Howdy!

[coolohoh]

Hello all you silent readers... Well I presume I still have silent readers that is. I know once upon a time I was shocked to find out how many people were silently reading my LJ blog... But that was then, and admittedly I've been missing from blogging for quite a long time....

Idk... But somehow I'm feeling the urge to blog regularly again. I think it comes with the fact that I'm getting a new job. New outlook on life and what not.

Anyway... I'm counting down. Day by day. 8 more days of torture left.

And as I'm saying all these... I can't help but hope that my new job will be what I expected and more. That it won't be such a disappointment like my current place is. That I won't feel like I jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire like it was when I started at this place in April last year. 24th of April. I remember the date well. 

But I have a good feeling about the new job. Something that I didn't have with my current job... Which I took only because my friend said "you've not worked in a hospital before right? why don't you try?" 

Thinking back... Ok, I did get to experience a bunch of stuff (well, crap) that I'll never get to experience otherwise. And not many researchers has 'hospital work' in their CV so it might give me a leg up. Either way. I'm glad that I'm leaving. And I wouldn't have stay one second longer.

Have I mentioned that I booked a hotel in JB the following weekend? Going to stay for a night in JB with my friend. Who has NEVER been to city square mall before hence the reason I'm insisting on this trip. I wonder if she's even been to Malaysia before. Ridiculous right? Well... She was from China, and then switched citizenships after getting an astar scholarship. I've been wanting to go to Malaysia with her ever since then but yeah... Never materialised. Till now. Can you believe it? She's my bestie since sec sch and we've never been on a trip together. Ok... I haven't with any of my other best friends either... But in comparison my sis has been on numerous trips with her classmates. Me on the other hand... I've gone to visit my good but not super good friend in China (whom I met at a Japanese language class in uni). And then I've trooped over to Ph and Penang and met up with Arashi friends... (And entirely relied on them for my holiday...)

Yeah... Think it'll be fun! And we'll be eating loads!


So as I've mentioned before previously, in between my long hibernations... I'm into fountain pens and that is STILL a thing. With fountain pens come nice japanese paper and nice japanese planners... I made my first ever unboxing video last night and posted it to FB and like youtube. It's about 12 mins long and I talked a bunch as I unboxed. Well... that's what you're supposed to do right? I've never watched an unboxing video my entire life so... Lol. No, you won't see my face, but yes I spoke plenty if you're curious about how I sound. 

Yes... fountain pens... I've been going to pen meets and other pen events... There's one this fri evening in fact. Heck, I have a very busy two weeks ahead of me. Thurs is dinner with one of my colleagues. Tmr's lunch is a treat from HOD, for our whole lab. Which isn't that many of us really, cos just the molecular peeps. Then next Fri I've already booked my friends for a night out. Preferably with some drinking involved. And next Sat is the two days one night trip so yeah... Lol. Well I'm just packing an overnight bag but still, I can't wake up too late else it'll get really crowded!

Also! I still owe RF a lunch for the job referral so I'll have to look for a place next week. The problem is where to eat lol. Can't be too far from the workplace...

And another colleague asked me out for lunch... Which may or may not happen. *shrugs* And oh, there's still a colleague whom I've been in contact with quite a bit over the course of my work, who doesn't yet know that I'm leaving. Lol. And apparently the bulk of the people in the routine lab doesn't know I'm leaving either. Though I'm not particularly close to them so I'm not expecting anything.

8 more days.

I just have to make it through that.

Been mapling a lot lately. Lol. Nazukashi. The word 'mapling'. I used to be such a crazy mapler. Still missed the PC version a ton, but the auto battle system is indeed really good for the once maple fans who are now grown ups like myself. The game is still a massive money suck. But it's nice to be able to leave your char alone to auto battle for a few hours, without even needing to have the game on, and come back to pick it up a few hours later. Yeah. I'm totally addicted now, to the point of neglected all my other mobile games. Animal crossing? Meh. It pales in comparison to maple. 

