPaq, which is a Pocket PC. It's second-hand from my uncle when I first came to Germany. I get my usual dosage of my music and podcasts on the go from a 2GB Traveller SD card . But I've encountered some problems recently. Whether it's the old headphones with its slightly bent jack, or the iPaq showing signs of old age, I wasn't too sure what to diagnose. But it was definitely a good excuse to do a spot of shopping - new earphones and a new MP3 Player.*grins*Now, as some of you might know, shops in Europe are not opened on Sundays. It's not exception here in Mannheim either. But last Sunday was an exception. Mannheim celebrated her selling/market rights for the 394th year after they were granted by Count Palatine Johann II von Zweibrucken. And it was only on this Sunday, between 1300 to 1800 hours, were the shops opened. There was even a Cuban jazz concert in town. The Sunday atmosphere was livelier like never before.I made my way to Saturn, one of the major centres for PCs and gadgets(think Sim Lim Square, plus washing machines and plasma TV sets). They were having sales on this particular Sunday. I had been eyeing the Sennheiser Sport Series earphones, the PMX 70 for a while now. Unsure of the prices, I decided to make my mind up when I was there.The PMX 70 goes for 44,95€ (USD64/SG93/RM215) which was a weee bit over my budget. I was thinking along the lines of 20€-35€. So I checked out the others on display. The previous day, I was chatting with Alvin and sharing the models with him at Kenny Sia's chat box. He had taken a fancy to the OMX 70 Model, which came with ear hooks. I looked at the OMX70 : 39,95€ (USD57/SG83/RM190) Hmm...Sorry Alvin =PThe OMX 70 was the more decent-looking amid the other Sennheiser models there. Although it's a tad expensive, I swore that it would be my last earphones that I would buy.I continued with my search for an MP3 Player. I wanted to have one with an FM tuner, so that I could just enjoy the usual crap DJs joke around in the early mornings or on the way home from work.There were quite a few players on offer , the cheapest being a 1GB Time Model going at 20€(USD28/SG41.50/RM95.60), to some models from Philips, Sony and Samsung, of which I took at swift glance at their prices and ignored them immediately - all were costing 40€ and above. Cannot cannot...Tja, with a constrained budget, I decided to pick the cheapest on sale.For 1GB with no FM Tuner at such a price here, it looked pretty sleek and alright. The lightness of the player did somewhat unnerve me, having been accustomed to the bulkiness of the iPaq for so long.The final item on my list for that day was a MP3 Player-Holder when I jog. Now at prices below 10€, that wasn't too difficult to choose.Done with shopping, I hastened to the cashier, half-afraid of spending more should I stay longer, half-intimidated by long waiting queues.It was certainly refreshing to see Mannheim so bustling on a Sunday. On the way home, I walked past this mini-attraction and stopped to take a look. And of course some photos too=)Not too sure what this is called, but basically you sit inside and get turned and spun around left and right for a minute or so. Reminds me of those hydraulic pistons car tuners install in the suspension to make the cars bounce and "jump", like in Xzibit's music videos.Back home, I dismantled my new goodies. Haha, pretty much like a boy with his new toys..The two different rim covers for the OMX70Sennheiser OMX70 Case with magnetic Self-sealingIt took a while of fiddling and adjusting with the earphones before they fitted nicely. I plugged them into the the player to test the sound. With the neodymium magnets, I was expecting nothing but the best.I played a list of tracks, which I know had different tone highlights - Delerium featuring Sarah Mclachlan, Reason for Breathing from Babyface, a couple of tracks from Vivaldi, Christina Aguilera and random rock selections.And I must admit, I was not disappointed. The clarity of the various instruments was not lost in the background of the singers. Every acoustic detail could be heard and enjoyed - very distinctly.My only complaint about the earphones is, they loosen from their position outside the external auditory canal of the ear- now promise not to laugh, ok? - when I grin really widely.Hey, don't laugh liao leh! XDWhenever I grin, my facial muscles transmit the movement to my ears - and nudge the earphones loose! Now if that's not irritating in the sense that there's hardly anything one can do to change or rectify it, I don't know what is.But anyway, all in all, I still feel I got pretty good bang for my Euros. Crystal-clear sound quality and a new MP3 Player - definitely a great way to enjoy the rest of the week! Round 22: New running accessories on a rather special Sunday So, for some reason, the shopping bug has clamped its jaws on me. Since 2 weeks