Definitely the Shittiest Game I've Ever Worked On
Friday March 6, 2026
After being laid off last October, I knew I was unlikely to land a job that side of the new year, so I decided to just relax for a few months. I played a lot of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and purchased the Mega Dimension DLC to go with it. While it wasn't a particularly standout game - in fact, a lot of the gameplay in the DLC felt like chores - the active battle system was a fresh take on a very old formula. Still, it was a good way to pass the time, especially with the days growing darker and darker. We had a nice gathering at Asian Dragon Buffet with my friends from the badminton group for our end of year do, and then another buffet at Spring Garden for Izzy's birthday, but otherwise most of my days were spent playing on my Switch and cleaning up 20 year old PHP code for Psypoke.
In the weeks before Christmas, I had some interviews with a Vancouver company that looked really promising. The recruiter was a Kiwi - immediately putting me at ease. Real nice guy to chat to, and just wonderful hearing someone else that sounded like me. The technical test wasn't too difficult, apparently I had one of the quickest solves, and the cultural fit interview was also smooth. After finishing the two rounds of interviews with them, I was waiting to see if they would offer me a position, when surprisingly I received an offer from the last place I expected to - FuzzyBot. Someone was leaving and they needed extra hands to help ship the game. It was a no brainer. I loved working with the people there and I loved the work I did, so I had to turn the Vancouver company down. On January 5th, I started working for FuzzyBot again, on the shittiest game I have ever worked on.
We Gotta Go is a "friendslop" game - games designed to be played with friends, where the intent is to pull people in and go viral. In our game, you are the embodiment of poop, trying to find a toilet in a haunted mansion where everything scares the shit out of you, literally. There's so much room for humour and though it's not the kind of game I love playing, I have been having an incredibly fun time working on it. Turns out toilet humour is extremely popular.
The period between Christmas and New Years was nice. I cooked a big Christmas brunch with bacon, eggs, avocado and sourdough, and then an even bigger Christmas dinner with wasabi mayo prawns, and herb-crusted lamb cutlets, roast vegetables and purple yam mash. We finished the dinner with Costco tiramisu and hot chocolate! On Boxing Day, we had planned to go to Niagara Falls to see if they were frozen over, but the weather was so bad that we decided to stay in Toronto and have hotpot for dinner. For New Years Eve, we had another hotpot and then we went down to Billy Bishop Airport and braved the -10C weather to watch the fireworks over the waterfront in front of the CN Tower. New Years Day had nicer weather, so we drove to Missisauga to have IHOP and then to Tiffany Falls and Niagara Falls to see all the ice. It wasn't cold enough for everything to properly freeze over, but there's still beauty in the ice formations that we did see.
January and February have gone by reasonably quick, although there was a period of 11 days where I absolutely did not leave my building at all. The snowstorm during that time was so severe that both badminton and church on Sunday were cancelled. 60cm of snow was recorded at Toronto Pearson Airport. The piles of snow from that storm are still visible almost 6 weeks later, though we are getting False Spring 1 this weekend and that should melt away a bunch of the ice. Probably the highlight of January was seeing Rob Paulsen (voice of Yakko and Pinky), Maurice LaMarche (voice of The Brain) and Randy Rogel (songwriter) perform at the Flato Theatre in Markham. It was a night of 90s nostalgia, with plenty of laughs and humour. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to sing along to Yakko's Nations of the World song with Rob. United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru... 🎶 After the show, I got to chat with them a little bit and take a photograph with them, and mentioned that they had worked for Steven Spielberg, and I work for Max Spielberg, so at some point in time we've all had a Spielberg for a boss.
For Chinese New Year, I cooked up another massive dinner. I don't know what I was thinking - my place can only hold five people but for some reason I ended up cooking for like, eight people. I guess that fear of not having enough food was real. The yee sang turned out super well, and in addition to being immaculately presented, it tasted excellent as well, perfectly balanced in sweetness, saltiness, freshness and sourness. So many ingredients went in - the base of cucumber, carrots and radish, and then mango, pomelo, red capsicum, smoked salmon, salted egg fish skin and abalone - the premium ingredients inspired by the yee sang I had in Malaysia two years ago.
In addition to this, there were prawns, duck and lettuce wrap, roast pork, barbeque pork, stuffed tofu and fried rice. Phoebe had brought some famous Chinese New Year snacks as well as some of the selection of treats I had bought for dessert.
