Someone hatched a rain on us

We’ve been putting off going to Hatched for a couple of weeks already, so we decided that we should head there, rain or shine. As I always say, be careful for what you wish for, because it did indeed rain on us, and quite heavily too.

Headed to Westmall in the early afternoon as I had to purchase a phone for my mom. Finally ended up with a Nokia E63 thanks to a guy who opened the box and decided that he didn’t want the phone. We then headed to purchase Soul Calibur for Stella’s PS3 so that we could play it in the evening.

Us at the busstop before it started raining:

It began raining heavily so we were forced to take a cab into Evans Road, where Hatched was located. Ended up there almost an hour from the reservation time. The place was relatively empty save for a couple of aunties who spent the time bitching about their daughter in laws.

Halloween Hatched and the view from inside. I kinda liked the chairs. They were pretty comfortable:

Us:

My chicken-killer in crime, with the blackboard behind her showing the various specials for the day. The place used a pretty rustic decor which made it feel really cosy. Loved the half lit bulbs as well.

Root beer! Man, it’s been a while since we’ve had A&W rootbeer. Still one of the better ones as compared to Dr. Pepper and even Bundaberg imo.

I ordered the Vegetable Melt. A muffin topped with cheese, mushrooms, caramelized onions and avocado. Stella loved the mash, which was topped by a blended mushroom sauce. Lovely.
For those who do not yet know, Hatched is a concept cafe serving all sorts of dishes that have to do with eggs. They do have non-egg related dishes there, as in my vegetable melt above, but the main bulk of the menu items use eggs. Stella had the cheese omelete on toast. This was okay, and I loved the thickness of the toast.

Potatoes stuffed with scrambled eggs and roe. Frankly, for 10 bucks, this was a little blah for the both of us. I frankly thought I was getting large potato skins, not these baby ones. Disappointing indeed.
Finally, we had pancakes as a ‘dessert’. This was really good. Simple fluffy pancakes topped with strawberries and caster sugar. Stella had been wanting to have pancakes for some time already, and this really satisfied her – and I as well.

We headed down to town later to do some shopping, but ended purchasing nothing much. On the way, we stopped by Muji and grabbed some stationeries and snacks. There was this packet mango pudding thing that was pretty delicious. Came in one of those “suck packets” and all you needed to do was to draw out the pudding by sucking on the straw. Although it was nothing much, it was one of those things that just makes you happy – eating delicious mango pudding through a straw.

Funny faces:

As it was getting late, we headed to Shinjuku for a quick meal. Again, we were surrounded by Japanese men who spoke about things which we had no idea about. Again, we were seated in the same small corner by the back door. Somehow that gave the whole eating experience a nice sort of familiarity. I had the ramen while Stella had the miso Saba set and both were delicious. I really should try the saba set the next time.

After taking a long bus ride back to CCK, we picked up Overlord 2 from Lot 1 and headed home to play our games. First, we drew up a 500 point army for Stella’s Black Templars. After that was done, Stella promptly proceeded to trounce my ass in every single match in Soul Calibur, and we switched over to Overlord 2 after a while. I probably can say now that I am better at rolling dice than button mashing. Sadly, I got one of those terrible giddiness once again from playing Overlord, and I had to sit aside for a bit while the girlfriend continued with the game. We then ended the night with supper with Stella and her mom at Al Hazar.

And here concludes one of our ‘Bao Ka Liao’ days, and it was really fun just doing all the things that we always liked doing. Although it was in small chunks, it didn’t make it any less enjoyable. Great way to end the week, and the semester.

An hour a day paint and any other business

Now that the marking of group project scripts for the 1101E babies are over, I can finally get back into the flow of things. Will want to work on my thesis, and read a little. Bought a book called A History of Political Thought at Borders the other day, and will be reading through it soon.

Also, I’m planning to enforce upon myself an ‘hour per day painting’ rule. Gotta finish painting the Hordes minis, and if I don’t do it soon, Stella and I will never get down to playing it. So starting tomorrow, I will dedicate one hour (and one hour only) to painting, and I hope that I’ll get something done in due time.

Casual(poet) friday – sweet dreams are made of these…

This Friday, we decided to spend the afternoon at Casual Poet. This was a place that Stella discovered while surfing some time back, and the last time we came, it was in the evening and we stayed for a little while. Since we both thought that it was a nice place to chill, Casual Poet was our choice of venue.

Boardgame Review Blog coming soon

Stella and I have decided that it was time to embark on another project together. Since boardgames is a key point in our relationship and a common hobby that we enjoy very much together, we have decided that we would start a separate blog together, centered on board game reviews. The address and actual specifics of the new blog have not been properly fleshed out, but check this space for more details soon.

birthday week (continued)

Day before my birthday, we met up with the guys for drinks at Walas. Although The UneXpected wasn’t playing that night, we still had a good time just chilling out and listening to the replacement band for the night. They weren’t half bad. Apparently they were some 60s old men rockers, and they could really play the stuff we requested from them.

It was nice just hanging out together, and Stella and I enjoyed their company for the night.

Some pictures for the night. Had to put the 4 person one in the centre as Hong was too “broad”:

All of us:

The following day, we had a gathering at my place. Stella had previously arranged for Andy and Keane to come back on the 20th to celebrate my birthday. Was really touched that she went through all that effort to get all the gaming people in one place. Also, this was special to me because it was my first birthday party ever. I don’t think I’ve ever organised a party for my own birthday before and it was something different for a change.

