New Zealand South Island Vacation in pictures

Snowboarding on Mt Hutt


Us and our Burton snowboards


Trekking on Franz Josef Glacier


View of Mt Cook from Lake Matheson (pirated version)


Sunset at Lake Wanaka


Flying the flag proud on Milford Sound cruise


Stare-down with my garlic prawns at The Reef, Dunedin


Just do it - Silhouette shot at Moeraki Boulders


Die Another Day (pirated version) - notice extra appendages on Mayee's revolver


Can't get enough of them Moeraki Boulders...


NZ winter holiday draws to a close *sob*

Check out the rest of the photos at Photobucket

Stop spamming my bitch-board!!!

Argh...my bitch board's become a repository for blog-spam!! No, i do not wish to invest in Faceprint Global Solutions, let alone care about what that company does; No, i do not wish to purchase fragrances that Sarah Jessica Parker likes (why on earth would I want to smell like her in the first place???); and what the hell are JDM headlights??? GRRR....

Though i guess i could not have expected anything less, having neglected my blog for HALF A YEAR now. Frankly, I'm downright appalled by the current level of discipline I have. How do other gainly employed persons find the time for their blogs every day, I wonder. Is there a daily activity in which I engage that I can dedicate less time to? Showering 5min less perhaps, maybe taking short lunch breaks, coming back from work a little earlier. No prizes for guessing which of the three would be my preferred choice. No prizes either for guessing which one is the least feasible.

Took a day-off today. The immense joy felt upon waking up on a workday, only to realise you don't have to frantically change into workwear, gobble down breakfast and compete with rush-hour traffic, is truly ineffable. Definitely need to take my days-off.

Treated myself by getting a new tennis racket at Queensway - the N-Code N-Vision. Also got new tennis balls, spanking new tennis bag, some workshirts and socks. Retail therapy is da bomb!

Mountain breeze

The interior of my car has been infused with a sickening, smothering odour of late. You see, I purchased an air freshener two days ago at a Shell kiosk, one of those that you clip on the air-con vent so that the (supposed) fragrance can be carried by the streams of air and circulate freely within the vehicle. The freshener even has a thoughtful little adjustable dial which allows me to choose my desired fragrance strength. Sounds wonderful, no?

Only problem is, the "fragrance" reeks. As Ken rightly pointed out in a fit of laughter (maybe I misconstrued it as laughter - he might have been convulsing in reaction to the odour), it smells like someone who just chewed several globs of fruity gum (grape and berries) threw up in my car. It has this overbearing saccharine scent to it which hits you as soon as you set foot into the car.

And I had even made sure at the kiosk that the smell was pleasant before i purchased it. It had one of those scratch n' sniff stickers at the corner of the packaging for you to...err...scratch and sniff the fragrance before you buy it. The one I got was described as "Mountain Breeze" (which I chose over the other two available: "Wild Berries" and the overly imaginatively named "New Car"). I swear the fragrance my nose was greeted with as I scratched n' sniffed the sticker had absolutely no bearing to the nefarious odor that plagues me as I enter my car now. I feel rather cheated, really. Especially when, each time I catch a particularly potent whiff of the odor as I drive, the first two words that pop into my mind are SO not "mountain" and "breeze". More like "Bubblegum Puke". Now THAT should have been on the packaging.

Though since I've already paid 6 bucks for it, I guess I'll just have to get used to it and wait till "Mountain Breeze" grows on me.

And so ends Wimbledon season...

As expected, Roger Federer, true to his market-spoiling form, wins Wimbledon for the third consecutive time, joining tennis greats like Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras (who was such a great tennis great that he performed the feat twice: in total, he won the tournament 7 times!). What was a little surprising for me was how one-sided the affair was. There was no contest. At all. When Roddick threw in a kitchen sink, he got back a Whirlpool king-size refrigerator complete with ice-maker. Federer's simply untouchable. Now that Wimbledon season is over, I've got to wait till the US Open starts in September. Boo. Hopefully there'll be some good tournaments leading up to the last grand slam of the year.

Went roaming around Orchard with cousin today after church in the morning. I was going to get Amartya's Sen new book "The Argumentative Indian" about the art of argument in the subcontinent, but since it's only available in hardcover at the moment it costs over 60 bucks!! So I settled on Gurcharan Das' "The Elephant Paradigm", a series of essays about how India evolved in the 90s. Halfway through the first chapter. A pretty promising read so far.

Also browsed through Zara, Topshop and Tangs but did not find anything to my taste. Is it just me or are the guy's clothes in these stores starting to get increasingly 77th street-ish? Couldn't believe how totally ah-beng some of the items were with their obiang colours and shimmery material. What's going on?!? What happened to nice men's wear?

Time to be lulled to sleep by Conan.

Poor Lindsay...

It was fitting that the best ladies' singles match came right at the end during the final between Davenport and Venus Williams. Boy, was that one stressful match to watch! Especially if you were rooting for the underdog Davenport like I was. If you had a heart, you had to root for her: she hasn't won a grand slam since 1999 (yet amazingly she has manages to cling on to the no.1 spot)! Plus she's been thinking of retiring soon. A victory at Wimbledon would have been the perfect parting gift.

Alas it was not to be. A shame since Lindsay wasn't playing badly at all. Venus just outplayed her. Lindsay had so many opportunities to edge ahead during the match, but time and time again Williams was able to step up her game and come right back. More power to her.

The men's final is just as, if not more, promising. Hope Roddick wins: Federer wins way too much. A true-blue market-spoiler he is.

Back from Delhi

All in all, it was a very eventful trip with several unforgettably surreal moments, such as when FM offered half his dosa to me at breakfast, and when I got to sit at the same table as PM at the Sheraton. Needless to say I was extremely star-struck and proceeded to knock over a glass of wine after I had introduced myself to him. Doh!! Thankfully none of it fell on him. Now THAT'd have been a true disaster...

Also got to be the helper at a treaty signing, whose key role was to point at the space where FM was supposed to sign. ALMOST knocked over the ink blotter which for some reason had been placed precariously right at the edge of the table but managed to skilfully avert near-crisis.

Looking forward to my next working trip!

Delhi belly

I leave for Delhi tomorrow evening for three days, armed with charcoal tablets and assorted anti-diarrhoea pills. The warnings I've been hearing from people about the water and general hygiene are getting me really paranoid, so even if I don't get a tummy upset from the food I'll probably induce one myself psychologically. Considered bringing own mineral water from Singapore but dismissed the thought since it'd have been too heavy.

This is gonna be my first trip there. So NOT looking forward to wearing a suit and tie in the 40 degree heat. Only bringing one suit (only HAVE one!) so I'll probably be all stinky after the first day, but I'll draw comfort from the knowledge that most others will be stinky together with me. The funny thought of taking a quick shower at Sonia Gandhi's or Vajpayee's residence crossed my mind a few days ago.

The program's jam-packed with calls and visits and luncheons. Will be doing two note-takings, one of which will be at a lunch event where I will be taking notes while people (except me) are eating. As if the sight of people having their scrumptious lunch isn't torture enough, I'll have to make out what people are mumbling about as they eat. Have also been assigned to be Minister's "minder" (read: trip slave). I won't get the chance to see the Taj Mahal this time round. That'll prob have to wait till FSBP in Sept.

Wimbledon starts tomorrow!

Yay!!!