ago, starting with the purchase of my air ticket to Japan for Christmas till last weekend, I think I MAY be starting to have some idea, the kind of kick women get when they enter shoe shops or fashion boutiques.Ok fine, so maybe the air ticket doesn't really count. But honestly, since then, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for good deals in shopping ads and newsletters, somehow seemingly looking for some reason to spend money. Heh.Well, like everyone else I guess, I, too do have a wish-list. Topping the list is a new laptop.The prime days of my 4-year old Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 are certainly over. From those days of playing Gunbound on the NUS campus to the hard disk getting infected with 5 viruses from the same network, the damage does not look nice: a broken cooler fan, un-original hard disk drive(that runs painfully slow, but still runs nevertheless), un-original XP OS...Ah well, enough of the wishing thinking. Now where was I again?Ok anyway, my MP3 player is my iPaq, which is a Pocket PC. It's second-hand from my uncle when I first came to Germany. I get my usual dosage of my music and podcasts on the go from a 2GB Traveller SD card . But I've encountered some problems recently. Whether it's the old headphones with its slightly bent jack, or the iPaq showing signs of old age, I wasn't too sure what to diagnose. But it was definitely a good excuse to do a spot of shopping - new earphones and a new MP3 Player.*grins*Now, as some of you might know, shops in Europe are not opened on Sundays. It's not exception here in Mannheim either. But last Sunday was an exception. Mannheim celebrated her selling/market rights for the 394th year after they were granted by Count Palatine Johann II von Zweibrucken. And it was only on this Sunday, between 1300 to 1800 hours, were the shops opened. There was even a Cuban jazz concert in town. The Sunday atmosphere was livelier like never before.I made my way to Saturn, one of the major centres for PCs and gadgets(think Sim Lim Square, plus washing machines and plasma TV sets). They were having sales on this particular Sunday. I had been eyeing the Sennheiser Sport Series earphones, the PMX 70 for a while now. Unsure of the prices, I decided to make my mind up when I was there.The PMX 70 goes for 44,95€ (USD64/SG93/RM215) which was a weee bit over my budget. I was thinking along the lines of 20€-35€. So I checked out the others on display. The previous day, I was chatting with Alvin and sharing the models with him at Kenny Sia's chat box. He had taken a fancy to the OMX 70 Model, which came with ear hooks. I looked at the OMX70 : 39,95€ (USD57/SG83/RM190) Hmm...Sorry Alvin =PThe OMX 70 was the more decent-looking amid the other Sennheiser models there. Although it's a tad expensive, I swore that it would be my last earphones that I would buy.I continued with my search for an MP3 Player. I wanted to have one with an FM tuner, so that I could just enjoy the usual crap DJs joke around in the early mornings or on the way home from work.There were quite a few players on offer , the cheapest being a 1GB Time Model going at 20€(USD28/SG41.50/RM95.60), to some models from Philips, Sony and Samsung, of which I took at swift glance at their prices and ignored them immediately - all were costing 40€ and above. Cannot cannot...Tja, with a constrained budget, I decided to pick the cheapest on sale.For 1GB with no FM Tuner at such a price here, it looked pretty sleek and alright. The lightness of the player did somewhat unnerve me, having been accustomed to the bulkiness of the iPaq for so long.The final item on my list for that day was a MP3 Player-Holder when I jog. Now at prices below 10€, that wasn't too difficult to choose.Done with shopping, I hastened to the cashier, half-afraid of spending more should I stay longer, half-intimidated by long waiting queues.It was certainly refreshing to see Mannheim so bustling on a Sunday. On the way home, I walked past this mini-attraction and stopped to take a look. And of course some photos too=)Not too sure what this is called, but basically you sit inside and get turned and spun around left and right for a minute or so. Reminds me of those hydraulic pistons car tuners install in the suspension to make the cars bounce and "jump", like in Xzibit's music videos.Back home, I dismantled my new goodies. Haha, pretty much like a boy with his new toys..The two different rim covers for the OMX70Sennheiser OMX70 Case with magnetic Self-sealingIt took a while of fiddling and adjusting with the earphones before they fitted nicely. I plugged them into the the player to test the sound. With the neodymium magnets, I was expecting nothing but the best.I played a list of tracks, which I know had different tone highlights - Delerium featuring Sarah Mclachlan, Reason for Breathing from Babyface, a couple of