i thought i was dead

This morning, when i woke up and opened my eyes.... I thought i was dead.
There was bright light which i had to strain to open my eyes, coming in from my window.

"I see the light... am i supposed to walk or float towards it?"

I lay still on my bed, waiting for the 22 years worth of flashback. You know, that's what they say when your life ends, scenes of your whole life would flash right in front of you.
I was waiting, nothing happened...

It was then i realised, THE RAIN HAS STOPPED!!! YAY!!! Bright sunshine!!! Finally!!! After more than 48 hours of continuous rain, that flooded several places on this island.

mi job, mi boss, mi day

Would u ever forget your fishing line, if u were a fisherman?
Would u ever forget your gloves, if u were a boxer?
If u were a cop, would u ever forget your bullets?

If u were a cameraman, would u ever forget your film?


Today's a day that's deemed appropriate to label it a "tragic comedy". A lil' bit of background of my temp job. I'm an assistant to a graphic designer / photographer. So in another words, he's my boss, my gaffer.

We had to take some photo shots of our clients today. Some corporate photos of our main client, which is a big big company, a household name everyone will know. We're supposed to be there at 1.30 but we reached there at 2pm. Rushed like mad. So when we got there, everyone that's expecting us to take their photos, were rather "pissed".
We set the place right, put up lightings and backdrop. My boss is an experienced photographer and of course, he does the shoots.

lights.....perfect!
backdrop.....perfect!
camera......perfect!
first model's smile.....perfect!

"Ok, smile........" *click* plus *sound of shutter*

After the pressing the button on the cam, he looked up and looked at me

"Fabian, wo qu na dong xi, deng yi xia!" (Fabian, i'm gonna get something, hold on for a second).

And so, he left the room to get his "stuff"........ or did he?

After 5 mins.....

Client: Where's your boss?
Me: He told me he went to get something.
Client: (starting to look impatient)

10 mins later.....

The door swung open, and my gaffer came back with a big big sheepish grin, as he smiled to everyone in the room.

Boss: Fabian, help me get some stuff.

Me: Ok... (followed him out)
Boss:(speaking to everyone in the room) Just give me another 10mins. I still have to carry something.

And so we went out of the room... He closed the door and turned to me.. His grin disappeared.

Boss: Damn, I didn't bring my CF (memory card) card out. I tried searching for one around here, couldn't find it.
Me: (my goodness)

We drove to Great World City to buy a CF card. Oh man.... how on earth can he ever forget the most important thing? Its as bad as bringing a camera without a film.
Eventually he managed to get one and we had to rush back to the venue.

In the car....

Boss: This is the first time this sort of thing has ever happened.
Boss: Ok fabian, u concentrate on driving. I need to get back into the stress free mode in order to take good pictures later on.
Boss: Not many people can switch back so quickly after panicking.
Boss: But i can. I'm well-trained.

See the irony? first time ever happened? well-trained to such situations.

I don't really believe its really his first time this screw up has ever happened. My boss is no stranger to sticky situations whenever he panics. 24 hours before this tragic comedy took place, again, he was late for an appointment. He was rushing off, and we left the office together. He had to lock the door, not having enough hands, his idea was to put his portfolio on the parapet so that he could lock the door, but he was so panicky, that when he released his portfolio from his hands, the portfolio did not land on the parapet, instead it went out of the building and went down..... He literally "threw" his documents out of the building.

Thats my boss....

Party in Melbourne

Sorta missed the partying in melbourne..

I'll be back...

parody en route to home

Glad to be back in singapore... The vessel that brought me home was Emirates. "Fly Emirates" is the way to go. heh... Right i'm being lame, just a bit of advertising for my team's sponsor.

Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. everything on a plane is single-serving...

The people I meet on each flight? They're single-serving friends.

Anyway, back to the story. Sitting beside me was a black man, probably in his mid-thirties. He was my single-serving friend. My single-serving friend could have been a pleasant looking singaporean girl. You see, my seat number was originally 19G. So when i went to 19G, there was this man sitting on my seat. (beside that girl) If she was the single-serving friend, i'm sure after chatting on the plane, we'll be more than single-serving friends. Could meetup for coffee and stuff..... blah blah. I didn't think there was anypoint insisting having my original seat. So, i just took his seat, which was 18G (at least i still have my isle seat). Anyway, beside my new seat was empty, so there might be another chance for a surprise. Well.. in the end, as u know, the character introduced earlier took the seat beside me.

Ok, i'm digressing again. Back to the story. So, he became my single serving friend. We chatted..and i came to know that he's actually from Ghana. But he's a citizen in melbourne. Immediately, when i hear Ghana, the next thing that came into my mind at that point of time was "Tony Yeboah". Hahahaha... Ok, the character has got no name here, cause we didn't introduce ourselves... All i know is he's a musician in melbourne and plays afro-jazz music. So we talked lots music.

Sitting by the isle has its cons. Whenever the person beside u has to visit the toilet, you have to stop whatever u're doing and make way for him/her to proceed. So when he had to visit the toilet, he gave me his butt to my face as he squeezed his way out.

So here's a question of etiquette.
Do you give the butt?
or
Do ur give the crotch?

Either way i wouldn't mind if the single-serving friend was a lady.

bar room jokes

Every weekend, i'll make my regular visit to the bar in backpacker's inn to watch my arsenal games. I don't get to watch it everyweek, cause FOXTel doesn't screen arsenal game's all the time.

In this bar, there's always chances of meeting funny, interesting, strange people. There are too many interesting encounters with strangers in the bar, too many to share.. So i'll just share 2 here.

