Just came back from my morning run and I have finally decided that I would see a doctor regarding my left knee injury before the start of May.

Hence I, Goat Almighty of NRIC no S79xxxxxD formally declare that I would stay away from all physical activity that would involve quick movements of my lower limbs on any level, and solely include and limited to specifically my lower limbs below my pelvic area and nowhere else in and on my person, other than my regular morning fitness regime till the knee in question is certified as fully recovered by a person qualified in the medical profession.


All yours,
Goat Almighty

Had a bad experience at Long John Silver's City Hall, the one at Capitol next to Peninsula Plaza.

I was with MLB for an early dinner before our visit to the Night Safari on Saturday. The counter staff there were nonchalant and didn't give a rat's ass about customer service. I was standing in queue for 5 hours and 43 minutes and I was only the second one in line!

The other counter was empty but the staff over there would rather pretend to wipe her countertop for 5 hours and 35 minutes totally oblivious to the obvious fact that there are people in my queue waiting to be served.

Then when it was time for me to be served, the staff at my counter made me wait and I had to stand there like a fool for a few minutes before she decided that she finally felt inspired to serve someone else that day after the last one.

While waiting for my missing counter staff, the staff at the other counter also found new-found inspiration to earn her salary and called out to the guy behind me to be served.

I was thinking, "What in the flying funk?!"

How come the guy behind me gets to be served first? What, no one wants to serve me or something? I've got leprosy or something? Was my nose falling off my face?

I was served in the end. My counter staff had this stupid grumpy look on her face like as though she was mourning the death of someone close and from the way she was serving me, I got the impression she couldn't wait to get rid of me as if serving customers was something of an irritable notion in her book.

I was seething by then but for the sake of my little bird o' little bird o' mine, I decided to hold my breath in and be patient. I'm thinking for two now and I don't wanna implicate her for any stupid thing that I do.

In my private mind, I relished the thought of slapping my counter staff's face, at least.

The food came. She got our orders mixed up. I asked for tartar sauce for three times and I didn't get it too. To top it off, MLB's food seemed very little in portion and the calamari in her seafood combo looked un-fresh (us FnB people can tell the difference).

Where's an anger management therapist when I need one? They should seriously consider having an in-house therapist at this particular Long John Silver's branch for all traumatized customer like me.

I went back to my table and whined at MLB about the terrible experience I had at the counter. Un-freaking-belieavable crap that was.

As we were eating, suddenly we heard a ruckus and things banging and slamming from the direction of the counter. It seemed that one customer had finally got enough. This Ah Beng guy with tattoos and all was cursing at the the staff who served me earlier, threatening her and all.

I was like, "Hah! She deserved it, the $^$#!"

Went on for like 10-15 minutes. I was SOOO happy. It was great. However, from the look on her stupid face, we could see that she was still defiant and unapologetic. In her dark mind, she was still very confident that she was not wrong to be rude to paying customers.

The manager herded her into her office while she attempted to cool the Ah Beng down. They were talking for five minutes when I seeked permission from my little bird o' little bird o' mine to approach the two of them to back the Ah Beng up. I didn't think the manager was truly apologetic too.

With her blessings, I went over to join in the discussion. The Ah Beng (let's call him Jack) and I exchanged numbers and made a pact to formally complaint to whoever's in charge. The manager was trying to be smart. She gave the number of her Operations Manager for us to complain to. For an FnB guy like me, I am very aware that OMs are not very high in an FnB hierarchy and most likely to 'defend' the staff under his charge.

Jack informed me later that he had called the OM in question but I intend to go directly to their HQ. It would please me very much for the people at LJS City Hall to be reprimanded for they deserve what's coming at them. They were practically begging for it. How long more must customers suffer by their extremely poor customer service?

We have nothing against Long John Silver's, just the staff at the City Hall outlet. The following day, we even had lunch at their Millenia Walk outlet to erase the memories we had the day before. The quality of food there is what we expect from LJS and the customer service is acceptable. As long as they aren't rude, we can live with it.

PS: I couldn't get the contact details of their HQ, hence I've sent a letter out to The Straits Time Forum.

There I was walking about in Carrefour Suntec City snooping around for the gardening equipment my sister Liana wanted (don't ask), wearing my French-coloured soccer jersey when someone stopped me to ask some questions.