tracks from Vivaldi, Christina Aguilera and random rock selections.And I must admit, I was not disappointed. The clarity of the various instruments was not lost in the background of the singers. Every acoustic detail could be heard and enjoyed - very distinctly.My only complaint about the earphones is, they loosen from their position outside the external auditory canal of the ear- now promise not to laugh, ok? - when I grin really widely.Hey, don't laugh liao leh! XDWhenever I grin, my facial muscles transmit the movement to my ears - and nudge the earphones loose! Now if that's not irritating in the sense that there's hardly anything one can do to change or rectify it, I don't know what is.But anyway, all in all, I still feel I got pretty good bang for my Euros. Crystal-clear sound quality and a new MP3 Player - definitely a great way to enjoy the rest of the week! Round 21: Need a How-to manual? Look no further :) Today was one of my lousy days so far. Didn't feel too refreshed in the morning, and I was starting to find my task, having started on it since last friday, somewhat mundane. Minutes after sitting down and starting the desktop, I scorched my fingers from the searing hot jam from a microwaved Berliner that I bought for breakfast on the way to work. Great. Start. Grrr...Anyways, surfing the net while at work(heh what's new, I know you guys are guilty too, reading this while at work heh!), I found wikiHow.Some of you guys may already know about it, or not, but then again it's self-explanatory: Like Wikipedia, it consists of articles contributed by people off the Net and approved by some higher being. In the Google search results, it's being hailed as:"A collaborative writing project to build the world's largest how-to manual." On the homepage itself, you can see the line"The How-toManuel that YOU can edit." underneath the wikihow logo.There are just about all categories of articles for just about everyone. For the sexually-confused, there's always some really informative articles in the Relationship category that may assist in clarifying the sexual confusion hehThere's plenty of stuff on health, sports , technology, personal finance(*ka-ching*!!) and then some more.What I really enjoy about each manual is the format. There's firstly: 1) The Steps, then 2) Tips and finally 3) Warnings. Damm informative lah, I tell you.Well, anyway I would just like to share my top 5 favourite articles I've found so far:1. How to Stay awake in Dull Meetings -- yes, dear Stan has almost succumbed and became one of the dozing zombies, like our dear friend from the White House here.Looks like dear Mr Bush ordered decaffeinated coffee for the cabinet!2. How to Maintain the Warmth of a Long-distance Relationship -- for those who know me and read my blog, will understand why. Oh, and I so totally agree with Step 6.3. How to retire in your 30s -- All of a sudden, I am suddenly very motivated to get my work done=D. But seriously, even if some of you ridicule at the steps, I reckon we could all take a leaf from this manual.4. How to Feel Great in the morning -- Finally, no more monday blues or bad hair days!...I hope=P5.And last but not least, something useful for the guys:Know how to please a woman...How to give a Foot Massage! ;-)Well then, go on and start browsing the other Manuals...Have Fun dear readers! :D Round 21: Need a How-to manual? Look no further :) Today was one of my lousy days so far. Didn't feel too refreshed in the morning, and I was starting to find my task, having started on it since last friday, somewhat mundane. Minutes after sitting down and starting the desktop, I scorched my fingers from the searing hot jam from a microwaved Berliner that I bought for breakfast on the way to work. Great. Start. Grrr...Anyways, surfing the net while at work(heh what's new, I know you guys are guilty too, reading this while at work heh!), I found wikiHow.Some of you guys may already know about it, or not, but then again it's self-explanatory: Like Wikipedia, it consists of articles contributed by people off the Net and approved by some higher being. In the Google search results, it's being hailed as:"A collaborative writing project to build the world's largest how-to manual." On the homepage itself, you can see the line"The How-toManuel that YOU can edit." underneath the wikihow logo.There are just about all categories of articles for just about everyone. For the sexually-confused, there's always some really informative articles in the Relationship category that may assist in clarifying the sexual confusion hehThere's plenty of stuff on health, sports , technology, personal finance(*ka-ching*!!) and then some more.What I really enjoy about each manual is the format. There's firstly: 1) The Steps, then 2) Tips and finally 3) Warnings. Damm informative lah, I tell you.Well, anyway I would just like to share my