And now that it's March, and the Nondescript March Event has passed, I've felt a lot more reflective and introspective than usual. What I've achieved with my life, where I am now, what I want to happen in the future. Things have largely gone very well for me in my life, despite one very marked tragedy early on, and more recently, two layoffs in two years. I still feel uncertain about this year and how it will unfold, but hopefully things will turn out okay.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:54am on Friday March 6, 2026 :: 0 comments :: 
Malaysia and Chinese New Year
Tuesday February 27, 2024
Just over three weeks ago, I had departed Barcelona for Kuala Lumpur via Doha. The first leg of the journey was uneventful, though my entertainment system had some very bad lag issues and I couldn’t watch any movies. The second leg from Doha to Kuala Lumpur was handled by Malaysian Airlines, and I took advantage of the free wifi on board by chatting with some friends in Toronto and my workmate Pete in New Zealand. Suddenly Pete’s tone changed to that of panic, saying we’d been sent an email halting production immediately and that we’d been furloughed - that is, suspended from our jobs temporarily without pay. I spent the next 90 minutes of the flight hyperventilating.
A few days later, the company found out that it is illegal to furlough Canadians, so they laid us off instead. We’ve engaged an employment lawyer to help us through the proceedings and we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. For the Americans, it’s even worse because this is an underhanded tactic to lay them off without severance, which is contradictory to all the messaging about care and respect that the CEOs have been spouting on social media.
We’re finding it difficult to reconcile what’s been happening. No one saw this coming, no one expected it to be done this way, and no one could believe the lengths that Jeff and Annie have gone through to escape responsibility for their critical failures. Soon after we were furloughed/terminated, Prytania general staff and Game Science were let go as well. We set up a couple of Discord servers for everyone to discuss their options and provide support, and the way that we’ve come together in this month of dire need is testament to how amazing our team was.
I think that’s what hurts the most. That we had such a cool project and talented team but we’ll never be able to bring everyone together again to finish what we started. The Strains have gone completely silent and haven’t fronted media at all, let alone had the decency to talk to us directly, and instead have deleted their LinkedIn profiles as well as the Prytania one. And why? To hide all the posts they made about layoffs being the fault of leadership?
What that has meant in the short term is that suddenly my time in Malaysia freed up. In spite of the stress and lack of sleep, I’ve been able to enjoy the delicious food and catch up with family. The festivities of Chinese New Year were awesome to see as well, with lion dances and dragon dances, dragon displays, and of course, all the different kinds of food and goodies available during this time - yee sang, pineapple tarts, peanut cookies, almond cookies and more. And yet, on an occasion where I should have been celebrating success and prosperity, I could only fight to hold back tears, disappointed that all this had to happen during Chinese New Year.
In amongst all the eating, I’ve been doing interviews and practicing code tests. Live coding - where you solve a coding problem while your interviewers watch everything you type - is an incredibly stressful method of interviewing that is absolutely not indicative of the kind of conditions that programmers normally work in, so why do we continue to subject each other to such torture?
The last few days have been a flurry of fooding as I’ve tried to tick off the last remaining items on my list. On chap goh mei, the final day of Chinese New Year, we were treated to an exquisite meal at Copper Mansion, with suckling pig, abalone and prawns. I’ve been spoiled silly by family, as usual. I’m on my way back to Spain now, and things are looking up. I’ve got some time to travel and take a breather, and I’ll definitely be making the most of my time in Europe.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:03pm on Tuesday February 27, 2024 :: 0 comments ::
March
Saturday March 3, 2018
It's been seven months since I arrived in Toronto to start a new life and a new job. It's also some other 32 year anniversary for something, but I won't go into that too much. But it does mean it's spring, kinda. The days are definitely getting longer and we enjoyed double digit temperatures for a few days, but today it plummeted back to 2C and it's begun snowing.
I got horribly sick last week after work karaoke on Chinese New Year. I was visiting some family friends out in Richmond Hill, and after dinner, I began to feel terribly cold, and got muscle aches and a fever. Somehow I still dragged myself to a Chinese New Year dinner with my badminton friends, but I stayed at home for the next four days trying to recover. I got to experience the greatness of the famous Canadian healthcare system too. I'm still not at 100% but I managed to at least go for badminton and attend the Pokemon Community Day last weekend. I also got treated to an amazing seafood dinner with lots of oysters!
Canadian public holidays are really nicely spaced out over the year. In fact, there was a gap in holidays between New Years and Easter, so they made up a provincial holiday in Ontario called Family Day in February. Isn't that great?
Posted by Jeremy at 12:34am on Saturday March 3, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
Off to Japan
Thursday February 2, 2017
The remainder of my Malaysian holiday has been spent answering the question, "so what haven't you eaten yet?" We went to Klang for bak kut teh, went for a Japanese buffet, and had satay, roti and steamboat. We had a big dinner with dad's side of the family on Monday and I caught up with mum's side of the family on Tuesday.