He'd mistaken me for a staff.

Nice one but that's ok. I took it as a compliment. Many of Carrefour's staff are youngish, funky and good-looking. It's like they have their own in-house boyband over there, haha.

I guess I'm youngish, funky and good-looking too then ;-) In this case, I really can't blame the guy *smirk*

Then again, maybe it's just the shirt.

I am actually quite disappointed with myself these past few months.

I realized that I'm not as fast and fit like before anymore. 'Before' here was just last year.

I've always thought that I could anytime match up to my NS-days level of fitness. Even after not running for a long time, I could regain my former levels in a week. But now, it's been three months and I'm still not there yet. Dang.

So yesterday I nearly killed myself, haha. I forced myself to run fast, desperate to see if it's all in the mind. Well it's definitely not in the mind. I'm just old. These legs of mine ain't what they used to be.

But hey, good news on the knee-front. My left knee still hurts a little when I'm running, especially when I'm changing directions in mid-run but it's getting better.

I've decided to add a knee-strengthening exercise in my regime last week and I'm glad to report that it's working. Now I don't feel unnecessary pain when I'm performing regular activities like walking.

Yeah! Off to my run now.

I've written about me looking forward to playing soccer again. To think that there are probably 5.833028 million soccer teams in this country, I could just easily waltz my ass into any one of them right?

Wrong.

But I got quite a firm proposition yesterday, to play rugby of all things!

There's this team called Wolfpackz.

You see the irony here?

Goat. Wolf pack. Goat. Wolf pack. Goat. Wolf freaking pack.

It's madness but it's tough being a fighter without a cause, like an aimless ronin. At this point, I might even consider synchronized swimming.

So I'm keeping my options open, even if it means me getting myself mauled, shattered into pieces, trampled on and dragged by the hair in rugby.

Looks like Qurban might come early this season. Beh-eh-ek.

I finally met up with MLB's family. Well sort of, her mom's side at least. I didn't know what or who to expect or how to behave, I just turned up anyway at her cousin Mariah's wedding. I've always tried to avoid weddings so this was like my first time at one in oh, a thousand years?

Small world as it is, Mariah's husband, Fadly, also happened to be a schoolmate of mine back at NYP's School of Business. He was one year my junior. We weren't close though. He was a soccer guy, I was a never was.

Since I sucked so much and all, I represented the school in rugby instead. It was my only hope. Not many guys would readily volunteer themselves to be squashed and battered on a regular basis even in the name of sports.

Anyway...

Met up with Davin, Melati's hubby. Found out he's an August 79 dude himself!

And of course, the happily pregnant Melati, MLB's cousin

And uh, the bride's sister, Mimi, caught in such an unglam position, haha

And you want how many?

No no no, these weren't the bride and groom, heh

There they are!

A little bit of small talk before we proceed

He must be thinking, "Finally, the creme de la creme... and I'm not talking about the cake"

I just came back from a run. My fourth this week, or about 15km in total, which isn't much, really.

The good thing is though, ever since our return from Bangkok a month or so ago, I've shed some weight. Everything remains constant. My diet (see-food diet), my fitness regime (I work out to pig out), everything, but I guess my metabolism rate decided to come back to papa.

The bad thing is however, my left knee is acting up and now I'm alarmed. Normally I just sort of run it off or something but this one's been around since late last year and it's still here now. It's died down to bearable levels every now and then over recent months but never completely went away.

During my morning run today, I felt the pain stinging and stabbing like as though I was about to give birth to a thorny baby alien from my left knee. Like the tough guy that I am (ahem), I persevered on.

Completed all my routine as per normal... but when I got home, I completely went "Ouch ouch ouchiiieee! Aiyah! Aiyoh! Ah-ma! Gnnn!!!" and of course sent a text to MLB to whinge.

I'm gonna have to dig into my budget to go see a doctor to check it up by the end of next month latest. It's also a matter of timing since my reservist is coming up and and and ya know, and uh, and maybe uh, maybe ya know I can get an excuse slip or something. Ah ha ha.

Heh.

Maybe maybe, if I'm lucky I could even get a permanent excuse for life! Ah ha ha. Ya know, for all time. Ha ha. Like ya know - FOREVER!