top 5 favourite articles I've found so far:1. How to Stay awake in Dull Meetings -- yes, dear Stan has almost succumbed and became one of the dozing zombies, like our dear friend from the White House here.Looks like dear Mr Bush ordered decaffeinated coffee for the cabinet!2. How to Maintain the Warmth of a Long-distance Relationship -- for those who know me and read my blog, will understand why. Oh, and I so totally agree with Step 6.3. How to retire in your 30s -- All of a sudden, I am suddenly very motivated to get my work done=D. But seriously, even if some of you ridicule at the steps, I reckon we could all take a leaf from this manual.4. How to Feel Great in the morning -- Finally, no more monday blues or bad hair days!...I hope=P5.And last but not least, something useful for the guys:Know how to please a woman...How to give a Foot Massage! ;-)Well then, go on and start browsing the other Manuals...Have Fun dear readers! :D Round 20: A summer in Paris Part 2 Looking back, time flies and it's already been 3 weeks at John Deere and Company now. A tad tiring first month at John Deere at that. Work has been busy, but not too hectic - meetings with training experts and champions, 3 hrs long presentations-*stifled yawns*-, production tours and inevitably tretting along with a sense of uncertainty and awarkness in the world of corporate information and the inner workings of a Multinational Company(MNC). So, did anyone manage to guess or figure out the photo quiz in the previous entry? C'mon guys, don't just give up like that! Alright, fine fine - here's the solution:That's how it goes - a foot-lever that acts as a valve to allow the water to come up. Since there wasn't any signs of a motor to pump it out, I assume the water is being stored under high-pressure in some tank.Alrity, so this post is part 2 of our french summer. Early morning of Day 2 in Paris, Kayo and I bought 2-way tickets for the train to Disneyland Paris. The weather was prefect - blue skies, magnolia-white clouds and a warm sun.We managed to avoid the long queues to enter the park as we had booked out tickets online - for Disneyland park and Walt disney studios - at 50€ per person, which I found to be quite a good bargain; a day ticket for Disneyland Park alone is 45€ at the counter.Kayo has been to Disneyland in Tokyo a few times already, so it wasn't all that new for her. For me, it was a real eye-opener : yes guys, I've never been to Disneyland.Armed with english and german maps, we headed to the first attraction that got Kayo's attention - the roller coaster ride at Indiana Jones.At this point, I have to mention, that I've also never taken a roller coaster before. Ja ja I know lah - this guy must be darn sua-ku one, so many things never try before. Aiya, at least better late than never right??Now Kayo, she's a roller coaster manic, so she has absolutely no freaking problems with trying new coasters. So when we come to the attraction, I took a peek and nearly pee-ed in my pants.It didn't look very high, but for a first-timer, and up close some more, it was heck intimidating! But of course I didn't endure 7 hours of bus ride from Mannheim to back off from a new experience. The queue was short- it being barely 10am in the morning - and we got our tickets quickly. With sweaty palms I climbed into the cabin after Kayo and laid my Rucksack on the carriage floor.It would be useless to try and pen my different sensations throughout the ride, but there's one thing I gotta say after riding the roller coaster - I knew I wanted more. I was hooked on the adrenaline rush. XDAnd more roller coasters did we go onto too!!Big Thunder Mountain RailKayo and I came out with disarranged innards but very very satisfied......Stomaching the adrenaline rushes were no small feat. It really got us starving. Grub Time!Disneyland isn't famous for their cuisine, so we went for one fo the cheaper places. We found a little pizza place and decided to check it out.The ambiance wasn't exactly spectacular but did alright. We ordered 2 pizzas - a kiddy pizza in the shape of Mickey Mouse(Kayo found that particular cute, that was the only reason I got it!)and a normal one with sprinkled with mushrooms and bacon.They tasted...ok lah. Guess I kinda expected too much from the price we paid, but I definitely think there are better places that offered better tasting food for the same price. After a short break, we were off again, to see what else was on offer.Now there's this really cool queue management system over there at Disneyland Paris, called the Fast Pass.Basically this is how it works: When a queue at an attraction you wanna go into is too long, you go to the Fast Pass booth, insert your Disneyland day ticket and out pops another ticket, which is basically a slip that allows you to enter the attraction at a later time without having to queue up. Of course when