New start today!! (And I think it’s going well)

A sign that it’s been too long since I open the blog:
Recently had to clear cookies and saved passwords from laptop.. When trying to open the blog earlier, realised I couldn’t remember the password at all.. Had to perform some creative manipulations to get it working again @_@

It’s been so crazy.. like, I can’t believe it’s now mid of Feb!
Where did January go?!?!?! What happened to early Feb??
Soon Feb will be over, and I think March will fly past even faster coz I will travel 2 weeks back-to-back for work, then one week back in Singapore where I have to pack all my stuff and get ready to move to another apartment, and then off to Tokyo!!!
*throw confetti*
YES!!!
Finally, after many many years, will see T&T performing together on stage again! \(^o^)/
Soooo very excited!
At the same time, kinda scared, coz there are so many things to do before the Tokyo trip, and there are so man things to do right after the trip (among other, making sure that I don’t miss my flight back to Singapore), but what the heck… I’ll make it work!

And I’ll get to see Nikki again!!!! YAAAY
And hopefully someone else too!!!!! Double YAY

Doing lots of research now, coz well… if I don’t get on that return flight on Sunday night right after the con, I’m gonna be in soooo much trouble! So doing my best now to ensure that it doesn’t happen

Anyway~
Going to sleep early today..
Haven’t caught up with any T&T stuff for the past 6 weeks or so, but will do so this weekend

Can’t believe it’s 2011…
Actually, I was just putting together some presentation for the KL meeting this week, and still happily wrote “2010-….” when writing dates!!
Same thing when I was trying to use dates as file names.. Kept on writing 2010~
Guess it’d take a few days to get used to it!

Anyway, 2011 is going to be AWESOME Takitsuba-wise~
Was just watching the new year message over at J-net and couldn’t really believe how much “Takitsuba” they are promoting, even when talking about solo activities, which I think is super super super awesome~

I mean, one of my biggest grouses in the past is of the fact that they always totally omitted mentioning anything about the unit during their solo activities.. which I guess is kinda understandable, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but wish that they’d kinda “promote” each other more, and therefore, promote the unit.. instead of sometimes acting like the other doesn’t exist.
So this thing they are doing right now is really making me a very happy person ^__^
And I hope all the fans will really come out to support them both, in both solo and unit activities and make this like a huge lead-up to their 10th anniversary next year~
超楽しみに！

Oh, and I couldn’t believe that the message was like MORE THAN TEN MINUTES LONG!
It was as if X’mas 2011 came early, and bringing with it a super kick-ass awesome present!
Apart from them kept on saying “support T&T” even when talking about solo stuff, they also showed footages from Takitsuba Matsuri.. including the part where Tsu said “Let’s meet here at the area again in March!”
I teared up just listening to like a few seconds of Epilogue…
And the ending scene…. Positively AAWWWWWW and KYAAAAAA worthy!
The sight of them pulling each other, then Takki followed after Tsu right after Tsu kinda ran off was soooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can’t wait to see them again~

Btw haven’t had a chance to watch any of the year-end TV appearances…
My sis and her husband were here for about 5 days.. that, and coupled with all the year end meet-ups and
all meant I totally didn’t have any holiday at all this year.
Hopefully can find some time to get those clips before I go to KL on Tuesday, so can watch them when I’m there~

Meanwhile… am gonna go ZZZ now..
Need to catch up on all those lost sleep for the past 1 and a half week so I can do my best tomorrow!
明日また頑張ろうぜ！

Yesterday morning, in Beijing, decided that since the office building is right next to the hotel, and the place where we’re gonna have dinner is right across the street from the office, decided that I don’t need a jacket since it’s too much of a hassle to pretty much just carry it around the rest of the day..
So there I was, minding my own business walking towards the office, when a granny who were walking towards me saw me, looked shocked, and said “You need to wear more clothes!”
And I was like “but… it’s not really that cold” and she laughed as she was walking away ^^

After the training & meeting for the day was over, J-san and I went to this famous roast duck restaurant called Da-dong, which is in the mall right across the street from the office building…
Food’s definitely good, but don’t think it’s great? A little bit of more style than substance…
Gotta admit that the food presentation is very very pretty ^^

Then, after dinner, J-san went back to her hotel since she’s staying an extra day, and I took a cab to the airport… and met the funniest cab driver ^^
He was saying all sorts of things, and I had to tell him that I don’t quite understand what he’s saying since my mandarin is bad, so we chatted a little about where I’m from etc, and he was like “you are chinese right? chinese people need to know to speak proper mandarin”, and proceeded to ask me to read random road signs/shop names along the road.. well, there was a very heavy traffic, so it kinda made it a little less boring
Then, he told me that due to the road congestion, Beijing government imposed a rule where, on weekdays, every day, cars with number plates ending in 2 specific numbers are not allowed on the streets!
Like, yesterday, on Friday, cars with plates ending in 3 or 8 are not allowed on the streets..
So interesting!
A little like the weekend number plates in Singapore…