Woo.

Just taking some time to reminisce.

Was checking out my Friendster site. I've always wanted to delete my account there coz well, I don't really care much about it. I only signed up coz apparently it was cool to do so back then (in 03).

I like some of the testimonials I get from people in there. They were all from the 03 period, that means the period right after my NS and hence most of them are from my army mates.

And they're honest too, unlike the 'I write something good about you and then you write something good about me' testimonials a lotta other folk get. That is so fake and immature. I know, coz some of these people who wrote in, I don't write back. Or vice versa.

Here are some of the testimonials I got (before I proceed to delete my account):

From Herman, my secondary schoolmate and soccer team goalkeeper:

this guy here is my sec sch & soccer team mate... we were really crazy over soccer those days & actually formed up our own soccer team!

cool huh??? well lubis here is one hell of a friend! u can always count on him to be there whenever the need arises... great chap he is...

oh ya! did i mention he's real gd at soccer? mannn... you guys should see him in action on the pitch & you'll know what i'm talkin' about! damn good this guy! together wif the crazy bunch, we were quite a team to be reckoned with!


From Mike, one of the men from my platoon:

Still remember during our ATEC (army evaluation test), he was forced to carry the machine gun (13kg), his own rifle (3kg) and one feed box of rounds (10kg) when both his men were down.

can u imagine the load he was carrying??


From Orson, my Platoon Commander:

my commited mg commander, good friend and a great man. Its been really a privillege to work beside u and I have learnt a great deal.

Though it has not been smooth sailing, i should say that u should be proud that u have actually managed one of the more challenging tasks presented to a sergeant in 1 Guards!

not many is able to take over your role ok.. : )


From Kenny, my Platoon Sergeant:

Ah... my beloved GPMG Commander aka super man... You really amaze me with your grit determination and endurance...

Still remember the times when you were the one man GPMG team (Manpacker, Gunner & Commander all in one!) and the time you went 'rambo' style with that big, heavy and mean GPMG of urs...

You really can go miles and miles even with that heavy GPMG load of yours and still think straight (er... at times ah)! Kudos to you man.

Off-field, out of the greens, you're a great pal, buddy and colleague... Always there for me to complain and grouse to... haha... Wonder how you stand my 'nagging' sometimes...


From Harkaran, fellow Sergeant and best army mate:

One of a few honest and helpful persons you can ever find. Always there to give a helping hand.

I also taught this guy to slack and live NS like an NSF.

At first during NS he was on the BALL, until everyday i told him that he is an NSF, and luckily towards the end of his army daze he changed.

I also taught this guy how to "wayang" in front of CSM. He followed my style and was never ever marked by CSM again.


From HC, my Alpha Coy's CQMS, fellow Sergeant and one-time business associate:

my first impression of this guy is the resolve and commitment he is able to muster if he wants to (waking everybody up,etc,etc)

A commited and unassuming person, he is capable of assuming success if chance permits.

Enough of capabilities and they're true anyway, I think he looks more handsome than the present photo....haha


From Arozoo, another platoon's GPMG gunner whom I prefer to hang out with over my own men:

a hardworkin dude n damn u should have been my mg commander..

anyway lubis is a fantastic friend and gals if you're looking for someone special, charming n who looks like the 'rock' your search stop here..

it waz great knowing this awesome dude..


From Patricea, my army 'prom night' date:

He's much quieter than Liana (my sister), but that's coz he listens and hears what you say. So I believe he's much more intelligent than he lets on.

He's someone who's bent on always improving himself. But he also knows when to let everything go and party.

Someone worth getting to know better.


From Liana, my sister (duh):

If I am not his sister I will date him.


From Weizhong, my Platoon medic:

Lubis is a guy of muscles and brains.

A fine guy who knows when to do what and vice versa.

He's also a rugged rugby player. So don't piss this guy off...

Great PR skills too i must say.

U R THE MAN!!!!

Whaddaya know? One of the Bistari Nasi Ayam Penyet operators is someone I know from my foodcourt-management past.

Whaddya whaddya know? He also happens to be a very close friend of my personal nasi ayam penyet cook, Ita.

