無聊人無聊事: Joseph house gathering

Participants
1. Me
2. Joseph + Josephine
3. SK
4. YZ
5. SH
6. Edwin

After last wednesday's failed attempt of a meetup among the ex-K9 handlers, we made it a point to meet on yesterday - exactly one week after. As usual, Jansen was absent from the gathering. Wondered how he would have looked like if he was also present? SK they all were saying the hair now very long, longer than some girls lol.

*Actually I wondered why cannot make it during weekend? Weekday is a bit rush for those working leh.*

Because Joseph only moved into his new house in Serangoon Gardens recently, so might as well make it a gathering + housewarming event. Food was a problem though. SK got this idea of dabaoing food from nearby chomp chomp and bring it to the house because only me and him can make it on time lol.

*Edwin didn't know where is Chomp Chomp. A bit surprised by this though. Then he said he would be very late as car only available after 7.15 pm*

Left house at around 5.20 pm and followed the route I took the last time when met up with HL/Sebastian they all, i.e. took 157 then 73. Journey was smooth till end of Dunearn Road when the bus got stuck in the jam immediately after it turned into Adam Road from it. And the jam lasted till halfway through Lornie Road. Only then discovered that it's a trailer truck that squeezed itself into that small waiting bay and the back of the articulated lorry blocked lane 3. No choice but the cars in lane 3 have to filter into lane 2 and this caused jam. Zzzz...

Reached Toa Payoh area around 6.35 pm. Saw bus 73 went away before I could climb up the overhead bridge stairs to the other side. Luckily it wasn't a long wait for another 73. But I already got a bad feeling about the 2nd part of the trip.

Indeed, after boarding 73, the bus got stuck in jam for about 20 mins just that short 500 m stretch which was caused by cars entering CTE from Toa Payoh. Zzzz again... Thought I would be late. Fortunately, the bus didn't run into jams after entering Lorong Chuan. Thought I could arrive on time.

Then, SK mentioned he already arrived at Chomp Chomp at 7 pm. I reached the place exactly 7.15 pm but SK was nowhere to be seen. 原來他在幫Joseph找車位. Josephine tagged along too. Must be the married couple off from work and came together. The first moment SK saw me and he said I got fatter! Wow! He was really sharp-on! Actually I myself also find myself gotten fatter during this period of staying at home and munching on snacks while watching dramas. LOL... But I told him I'm in the process of slimming down liao lol.

First thing was visit this 串燒 stall. Seemed Joseph knew the stall owner. Don't know if they friends or know each other after he frequents the stall after moving into this area. Some of the food on display were quite unique, don't know what bak kua with 腐皮 - what an unique combination lol. All food were fried instead of being boiled.

Then SK went to buy seafood 'tze char' kind of dishes from neighbouring stall including 麥片蝦、蝦婆、kangkung、sotong、燒魚 etc.; Josephine went to buy hokkein mee. Didn't buy carrot cake coz need to wait 20 mins lol - we were very late liao.

Updated each other's recent situation. They both quite shocked that I still jobless - well that's a fact and I wasn't trying to shock them lo. At this time YZ and SH already arrived liao - SH drove him here.

Sat in Joseph's BMW newest 5 series deduced from the 'SKK' car plate. Actually I can't feel the difference between such atas car and normal Japanese sedan, only slightly quieter lor. Maybe the difference would be greater when the car cruises at high speed. Then surprised to see his old Toyota Axio parked outside the house - never sell off wor.

SK said he very lucky to be able to visit Europe last Nov because the tour package was from Five Stars Tours. He himself also shocked that it went bankrupt suddenly. Bad debts must be a lot lo.

I thought we had bought a lot of food already. Almost fainted when YZ said he brought in dimsum set + haagen daz ice cream. Walao! How to finish like that?!

The new house is still the same type - clusterhouse - compared to the old one in Tanah Merah. Not sure what's the advantage of clusterhouse except that the car is parked basement totally sheltered from weather lor. Other than that I thought open garage those kind would be the best. Anyway, the new house is almost double that of old house which I only visited in Dec 2009 lol - 5 storeys high.

