All work and no play makes me a dull boy.

These days, I look forward to going to work everyday largely because of my colleagues. Despite the copious amount of material we have to absorb and then regurgitate on the days of our tests, training has been filled with bundles of laughter and it seems that everyone is capable of cracking a joke. It was Theresa’s birthday today so we decided to order some pizza to celebrate at the pantry. Worried at first that there might not be enough pizzas for everyone, I decided to order 8 large pizzas from Canadian pizza. The bill came to a total of 120 bucks and, needless to say, there was quite a bit left. Quite honestly, it was much like a pizza buffet gone wrong. Towards the end of lunchtime, we were close to forcing ourselves to finish the fourth pizza. Yes, we ended with almost 4 full pizzas. They’re lying on my dining table now. I think I’ll ask my brother’s friends to have a shot at them after their routine boxing sessions.
Yesterday, we all went to Pauliner’s as if we already had our payday. Over a few beers, I realized that one of the Insurance Sales Specialists, Chun En, holds a Masters of Applied Finance from Monash University. Most of us were quite surprised at his decision to join the company as an ISS until we found out later that ISSs commanded a pay amount quite a bit more than us. His main reason, he claimed, was that he didn’t want a deskbound job to start with and would rather get some exposure through sales. As if I don’t already feel unqualified, he also told us meekly that he’ll be taking his Level 3 CFA soon. From the beers, we proceeded to the restaurant upstairs for a feast. I left earlier that the rest with the initial intention to go for rugby training but decided it was too late. I ended up at my club doing some laps in spite of the beer I had before dinner. I only knew this morning that they left at 11pm last night. I think my lifestyle may take a U-turn in due time.

I’ll be writing lesser for the next few days. Workload is taking a toll on me but I relish the challenge.

It'll be a long time before this group gets together again.  

Just like how I'm running out of creativity to write my captions, I was running out of "photogenicness" towards the end of the party. 

I offered to help cut the cake for Jeannie but she said it's bad luck so she grabbed the knife from me and cut the cake for everyone instead. 

That's one long lost friend, Jiayi, whom I've not seen for nearly 1 year. She initially refused to take this picture with me coz' her eyes were sore but I can hardly tell in here.  

Here's Pam and Brenda. Brenda, I'm not sure if you think you look good in here or not but I'm putting it anyway. I hope you agree with me. 

So she's in Kao Lak now. She nearly backed out on the trip because she fell really ill just the night before. I'm glad she recovered enough to make a decision to go in the end because I'm sure she'll be able to learn and contribute a lot once she's there. 

That's Jeannie and Mark showing off the cake Chloe and I bought from Tiong Bahru plaza just minutes before Sweet Secrets closed. We were 3 minutes away from not having a cake for Jeannie. Thank goodness Brenda called me to tell me that there wasn't a cake at her party. Otherwise, I would have resorted to giving her an Ang Pow instead.

That's buddy Noel looking so much fresher and not to mention healthier after his successful efforts to quite smoking.  

That's Jeannie's birthday at Little Bali, our favourite chillout place which never fails to produce a worthwhile evening. 

I can get used to this.

Long day at work so I’m just gonna briefly tell you what happened today. Not surprisingly, I was 15 minutes early for work today – not exactly something I’m particularly proud of since I live only 5 minutes away from my workplace. Arriving in the morning, I met Eugene who’s a graduate from University of Wisconsin in the washroom. He then directed me to our classroom where I met Yeong Meng from NTU and David who did commerce. Cheery bunch and we got along immediately. I also found out later that I’m as old as the youngest guy in the class. We were expecting more girls but surprisingly more than half the class were made up of guys. Maybe this is happening because they wanna make amends for the imbalance they created in the past. It was a hectic day of tutorial from 9am till 6pm. Towards the end, I was close to flipping the table. I’m exaggerating, I love my job. So far so good.

Standard Chartered Rugby Sevens Singapore didn't fail to deliver once again.

Fuelled by alcohol and created by alcoholics, the atmosphere today at the Standard Chartered Ruby Sevens Singapore was better than yesterday’s by two-fold. In terms of racial slurs and witty bantering, I guess it was a free for all no matter which country you were from – all in the name of humor. The crowd was twice as rowdy and the stadium looked more filled than yesterday. Adrian even commented, I quote, "Wah, a lot of babes man." The expats sitting behind us were both jeering and cheering for the French, Australians, Scottish and even the English. At some point, I started to wonder which country there were from. We filled our time in between the matches dancing away to the music and sang our hearts out when “YMCA” came on. I fulfilled my promise to Jasmine, one of the beer gals, by buying a jug of beer from her but ended up drinking most of it myself coz’ Adrian, Hannsern, Victor and Lynn had their own jug before I arrived. After that, I had supper at Kallang KFC with my rugby teammates and not surprisingly we met more old teammates who had just finished watching the Rugby Sevens. In all, the crowd was better and I’m looking forward to going again next year. What a way to end my last day of freedom before my first day of work at DBS. Fantastico!

So I lent my camera to the gals for awhile only to find it grossly filled with pictures of big and burly men afterwards. I didn't mind though - at least they were from one of my favorite teams. 

Maybe it's a macho thing but a lot of guys like to show this when the need for a pose arises. That's Yao studying medicine in NUS...can't tell in here, can you? 

I picked out the cap for Sheema to wear after I took some pictures of myself wearing it - don't hope that I'll be posting the pictures of myself wearing it. 

I look damn chia lat. Jeannie was ill that day but she still accompanied me until quite late. Hope she's feeling better now. That's SRC touch Captain, Angela, on Jeannie's right peeping curiously at the camera and that's Aien in the blue top on my left.  

I was actually a bit red from the beer but I'm so tanned now you can hardly tell in here. Rest assure that I now use SPF 50 when I go under the sun.  

So for those who were already black that day became more black while those fairer ones just turned red. Even the short downpour didn't help.  

Aha, and here's a better picture of him...stop drooling. 

You see that lil' head on the stadium track? That's the guy most of the gals were swooning over. He's from the "All Blacks".  

That's Hann Sern and Lynn looking all pale (due to the shadow) but cheery coz' we got in free! I had to waste two free tickets in the end.  

Those smiling are, from left, Yao, Sheema and Marle while I was not able to catch the attention of the others to the far right coz' they were ogling at cute guys. That beer gal you see at on your top left hand corner is Tammy, my ex-colleague - whom I just realise to be in the picture. I didn't wanna say hi to her at first in apprehension that she might not recognise me but she came over and said hi later.  

Hong Kong vs England. No brownie points for guessing which team won. Not as if I'm not black enough, I had to endure the sweltering heat throughout the afternoon because we were sitting at the East Wing. I won't be surprised if the Banglas at the construction site start mistaking me for their colleagues now.  

We just intended to make funny faces but we only found out that we came up with a similar expression after we looked at the picture. We had a good laugh after.

I flatly refused to join her in her quasi-indian-movie stunt... 

I wonder what caught her attention in here...Hmmm... 

You make think that this pose is too inane for someone to even come up with a witty caption. Fact is, Chloe was actually the one holding the camera while I was the one making the hand signs. You can't tell in here, can you?  

I don't know about you but I get a neck ache if I look at this picture for too long coz' I have to tilt my head. Here's Chloe trying to show her creative side.