MLB and I were at the Army Market food centre last night. I needed some real food. Instant noodle dinners are driving me nuts. I had mee soto upsized, man it was GOOD as well as nasi ayam penyet from another stall (didn't notice Bistari was there at first) while MLB had bistik.

Then I saw this familiar guy in neon pink Bistari uniform serving another table nearby. I was like, "Hey I know that guy!"

So I approached him to say hello and everything. We were so happy to see each other again. He told me as a matter of fact, Ita was just there five minutes ago. She just left for home!

Gaaa!!! I missed her. But no fret. I got to talk to her on the phone and... and I also got her new number. Woo! Now super authentic JAVANESE nasi ayam penyet is just a phone call away. Yay!

Yeah! Woo! Whee! Backflips! Somersaults! Boink! Splat! Ow.

So I decided to stake out at the open field beside Parkview Square (aka Gotham City) to catch the guys playing soccer on Tuesday evening. I brought my soccer gear with me, all ready to kick some butts.

Yyyeah, I've reduced myself to being a stalker. I stalk soccer teams.

But anyway, they didn't turn up. And a good thing too coz it started to rain heavily at 6ish and we would all have to pack up anyway.

The timing was good. Around that time, my little bird o' little bird o' mine turned up after she knocked off work and so we both just went for dinner instead.

That was Tuesday. The following day, MLB said she saw them again! I think they're trying to elude me. Hmmmph!

So I've decided to pen out a letter asking them to contact me should they happen to plan to have a kickabout on Tuesdays, coz it's the only day I can join them, and pass it to MLB to pass it to any of them when she passes them by after work on the way home.

Ramen Ten
B1, Far East Plaza
Food: 6
Drinks: 8
Ambience: 6
Service: 7
Pricing: 6
Ave: 6.6/10

I am pleased with myself.

I'm not a guy who's big on technicalities but when threatened head-on I am left with no choice but to defend myself.

So a few days ago I realized that I could no longer connect wirelessly to my usual connection from my very own router.

I tried many ways to remedy the situation, basically all amateurish like unplugging and replugging cables, turning off and on the router and modem, uninstalling and reinstalling my wireless adapter, but all to no avail.

So I did the unthinkable and from a list of wireless network available from my neighbourhood, I 'illegally' connected to a network called 'DeeKaye' which seemed to have at least a 97% signal strength all the time just so I could continue using the Net.

My sister however, is adamant that we shouldn't be tapping to other people's network like this. I couldn't agree more but I just couldn't be bothered to do anything about it.

Besides, I had an inkling feeling that 'DeeKaye' was ours anyway. I suspected someone had changed the name from our usual name because whenever I switched my router off, my wireless network would die too.

I've never seen 'DeeKaye' before on the list of wireless networks and the signal being extremely strong, it could only mean that it was coming from at most one door away from my flat from whichever side.

Now THAT is unbelievable considering the fact that on my right, I have a drunk-as-a-skunk neighbour and on my left are a couple of senior citizens. I cannot accept the fact that they have embraced the age of the Internet overnight and installed a broadband connection too.

My sister offered to deal with it. So great, I let her. Haha, maybe I shouldn't coz she disabled my wireless adapter and now it's rendered useless. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. Everytime I tried to reinstall it, my laptop would get the evil blue screen and automatically shutdown.

And the stupid Starhub guy she spoke to on the phone to guide her through the process convinced her that 'DeeKaye' wasn't ours against all indication pointing the other way.

At this stage, it could mean two things: Either our router was kaput like she believed it was OR that it was still alive and kicking but someone's hijacked it, like what I believe it was.

I was determined to prove me right.

Took all of one and a half hours before I left for work yesterday but it was worth it coz I learned how to protect my wireless network AND not to take for granted of the fact that others are going to treat you with the same respect you extend to them (Yes I'm talking to YOU DeeKaye!).

With a lot of assistance from another Starhub guy on the phone, I managed to remedy the situation wholly as well as protect our wireless connection from future attacks.

Firstly, on my sister's PC, I tried to detect all the wireless networks from her wireless adapter. Hers is stronger than mine and can probably detect networks from as far as Uranus and I discovered there was another called 'deekaye' (not to be confused with DeeKaye') with only 20% signal strength.

