Another Year

Another year goes by, how time flies. Simple Birthday Celebration for the family got them all a cake for both me and the missus. All in a rather good day if I may say so myself, had 3 cakes including one from colleagues in the office and 1 from my sister. Had a free lunch too. Finally got my birthday gift of a Nikon D3000 and a Sony Cybershot, way cool, more on these 2 purchases later.

J.I.T. Servicing

J.I.T. or Just In Time a term used more in manufacturing than servicing but anyway what is it well it can be defined as knowing that your car’s battery is going flat and making an appointment with the agent, sending the car down to the agent in the morning, get the service staff to look at it, He tries the ignition and the car won’t start !! Flat Battery !! Now that’s what I call “Just In Time Servicing”.

New Helper

We got a second helper to help out around the house. At least now there is someone to help out Geraldine with the twins and the housework. She’s a first time domestic helper and will need to get used to our way of living, good thing is that Geraldine is there to help her and translate stuff so that she is able to pick up faster. The kids don’t mind her and she has a nickname soundly so similar to the YOG mascot -- Merly, it just tickles us. Hopefully she will be able to adjust to our way of life.

I’m Famous

Well sort of, not the sort of fame that Paul the Octopus or Mani the Parakeet gets but my face actually made it into a magazine. That card game I was playing actually had Football Weekly as one of their sponsors and issue 407 had a write up of the "2010 FIFA World Cup Adrenalyn XL TCG Tournament" a 2 page spread. Seems there was a reporter there for the magazine and as we were all whipping out our handphones to get that photo on stage, the reporter must have taken a picture as well as the left page shows the bunch of us at the tourney. Probably will keep this edition of the magazine, so can tell my kids about it and how daddy made it into the top 8. They even spelt my name correctly in the winners circle.

It's not the first time I've won a Trading Card tournament. In 1999 I participated and won the Star Wars Trading Card Game tournament. Singapore hosted the regional championship (all of asia) won that one and the prize was a fully paid trip to the US (Virginia) to participate in the Star Wars TCG World Championship at what they called DecipherCon, I did not make it pass the first round but it was a really cool experience to represent Asia. There were representatives from each of the states in the US, European countries and Australia. All in I think it came to about 80+ participants for the final, there were side events at the Convention attended by hundreds of people. Next up was the Lord of the Rings TCG I actually was a judge and organiser of these events, so help set up weekly gaming sessions and tournaments, still have those cards and played quite a lot of it. When Marvel and DC had their TCG card game out I participated in a few which were held monthly at Suntec at that time. I even won 1 event. I even participated in New Zealand as I just so happen to coincide my holiday with a weekend of gaming in Auckland, of the 200+ participants from all over New Zealand and some coming from Australia. I think I was the only non-NZ/Aus player I came in 23 and just miss the money pool as the top 22 players progressed. That's probably one of the last events I participated in till now. I also collected the World of Warcraft cards but did not really get into it after the first few expansions.

World Cup in Review

So it’s FINALLY over the 2010 world cup has come to an end. Spain (team that I supported) has won the World Cup for the first time. So what was the experience like this time round.

Even before the World Cup started we had the tussle for TV rights, I was contemplating signing up but the telcos could not agreed with FIFA on this and in the end when every other country had booked their rights to the live screening of the World Cup, a deal was struck but the price to watch it was really and so I did not subscribe to get the matches on cable but instead resorted to the local pubs, McDonald’s and other places which screen the world cup live. The internet was another avenue if I did not want to get out of the house. I became more like an Internet Potato, than a couch potato. I just caught those games that I liked missed most of the 2.30am matches but caught some of the 10 pm ones. The lag was not that bad it was bearable but the quality at times was not very good.

The iconic instrument of the world cup has to be the damn Vuvuzela’s after watching the first few matches on the internet, I could hardly heard what the commentator was saying the noise made by that little horn was really loud and irritating. In my estate nearing the semi’s someone bought a vuvuzela and man blowing that shit at 3am in the morning is not fun but I guess it kind of help me stay up to watch the matches. Did not really want to complain about it since it’s like once every 4 years and it was just for those last few games.