Prepared some food courtesy of Stella’s mom, and had some other food that my mom prepared earlier in the day. I booked the function room downstairs and prepared for the gathering.

Us before the party:

The food:

Waiting on the couch for the guests to arrive:

Andy grabbing a bite, with Tin watching on :

Keane and Serene who flew in from Wellington:

Stella, Serene and Tin:Me with Keane, Serene, Elton and Sheena:

After eating, we brought out the boardgames. For the night, we decided to play BSG since it was a group favourite. Also, we wanted to get Keane and Serene to try it to see if they liked it.

Shang arranging the cards. Andy and Jon hanging around:

Hong and Jingyi

Sheena and Elton, Keane and Serene. Learning the game.

Me and the beloved organiser of this party :

Unfortunately, we had to evacuate the place by 11, so we headed out to cut my birthday cake.

Everyone pooled in money to buy me my very own copy of Space Hulk! Been hearing all sorts of good stuff about it but was hesitant about spending the money on it since it was a whopping 149 bucks for a single game. Stella jumped on the opportunity when she heard me mention it to her a couple of months back, and she made a pre-order for it from PI. Thanks baby! Truly a geeky present, and I really liked it very much. Thanks everyone!

The guys:

The girls:

After that, it was more BSG. We finished the game at a nearby void deck. In the end, the Cylons won, but it was a good game all in all.

Most of the people departed from there, but Keane stayed for a bit to join Elton, Sheena and Stella and myself for a game zombie killing in Last Night on Earth. Definitely one of the better zombie games out there. From there, we parted ways, and there ends my very geeky and special birthday party. I had a great night, and if not for Stella, I would never have gone out to plan something like this for myself. Thanks so much dear, for the effort you’ve put in =) And finally, thank you friends, very much for making my day.

dark ages

Just completed the Dark Ages game. It was pretty decent, although I often feel bad for letting Stella have to sit through my bad game mastering =( Hope I won’t bore the players next time.

BSG

Got to watch two episodes of Battlestar Galactica with Stella today over lunch. Enjoyed it quite a bit, especially after the six player BSG board game session with the guys and their respective partners on Saturday. It was a riot, and I must say that the board game captures the level of paranoia of the series very well. Everyone thought I was a Cylon just because I hesitated for a moment to process what Mindy said. wtf. Great stuff anyways.

Running a Dark Ages game this Saturday for Stella, Jon, Mindy and Shang. Will be good I hope.

the simple life

It has finally dawned upon me that while time moves like a light train waiting for no one, I enjoy the simple life much more.

For the past few months, I think I’ve truly been at peace, taking my own pace to do whatever I like, and whenever I like. I enjoy just sitting around at home, watching my TV shows all day with the girlfriend. I also enjoy my hobbies very much, most of which do not need more than the company of 2 or 3 people. Painting, is by large a very solitary hobby, and while the number of games I’ve played don’t exactly match the number of models I paint, I think I’ve finally found something that I’ll be sticking to for the rest of my life. I don’t claim to paint well, maybe decently. But what’s more important is that it allows me to put the whole world away for a couple of hours, and actually concentrate on something. As Stella would probably say, it suits my escapist nature. The same goes for my roleplaying games.

Occasionally, Stella and I will head out for a meal, go shopping, and just walk around town. We’ve grabbed lots of books/graphic novels over the last few holidays, and that, also, is another past-time that I forgot about during my undergrad days, and am beginning to rediscover once again. It’s all these things that make me happy.

So where is all this mindless ramble leading to? Just back to the title actually, where basically I enjoy the simple life. Maybe it’s a product of getting older – all the social commitments and hooha of yesteryear are rapidly fading (or have already faded) as time goes by. It’s just too tiring to keep up. Of course, this also means that I’ve more or less stopped meeting friends that much, and unless invited, I seldom go out of my way to ask people out for a coffee or a chat anymore. Thing is, I’m not fazed by the possibility of losing friends either, so I guess that all works out. At the end of the day, one probably don’t have time for everyone around you.

As the graduation date draws near, I’m constantly worried by the thought of: what if my love for the simple life gets in the way of performance in the future? It’s an extremely disturbing and worrying thought. I need productive work to keep me alive. It is part of my very being. I’m a person that stands by the principle that one can put 100% in work, and still put 100% in other commitments (of course it might mean that I’ll have to sleep less). But what if that love for the simple life causes me to work below 100% productivity? It’ll probably burn a hole through my soul. Pardon the theatrics, but I mean every word.

I don’t know how to end this post. So I guess that’s all I have to say for now.

unboxing day

I bought a couple of boardgames over the net a week ago. When they arrived, I left Small World with its wrapping still intact, specially for Stella. I felt that there is always this childish thrill in opening something you like, and looking at all the little things inside. Opening up new games is something that I particularly enjoy, so I decided that Stella should have a chance too. After all, she has been wanting to play this game since the time she saw it on BoardGameGeek, and I decided to buy it so that we could play it together.

Geeky girlfriend with the geeky toy and the new geeky glasses :

Tearing open the wrapping :Looking at the components :

And here are the other two games that I bought. Really pleased at the games that I got for a very decent price.

The pictures brings a smile to my face

Hordes – Gorax

Completed Stella’s Gorax today. Just some minor details like the nails and the base and everything is good to go. Am really pleased at how it turned out, although the pictures doesn’t do it much justice. Ah well.