My suspicion is stronger now. There is a guy called DeeKaye somewhere with his own network and maybe he changed our unprotected network to prove something.

I went to the Linksys website to confirm, chop, guarantee with lifetime warranty that our Linksys router was indeed ours. Yeap it was. Through this, I also discovered that the name had indeed been changed to 'DeeKaye' from the usual.

I changed it back but this time to my email address so DeeKaye or any other ungracious suckers would have to deal with me next time they're thinking about connecting to my wireless which now that it's crossed my mind, will never happen again.

Simply because I have now configured my router such that only my sister's computer and mine can connect to OUR wireless network. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.

Now maybe I should have done it right from the beginning but on a personal level, I felt, why not share? Sure someone's riding on my wireless network while I pay the bill for them but hey, I'm all for that. I'm not rich but I can afford it and it doesn't cost me anything extra anyway.

But when you start hijacking my wireless network and claiming it as your own, that gets under my skin and you deserve what's coming at ya.

I've been high on Panadol since Sunday. I not only finished the strip of Panadol Extra MLB gave me a few weeks ago, I also finished the ones my sister left in the fridge. PLUS, my retail neighbour gave a me a whole new box of Panadol Regular (30 tablets) and there's less than 10 left of them by now. No wonder I feel so drugged-up.

At first it was for migraine for all that mental stress I gave myself unnecessarily. It came, died down but never completely went away until Wednesday morning. I thought I had a brain tumour or something.

I was on halfday on Tuesday. The trick was to slack around. I planned nothing for myself. Just went home straight after work to veg around and had an early night.

I was planning to do some retail therapy on Wednesday. On my hitlist were to borrow some books from the library as well as purchase a box of disposable contact lenses, a sports duffel bag and a pair of cargo pants. All from within 3km of my workplace.

The area around my workplace is an evil place, rain or shine. There is no shelter building to building. When the sun's shining bright, get ready to be roasted. When it rains, get ready to swim.

I swum. The rain was pouring heavily. However I was determined that nothing would stop me. I just put on my jacket and walked in the downpour.

At lunchtime, from Suntec City I walked to Shaw Tower, then to Bugis Junction, then to Bugis Village, then to the National Library and then back to Suntec City to make a complete and systematic loop (sorry I'm Leo). Each time exposing myself to the evil weather.

But I was happy.

At Shaw Tower, the moment I laid my eyes on the black High Sierra duffel bag at Sports Connection, I knew it was love at first sight. It has found me. Look no further. This bag was going on sale at only $29! It's spacious, it's got a compartment for a water bottle, a separate compartment for shoes and get this - there's even a compartment for a ball! It was also the LAST piece. If THAT isn't a sign from God, I don't know what is.

I got my box of Focus Dailies at Bugis Junction. I'm trying to maximize the God-given beauty of the curliness of my hair by growing it longer and I felt my glasses were getting in the way. I'm going for the Julius Caesar look. So there.

I was with MLB last Saturday when we saw this shop that sells cargo pants at $30 at Bugis Village. It was the most I'd pay for cargo pants. I vowed to return when I got paid and what dya know, the shop was having a special on Wednesday. Selected cargo pants were going at half freaking price! Woo!

I changed to my new pants immediately and proceeded to my last stop - the library to borrow my books. It was a covert operation. I had to make it fast. In and out within five minutes tops coz not only was I drenched to the bone, I was also eating into my lunchtime. I had to bear in mind to spare enough time for the walk back to work. In such an unforgiving weather, more time than usual needed to be factored in.

I made it. I was only a little late, otherwise I achieved all my objectives. Except one.

Shopping in the rain, of course there was a calculated risk that I would fall sick and indeed I have. That's the price to pay when you are pressed for time. Serves me right.

I don't know which one's worse, a 3-day migraine or a 3-day flu but hey, I've got them one after the other. How more rotten can my luck be?

There's only one way to go from here. To the warmth and comfort of my little bird. We're going for a massage tomorrow (on top of everything, my lower back is just about to fold in half due to old age) and then we're having Japanese for dinner and then we'll cap it all off with a trip to the movies.

PS: Just came back from a run. Hopefully that'd help improve the flu situation - 8.52am