Sanity… is for the Weak

June has been a month of travelling for me; probably the most since I’ve started working. It started with a working trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia:

This was followed by a road trip up to Muar, in support of preparations for a friend’s wedding and finally to KL for another working trip last week.

July looks pretty heavy too, with another trip up to Muar again this weekend for the wedding proper and followed by a week-long working trip to Surabaya at the end of the month.

I don’t really mind the travelling, as it’s one of the things I like to do. And the great food that goes along with the change in scenery is a plus in my books:

It’s just that with all this travelling, especially over the weekends, simply means less time with the sword. I can feel my stamina falling and joints getting stiff again… not to mention the extra inches the good food has been putting on my waist. The occasional runs I do in what ever time I can steal do not make up for the lack of exercise.

Sigh.

So, there we were in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on a Friday afternoon, having missed our connecting SQ flight because of a delay on the GA flight from Yogyakarta.

No problem, right? Just hop onto the next flight home; it’s only a couple of hours’ wait right?

Eh? It’s full up? And the next one and the last plane out too?

So, now what? Waiting list? Okay, so when will we know?

Whaddya mean we gotta wait till our names are called?

*Breathe*

Ooookaaaay. No biggie. We’ll just stay an additional night and go back first thing tomorrow.

Eh? You’re fully booked tomorrow until Sunday night?!?

*Panic*

Okay, okay. How about we pay the difference and go onto Business class?

It’s fully booked too?!? WTF?!?

Seriously folks. If the airlines are crying about poor performance, I just don’t see it on the ground.

What freaking recession?!?

Going to Yogyakarta ~

See you guys in a few days >_<”

Lunch today was at one of the restaurants in the world which we really like; the Straw Hat Cafe inside the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan.

As it was the last time round, no pictures were allowed inside the museum, but it is always a joy to ramble through the museum and explore the nooks and crannies. The special exhibition this time round was Petite Louvre, a collection of the famous art works in the musée du Louvre in miniature reproduction.

I bought me a damascus steel knife from Tsukiji market!

I’ve gotten a knife from these guys previously, and was actually just visiting the place again to look at the shiny sharp things when the patterning caught my eye. A quick check with the boss confirmed my suspisions and immediately turned into a purchase.

As susual, they took the knife for final polishing and sharpening once the deal was struck, but this time they actually asked for my name so that it could be carved onto the blade!

It’s not a sword, but perhaps one day….

We touched down early in the morning, and spent most of today getting our the wifey’s shopping done. I’m not saying anything, except that Burberry Blue Label in Harajuku is a scary, scary place…

While over at Harajuku, we stopped by first at the Meiji Shrine to enjoy the green surroundings before braving the hustle and bustle of Takeshita street. By happy coincidence we came across a traditional wedding in progress.

It was interesting to see something new and outside of our culture. The bride was very pretty. The Miko not so much….

The first thing we noticed when compared with our earlier trip two years ago, is that there seem to be a lot more doggies this time round. Just in Harajuku alone we saw four dachshunds (expected, given thier small size and the equally small typical Japanese apartment) and two full-sized Poodles (which was very unexpected). There were even folks with dogs on leash in the supermarket, at the train station and at the temples. Did pets get more accepted in the last two years here?

Musings aside, we’re very glad to be able to take this holiday, even though it’s a short one. I foresee work will be killer for the both of us this year.

Been working too hard for too long.

We’re heading off to Tokyo for a few days starting tomorrow.

See you guys next week!

And so, a week has come and gone in this hot and dusty country. On the work front, things have settled down into a sort of a routine, although having the working week begin on Sunday and ending on Thursdsay is still a little strange.

Been clocking quite a bit of physical training over the last few days; I suppose having the gym just upstairs from the apartment is a big plus. Coupled with the fact that I’m staying in a serviced apartment means that I have more time to work out rather than coming home from work to to washing and cleaning.