Ah yes. On the Arashi front. HURRAH FOR 15 SIGN UPS. Anyway what is happening to the fandom? Or the ficdom? No one writes fanfics anymore? Because everyone can only write 140 chars or what 280 now? for a single tweet? Or is it because the Arashi fandom is shrinking and everyone is moving away from arashi and into some other fandom? Any ideas?




So that's it for today. See ya soon I guess? And oh yes, if you've made it through my post till this point... Mind leaving a quick comment for me? Just a 'hi' or 'i'm here' will do. I'm curious to see how many silent readers I still have :P

Comments

[duckyshimetai]

Nya~

Silent reader!! *waves*

Your plans sound so exciting lol! I've never been overseas for vacation without my parents so I really wouldn't know where to start (how to book, what to plan/do etc) so it all sounds so amazing!

[kipasusahmati]

Hello..

[mmestrange]

I'm more a "read and drop in when I can" type than a silent reader.

Enjoy your JB getaway. I haven't been there in an age. Travelling is iffy for me, as I keep vampire hours due to severe photodermatitis. Back in the day when my health was still manageable, I preferred travelling solo for personal reasons. Now, I'm pretty much like Emily Dickinson.

[casmumma1]

hi "puts hand up" I'm a silent reader.

[gambitsfox]

Well, I read your emails/blogs but I've been too busy to read or respond to much. I bought a Bassett hound (Nino) to show. He needed a friend to play with so I rescued a traumatized hound. They have been busy tearing up my gardens. Now a family of cats(one mama and four kittens) have moved into my carport. Where do these cats keep coming from?! Not sure what you mean when you talk computer games...not my thing and the locations you talked about....not sure where your at or where some of these places are (JB?). I might not understand much of what you say but I do enjoy reading them.😊
I'm glad your looking forward to your new job...Hope it's everything you hoped for. Have fun on your trip! I wonder if Arashi will do something wild for their 20th anniversary? Could it be a Asian tour? Hawaii? World tour? All of the above? They did say it would start early and keep going for the whole year I think. It would be easier for me to get tickets if they went to Hawaii but I really want to go back to Japan! So much to start planning for! Anyway, take care and have fun!😊

[coolohoh]

Howdy!

Jb stands for johor Bahru. It's in Malaysia, and it's the place closest to Singapore. The two countries are just seperated by a small straits... So you'll see loads of Singaporeans popping by JB for a day trip to go shopping or for food. We even have some public buses that brings us to the immigration checkpoint and beyond... But the place I'm going to is a mall built right after the check Point... Obviously for the benefit of getting all the Singaporean money. Things are still cheaper than here though, so the shoppers continue flocking in.

I hope you'll get to do a Japan trip! I had a blast this year in Japan, even though I completely broke my bank account... But it was a really memorable experience... And me and my sis came home with tons of stuff. We very nearly maxed out our 44kg per pax allowance! (Benefits of flying JAL!)

Yeah i wonder what Arashi will do next year... I'm also interested to see Japan after the Olympics... That same friend for the Jb trip wants to do a Japan trip with me! Which I'm all for except that I'm broke right now. Need to save up again!

[gambitsfox]

How cool. My sister says we are still going to Japan even if we go to see them in Hawaii next year. I'm so excited! I just don't want to wait for the bus to pick us up to the airport when leaving next time. It got us there late after waiting two hours for pick up from the hotel....didn't have time for last minute gifts at airport or eat anything good before leaving. I hope Tsukiji is still there when I go back. They said they were going to move it because of the Olympics....I hope not. One thing I wanted to do was conveyor belt sushi....Have you done that? That is on my list to do. Anyway, got to get to work.....take care!😊

[coolohoh]