alot of people use this system, there will be a moving queue when you arrive at the attraction later. The plus points are, you don't waste time in a stagnant queue and you can better plan your schedule to visit the various attractions.Kayo with the fast pass for the Big Thunder Mountain Roller CoasterAs the sun rose, the day for us started to wind down, although Disneyland was still brimming with hordes. We tried out a few more attractions...Star Wars X-Wing Flight Simulator Haunted Housewhich was entertaining with a special lift system that transported the visitors from the entrance to the ride. After we were done, we headed out of Disneyland Park and crossed over to Walt Disney Studios.It was a tad smaller than Disneyland Park but there was this hidden sense of more...that the Studios had in store. We had a couple of coffee to freshen up and off we were.We scanned the map.....and found...another roller coaster!!Just the right thing to spice things up again! Hahaha...The evening drew closer. And I think I've definitely rambled long enough about my trip to Disneyland. But Disneyland being what it is, there's something most, if not everyone, will be waiting for...even if they must stay 20 minutes in the rain...What is it?......The Disneyland Parade of course! XDThe green troopers from my childhood days!Mickey!and so many other popular Disney characters from the various films throughout the years.Toy StorySnow WhiteAriel the littel mermaid and her Prince!The rain was getting heavier at this point and the parade was coming to an end. Of course the parade isn't so short; I didn't uploaded all of the photos taken of the parade. Just too many of them anyways.After being on the feet all day long, I was definitely wore out. I spotted one of those rental prams..and to the protests of the gf, promptly sat down in it!Ahh....what a relief!That's it for Day 2 in Paris. Stay tuned folks for the third and last instalment of my french summer;) Round 20: A summer in Paris Part 2 Looking back, time flies and it's already been 3 weeks at John Deere and Company now. A tad tiring first month at John Deere at that. Work has been busy, but not too hectic - meetings with training experts and champions, 3 hrs long presentations-*stifled yawns*-, production tours and inevitably tretting along with a sense of uncertainty and awarkness in the world of corporate information and the inner workings of a Multinational Company(MNC). So, did anyone manage to guess or figure out the photo quiz in the previous entry? C'mon guys, don't just give up like that! Alright, fine fine - here's the solution:That's how it goes - a foot-lever that acts as a valve to allow the water to come up. Since there wasn't any signs of a motor to pump it out, I assume the water is being stored under high-pressure in some tank.Alrity, so this post is part 2 of our french summer. Early morning of Day 2 in Paris, Kayo and I bought 2-way tickets for the train to Disneyland Paris. The weather was prefect - blue skies, magnolia-white clouds and a warm sun.We managed to avoid the long queues to enter the park as we had booked out tickets online - for Disneyland park and Walt disney studios - at 50€ per person, which I found to be quite a good bargain; a day ticket for Disneyland Park alone is 45€ at the counter.Kayo has been to Disneyland in Tokyo a few times already, so it wasn't all that new for her. For me, it was a real eye-opener : yes guys, I've never been to Disneyland.Armed with english and german maps, we headed to the first attraction that got Kayo's attention - the roller coaster ride at Indiana Jones.At this point, I have to mention, that I've also never taken a roller coaster before. Ja ja I know lah - this guy must be darn sua-ku one, so many things never try before. Aiya, at least better late than never right??Now Kayo, she's a roller coaster manic, so she has absolutely no freaking problems with trying new coasters. So when we come to the attraction, I took a peek and nearly pee-ed in my pants.It didn't look very high, but for a first-timer, and up close some more, it was heck intimidating! But of course I didn't endure 7 hours of bus ride from Mannheim to back off from a new experience. The queue was short- it being barely 10am in the morning - and we got our tickets quickly. With sweaty palms I climbed into the cabin after Kayo and laid my Rucksack on the carriage floor.It would be useless to try and pen my different sensations throughout the ride, but there's one thing I gotta say after riding the roller coaster - I knew I wanted more. I was hooked on the adrenaline rush. XDAnd more roller coasters did we go onto too!!Big Thunder Mountain RailKayo and I came out with disarranged innards but very very satisfied......Stomaching the adrenaline rushes were no small feat. It really got us starving. Grub Time!Disneyland isn't famous for their