My time here has been pretty quick but I've enjoyed it immensely. It's quite odd seeing Kuala Lumpur during this time - the shops are all closed for the festive season and the traffic within the city is actually pretty good while people are outstation. My family have spoiled me - they always do - and I will be forever thankful for that.
For now, I'm at KLIA2, the budget airline terminal, where I will be off to Tokyo in just under 90 minutes.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:16am on Thursday February 2, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Chinese New Year
Sunday January 29, 2017
Food is love, food is life. That's pretty much the message being driven home at the moment, as we celebrate Chinese New Year in 2017. The first meal is always reunion dinner on CNY Eve, where I spent it with my father's brothers having a very lavish meal. In between, we followed the epic semifinals tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov - what a game!
For the first day of CNY, all of dad's side of the family gathered for an epic lunch at my uncle's house - 28 of us in total. So awesome to see everyone again, and really a special time with family enjoying some delicious food. At night, we went to a friend's house in Tropicana where again we ate and drank like kings in an opulent house, perfectly designed for entertaining dozens of guests.
As we drew closer to midnight, we set off some firecrackers and fireworks - and what a show, much better than what Auckland Sky Tower puts on for the Gregorian new year!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:48am on Sunday January 29, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Gluttony
Wednesday January 25, 2017
It's been pretty wet since arriving in Malaysia, which is odd for this time of year. Nevertheless, this of course has not stopped the steady flow of delicious foods into my mouth. My day is basically eating and sleeping, and it truly feels like holiday mode right now.
The flight from Auckland to Singapore was fortunately good. The people sitting next to me relocated to seats with more leg room, leaving me with the whole row to myself. I caught a good four hours of sleep, and felt quite refreshed upon landing at Singapore airport. I had a two hours layover, and there's lots to do there, so I busied myself wandering around the terminals, looking at the various gardens and koi pools. I had a quick squizz at the Butterfly Garden, but it was still dark outside, and it was raining, so I didn't stay for long. There were also several Pokemon decorations around as part of a promotion, and the main feature was an offer to get a plushie for $10 after spending $120 in the airport.
Singapore to Malaysia was pretty rough, and though we departed slightly late, we landed on time. However, the air train between KLIA terminals suddenly broke down, and immigration took far longer than expected, so it wasn't until close to noon that I actually got out of the airport. First meal - fried rice and wat tan hor!
I've never been back to KL for Chinese New Year. It's quite chaotic actually, there's much more traffic on the roads as people rush to buy last minute gifts or food, or head out station to their hometowns for reunion dinner. The rain has made the temperature quite bearable during a time when it is supposed to be over 30C, but of course, exacerbated the traffic jams.
The plan for the next few days will basically be just eating and catching up with family, though I managed to catch one of my ex-colleagues and his wife today. They took me out for banana leaf rice in Puchong, and, as greedy as we were, also went for lau sar bao, the golden duck egg yolk bun. Almost impossible to find in New Zealand, the authentic lau sar bao is salty and sweet, and has a slight grittiness from the duck egg yolk. The bun must be soft and almost cakey, and the inside should look like molten gold, spilling out as you take your first bite. So gooood.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:40am on Wednesday January 25, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Melbourne Bound
Thursday February 11, 2016
I have been insanely busy lately. My current project is six weeks long, and we are currently in week five. Fortunately for me, I'm at Auckland airport, waiting for a plane to Melbourne while the team back in Wellington are pushing towards the final deadline. Still, I did a few nights of overtime last week to get through my huge list of tasks so it was not without my own sweat and tears.
People have been visiting. I caught up with Melburnians Ants, Jo, Ben and Jill when they were here for a wedding. My parents came and visited too, and we enjoyed much delicious food. It was dad's birthday (almost) while they were down so I took them to Matterhorn and Floriditas.
A couple of weeks ago, I was up at 5.30am to see all five classical planets in the sky at the same time. Looking out to the glow of sunrise out east was Mercury, then looking in an arc high in the sky, Venus in its dawn brilliance, Saturn, Mars, the waning quarter moon and finally Jupiter. It was a sight to see. Absolutely stunning. I've never seen all five at once like that before, and I think it speaks volumes of the kind of wonderful city I live in that I was able to walk out onto my balcony and see all of this so clearly.
Last weekend was Waitangi Day and Chinese New Year, which I spent with my parents, my sister and two nephews. I think it's important to observe tradition; it is custom to be with family on Chinese New Year's Eve for a reunion dinner. The next day, my parents were off to Malaysia with 4kgs of cherries, 2kgs of plums, a loaf of bread, wine, chocolates, smoked salmon, crackers....