Yes to a Japan trip! It's really a lovely place. I presume you're into sashimi (raw fish and raw other stuff) because that's what you'll get in Tsukiji. It was still there when I went in Jan. Though it was a bit of a mystery for me and my sis cos we didn't really know which building to go to. Like there's wholesale parts where tourists aren't allowed I think? And then there's some another part that tourists can go to. We were late though, and most of the shops were closing up already. We did get some ikura and other seafood from the shops. They sell shirako (whale sperm. erm, smelt?) by the half kg. Crazy. Like that stuff is ridiculously expensive in Sg. There's a veggie stall like outside tsukiji that we got fresh wasabi from. Yup, you should try that too. We packed the wasabi and flew it home (note: don't freeze it, just refrigarate). And we bought ton of ikura (salmon roe), uni (sea urchin), and tarako (marinate fish roe, can't remember what fish). We regret not buying shirako back as well. (And my mum went to freeze the wasabi, destroying it :( ) We did buy some smelt from the supermarkets and cooked it in the airbnb apartments. Oh and the wagyu. We got sliced wagyu meant for hotpot and just fried it. No additional seasoning needed. It was heavenly. And cheap. Like... just above 1000 yen for a huge pack that me and sis ate over two meals. And for all the controversy over whaling... I'm sorry but I tried whale sashimi and it was heavenly... Never had anything like it before... Arghs all the fish and all the sashimi. So much food oh my goodness.

Ah yes conveyor belt sushi. I had that... Twice I think. I'm afraid conveyor belt sushi is pretty common place in Singapore :P I just went to a place with conveyor belt sushi for lunch with the HOD today, though we only ordered main dishes and didn't take from the conveyor. There are places in SG that's only conveyor belt and no other dishes though. But yes, the sushi in japan? They are a whole different beast. I mean, the fish is more fresh... And the variety they have is amazing. I had 'engawa', the skirt of flounder for the first time there and it was amazing. So much oil and so 'puri puri' (chewy). I fell in love at first bite. And horse meat and horse sinew sushi (raw of course). That was amazing too. And something you'll never get in SG. (Or maybe at an exorbitant price.)

We went to a traditional, famous chain sushi restaurant. Well I can't remember the names anymore... But that one was in a lot of places in Tokyo and easy to locate. And then we also search for one with the automated stuff. Like, self return of plates. And every 5 plates you get to have a lucky draw game chance kinda thing and you can win a gachapon trinket. It's really automation to the max there. The staffs are basically nowhere to be seen unless you call for help from the touchscreen, or ask for the bill (also from the touchscreen). They have an English option for the menu so you don't have to worry. Not too much anyway... I don't remember if the translation was alright since I can understand Japanese. The conveyor belt is also cute and different from what we have in SG. Usually in sg and also in the other conveyor belt sushi resturant we went to in tokyo, they have regular old plastic covers on the sushi. That they then have to collect back. But see this is an automated restuarant and the self return thing is only for plates. So they have covers that can't be removed from the conveyor belt, You have to lift up the plate and the lid will open up and then you can take the plate. The shopkeeper showed us at the beginning and asked if we wanted to try. But being the shy asians we are we didn't try... And then we quickly forgot the explanation. Took us a few tries to get our sushi afterwards cos we were trying to open the cover rather than directly lifting the plate. Lol. Those sushi plate holder + cover thing can be joined together into a train too, if i remember correctly. So like one 'train' of the same sushis. Then there's the express belt on top for any orders that you make directly from the screen. A belt will ring and alert you when the sushi/dish is about to arrive. Lol! Oh and! You can ask for sushi with half sized rice when ordering from the screen. Great for greedy people like me who wants to eat more fish :P Yes. Definitely try it out! OH! Not sure if you've seen the automated beer machine in AnShi before? They had that too. Like you just insert a coin, put the cup on the machine and it fills it up for you, doing the tilting thing and all. We tried one cup just because... XD (And my sis drinks more than I do haha)