cuisine, so we went for one fo the cheaper places. We found a little pizza place and decided to check it out.The ambiance wasn't exactly spectacular but did alright. We ordered 2 pizzas - a kiddy pizza in the shape of Mickey Mouse(Kayo found that particular cute, that was the only reason I got it!)and a normal one with sprinkled with mushrooms and bacon.They tasted...ok lah. Guess I kinda expected too much from the price we paid, but I definitely think there are better places that offered better tasting food for the same price. After a short break, we were off again, to see what else was on offer.Now there's this really cool queue management system over there at Disneyland Paris, called the Fast Pass.Basically this is how it works: When a queue at an attraction you wanna go into is too long, you go to the Fast Pass booth, insert your Disneyland day ticket and out pops another ticket, which is basically a slip that allows you to enter the attraction at a later time without having to queue up. Of course when alot of people use this system, there will be a moving queue when you arrive at the attraction later. The plus points are, you don't waste time in a stagnant queue and you can better plan your schedule to visit the various attractions.Kayo with the fast pass for the Big Thunder Mountain Roller CoasterAs the sun rose, the day for us started to wind down, although Disneyland was still brimming with hordes. We tried out a few more attractions...Star Wars X-Wing Flight Simulator Haunted Housewhich was entertaining with a special lift system that transported the visitors from the entrance to the ride. After we were done, we headed out of Disneyland Park and crossed over to Walt Disney Studios.It was a tad smaller than Disneyland Park but there was this hidden sense of more...that the Studios had in store. We had a couple of coffee to freshen up and off we were.We scanned the map.....and found...another roller coaster!!Just the right thing to spice things up again! Hahaha...The evening drew closer. And I think I've definitely rambled long enough about my trip to Disneyland. But Disneyland being what it is, there's something most, if not everyone, will be waiting for...even if they must stay 20 minutes in the rain...What is it?......The Disneyland Parade of course! XDThe green troopers from my childhood days!Mickey!and so many other popular Disney characters from the various films throughout the years.Toy StorySnow WhiteAriel the littel mermaid and her Prince!The rain was getting heavier at this point and the parade was coming to an end. Of course the parade isn't so short; I didn't uploaded all of the photos taken of the parade. Just too many of them anyways.After being on the feet all day long, I was definitely wore out. I spotted one of those rental prams..and to the protests of the gf, promptly sat down in it!Ahh....what a relief!That's it for Day 2 in Paris. Stay tuned folks for the third and last instalment of my french summer;) Round 19: Kayo, mouchoto mate kudaisai... It's a windy Saturday morning and after brunch and a hot honey tea, I've decided to just let it out. It's killing to keep it inside of me.It started out like this...A few weeks ago, while chatting with the gf, it dawned on me how much she was missing me, despite having spent our summer here in Mannheim together. On that note, I spoke with my boss and after some discussion, it turned out I could merge my intern leave(which isn't much - just a mere ten days) with the christmas and new year's holidays, making a nice slot of 3 weeks.Yes, you got it folks - 3 weeks in Japan is what I'm talking about here.If I do fly, it's definitely going to be one of my turning points in my life - my first time visiting the land of my favourite animes, the opportunity to introduce myself to the gf's parents and family, the unique japanese culture and I suppose I could go on and on...And so these past few days have seen extra hours spent after work looking for flight connections from Frankfurt to Osaka. The prices I found so far were just too high, mostly in the 850€ - 1000€ range. There was even a flight from Air Italia that reached the 700€ range -but offered no meals during the 11 hour flight! What the heck is that?!So yesterday I searched again - and managed to find a decent connection with Finnair. Damage with taxes : 770€ I can't say it's a totally real bargain, but considering that I actually will be spending 3 hours in Helsinki Vantaa Airport, and Helsinki Airport being it what it is(the taxes were over 200€), I can't really complain either. Oh well.So I called up the travel agency to enquire and double check the connections. Time and dates were all fine, i was told by the agent, who is a also malaysian and more or less a good acquaintance of mine, me after being their customer for 3 years. But, she added, there's a catch."Which is?" I probed."This