So the reason I'm in Melbourne is that I am fulfilling an old dream that has been in planning for the past decade: see a Final Fantasy orchestral concert. It's going to be mega. All the nostalgia, emotion, memories and melodies. I will hopefully be stuffing my face full of delicious food too. Looking forward to it!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:48am on Thursday February 11, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
Definitely Not Anything Special Today
Sunday March 1, 2015
It's been a tough week. I've had to cram six days' work into four days (rather reminiscent of what happened on Auckland anniversary weekend), and towards the end of the week, both my lead artist and I have been under increasing pressure to complete our tasks as well as co-ordinate other members of the team and ensure we have a build to send out for our milestone. There have been a lot of distractions around our area and we've just found it difficult to focus and be productive. There was a big news bombshell dropped on us on Friday, as well as being Josh's last day at work. It's sad to see people go; we've lost so many in the past couple of months. It's not an indication of the company's health, I think people are just at that point in their lives, all coincidentally. I can't expect people to stay forever, but at the same time... it just seems to have happened all so suddenly. Sigh.
So I was thankful to Christine and Jen, as well as their co-stars Rose, Abby and Caitlin, for their performances at BATS Theatre in an improv show called Definitely Not Witches. Laughter truly is the best medicine, and the show on Friday was so impressive that I booked tickets for the Saturday show too. It was good to hang with friends and go for dinner and have the week behind me, but it was a bonus to be able to be entertained and laugh so much on two successive nights.
Yesterday was the PikPok family day too. We started off at Mission Inflatable just by the train station in the morning, then to Thorndon pools for a barbeque and dip in the afternoon. We learned that we aren't as durable as we thought we were, but still had heaps of fun on the obstacle course, mechanical bull and various other bouncy arenas. Didn't come away with too many injuries! The pools were a bit more relaxed, I busied myself with food preparation and cooking, but couldn't resist the chance to dive into the water just before lunch was ready. The spa was pretty relaxing too; again, it was just awesome to hang out with cool people whose company I enjoy. After heading home for a quick nap, I went into town again for a Chinese New Year dinner at Big Thumb, then the last night of Definitely Not Witches and finally a good solid two hours of karaoke at K Zone.
At some point heading home, I did let it slip that today was the 1st of March.
But it doesn't matter what day it is, people still turned up for a good time and I really enjoyed this weekend. Thanks to all who made it so memorable, I'm truly blessed to have people like you as colleagues and friends.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:33am on Sunday March 1, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Chinese New Year
Wednesday February 25, 2015
So much food.
I've been up in Auckland with family celebrating Chinese New Year. 2015 is the year of the sheep! I drove to the airport last Thursday with Phil and was surprised to see Dana and Angeline taking the same flight to Auckland; Dana for the Foo Fighters concert and Angeline to get back to University. Angeline is taking CompSci and was keen to chat to me about courses and careers and things like that, and it was kinda interesting to hear that not much had changed with CompSci101.
I followed dad into town on Friday and saw Andy at Wedge Juice Bar, and met up with Bobby and Raymond for lunch at Nol Bu Ne, then dessert at Meet Fresh. We went home early because they had cooked a rich abalone stew on Wednesday night and needed to finish the leftovers before the weekend, so we gorged ourselves with this amazing dish, before heading out to Musashi for dinner - soft-shelled crab!!! Still in the mood for more, we went to Chiko's for their summer special dessert - halo halo, which is like a Filipino ice kacang. This one had taro ice cream, red beans, green beans, French pastries and some miscellaneous jellies and fruit strewn throughout the shaved ice. Yum!
On Saturday, we had music practice at KCC and yum cha at Wing Wah, before I headed home to help cook for our belated reunion dinner. I did my lettuce wrap, dad made a stir-fried prawns dish, Khim made dumplings and Anita brought some roast pork and barbeque pork. What a feed! Still, it didn't compare to the feasts happening back in Malaysia. Plenty of updates coming through from WhatsApp showing us all the delicious things we're missing out on! One day I will go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year.
Music went well on Sunday morning at KCC, and I was back at Wing Wah for yum cha again. On Sunday night however, we went to KK in Greenlane for a special Chinese New Year banquet menu for invited guests only! It was a nine course dinner with dishes they don't normally serve on the a la carte menu. On Monday, I was in town again meeting up with my school mates for lunch at Mezze. I caught up with Will, who I hadn't seen in over four years, and we wandered around town via Giapo and Moustache. Good times.