Also, the diet here has been almost too healthy ~ all I’m having at lunch these days is just a large salad. It’s (probably) doing wonders for my digestive system, but I think I’ll still need to head out and look for some yogurt or something.

Listening to:
JNR Dials Deep

Current Read:
Traveller

Mood:
Hot and irritable

Touched down sometime after midnight this morning, and walked right into a wall of hot air coming out of the airport. Who ever it was who said that the desert is hot by day and cold by night, obviously had no bloody idea what they were talking about. But then again, in the light of the morning heat (43 degrees Celsius!), the night time temperature of 32 degrees Celcius does seem cooler by comparison. This heat is almost too much to bear; it’s not a humid kind of heat we have back home, but rather a dusty-dry kind that cracks the lips and gums up the eyes ~ sort of like a sauna + tanning bed kind of heat and dryness at the same time.

Lots of things done today, mostly getting things and settling in for the next few weeks that I’m here. Will see if I can hit the pool later to cool off.

p.s. Driving on the wrong side of the road is… disorienting.

And I’ve got the tee-shirt to prove it!

We went out to Guy’s place last night for a little party, with the Singaporeans cooking a pot of curry (Ken’s job) and fried rice (My job) to the BBQ, and it went on a little until very late. I distinctly remember downing nine Karhus’, a sip of scotch, and a damned fine No. 2 Romeo y Julieta, lots of singing, and finally lying down at about 3 am in the morning, which made today’s seminar rather interesting. Considering the fact that we asians are genetically disadvantaged when it comes to metabolising alcohol, it comes to no surprise that matching drinks with the Finnish Horde is an exercise in futility…. but one does one’s best.

And so, armed with a bit of a hangover (some more than others), we bravely faced the last day of the Fiore Seminar. The morning was a recap of all the things we have done over the last four days, followed by a mini-tournament, and ending with a question and answer session over the treatise. Alas, our cunning plan to slew the odds in our favour to win the mini-tournament by cooking a devilish *MILD* curry so as to poison cause mild diarrhea in the opposition failed, foiled no doubt by the copious amount of beer the Finns were imbibing. Just for the record, I won two fights (both spears) and lost two (dagger and longsword), and made it to the A-list of fighters who had a shot at first place.

Bruised, winded but highly elated, I am very glad that I could make time to attend this seminar. With the knowledge still fresh in mind, I shall attempt to distill some of the things which I have learned, both about Swordsmanship, and myself:

1) Throw committed strikes. The feel and response on the blade transmitted back to the hand when the opponent counters should be able to tell you what to do next for a counter-remedy. Feinting is a good trick, but if the opponent is unfazed, it don’t do squat.

2) Attacking out of measure is bad. Straying into close measure without realising is worse ~ poke in the face, anyone? The ideal is to start the attack out of measure, and pass into measure at the end of the strike.

3) Control. Control. Control. One could try swinging wildly and hope for a hit, but we are studying from a treatise and as such, we should be executing the plays in the book ~ at least according to the principles as Fiore explains, even if not as exactly depicted in the book.

4) I’m still very much a Largo player, as was critiqued by Ken and Anthony after my bouts. I admit that I do not like to go into close quarters combat ~ why kill your opponent at hugging distance when you can do so at range? Probably the reason I won both spear events. Besides, the cleaning bill for getting blood out of the tunic is expensive…..

Flying home in 8 hours. Here’s hoping to see all my fellow swordsmen again, and a big thank you for the friendship and hospitality we’ve been shown, proving wrong that sterotype of an extroverted Finn is one who looks at your shoes when talking to you.

Kiitos!

The training this morning was a very good session. I’ve had myself videoed executing the Syllabus Form, and now I know how much I suck. That depressing thought out of the way, I also now know what I should work on. And so this trip has shown it’s benefits, even before the seminar has started.

The afternoon was spent on a grocery run into town, and we stopped by the market at the harbour for lunch. We also dropped by the JT Pälikkö showroom and saw the beautiful paintings and the even more beautiful swords. Very expensive, these damascus bades.