Gosh. Maybe someday I'll actually go back to my phone and blog about my Japan trip... And relive those memories ya know? It was an amazing time indeed! Gosh. Still remember the trip from the airbnb apartment to the airport on the last day. That was hell. Climbing up and down the staircases with sooo much luggage. My sis had to make two trips to help me because I'm such a fail older sis. :X That was bad. But still worth it :P Oh we bought back a lot of pickles too... But sadly some of them had really short expiry dates and spoiled after we got back home :(

[coolohoh]

eh... it's easier than you think. for plane tickets we check on trivago or skyscanner or something and then normally we book directly from the airline website instead of wherever we did the search on. Why? Idk lol. Hotel we've been using agoda. There are other websites too. It's planning the itinerary and transport that's more of a headache lol!

[coolohoh]

hi!

[coolohoh]

:( Aw! Thanks for dropping by! *hugs*

[coolohoh]

thanks for commenting! XD

[mmestrange]

*hugs* I try to manage by rationing spoons. The joys of living with 30+ chronic issues (of which 25 are autoimmune and the rest are things from birth).

[shofa]

there is less fics on arashi fandom nowadays lol the popular pairing fics are still around more tho but still less than before

[gambitsfox]

Well I don't think I can eat horse or whale meat but if there are oysters around....count me in! Too bad your wasabi and pickles went bad. I don't like hot stuff but I hear their wasabi is the best in Japan. We met some friends of my sisters that she knew online (They got her a ticket for Untitled tour...not me though...darn) and we went to Aibas family restaurant but it was full....darn it. One of the girls said which window was Masaki's old room above it. Lol....we took lots of pictures outside (and some inside of the Christmas tree decorated with Arashi streamers and with the animated character that was in Aibas Christmas movie). Johnnys was fun and easy to get in and out but the real fun area was Harajuku! There were many places selling Arashi pictures and great items! I got a keyring with Ohno ....two pictures one being Ohno holding a toy fish....So cute! I would love to find places their dramas were filmed or the studios they use....do they have tours? My sister and i did do the tour line to buy goods....that was confusing (since we could not read the signs) but we slowly caught on and we got everything we came for. I was just starting to figure out the train and subway system when we had to leave. We dont have that where i live in Florida. Went to Tokyo tower...fun but a restaurant we went to seemed to snub us....we were seated and given menus but nothing else. They never came back. Waited on other people around us but even when i caught their attention they went somewhere else! We left. My nephew was with us so we went to the Pokemon store....He was very happy. We went to Shibuya and sorta got lost....My sister refused to try to ask for help...So I got us back in my broken...horrible Japanese. Lol. I never felt unsafe while I was there...even at night and alone. I fell in love with corn soup and egg salad sandwiches over there....They taste sooooo much better there! The smoking areas outside were really interesting.....I wonder how successful they will be on that when the Olympics get there? Anyway, this is fun talking about our trips. Take care!😊

[tammzii]

Hopefully you're feeling better now! Even if it's a little by little every day! ^u^)b

[coolohoh]

Fresh wasabi isn't actually that hot it seems... I would still recommend you try it! It's like waaayyy cheaper to get fresh wasabit in Japan than in sg too... And probably the same in your place. Hmm oysters... Oh yeah! We had oysters in the Tsukiji fish market. It was good XD

Oh oh pokemon store. I spent quite a lot of $$$ there hahaha. I went to Tokyo tower too! We went to the skytree to try and take photos from below... And also checked out the shopping areas a bit. But the tickets were too expensive and we were feeling the burn in our wallets already so we went to the Tokyo tower instead... It was like on the second last day (well, last night) and the whole area inside was dark so that you can well, see the outside and not your own reflection. And my sis was like 'this place is really nice, but why are we were on our last day? I'm falling asleep!" Lol! Yeah. We were all broke and tired out by then!

You take care too! XD

[coolohoh]

I am... At least now that I'm heading in the very last week of work... Thank you!