What did I learn from the world cup about predictions ? Well for one thing, never volunteer to run naked in the streets in support of your team. The Paraguay model made that bet and her team lost. Maradonna said the same thing if Argentina won the world cup and they lost too – totally demolished by the Germans, I guess no one wanted to see Maradonna naked! – Then we had Paul the Oracle Octopus or what I call the Super Sotong, got 8 out of 8 predictions right that defies probability, I heard Singapore Pools are looking to put a wanted “Dead or Deep Fried” bounty on that Sotong. Little India had its share of sooth sayers, there was Mani the Predicting Parakeet but it only registered a 6 of 8 score which is actually better than most of the football pundits. Loads of copy cats are out there from crocodiles to a female Octopus, all trying to be the next real thing, I think I may have 1 of these Amazing Animals at home too, got to find Larry the Lizard, he keeps leaving his poo trail and it looks a lot like the Liverpool crest, could Liverpool win the Championship next season !!!

What about the teams? Well we all know the French “cheated” to get to the world cup and I guess Cheaters Never Prosper holds true as they are unceremoniously bundled out of the tournament with cup holders Italy. I was amazed at the Germans and their speed, it was incredible like the lightning blitzkrieg. The way they move with speed on the flanks, it was a beauty to watch, One consolation they would get from getting booted out in the semi’s is that Joachim Loew can wash his jersey now, it must really stink after 4 matches. New Zealand did not loose a game at the world cup although they are more famous for Rugby and the All Blacks. I’m not sure what their Football team is called … maybe the Black Balls … but they have my vote for surprise of the tourney together with Japan and South Korea. They can be proud. I felt sad for South Africa as they did not advance to the second round. Argentina played great football, it was just that no one wanted to see a Naked Maradonna. England as usual fell on their faces, maybe that’s why Rooney was voted ugliest player. Lastly what can I say about the team that plays “kuti kuti” football -- Spain. I used to play kuti kuti in school too, maybe I have spanish blood in me. Besides their passing game they were very discipline and had one of the best goalkeepers around. CONGRATULATIONS SPAIN on being the FIFA 2010 World Champions !!

Finally this is my chart at the end of everything.

I even colour coordinated the final 4 in their team colours. Well that’s it for the 2010 edition of the World Cup, Till we meet again in 2014 in BRAZIL, it’s time to get back into shape after a month of snacking and junk food.

Adrenalyn XL Trading Card Game Tournament

 

I was collecting the Football 2010 World Cup trading cards called Adrenalyn XL from Panini. They feature the players from the teams that made it to the world cup this year. There actually were 2 different versions of the cards the international version and the UK version. There were some slight differences in the players and the UK edition did not have some teams like Algeria, North Korea, South Korea and New Zealand. There are 350 cards in the set comprising of 250 Base cards, 25 Star Players (odds 1 : 4 packs), 25 Goal Stoppers (odds 1 : 4 packs), 25 Fan Favourites (odds 1 : 8 packs) and 25 Champions (odds 1 : 24 packs) which are the hardest to get. There were also limited edition cards which currently were not available here.

Kaka’s Base Card

Star Player Cards … the Shinies

 

The Champion cards with the Rainbow Foil as they call it.

  

It's a simple game really just have 14 "players" (11 plus 3 subs) made up of the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forwards. You have to have at least 1 in each position when you start so there were quite a few formations you would not see anywhere else, the most popular formations were 4-2-4 and 5-1-4. Basically you and your opponent select an attacker and defender and compare attacker ratings with defender ratings, whoever has the higher rating wins. In the event of a draw the Star Rating comes into play and highest wins.

Well this is me above with my deck and game board.

 

 

The competition worked similar to the World Cup where there were preliminaries and finals. Having qualified for the preliminaries me and a bunch of my friends were in the final round where we had 64 players compete. But on the day only 51 players showed up and we were drawn into 8 different groups (just like the world cup from A to H). I drew H3 yeah the same group as SPAIN, which was the team I was supporting in thie world cup. We played a round robin game and the top 2 players would move on to the round of 16. Here’s how my 5 games went.

Round 1
I was up against a 10 year old kid. Managed to win him by 7-4.

