Just came back from house-visiting. Think I collected more angpaos than last year, but that can only be confirmed tomorrow. Apart from collecting angpaos, house-visiting seems more like a bother, as I have to stuff myself with snacks due to over-hospitable hosts, and then again with dinner at a hawker center where only 2 stalls were opened. But still, I appreciate the angpaos and the hospitality. Didn't wanna go home so early but think everyone's busy with their own stuff so can't get anyone to go out with me. Well, think I'll start working on my website for now.

Phew.. Thank god it was just my cable service being down for a bit, not that it got suspended. However, I've yet to rejoice cause I know my fear will come true sooner or later as long as my dad pretends not to see the bill on his desk.

My brain was officially conscious at 11.20 or so, but my body refused to move any further than hugging my pillow and picking up my handphone and wishing some people new year. Out of about 15 people, only 3 of them replied. Talk about the declining sincerity of people nowadays. Anyway, I just lied motionlessly on my bed like a corpse until 12.30. My family was going to my grandma's place, but I've decided to stay at home until late afternoon, since we are having lunch tomorrow anyway, so I wouldn't miss my angpaos. Home Alone. And hungry. I began to scavage the kitchen for food, only to find a pot of hardly-palatable glutinous rice balls lying on the stove. Looks like my mum has successfully created a close replica of the baby eater email scam which was circulating around the Internet some time back. Or it seemed more like a baby being placed into a grinding machine, as there were bits and pieces of bones in every cubic inch of the soup. But when people are starving, they'll even eat dung. So I guess I had no choice. A small bowl was much, much more than enough to deter my appetite for the rest of the day. Once again, I booted up my comp. Itching to play some games before going to my grandaunt's place later. As I was using the Internet half-way, I got rudely disconnected. That was when I found out that my cable connection got suspended cause my dad has not paid the bill for a few months. FUCK. Guess I'll have to put up with dial-up connection for a while now.

Pulled myself out of bed at 8.30 at usual, did usual morning stuff, and left for work. Sucks.. I was so sleepy that I didn't even notice it was drizzling until I got down to the void deck. Like it wasn't unlucky enough for me to almost slip and fall on my way to the bus stop, the drizzle decided to turn into a huge downpour just as I alighted from my bus in Tampines. Damn.. I cooly walked across the road and into my workplace building despite the downpour, with the intention of showing those helpless sissies waiting at the bus-stop how pathetic they are, wasting their time waiting for the downpour to subside.

When I reached the office, only 2 or 3 poor fellas were there, rooted to their seats. Zhangran (the busybody China-gal who was sent to this company for attachment along with me) seemed to be so engrossed in surfing her chinese website that she didn't even notice my arrival. Well, I didn't want her to notice anyway.. I set my bum on my seat as with routine, and powered on my sucky, obsolete computer, opening whatever instant-messaging shit I've got. The first person I noticed on ICQ was Eddy, and without any hesitation, I messaged him, trying to start a conversation and hoping for him to abolish the cold-shoulder he was giving me since I really pissed him off a few days ago. Bared my heart to him telling him I'm sincerely sorry and all that shit, but he didn't sound very convinced. Oh well, guess he STILL needs more time to cool down. I started to talk to Shaoqi, whining about my unlucky situation. We slowly strayed off the topic, and I found out Shaoqi was selling flowers at a Pasak Malam again. That kindda made my day, as I imagined Shaoqi being the typical florist with an apron draped around him. A collegue of mine (he's an Indian; everyone in the office except me and Zhangran are Indian) tried to mine some new chinese words out of my already-limited chinese vocab, but I don't think it was a fruitful attempt, as I was busy chatting on ICQ and spreading my new email address around. I passed the rest of my time by reading the list of nonsensical scandals I've compiled, until my collegue FINALLY had the time to review the work I've done yesterday. A minor error was spotted, and it took me no longer than 2 minutes to correct it. I was hoping for my work to be over for the day, but when I went back to him with the corrected stuff, all he said was "Go print out all the documents." I did as he said, cursing and swearing quietly. I was SUPPOSED to have printed the documents, but nothing came out of the printer. It was then I realized I had sent the crap to the wrong printer! I pretended nothing had happened, and sent the documents to the hopefully-correct printer this time. I didn't realize how much crap I've written previously until I found myself standing and falling asleep at the same time in front of the damn printer. Ok, my job for the day was done, but it was only 11.30! Still another grueling hour to go before I could leave. I just sat at my seat, punching away at my handphone and pretending to check my mail until the time was finally up. I changed into my shorts and sandals immediately and headed for the bus-stop.

Upon exiting the building, I was kindda put off by the fact that it was still raining chicken and ducks. Not that I hate being wet, but I knew my feet and sandals are going to stink after being over-moisturized. I took the same routine home, except I had to walk in twisting paths to avoid minimal contact between my feet and the rain. There was no proper lunch prepared for me when I reached home, so I had to make do with a curry puff and a packet of fried kuayteow. On to my room. I booted up my comp, and spent the rest of my afternoon surfing the web, dancing parapara/ddr, mopping the floor, and snacking (I was fully aware that I'd ruin my diet but hey.. I couldn't resist the temptation...). At around 6.30, I had a shower, surfed the web a little, and went for my reunion dinner at my dad's friend's house. Weird huh.. Since when did they become part of MY family.. But then again, I was kind of looking forward to it, so I could catch up on Yunjie.

We left the house damn late, and were further delayed by a traffic jam caused by a so-called accident (it was more of a vehicle breakdown, but the billboard displayed 'accident'). Just before we reached our destination, my dad somehow lost concentration on his driving and drove over some hard shit line along the lane divider. It punctured one of his tyres, but thankfully we were only a few meters away from my dad's friend's place (hereby referred to as DFP). We decided to leave the tyre alone and go for our dinner first instead.

Upon reaching DFP, we exchanged greetings, and were invited to the dining table. However, everyone seemed to have finished their dinner by then. Nevertheless, there were more than enough food for us, and it was quite a great steamboat meal after all. We were given some BBQ'ed chicken which was still partially raw, but we secretly dumped them into the steamboat when Uncle Yeoh, the host, wasn't looking. I finished my meal rather quickly as I was eager to have a chat with Yunjie. So, we chatted for quite some time, until finally my parents hurried me to leave. Well, at least I got his ICQ number. We went down the elevator and into the carpark to face the horror lying ahead of us - the punctured tyre. Like as if changing the tyre is an easy job, it was still raining mouse and cat then. That wasn't really my problem, but I had my own problem of Raymond complaining to me over the handphone about his computer not working and shit like that. After some time, I told him nicely that my handphone bill is heading for the clouds above, and ended the call. With the tyre fixed, we could finally move on, but it was really damn uncomfortable in the back of the car as I had to squeeze in with my mum and my younger brother, who was as big-sized as me. First, my dad sent another of his friend, Uncle Toh, home. It was past midnight then. I received a cute picture SMS from a number of an unknown origin (later found out it was from my aunt), and forwarded it to Eddy. The last thing I expected was Eddy wishing me a happy new year, but he did, to my surprise. Looks like I could finally stop my many days of sulking.

By the time I got home, I was damn shagged but I attended to my computer anyway. Chatted on IRC for quite some time before filing this blog.