Finally, flight back to Shanghai got delayed by an hour, and when I got here, turned out the high-way that leads to the hotel was closed for road-cleaning(!) so we had to take the long route, and ended up getting to the hotel well after 1am!
And the driver who picked me up was like “Ms, we are so lucky.. they only sweep highway about twice a week, for a few hours each time… our timing is go good. Now we’ll have to use the normal road underneath and slowly pass through the few hundred traffic lights” *lol*

Ah well…
Overall, had fun in Beijing.. (though, I only get to see the area near hotel/office, and the airport).. but people are nice and friendly, i think.. more so than Shanghainese.
Hopefully next time, will get to stay there a little longer!

Okie doke… time to pack and get ready to go home! *yay*
Managed to download Hanetobi, Otameshikka(?), so i think i’ll have fun on the flight home ^____^

Normally I travel alone for work, but this time, came here with a colleague from Shanghai, with whom I’ve been working on this project for a while..
Travelling alone has its perks, but travelling with a good companion is great too!

We got to Beijing at about 8:30pm, and after making our way to our separate hotels, checked in, etc, it was around 9:30 when we met up for dinner…
Our hotels and the office is along Jinbao road, which from what I can see, is kinda similar to Singapore’s Orchard rd.. except it has nicer malls, and more interesting buildings ^^

It was kinda surreal, walking along the mostly empty street in the cold, looking for an open restaurant…
Finally settled on this Duck soup hotpot place, and it was great!!
Food was great, and conversation was even better..
I mean, we’ve always gotten along really well, but generally we only get to chat during lunch.. but this time round, we were together since morning, having meetings in office, then lunch, then off to airport, flight together, and finally dinner
Quite interesting ^^

Ah … and then, the hotel is awesome!! Staying at Regent, and I’ve gotta say, it’s one of the nicer hotels I’ve stayed at!
The bathroom is great!
Some hotels have nice room decos and all, but couldn’t seem to get the shower right.. this is just PERFECT!
*sigh*
Wish I’d get to stay here longer….

Anyway… tomorrow is the Beijing session of that meeting I missed in Shanghai…
There are some people I’m not too keen to see, but overall, am looking forward to it~
頑張ります！

Ah well~
So obviously I missed the meeting…
Got to hotel and realised I forgot a bunch of stuff *Sighhhh* and had to go out to buy them.. and along the way, a lot of interesting things…
- Saw a monk walking around in rather shabby robe, with those monk-shoes, with flourescent white Nike socks ^^
- Saw two policemen asking a woman carrying a baby, begging for money at the pedestrian bridge (interestingly… there were others there too, but not sure why she was being targeted)
- Same two policemen having spitting party … I have no idea human being can produce so much spit in such a short period of time
- A boy who looks like he’s about 14 or 15, looking dejected, sitting with a sign that I think goes along the line of “will do anything for money”, and this old-ish guy in suit stood there looking at the sign for a while, then walked off but kept on turning back to look at the boy.. (i was about 2m behind him), and finally, when we got off the bridge, I saw him heading back to it… so ermmm…
- When I walking outside a mall, this woman came to me and said she wants to talk to me about something “good”, so I just shook my head and walked off, and she grabbed my arm and walked with me and said that I need to listen to her and I shook her hand off and walked, and she actually followed me and kept on saying the same thing over and over, to which point I stopped, looked at her, and said in english “NO!”
She looked a bit shocked, then said in Chinese again “I have no ill intentions..” but finally left me alone..
Uh huuuh I’m sure you don’t woman! Randomly grabbing people’s arm on the street forcing them to stop and talk to you… I’m SURE you don’t
- When I got back to hotel, I saw the same guy who’s helped me out a lot previously.. I’ve stayed here maybe 5 times this year, and it’s always him manning the door, so he’d always gave me directions, super friendly and helpful, even though I’ve never tipped him, and I know he recognised me.. so today decided to just tipped him 100RMB and he was like “Woooaah…” and thanked me.. so I was like, naah you earned it
So cute ^^

After that, I pretty much slept 14 hours last night.. woke up this morning feeling a little lethargic after sleeping so much…
Off to Beijing this afternoon… though I won’t get to see anything except office building and hotel, still a bit excited coz I’ve not been there ^^

Meanwhile… wonders what’s happening in T&T land?
Can’t wait to find out tonight~
Off to work now!

And it’s so funny that Jenn and I kinda have the same favorite moments in Dero & TFP ^__^
(Someone should totally make a gif of Tsu being hit in the face by that plunger, and Takki’s hand reaching out to him as he fell XD)
Sheeesh I can’t even stop giggling just thinking about it!