Round 2
I was up against a 12 year old this round. He played well but in the end a narrow win of 6-5 for me.

Round 3
I had a bye in this round. That brought me up to 3 wins and no loses yet.

Round 4
I played a guy in a Brazil Jersey, it was a tough fight, but in the end he beat me 5-6 and the consolation was that he had already lost his previous 2 matches and this was his first win. I'm now at 3 wins and 1 lost.

Round 5
Another kid and this time a rather one sided game and it ended with a score of 8-3 in my favour. I even gave the kid some pointers on how to play the game.

So I was at 4 wins and 1 lost and with a rather good goal difference (yes they use that as tie-breakers). After the dust had settled and everyone had played I top my group and advance to the round of 16 which was a knockout round (just like the world cup), 3 of my friends made it as well only 2 others did not. The draw for the last 16 was random. At this stage I really just wanted to win the next game as the top 8 would be entitled to some cash and prizes. 1st place was $1000 in cash and prizes, 2nd was $800 worth of cash and prizes, 3rd was $500 worth of cash and prizes and the 5th to 8th place got $60 each.

The Venue at Velocity (Novena Square)

Well before the round of 16 started there was the lucky draw, they were giving out about $100 worth of prizes in each goodie bag. There were 4 prizes each to be won. I had entered like 100 coupons for this lucky draw and I thought my missus would be around so I had entered 20 entries for her and my brother-in-law another 20 entries. The event ran late and my missus decided not to stay and went home. My brother-in-law had a last minute engagement and could not make it. You had to be around to claim the prizes. 2 of my friends won prizes in this round and then I heard my brother-in-law's name being called. DAMN !! he was not around. They redrew and someone else name was called not around too, then my brother-in-law's name was called again !! in the end the prize went to some other guy. My name was not called, never mind there was another 4 lucky draw prizes where we each could win the $100 worth of prizes plus an additional MP3 player. Back to the round of 16.

Round of 16 
It was a tough fight with a teenager the scores was at 5-3 in my favour and I needed 1 more point and there was 3 cards left to play, it was my opponents turn. At this point I enquired with the judge about the use of the 'Challenge the Keeper' rule. That happens when you have a keeper as one of your last 2 cards and you have to challenge the keeper where your player has a grid of the goal and a point is marked on it as if he was shooting a penalty. The goalkeeper has the same grid with areas shaded that symbolise the areas he can save so if your spot is in the area that is not shaded you score else it is a save by the keeper. My opponent was listening to the exchange and he tried to outplay me or he made a huge mistake because he decided to put his defender as an attacker. Normally you would make your defender as a defender since their rating is higher in defence than attacker. So I unleashed by most powerful defender to block the shot and win the point. 6-3 I am in the quarterfinals and at least guaranteed of a cash prize. The game ended with a score of 7-4. Only one other friend of mine advanced, the rest were beaten.

Quarterfinals (top 8)
This will be tough as I was playing a guy who had 5 attackers and all very very strong attackers. I had to try to guess his players and lady luck was not on my side this round. I lost the match to the guy 3-8 a total wipeout. He would eventually be the 2nd place winner.

So I watched the semi-finals and the 3rd/4th placing (a friend of mine made it there but lost) and the top 2 placing. After which we got our prizes and me being in the top 8 I got $60 cash which was good. The tournament was free to enter. I stayed back for the final lucky draw which they had another 4 sets of $100 worth of products plus an MP3 player. I was thinking my name should be called since I put in over 100 entries while my brother-in-law and missus had only 20 entries. 1st set – not my name. The first name called for the 2nd set was my brother-in-law's again that's 3 times his name was called !!! It eventually went to a friend of mine. 3rd set my wife's name was called !!! aarrrhhhhhh.... am I going to miss out ? It went to another person eventually. The final set they called Gerald (he already won something so not eligible) then they pulled James (also already won) and then they pull Mohammad (who also won) and then they pulled ...... my name ..... wah I finally got that lucky draw prize, the last one some more and I put in so many entries. Guess you don't really need so many entries.

As the event ended a group of us decided to have our photo taken on stage, so out came the camera phones for this shot. That’s one for the album.