There was once i was there to catch the Man Utd - Arsenal game. There was this aussie so called man utd fan beside me, by the name of Owen, and we had a short conversation.

Owen: Who's that standing in goal for Man Utd? (refering to Kuszczak)

Me: He's the second choice goalkeeper. I don't know how to pronounce his name. He's Polish. ( I meant his nationality)

Owen: Oh.. No wonder he didn't look like van der saar.

Owen's mate: Who's that guy? (refering to Kuszczak again)

Owen: His name is Polish...

Owen's mate: Ohhhhhh.... (With that 'i get it' look)

So called man utd fan huh...

There was another time i was catching the Reading - Arsenal game. I was wearing my gunner shirt, so i sat with a bunch of gooners. There was this brit guy from london, i couldn't remember his name. Lets just call him Brit.

(Henry was fouled outside the box. Free Kick)

Stranger at the back of bar: FRENCH CHEAT!

Brit: (Turns his head around, yelling) OI!! F**KING B*****D!!

Stranger: We're not afraid of you!! Come on, there's only two of u.
(referring to me and Brit. The rest of the gooners had their jackets covering their shirt so he can't see from the back)

Me: (Why am i getting involved in this?)

Brit: (yelling back to stranger) F**K YOU! We have... ( started counting heads) We have... 5 ... no (counted again) we have 7. 7 ok? (made the '7' handsign as he spoke).

Me: (Covering me face with my right hand. Shit, i don't want no trouble)

Brit: (Whispering to me) We don't have to fight. I know the guy. We know each other.

Joga Bonito Sunday

Slept till 3pm today and got a sms from Mo. "FOOTBALL? WE'RE AT THE SAME PLACE. C U THERE SOON!" I wonder what's with the all upper cased message. His messages are always in upper cased.
They're back from their NZ vacation.. finally, able to play some football. Haven't been playing football since after the exams.. really missed the regular sunday football with them. We don't just play with 3 people. We'll just go to the same old field... pass and stroke the ball around, juggle here and there, fool around first, and later just join any teams that are already there. Everyweek, we'll play different types of football.

There was once we played with a HK team. Damn it, there were lots of wasted running playing with them... They don't pass as often, more of individual play. Damn it, those off the ball running which was useless.. They'll just bring the ball, try to beat the opponents before releasing a shot. That's what most of them do, they don't pass. If they lose possession, someone picks up the ball and its the same ol' story again. It was difficult trying to play with them. You'll (or it's just me) be out of breath really fast.. Anyway, i admit i'm getting weak..haha..ever since i stepped foot on melbourne, other than football, i've never exercised...Wahaha..

Today's football was good. 7 a-side. This time we teamed up with some locals and other asians and we played against a Chinese Team. We lost cos we couldn't gel and we looked more like united nations team trying to adapt to each other. Our team had aussies, non-chinese asians, singaporean(me), swede (mo), german (florian). We were outplayed. Its not because we were lacking in ability...its more like we couldn't gel and couldn't communicate well, the opposition were damn gung ho too.
The aussies love to play long balls. The last man will hold the ball, urge everyone to get up, before latching those long and high balls. Back home, playing with broz, seldom play the longballs..most of the time we played the ball on the ground and kept it short. But here, the long ball rate is amazing!!

If football's intended to play in the clouds, grass wouldn't be planted on the ground.

But i had fun today... I guess it was last game for the semester in Melbourne before going back to Singapore.. After football, went home had a shower, met ting, shennie, charmaine and some other friends for dinner... had Bah Chor Mee.. But of cos cannot be compared to home....

3 more days... here i come.... Authentic Home Food!!!

La Cosa Nostra

Since my exams ended, i've been so bored. Rented some old time films. Films like "Godfather", "Goodfellas", "Donnie Brasco" really got me interested in the crime genre movies, especially when it involves the mafia.
The internal workings of the Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra, is really interesting. Let me share with you how it works.

The mafia is not primarilly an organisation of murderers. First and foremost, the mafia is made up of theives. It is driven by greed and controlled by fear. Everything is done to make money. Murder is secondary, the tool of enforcement, the threat.

The five major mafia families are based in New York City: Gambino, Bonnano, Lucchese, Genovese, Colombo. (If u're thinking about Corleone, thats fictitious... hahahaha.. ) Each family is run by a boss. Each boss has absolute power and authority of his family. A simple yes or no, a nod of head, or a waggle of his finger, he has the power of death over anybody in his organisation.

Beneath each boss in a family, each level of the chain of command requires total respect of those below. Each family has an underboss, also known as a consiglieri (counselor), who mediates disputes and advises the boss.
Below the boss and consiglieri, are the capo (captains). There are many captains in a family. Each capo has many soldiers under him. Soldiers are the lowest level of made guys.
A made guy, also known as a wiseguy is someone who has been inducted into the mafia.

Then there are a lot of "connected" guys who are associated with the made guys, but themselves are not made. To become a "Made man" the inductee had to have 100% Italian roots. To attack, let alone kill, a made man for any reason without the permission of those mafioso higher up in the organisation is seen as a sin which will normally meet with severe retaliation, in many cases regardless of whether the perpetrator has a legitimate grievance. The made man was traditionally seen as untouchable by the law as well as by his fellow criminals, a man to be respected and feared.

If you're a "connected" guy, in partnership with wiseguys (some soldiers or capos), you are subject to many of the same rules as everybody else in the family. You have to give respect and share your profits. But they don't necessary have to share with you. And you are not entitled the same respect and protection given to wiseguys.

I'm not glorifying the mafioso.. its just interesting to see how their kind of world looks like that's so different from ours. And since this is my first official entry, i wanted to share something thats really interesting.