Last week was the inaugural PikPok Plunge, a company challenge to jump off the wooden plank down by the waterfront. Brett organised a barbeque and Juliann, Mana and I sorted out the food for several hungry colleagues who had turned up to Frank Kitts Park to watch a team of thirteen sport their best costumes, dives and splashes into the harbour. The weather was absolutely stunning for the event, and it really is true that you can't beat Wellington on a good day.
We also farewelled Prashant, the animator on my project, and Jimmy, who has been my designer for every project except one, for the last five years. We celebrated their time with us with a meal at Thunderbird Cafe and some French delectables from Louis Sergeant afterwards. This one I got was a violet dome of white chocolate and blackcurrant mousse. Furthermore, I brought a black forest cake, pandan cake, pineapple, melon, lychee and mango biscuits, some sesame balls and some mango and lychee jellies to celebrate Chinese New Year, my work anniversary and my birthday at all once.
This weekend, we'll be at the PikPok Family Day and a Chinese New Year dinner that coincides with the beginning of autumn. There has been so much food, but there's no other way I'd celebrate Chinese New Year. Family and food are the best.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:18am on Wednesday February 25, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Year of the Horse
Thursday February 6, 2014
I spent Chinese New Year up in Auckland. I guess I'm a stickler for tradition, Chinese New Year should be spent with family and it was good to see my parents, my sister and brother in law, and especially my two nephews. One day I hope to spend CNY back in Malaysia - I almost had a chance to do that this time round but Malaysia Airlines wouldn't have any of that.
Eight at the Langham Hotel had a promotion during January where all diners whose birthdays were in January dined for free! So I treated dad to the famous buffet lunch there and it was awesome. There was plenty of fresh oysters and some different things from when I went over New Years with Jordan, and some festive delights in celebration of the Chinese New Year too! Not surprisingly, the majority of the diners there were Asian. The amazing lunch caused me to have a three hour food coma, but I regretted nothing.
Saturday was our family Chinese New Year dinner. Though "reunion dinner" is supposed to happen on New Year's Eve, rules are a bit more relaxed these days to allow for working families and those who have to travel long distances to get home. Nevertheless, the spirit of the dinner was honoured, with plenty of dishes, each symbolic in their own right: chicken, duck, prawns, fish and vegetables made for a scrumptious feast, even if it was a bit chaotic preparing it.
On Sunday I went to church, followed by our regular lunch at Masala, and then I met a few of the old gang at Cornwall Park for a late barbeque picnic for Jacinta. So wonderful to feel the sunshine (and no wind), and great to catch up with people - even if I'd only seen them a month ago. It's been six years since I left Auckland, but I still enjoy the friendships I've made with these people despite the distance. I also got to play badminton on Monday night with them - so good.
I managed to get a login for the computers at Uni so I could work on a presentation about Dynamic Programming for the PikPok Developer Conference next week. I took the chance to wander around the city campus, admiring the new buildings and appreciating the old ones. I was astonished to find the entrance to the CompSci department completely different - they've removed the time tunnel and replaced it with a large hallway where the Science Student Center sits, as well as a time wall depicting various important historical events. Info Commons hadn't changed much (Munchy Mart is still there <3) and I was able to finish most of the Powerpoint presentation in the three days I was at Uni. I also caught up with Bobby and Raymond on Tuesday at Elliot Stables, and Graeme and Tom on Wednesday at Tony's.
Such a pleasant and relaxed few days. I should do that more often.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:45am on Thursday February 6, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Social Butterfly
Sunday February 24, 2013
I have been doing too many things with my life.
That\'s okay though, I have thoroughly enjoyed the fun times and the awesome people I\'ve been hanging out with over the past two weekends. Now is the time to make the most of the sun before it fades away behind the abysmal weather so typical of Wellington for ten months of the year. Summer has been great and it\'s sad (if not alarming) that it is March very, very soon.
Last weekend, we went out to Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt to watch some jousting after badminton. It\'s not particularly like what you would imagine (or what Hollywood would have you imagine). The tips of the jousting lances are fragile and break easily, and are colour-coded for each person. The idea is to land a hit against your opponent (with rules around where you can and can\'t hit - no hitting the horse!) and points are given based off aforementioned criteria. As the lances break, the resulting fragments are clearly identified by their colour to assist in the judging. There were also longbow displays and sword fighting re-enactments, but none as exciting as the jousting.