The interior follows 歐式皇家宮廷風格——擺設、照片、牆紙、水晶燈等等都真的很高尚典雅。Not a typical Chinese or local style home. And for the first time, there is a lift inside a residential house! The lift isn't big and heavy duty. SK stepped into the lift and it wobbled and sank a bit! LOL~ The fridge, microwave oven, conventional oven and some cupboards are built into the wall. Vistors may not even notice there is a fridge there coz hidden so well!

Dining hall looks elegant as well because there is a 水晶吊燈 hanging above the table and the ceiling stretches to 3rd floor, thereby creating a quite high-class feel.

Dinner was a spread! Edwin only arrive around 8.45 pm and dinner had just started. Of course after a short while I already raised white flag. 最近晚餐吃很少的說。In fact, everybody did same. LOL~ Still, there left a lot of food lor. Stingray didn't got chance to appear on the dining table leh and the ice cream also. 大家都飽到鬼醬～ Nonetheless, it was quite a nice dinner coz seeing mates are still themselves joking around，老樣子大概未來十年、二十年都應該不會變。

For some reasons, they talked about dogs, mentioned blesk and Joseph didn't know Uno has died. Then they asked me if my dog has died or not - Charlie already went for a long long holiday since June(?) 2011 le. Of course Ben is still around, but back to the usual shy self.

YZ said that he's weighing almost 70 kg and worried that can't pass IPPT. Joseph told us that he failed his IPPT twice. The first time he took, everything was okay except 2.4 failed by 9 seconds. Then he went to Tampines SAFRA to take IPPT and run on threadmill - it was worse. The PTI set the speed at 12 km/h and inclination to 2. WTH, simi sai, not inclination 0, aka running on flat ground meh? By 9th minute Joseph already gave up liao. Then SK, SH can't pass IPPT too. Looks like only Edwin can pass for now.

After dinner, went up to take a look at the house. The top or 5th floor contains two small balconies, front and back, and a swimming pool. I quite like it coz it's rather cooling. Imagine sitting there, eating and drinking with friends... Isn't it nice? *Geraint's rooftop! Drinking and talking truth with friends on a cooling night!* The pool, according to Joseph, was 1.1 m deep. Also, no need much maintenance one, only need to hire people to clean it once in a while. He claimed that the balconies can be BBQ pit and I guessed it's perfect for a small group gathering, cannot have a group too big.

Then 4th floor has the big master bedroom for Joseph's parents and Joseph's sis bedroom. The big master bedroom looks decent enough. Didn't really explore the sis's bedroom as her bf was inside playing computer games.

Joseph's bedroom and study room are located at 3rd floor. For private housing standard, his room looks quite cramped, it's even smaller than my bedroom lor! The toilet door is so nicely concealed that I didn't expect the toilet is right behind the TV. Genius design... Basically a lot of things are camouflaged in Joseph's house lol.

2nd floor is the living room, dining area and kitchen. Also, there is a small little porch (not really a garden) before exiting the small gate to the common area of the estate.

The bar and karaoke room and possibly the maid's room(?) are located at the basement or 1st floor. Joseph said that the karaoke and sound systems cost about $10k and the whole renovation cost about $280k! Omgakkk! Really atas leh. The karaoke system can be said to be one of the best I've ever seen, second to the Temasek Club one. The finale of the gathering was of course 乾杯 with apple cider and k-ing. Even the TV just for karaoke looks big enough, I suspect at least 60 inches.

The songs picked included 張震嶽 - 愛我別走, 林俊傑 - 記得, 黃品源光良 - 你怎麼捨得我難過. I sang 愛我別走 the most SK only mixed in here and there. I blended in for other songs other than 愛我別走 coz only 2 wireless mics around. Edwin sang the whole 記得 alone and SH + YZ sang 你怎麼捨得我難過. Didn't know SH has such great singing power. 你怎麼捨得我難過還不錯聽一下。

How I wish I could stay there just for k session.