Takki is sooo kakkoi in TFP, especially the wall-crash section and the dart bit at the end… I was like YAAY SASUGA TAKKI all the way

(Eh is it just me, or does Tsu have a weird habit of rolling up his pants??? I wish he won’t coz… well…. there’s that thing…)

This sounds crazy but my heart is filled with so much happiness right now…♥♥♥
And it’s definitely helping me get through the day…
Like today… whole morning was rushing to prepare for the demo to Indian team at noon… then afternoon, was rushing to tidy up loose ends coz I’m gonna be away for the next 4 days..
But like, I went to toilet and saw the plunger there and I giggled
Opened laptop bag and saw the velcro thingy and I remembered Takki and the amazing wall climb and I smiled
Walked passed a store selling japanese food and I remembered horse sashimi and I laughed
*lol*
Silly little things can make me soooooo happy~

やっぱりタキツバ大好きだ！！！

Not sure if I’ll have a chance to download anything else before next week, but will try!!!

Next….
I just counted the pile of mags on the floor, and I realised I bought 17 magazines in the past 2 weeks! *lool*
Since am all packed, am gonna spend some time reading it now…
頑張れ自分！

— Edit —
I think I can safely say this is my favorite Tobase opening EVER!

They talked about the usual 2-and-a-half-year-blah-blah
Then!
Tsu said that due to the inactivity, fans started questioning what happened to the group, and speculating that perhaps they are dissolving the unit.. and he was like… “No reason to think of such things right! Please take a look at the single jacket”
Takki laughed, and said how close they were in the picture.. “Closer than necessary” ♥♥♥♥♥
Muahahahahaha

Enough said!!!!!!

And here is a look at how clooooose they were, courtesy of last week’s Only★Star

Anyway…
Wish I can talk more about the episode but am dead beat … been a really tough week and got an early meeting tomorrow~
I think tomorrow morning will be crazy-ish but it’d get better in the afternoon
Don’t really want to think about next week yet ^^

Btw, I think Jenn will be interested in what Takki said about the Yakitori date in Nonno ^____^

Guess I’ll just have to wait and see ^^

Ah… and…
Finally watched SmapxSmap!
(Can’t believe it’s like a 1.6GB file… thank goodness for clubbox and quick-download coupons)
Me not satisfied!!!! Didn’t get to see a lot of them.. and is it just me, or with the editing, sometimes it seems like it was just Tsubasa talking and the rest didn’t have much reaction *lol*
But then again, I’ve never watched the show, so maybe it is that kind of show…

On the other hand, am happy that the boys at least got to eat lots of yummy crab dishes!!!!
(Luckily I bought some cakes on the way home… got hungry halfway through watching the show so ate the cake ~)

Ah and and and
Sometimes when I see Tsu, just couldn’t help but think that he is perhaps… how to say it… いっぷ変わった?
A little strange *lol*
Just some little gestures here and there that made me think that he is a little strange… as in, weird kind of strange?
The other clip that always made me think that is in the besttour MC collection, the sapporo segment… where he was saying that they should pretend to slip and fall so they don’t have to fly back to Tokyo immediately… seeing him trying to demonstrate the slipping part just … gave me the feeling that he is weird…
言いたいことちゃんと分かってるんだけど、なぜかうまく言葉にできない！くやしぃ！

Speechless

Good thing the hands can still type

WOOOOW
I mean
Okay, I guess there must have been quite a few people upset at the fact that “Arigatou” can only be obtained from concert venue, and made their opinion known to Avex.. (me included… 4 times)
And maybe in the end they decided to release the song in Jacket D, but….
Now more than ever, it seems like a ruse to sell more copies.. seriously..
If I’m not wrong, even after the concert ended, they still let people make the pre-order, and some would have done so because they want the special CD, so….
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Okay, on 2nd thought..
It’s not as bad, because I don’t think there’d be that many people (except suckers like me) who would have made the pre-order just for the special CD..
It’s more likely that the main aim is to get the takaramono, so.. in a way…
Okay… not as bad as I thought…
I mean, I’m still riled up over their original marketing strategy and all, but this new announcement doesn’t really add many more sore points, so …
it’s all good
*lol*

Now am a bit nervous…
The customer service at Kinokuniya’s Takashimaya branch is really a little @_@
First, they told me on Monday that they are bringing in Arena 37 via air, and it’ll be available today… (and the guy specifically said that it’s the issue with T&T on cover)
Today I called to confirm, coz I was thinking that maybe I’d go down there to get it during lunch, and they say they don’t know for sure.. they don’t know which issue’s coming today… I mean, are you f)!_@#)!_# kidding me?
So gotta wait for 2pm AFTER they see the cover, so I can call to confirm *sigh*
All this drama over the mag… but all I really want is to be able to read it soon~~~~~~