The next day, we were out at Adrenaline Forest in Porirua for part one of Ben\'s birthday celebration. Swinging, climbing, gliding and shuffling (often struggling) our way through the treetops proved quite the physical challenge at times; not so much the mental challenge I was expecting since I was so focused on the obstacles, I barely had time to look down at the ground. Unlike previous ropes courses I\'d been on, this one is more individually managed so you clip yourself onto safety ropes to traverse the trees instead of being belayed by a group of people on the ground. Additionally, you\'re equipped with your own pulley and hook system so you can clip yourself onto the wire and ride the gradient to the other side with some gravitational help. There\'s some great Indiana Jones-type swings, including one into a large spider web of ropes on course six!
Part two was competitive go-karting - teams of two doing 30 laps each. Jordan and I paired up to deliver a relatively unrisky and consistent display that landed us fourth place out of eight (not last, yay!). The karts supposedly reach 50kph and handle pretty well, though my skidding and sliding were not as masterful as I would have liked. I kept feeling like I was going to topple the kart over. There were fortunately no coloured turtle shells on the track.
I went for an improv show at the Gryphon Theatre on Ghuznee St, then to dinner at the Matterhorn on Friday night. I was last at the Matterhorn in 2009 and they have changed the menu and the style of eating since. The intention is that you order a selection of plates to share instead of having individual meals. Essentially it is like yum cha, except ten times the price. We found the concept complicated and were a bit nervous when the waitress asked us if she could have the authority to place food on our tab without our explicit permission. We shared some oysters with champagne sorbet, crispy pig tails, deer fillet with blackberry, potatoes with roast almonds and various other plates that I can\'t recall off the top of my head. The company was great and the food was good, but the messy logistics put me off and wouldn\'t recommend it - would have been much better if we had just had individual meals and maybe some sides to share.
Yesterday after badminton, we had the PikPok Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Lawn Bowls club. It was a family-friendly event, with a kids-only bouncy castle (much to the disappointment of many of my workmates), face painting and board games available. There was of course the lawn bowls outside, and in defiance of the Wellington wind, beer pong on a table decked out with some fantastic Flick Kick Football artwork. Time passed quickly and it got a bit chilly around 6pm so I left for another barbeque out in Island Bay with my church\'s family group. Though it was a brief event, it was good to catch up with various people and I was absolutely smitten with the two guinea pigs called Pip and Squeak. I ended the day over at Andrew\'s flat in Roseneath, taking one hour to set up a new board game called CO2 and three hours to play. Would not recommend.
Finally, to finish it off, I celebrated Chap Goh Mei, the last day of Chinese New Year, at Big Thumb in style, with plates of chicken, pork and seafood in dumplings, buns, rice noodles and deep fried!
Though we don\'t have the fireworks and fantastic lion and dragon dance displays that the Auckland Lantern Festival provides, I\'ve had fun celebrating Chinese New Year in my own way. This will be memorable for years to come.
<<edit>> Okay we just got fireworks. Yay!
![jousting](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3510.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Adrenaline Forest](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3546.jpg\"){kind=link}
Posted by Jeremy at 7:33am on Sunday February 24, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
The Year of the Snake
Sunday February 10, 2013
Though I've just had a five day weekend, I feel exhausted from all the people I've caught up with over the past few days. It's been an enjoyable Chinese New Year celebration, seeing both family and friends over my time up in Auckland.
It is tradition to have Reunion Dinner on Chinese New Year. This is when all members of the family gather for a meal to bring in the new year; though the rules are a bit more relaxed as family members tend to be more dispersed around the world these days, the reason and meaning remains the same. My parents cooked some delicious food on Wednesday (we didn't even celebrate it on the real New Years Eve!), each dish symbolising various aspects of well-wishing that are common at the New Year - prosperity, abundance, wealth and happiness.
I caught up with Melbourne Dave on Thursday in town. We walked around the waterfront and Wynyard Quarter, we visited Moustache and for old times' sake, trudged up the hill to Albert Park and the University of Auckland. Seems like not much has changed, though there's some heavy construction around the Maths/Physics and CompSci buildings. Dave is doing well and it was great to catch up and see him, and hopefully one of these days I will make it over to Melbourne to visit him and the other people I know there!
I had lunch at the ever-delectable Tatsumi in Newmarket on Friday with my step-mum and grandmother. Never failing to disappoint, the "deluxe lunch" option with three main dishes, appetisers and a petite dessert was delightfully satisfying. Friday night went until 3am, visiting Jay's Tea on Dominion Road and playing 7 Wonders with the guys.
Saturday was relaxing, doing absolutely nothing all day except mowing the lawns in the early evening. I tried to organise something at night since my parents were out at a party, but unfortunately most of my friends were having their own reunion dinners and nothing eventuated.