As Edwin is working on the next day, he had to leave early, then YZ and me left the place around 10.30 pm to tompang his car. SH and SK also staying too late neither. Before that Joseph told us that the neighbouring unit is about double of his house and is rented to angmoh for an astonishing $16k/mth! The landlord even give the tenant a car to use. Really mind-blowing... 我到底幾時或者這一生住得到這種屋子呢？

Edwin took the CTE-PIE-BKE route, don't know is it longer than the CTE-SLE-BKE-KJE back to his house. But we did stuck in a small jam on PIE near to BKE exit, caused by 1 major (car-bike) and 1 minor (car-car) accident. While on our way back to west side, YZ said that he prefers to stay single for now. Didn't ask further what's the reason. Maybe should set a time to HTHT to find out more. Afterall, so long didn't catch up with him liao. Well, there's no right or wrong answer when comes to this, nobody is saying by 25 years old or 26 years old must find the other half and settle down and get married. He could build on his career as he has just started out not long ago and that's perfectly fine.

*Didn't expect that Edwin and his gf has been together for almost 10 years liao. He so low profile until we didn't know how his gf looks like wor. But SH just take the cake*

Then he said he want to learn a new language to get to know more people and expand social circle. Good idea so I asked him what lang he wanna learn he say maybe Jap or Korean lo. Talking about what I did during free time, he said he knows the Korean variety show Hello Counselor. Aigoo... Very popular wor this show.

Suddenly he popped up that he is 回 KL on 3 Feb, ask me if will have jams or not. The 回 word that he used immediately contradicts to his identity - he SGian leh...

Suddenly, the car started playing Yiruma's song. Once again, I realised that they both also know about this musician. YZ even said that he now learning how to play the keyboard, but can only manage simple songs kind.

YZ got off at Woodlands Road, just outside Edwin's house then took bus 960 or 961 back. While I alighted at Yew Tee MRT and trained back to Lakeside. By the time I reached Yew Tee, it was already 11.05 pm. Talking about me owing Edwin a treat, he almost forgot about it aigoo. Well 欠人家的總是要記住啊。 Once again, thanks Edwin for the ride! :)

*Dabao the stingray and some dimsum back for today's meal!*

Yippee, what a successful gathering! :) At least everybody was present there. Proud to say that, among the K9 batches I've seen, my batch still keep in touch with each other after ORDed for 5 years liao. Not even for Geraint's batch. Maybe the next closest one would be Kenny, Edmund, Samuel they all?

About the people
- Joseph still working at the same company. Probably now planning to have a child after married for 1 year le bah.

- Josephine now works as some customer support head at some finance company. Not sure what was her previous dept.

- SK thinking of joining another company but this is as far as I know. He looking to buy HDB, but clash with his and his gf's agenda - no plan to get married yet - so cannot buy HDB and EA is ex. Now living at gf house. Did he moved out of his Woodlands house?

- SH still working for his dad, but heard he tendering soon and come out to work? His child is coming to 1 year old in a few day's time and he is planning to have a 2nd child. Hopefully is a girl. Stops at 2.

- Edwin still same from the previous time I met him. But now learnt that he not only teach geography, but also English and social studies. The latter two are among the most hated subjects in sec sch for us lor and he jokingly said 討厭他教的科就好 (meaning no hate him is good lol). No concrete wedding plan yet, maybe 2nd half of 2015.

- YZ working as design engineer, but he said job could be quite sian. Basically need to come up with the design from the specifications, limitations, ensure it can be mass-produced and is workable. Also mentioned about his colleagues can TCSS just about anything - toilet break can talk for 10 mins. But isn't these small little talks that engage you with colleagues so that know each other better? He also went interview for some IT audit at D company. Currently still giving tution wor! Aigoo... Lastly said if no career progression by 30 years old, he will go into teaching. Oh ya, he told about him bumping into PG on 2nd Jan but I acted as if I didn't know about it lol.

Looks like I'm the slowest now. But hopefully I could finish the race at the end, even overtaking some hoho.