is one of Finnair's cheapest flights and you know lah, companies are also smart. There are only 4 more seats left for this flight and the booking must be done today, so the ticket must be issued in 24 hours."Stan: "....!!!!"Now that was something I definitely did not calculate in. To fork out a whooping 770€ (USD1096/SGD1628/RM3731) in one day after getting my paycheck....sounded like a road to disaster. And I could immediately foresee days of bread and water for the next 3 weeks."I'll send the money later today before 6pm if I can really confirm. Thanks again..."And so there I was, sitting in the office at 4pm with no one to consult. That really put me in a tight spot. The gf and I had previously discussed the options of me flying to her and for her to fly again to Germany and, the latter was 100€( USD142/SGD211/RM485) cheaper and more economical."It's ok, daijobu..." the gf spoke over the phone, in tears obviously.In desperation I dialed up my ex-neighbour in Berlin, who is one of my closest friends in Germany. We spoke and debatted a good ten minutes before I made my decision.Fast forward to present Saturday morning. I'm watching cartoons dubbed in german on the Cartoon Network when the handphone rings, to the OST of Bleach the anime."Leong, I just issued the ticket, I got your transaction last evening. You should receive the ticket on Monday."I thanked her and hung up, feeling a strange sensation of exhilaration and apprehension...Nihon, Kayo - here I come! :P Round 19: Kayo, mouchoto mate kudaisai... It's a windy Saturday morning and after brunch and a hot honey tea, I've decided to just let it out. It's killing to keep it inside of me.It started out like this...A few weeks ago, while chatting with the gf, it dawned on me how much she was missing me, despite having spent our summer here in Mannheim together. On that note, I spoke with my boss and after some discussion, it turned out I could merge my intern leave(which isn't much - just a mere ten days) with the christmas and new year's holidays, making a nice slot of 3 weeks.Yes, you got it folks - 3 weeks in Japan is what I'm talking about here.If I do fly, it's definitely going to be one of my turning points in my life - my first time visiting the land of my favourite animes, the opportunity to introduce myself to the gf's parents and family, the unique japanese culture and I suppose I could go on and on...And so these past few days have seen extra hours spent after work looking for flight connections from Frankfurt to Osaka. The prices I found so far were just too high, mostly in the 850€ - 1000€ range. There was even a flight from Air Italia that reached the 700€ range -but offered no meals during the 11 hour flight! What the heck is that?!So yesterday I searched again - and managed to find a decent connection with Finnair. Damage with taxes : 770€ I can't say it's a totally real bargain, but considering that I actually will be spending 3 hours in Helsinki Vantaa Airport, and Helsinki Airport being it what it is(the taxes were over 200€), I can't really complain either. Oh well.So I called up the travel agency to enquire and double check the connections. Time and dates were all fine, i was told by the agent, who is a also malaysian and more or less a good acquaintance of mine, me after being their customer for 3 years. But, she added, there's a catch."Which is?" I probed."This is one of Finnair's cheapest flights and you know lah, companies are also smart. There are only 4 more seats left for this flight and the booking must be done today, so the ticket must be issued in 24 hours."Stan: "....!!!!"Now that was something I definitely did not calculate in. To fork out a whooping 770€ (USD1096/SGD1628/RM3731) in one day after getting my paycheck....sounded like a road to disaster. And I could immediately foresee days of bread and water for the next 3 weeks."I'll send the money later today before 6pm if I can really confirm. Thanks again..."And so there I was, sitting in the office at 4pm with no one to consult. That really put me in a tight spot. The gf and I had previously discussed the options of me flying to her and for her to fly again to Germany and, the latter was 100€( USD142/SGD211/RM485) cheaper and more economical."It's ok, daijobu..." the gf spoke over the phone, in tears obviously.In desperation I dialed up my ex-neighbour in Berlin, who is one of my closest friends in Germany. We spoke and debatted a good ten minutes before I made my decision.Fast forward to present Saturday morning. I'm watching cartoons dubbed in german on the Cartoon Network when the handphone rings, to the OST of Bleach the anime."Leong, I just issued the ticket, I got your transaction last evening. You should receive the ticket on Monday."I thanked her and hung up, feeling a strange sensation of exhilaration and apprehension...Nihon, Kayo - here I come! :P