After church at KCC and lunch at My Kitchen on Dominion Road, I spent the rest of Sunday playing more 7 Wonders. Some pretty grim low-resource games at the end, but fun nonetheless. Okay not really fun, but it was good to catch up with people, and next time I'll teach them about the Leaders expansion.
Did you know it's been five years since I moved to Wellington? I've been at my job for longer than I was at University. Time has gone by so quickly, with people coming and going in and out of my life. I remember this hilarious and thoughtful but a bit disturbing music video that the guys had made for me before I left for Wellington. It was to the Spice Girls' Goodbye, which has the lyrics "Goodbye my friend....it's not the end...so glad we made it, time will never change it". The weekend reminded me of how strong our friendships have remained in spite of the distance between us.
It was poignant then, that the song came up as Matt drove me to the airport, since it was the last time I would see him before he moves to Taiwan. The weekend was a time to reflect on how things used to be, and on what I cherish each time I come back to Auckland for a visit. Thanks to all of you for making my weekend what it was, and blessings in the year of the snake to all of you.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:54am on Sunday February 10, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Reunion Dinner
Sunday January 22, 2012
I always find myself being sentimental around Chinese New Year, mainly because I'm away from home and I'm missing all the great food you get, like yee sang and Peking duck. I try to go back to Auckland for Chinese New Year at some point during the 15 day celebration - even if I do miss the actual day of Reunion Dinner, we usually do have one and its meaning isn't diminished in any way.
This year, though, my parents are back in Malaysia and I was feeling a bit lonely when my flatmate suggested I do something special for myself. And that snowballed into making my own Reunion Dinner. I've never cooked for that many people before but it turned out well!
Spring Rolls (to appease the masses), Lettuce Wrap, Stir Fry Bok Choi and Cheese and Bacon Mussels
Roast Duck. Thank you Yans!
I know these may not necessarily usually be associated with Chinese New Year foods but I'm not that great a cook :(
To top it off for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream with Alphonso mango puree, and Jono's chocolate birthday cake.
In any case, wishing you all Gung Hei Fatt Choi in the year of the Dragon!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:44pm on Sunday January 22, 2012 :: 1 comment ::
Chap Goh Mei
Sunday February 28, 2010
Today is the 15th and final day of Chinese New Year, and I thought it would be appropriate to share a soppy love song at church this morning, so two weeks ago I recruited Jono and phonetically taught him some Mandarin and today, with all our friends watching eagerly and the church congregation not knowing what to expect, the two of us sang Tong Hua.
So nervewracking. I actually stuffed up in the middle of the song but thank goodness I managed to hit the right note to keep going.
Anyway, last night we were at Arashi celebrating the "end of Chinese New Year" ¬_¬ and it was just great for everyone to get together and catch up over a nice meal and an awesome dessert.
Strawberry Fare has three new desserts on their menu! I wanted to try the Chocolate Bleeding Heart which was chocolate pudding with Baileys in the centre, but unfortunately they had run out so I tried the Lime Tart which was absolutely delicious. Beth tried the Flourless Cake, which was a gluten free chocolate cake with some berries, much like the Raspberry Drenched Cake.
We were approached by a lady from a nearby Hen's Night table who was seeking a random guy for the bride-to-be to kiss and Dave volunteered, with hilarious results. We continued to analyse Dave's love life using the wine bottles, wine glasses and salt and pepper shakers to illustrate various people.
Last weekend I was up in Auckland for Hsin-Yao's wedding, so it was really good catching up with all my school mates at the same time. I figured I would leave the people photos for someone else to handle (I'm looking at you, Mat) so all you will see on my blog are food photos. You'll also notice we went to Sylvia Park to kill time between the church service and the reception, and I stumbled upon EB's shelf of Rugby League 3 games! \o/
On Sunday, I randomly turned up at KCC and attended the young adults bible study, before having Chinese New Year dinner with family and friends, before an 11 hour bus back to Wellington...
Posted by Jeremy at 5:49am on Sunday February 28, 2010 :: 2 comments ::
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Monday February 15, 2010
Happy Chinese New Year to you all, and wishing you wealth and prosperity in the year of the tiger! A bunch of us from Sidhe had yum cha at where else but Majestic Cuisine, where we proceeded to devour plates of dumplings, rice noodles, tarts and buns. Of course, I made everyone have the durian tart, and much to their surprise, it was tolerable! It was unlike anything else they had ever eaten...
It was good that Chinese New Year was yesterday and not today, because today was Epic Fail Monday. Fail #1: car rear ends another car in moderately heavy traffic outside the bus stop. Fail #2: I spent the entire day trying to get a build done to our level designer, only to have the machine have a major spazz and refuse to work. Sigh.
