Christine, Meng's daughter, had a birthday party on Labour Day.

There were lots of other kids invited as well, and to entertain them, there were professional party organizers from McDonalds who conducted game sessions with the kids. The food was pretty good, and football was shown on the huge projector screen for the guys, so there was something for everyone.

Belated Happy Birthday Christine! Photos are here.

It has been hectic for the previous few weeks, so I have little time to write.

Jas and I have been going to visit contractors, bridal shops, jewellery shops etc during our free time in the evenings and during the weekends. Progress has been slow but steady, and we are getting a clearer picture of what we want.

I was away in JB last week, for a team building event, and it was nice to know my new colleagues. This week, I attended a 5-day Siebel training course, and out of the 15 working days since I joined, I have only been in the office for 7 days. Heh, pretty good start eh?

The blog has been getting some spam comments, so I'm thinking about how to stop them, without inconveniencing everybody who genuinely wants to leave a comment.

And yesterday, the 26th of April, marks the 1 year anniversary of my brother and I coming back to Singapore. A lot has happened since then, we're at our second jobs, and we're to vote for the coming GE in Ang Mo Kio GRC. Good memories, Head of China Operations (private joke) eh?

So how have you been?

I've uploaded the photos I took at Sebana Cove, so hit the link.

We went to Pasir Ris Park on Saturday for a picnic with some of our friends.

We decided on pot luck for lunch, so all of us brought something to contribute to lunch; Yuanxiang baked a cake and made sandwiches, while the rest of us just bought some finger food. The weather was perfect, and we soon filled our stomachs, although the butter cake was a bit filling.

After lunch, the girls went off to buy some drinks, while the guys entertained ourselves with card games. We played a wicked game where the loser has to eat a piece of cake, and we were all begging for mercy before long.

The skies grew gray, and random droplets gave a hint of the rain to come, so we decided to pack up and move to Meaw and Wenqi's place. Wendy was especially delighted with the move for some reasons, all 148 of them.

Evening gradually beckoned, and we had dinner at the coffee shop downstairs, after which we called it a day, and went our separate ways home. I think everybody enjoyed the rare outing at the beach, although I can't say I have fond memories of the cake. Then again, I shouldn't be complaining, as Melinda has a worse fate than me. Heh.

P.S. Photos are uploaded at the usual place.

It has been a week since I started work at the new place, and it has been a mixed experience, so far.

I didn't manage to meet anybody from HR on my first day, but I found that I have quite a few ex-colleagues in the same team, so I managed to find my way around pretty well. I got issued with a new laptop, a new SIM card, and a new, massively HUGE handphone.

I manage to catch the company transport to and from the office, and it was especially good to be able to be browsing the Apple Centre at Wheelock's Place before 6 in the evening. Other benefits include free fruits during lunch, free flow of coffee and other beverages, massage sessions by blind masseurs, and also personal trainers in the company gym. Marvellous stuff, employee benefits. Heh.

Anyway, I was talking to a colleague who was supposed to brief me on my roles and responsibilities, and here's what he said: "Most of us are involved in multiple projects; we deal with multiple parties to solve different technical issues, but our main job, regardless of the project, is that we're here to stop the business users from doing stupid things."

If there is a more succinct way of describing any engineer or developer's scope of work, I have yet to hear it. Brilliant stuff.

So far, so good. Fingers crossed, I may yet enjoy my stay here.

We went to Brewerkz on Friday night, and had a good time, although I wasn't feeling that well after that.

Meng was at the restaurant/bar the earliest, and found out that there was a 45 minutes waiting queue. We soon arrived, and met him at Liang Court, where he was having dinner. We were still discussing, with Wendy and William, whether we should go to another place for a drink, but the food at Brewerkz beckoned, and Meng was very persistent, so...

We met up with the rest of the guys, including Lina, who only joined us because Survivor was already over on TV. Much thanks to her. Heh. Anyway, we started off with a tower of golden ale, and a sampler set for me, since that was my first visit to Brewerkz. We had some finger food to go along with the beer, and it was really nice washing down the greasy, oily food with ice-cold beer.

That is, until the point when we finished the food. Yuanxiang, who has just stepped off from a plane, set a relentless pace, toasting to every and anything under the sun. It was fine in the beginning, but the effects of the beer came over us soon after.

The tower soon gave way to a second one, and a third one after that. It wasn't long before I was feeling the effects of the beer, and it felt like lots of gas trapped inside your body, without any way of forcing the gas out. It was terrible.

It wasn't long before we had enough, and the idea of going home sounded better and better. But it wasn't the end of my ordeal. I was barely conscious on the way home, and I was hugging the toilet bowl soon after I reached home. It was only after vomitting out my dinner, until I got spittle in my nose, that I felt better.

Luckily enough, I suffered no hangover the next day, although I was pretty groggy. Ah well, it was fun; you can never have a bad time with close friends.

If you are free, take a look at how my condition deteriorated as the night went by.