 

I also collected a prize from the organizer for completing the Fan Favourites set which was a Nikon S220 Digital Camera. All in not a bad day, with the Camera, $60 cash plus the MP3 and a box of Panini world cup stickers worth $100. As of now have already sold off the Camera and the Sticker box, cashed in my cheque and started selling off all my spare cards. Have not yet put up the MP3 player for sale. Should be doing it soon.

 

My Fan Favourite Collection (part of it)

6 Months Later

It’s been 6 months since the little ones arrived. It feels just like yesterday that they were born, the 2 tiny little ones. I remember that very day and the first feed that I gave them. Since they were premature they had to be placed in a special ward for 24 hr monitoring. They were so tiny that during the first feed I remember once the nurse place the baby in my arms I kind of froze there thinking that any movement I could easily hurt them. Well 6 months down the road they are now a lot bigger and they are starting to sit up, crawl, eat solid foods, cry more, scream for attention and basically create havoc in the house ha ha  ….

 

Over the first 6 months I have come up with 10 baby theories. Here they are.

1 - Embarrass the Parents

I think somehow they can sense that they are out of the house and will throw a tantrum when there is a crowd to watch them. At home they behave like little angels.

2 – No Poo too Big, No Pee too Small

I think babies just eat and shit and pee and for some reason the amount of food going in does not equal the amount coming out. It’s like for every spoon, they poo 10 times that amount. ooohhhh… and the smell, those papaya’s just add to eat.

3 – Best Altimeter

They seem to know when you are seated. They have this built in altimeter which can tell the difference between the pressure of the air when you are seated and when you are standing.

4 – Giants

They really grow, from a 2kg little boy to a huge 9+kg little boy, well not so little now. The girl’s a little smaller at 7+kg

5 - Eyes Wide Shut

Babies open eyes only when you are around, never when there are other people around, in the early days they hardly ever open their eyes and only when we were around but when there are people they sleep.

6 – Photographs

Now babies don’t smile, everytime the camera is pointed at them they will show that grumpy look, once you move the camera away all smiles break

out, camera back up  … grumpy look … camera away … all smiles …

7 – Babies have BO

Not Body Odour but Baby Odour. For some reason they seem to have this smell which other mothers can detect, Father’s probably have dead noses.

8 – Hungry Hippos

They always seem to be hungry or at least the boy is while the girl just loves her solid foods, they practically eat anything.

 

9 – Droolers

They are like that BP oil spill in the US when it comes to drooling, I don’t think it ever stops. One of these days got to check with those BP guys how they going to put a cap on it.

10 – Spoilers

They just want to be spoilt especially by their grandparents, but I guess that’s what grandpa and grandma are for.

Gymboree

Brought the twins to their first Gym class. We had signed up for a trial session to see how they would take it. The first thing that was done was to give them their little name tags.

 

 

After that daddy and mummy had to put on socks to get into the gym area. We had to clean our hands as well. There were lots of activities for the kids, it was a 45 minute session, we did some exercises and balancing act like lifting the kids in different positions and had a sing-along session as well but Natalie was a little cranky as it was her meal time and she left half way to get her milk. Nigel carried on with the activities as he tries to crawl along on the play mats, he did the slide and the balancing ball as well as some slope crawling or actually in his case was just to lie there.

There were quite a number of kids there with their parents. Natalie came back for the ending where we played with a canopy and had bubbles.

 

Saddle Club

We went with some friends to the Saddle Club somewhere along Bukit Timah, near Turf City. (thank god for the GPS navigation system else I’ll probably still be trying to find the place)

We were there for Brunch. It’s a really cozy place but the weather was rather hot that day but breezy. This was what we had for Brunch.

my “big breakfast”

 

missus had “Eggs Ben”

Of course the little ones did enjoy themselves there. You could go on pony rides too if you wanted but they were a little too young for that at this stage. Here we are at the Saddle Club’s Riders Cafe.

Little Natalie enjoying herself ….

  

  

Nigel did not do much, he enjoyed the breeze and fell asleep almost straight away, here’s one of the time when he woke up to check out what’s happening ……

Natalie had to get in on the act too ….

Finally a pic with friends …