Nevertheless, I did manage to complete a build and deliver it, at approximately 6.45pm. It means I wasted the whole day on this instead of finishing my prototype which needs to be done by Friday... SIGH.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:33am on Monday February 15, 2010 :: 1 comment ::
Friday Fail
Friday February 13, 2009
Okay yeah, I've been pretty much working on the BIG SECRET EXCLUSIVE SITE every night of the week, so of course that means blogging gets pushed out.
Anyway, Friday Fail is a term used by our senior programmer, Steve, on Fridays when we meet for our daily meeting at the couch area at work, and browse FailBlog. Steve left us on Tuesday, and now there is a failure of Friday Fail, and as a result, team morale was lower than usual and heaps of things ended up breaking.
Last week, in recognition of Steve leaving, we booby trapped our game for his last Show and Tell. He demonstrated our progress on the game and spoke about the various changes we made. As he wrapped up, we got him to go back to the main menus and *bam*, we sprung a picture of him in his "underpants costume" from Halloween (this was from his old work place), accompanied by Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On". Needless to say, his mouth gaped open for a good half minute and he scurried off stage. We'll miss you, Steve.
Show and Tell usually happens on a Friday, but as you're all aware, last week was Waitangi Weekend, so immedately after Show and Tell I had to rush to the airport and catch a flight back to Auckland. As tradition stands, I made a beeline to Momo Tea in Mt. Albert, and hung out with my youth group, having some hearty food and some delicious drinks.
Friday morning I had music practice, and following that, Bob's unsurprise barbeque at Ray's place. This pretty much lasted the whole day, with some awesome food and lots of Rock Band. No Stephen, this was the PS3 version so we didn't play Still Alive. We played some outdoor badminton too, until we started getting attacked by the mosquitos. Towards the end of the night, we hung out for more drinks at EasyWay and played last card, until we were pretty much sick of last card and headed our seperate ways.
On Saturday I pretty much lazed around, but in the afternoon I met up with Mat and Will and took a stroll around Albert Park, just observing the lanterns and inhaling the wonderful aromas of the roadside food. It was a gloriously hot day, and I am often reminded about the surprisingly large temperature difference between Auckland and Wellington.
I spent Saturday night with family for our reunion dinner, which I would say was the main purpose of the trip. I dunno, I kinda feel very sentimental about these things, I was a bit disappointed about missing Chinese New Year last year. Family's important to me, and reunion dinner is just one of those symbolic meals that you share with family, a bit like how Christmas is so important to some people.
Sunday was pretty much church and lunch at (where else) Ha Long, before I caught up with my sister, who insisted on showing me various painted windows, her coffee table, her new laptop and her photo board. And before long, it was time to head back to the airport and start the journey back to Wellington. Sigh.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:09am on Friday February 13, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
Happy Chinese New Year!
Monday January 26, 2009
Wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai in the year of the Ox!
I just got back from Parachute 09, after a mammoth seven hour car ride from Mystery Creek, Hamilton. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend, full of sunshine, friends, fellowship and worship. I saw the likes of Late 80's Mercedes, Luke Thompson, Dave Dobbyn, Nathan King, David Crowder, Kutless and Casting Crowns. Saturday night was full of excitement and adrenaline, and Sunday night was full of praise, worship and fun.
Definitely one of the better Parachute events I've been to - looking forward to the big 20th Birthday Bash next year!
PS: Photos to come.
Edit: Been having some weird server config issues that locked me out of the admin panel. Anyway, photos are up.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:19am on Monday January 26, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
Happy Chinese New Year!
Thursday February 7, 2008
Wishing you all a safe, prosperous and peaceful year of the Rat in 2008!
Anyway, I finally got my new pair of glasses today from OPSM. They feel very light and...omg I can totally see everything now -.- So for future reference, in case I forget, my powers are 150 left and 100 right.
Also, I walked home today. Health++;
In jeans. Comfort--;
Via a scenic route. Health++;
With lots of hills. Comfort--;
But it was nice and sunny (a huge change from the last few days) so overall, it was a good walk. I doubt I will be doing that again, at least not in jeans.
Anyway, it's nearing the end of my first week at work. I'm still training - I've just been programming a competency test and revising/refactoring my code so it conforms with company standards, and also learning how to make it well structured and extensible and all that jazz. Got to meet a few new faces today (because I have to report to the HR Manager tomorrow with their names).
Posted by Jeremy at 6:36am on Thursday February 7, 2008 :: 0 comments ::