The training at night was the beginner’s course, which culminated in going through the steps of the First Drill. However, the surprising twist was that while we’ve been practicing the drill as a set piece, the defences will work against not just the fendente mandritto as is designed, but also against an initial fendente roverso or high thrust as well, and the defender’s response DOES NOT HAVE TO CHANGE. Food for thought.

As a bonus, I managed toget some rapier training from Guy after the class, and after a few false starts I think I’ve gotten the basics down. The highlight was probably when Guy got tired of telling me not to step off the line as I’m used to in Fiore, once too many times ~ so we started practicing the Stringere on a bench. I guess it must have been like a scene from the movies, with two guys duelling with rapiers while balancing on a narrow beam!

Sight-Seeing

We spent yesterday in Tallinn, Estonia, which was just a two-hour ferry ride away from Helsinki.

Tallinn’s main attraction is a pretty well preserved medieval town, and the whole place has a carnival feel, with the residents dressed in medieval garb, selling attractions, snacks and other wares.

Highlight of the trip was a full medieval meal in a restored tavern, Old Hansa. For starters, we had a mushroom soup with herbed bread and dried elk meat, which was kind of like beef jerky, but tougher. For the main, I chose the Wild Boar platter, with rather interesting sides of Onion Jam, Sauerkraut and berries. All that washed down with a strong, dark beer infused with herbs, all served in earthenware crockery.

Training

Training here in Helsinki is a treat ~ the weather is cool, and the humidity low so that you really have to work at it to raise some sweat. Since coming here, we’ve worked on stability drills, syllabus form, and we just spent the morning exploring the defences and counters from the left side, notably from zenghiaro. Ken will probably have a more detailed and scholarly discourse on our training progress, I won’t go too much into details.

Food
Surprisingly or maybe unsurpsiringly, I’ve taken on the job of Head Cook for the Singaporean contigent of the Golden Horde, so I’ll be preparing meals for the rest of the guys. Pictures, when I have some time to take them

It’s all uploaded ~ slideshow’s here. And flickr photogroup here.

Enjoy!

As promised, some (about two-thirds or so) of the pictures we took in Istanbul are up on flickr, and here are some highlights:

Food there was not cheap, but it was quite good. We tended to go to this little bakery near the hotel for breakfast; it had the most wonderful cheese-and-olive stuffed bread covered in sesame seeds that went really well with the super strong Turkish Tea served in dinky little glass teacups. Lunch and dinner were usually at an eatery that would not look out of place in a Singaporean food court serving “Economy Rice”, as that’s what it basically is ~ go to the counter, pick the dishes you like and have it served with rice or couscous. We really loved the lentil soups served there.

The dessert lovers would enjoy Turkey. Of all the famous sweets, Turkish Delight is probably the best known. Lesser known but sweeter is Baklava, a traditional Ottoman pastry drenched, nay, drowning! in syrup ~ it’s a sweet lover’s heaven, but instant calorie hell…

Case in point, check out the dessert junkie drooling at a pastry shop window:

More seriously though, Istanbul is a historic and culture-rich place. We really loved going through the historic monuments and museums.

The other hightlight of Istanbul would of course be the Bazaars, the Grand Bazaar being the most famous:

That’s it for now ~ I’ll upload the rest soon, but do surf by the flickr page for more.

Hi folks!

We’re just back from Istanbul, Turkey. The sights have been inspiring, the culture amazing, and the food wondeful.

Just let us unpack and wash up, and I’ll upload the pictures as soon as I can.

Planning is almost done, we’ll be off on a holiday from 19-28 Nov. Just need to confirm the hotel and we’re all set to go see fabled Byzantium.

Ayasofya, Blue Mosque, Yerebatan Saray Cistern and the Grand Bazaar, oh my!

*edit*
Nov! I meant Nov! ~arrrrgh!~

E-Lynn’s Photo Journal through Lhasa is up on Flickr.

So surf on by and have a look

Why I like taking B/W pictures underwater, I don’t know.

But it certainly does looks cool

Some more stuff uploaded:

One thing about Layang-layang, was the glorious sunsets. There were golden ones which lit the sky up like the palace of the gods, red ones that looked like the sky was on fire, and all other colours in between.

Some of the pictures have been uploaded on Flickr, but it’s a slow process as I’m uploading the hi-res originals for maximun clarity. Some of the better shots uploaded so far as follows:

Tried framing a composition using the sunset and the island, and this was my best effort:

More to be uploaded… when I have time…

Just picked up the furkids from the In-Laws (and phewwww, do they need a bath); we’ll be doing equipment wash-up and drying plus puting everything back in place.

Trip was great, but sadly no Hammerhead Shark sightings. Pictures to be uploaded to Flickr shortly.

List of things to pack:

1) Wetsuit
2) Dive Skin
3) Buoyancy Control Device
4) Regulator
5) Mask
6) Fins
7) Dive Computer
8) Dive Watch
9) Primary Torch
10) Secondary Torch
11) Weight Belt
12) Dive Knife
13) Safety Sausage
14) Dive Certification
15) Dive Log
16) Underwater Camera Casing + Camera
17) Toiletries
18) Change of clothes
19) Sunblock
20) Swimwear
21) Brandy, the Travel Mascot
22) Passport
23) Money (USD$140 for marine park fees, and another RM$100 for… emergencies)
24) PSP (with MP3’s fully loaded up!)
25) Lappy (for pictures to be viewed and edited)

Am I missing anything out?

And the Company Grows.

“A hero is a man who is afraid to run away.”
- English Proverb

Granado Espada

The PHEMAS Demo company will be putting up an demonstration for the Granado Espada Launch on 16 Jun 2007, at Zouk.

However, I will not be part of the demo as wifey & I will be away on a diving trip to Layang-Layang for a whole week.

:Link:
+ Granado Espada Singapore
+ Granado Espada Zouk Raid Party

Yessssss…..

And now, back to my other obsession. Diving.

Plane tix ~ check
Hotel booking ~ check
Passports ~ check

Just need to do some packing and off we go!

It took a while, and it’s not all the photos we took, but look for them in Flickr.

Movie Buff
Took a walk across the highway to Toa Payoh to catch “Happy Feet” earlier ~ a great show, but the environmental issues tagged on at the end did seemed a little forced to me.

Great animation, witty dialogue (as expected with Robin Williams!) and wonderful, wonderful music. Very worth the price of a weekend ticket.

My verdict: 4 out of 5 stars.

Gundam Simulator
I managed to find some footage of the Gundam Simulator mentioned a while ago!

Check it out:

I love going on holidays ~ what I don’t like about them is the amount of clean-up required after we come home. Just spent the whole of yesterday simply doing the laundry, and today will be cleaning and mopping the house.

More travel pictures. This time of the Osaka Aquarium:

Wii
Given the extremely insane lack of PS3 sets available, (the the equally insane prices of the grey-market sets ~ I saw a 20GB set for sale over at Parkway Parade yesterday for $1500), Nintendo’s Wii is looking better and better:

Cool, isn’t it?

ｶﾞ━━Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)━━ﾝ!!

Another year older, and hopefully somewhat wiser.

Play Station 3
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get my hands on a unit here ~ the limited amount for sale meant that the stores would only sell via “luck draw” or “first come, first served” terms. However, I did see a few units that were put up for re-sale by some shops, but at SGD$1500 a piece, I thought that it was a little too hardcore even for me.

Japan Trip
Flying back home today… but we’ll be back soon! In the meantime, here’s some random shots of Japan:

Woo… finally checked into a hotel with an internet connection!

Still uploading the pictures, but you can probably see some of it in the Flickr bar on the right.

Anyway, Japan is a wonderfull place, and 10 days is just barely enough to just scratch the surface ~ we’ll be back, and for a longer stretch next time.

Anime and Gaming
First up though, will be something near and dear to my heart: Anime and Gaming. In this, the country of Gamers and Otaku, the Mecca will have to be Akihabara:

Not only does this place have enough electronics to send a Neo-Luddite into catatonic shock, it is also an Otaku’s heaven, boasting at least 6 (I stopped counting after that ~ sensory overload) multi-storey buildings selling nothing but anime, manga, gaming and related merchandise. Heck, even in Shinkuku where the biggest Kinokuniya I’ve ever seen (which occupies about 6 floors) houses it’s anime and manga section in a seperate annex building!

Speaking of anime, we went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, about 30 minute’s train ride from Tokyo:

Cool Fact #1: For admission tickets, they use film strips from their anime… and you get to keep them!
Cool Fact #2: You get to see a short film in the in-house Saturno Theater… which is only ever shown in-house and never released anywhere else.

Eat your hearts out, 1Obn!

Finally, for gaming, Japan probably features arcade games that are found nowhere else in the world. Case in point; while walking around in Akihabara, I saw this poster outside an arcade centre:

The fact that it’s a Gundam-related game caught my interest… but what was interesting was the details…. it’s a %$#@! *ZOMFG! Gundam Simulator!

Full 180-degree display, 4-pods interlinked for team play, head-sets for inter-team communications, pilot station for stats (you get a card with your record).

*drool*

Now, when will this be coming to Singapore?!?

Finally perfected my pancakes… the secret? Use low heat ~ keeping the flame small allows the pancakes to cook evenly and throughly. Now why didn’t I think of that earlier?

My Recipe:
1 Egg
150ml Milk
200g Flour

1) Mix egg and milk in a bowl, then slowly add flour. Stir until there are no more lumps in the batter.
2) In a frying pan, heat some oil on medium until it spreads and evenly coats the pan. Reduce heat to low.
3) Add a quater of the batter and let it spread. When bubbles form and break the surface, use a spatula and turn, cooking to a golden brown.

Makes 4 pancakes.
Serve with honey and a little dollop of butter for extra taste.

Travel Plans
Looks like there’s a slight change of plans ~ we will be leaving tomorrow for Japan on the 1am flight for Osaka Kansai Airport instead of the earlier flight to Narita. I guess we’ll just have to take the Shinkansen for Tokyo after we land. Thank goodness for the JR Pass!

My Otaku Quotient

Your otaku Purity Test Results
You answered “yes” to 58 of 200 questions, making you 71.0% otaku pure (29.0% otaku corrupt).
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 9%, based on a comparison of your test results with 91823 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 66.4%.
The first submission for this test was received August 5, 1998.

Just how much of an anime otaku are you?

Xak: Not so hardcore, I think.

Anyway, Pumpkin Scissors Episode 5 is out!

Here’s wishing all to all Hindu friends and Happy Festival of Lights.

All hail the triumph of Light over Darkness.

Japan Trip
Collected our Japan Rail Pass this afternoon. Yet another step closer towards the holiday.
*Hiak hiak hiak*

Anime Review
Took a day off yesterday and spent a few enjoyable hours at the local Manga Rental Shop. It’s really a great deal, as a $2 an hour I can just sit there and read anything they have on the shelves… and I can read really, really fast.

Best thing was, I managed to find and read books 1~4 of the Pumpkin Scissors manga. Can’t wait to see how they animate this great series ~ the 2 main characters are about as unlikely a pair as possible, but somehow it just makes their relationship all the more moving.

I’m looking forward to two chapters especially; first is Orland’s fight against the 908-HTT Fire Trooper, and second is Alice’s fight in a ball gown. Anway, it’s up to 3 episodes so far and still impressive, even if Orland’s Blue lantern has been used (and *will* probably continue to be used) is just about every episode to save the day.

Another to watch may be the live-action adaptation of Boku to Kanojo no XXX (僕と彼女の××× ).

Check out the Trailer, it’s a bunch of laughs!