Everything's Coming Up JLai
Sunday June 22, 2014
For the past two weeks, I've been the happiest I've been since arriving back in New Zealand. The combination of spending time with cool people, having delicious foods and a general relaxed and non-stressful work environment has improved my general enjoyment of life.
The Football World Cup is well under way, with several big names like Spain and England confirmed ejected and some dark horses like Costa Rica showing they are not to be underestimated. I'm not particularly following this closely, more just hearing results as they come. We watched the opening game Brazil vs Croatia at work, and the company treated us to a scrumptious breakfast of scones and croissants. We had a big push for an update to Flick Kick Football Legends to be out before the World Cup started, and we worked hard to meet deadlines, and the past two weeks we've purposely had it light on work to give us a break as we ramp down our efforts.
We were brunching at Spruce Goose last Saturday and played some Halo and Super Smash Bros Melee at work, I had music at Central Baptist on the Sunday and an otherwise quiet day. For Spicy Food Tuesday, we tried New Zealand's hottest pizza from Hell's Pizza - the Angry Dragon, with Dragon's Fury Sauce, Fresh Chilli, Huffman's Hotsauce and legendary Ghost Peppers (usually around one million scoville) - but was a little disappointed that it wasn't as hot as I expected.
Last night we had family group out in Island Bay and played Dixit, Fluxx and a bit of chess (which I have not played in a long time!) and a rather interesting church service this morning where we tasted the elements of passover: bitter herbs and a nut/fruit paste, unleavened bread, salted water and roast lamb (roast lamb at church! yummo!) but perhaps the most notable event in the past two weeks was the Logan Brown degustation.
We managed to get a Groupon voucher for four of us to spend at Logan Brown - a seven course meal for $75 (down from $125) and $55 for a wine match. The wine match was a very poor choice on my behalf, I ended up having a very bad time towards the end, but nevertheless I enjoyed the food during the night. Once again, the outstanding dish was the dark chocolate delice with caramel cornflakes that was exquisitely rich and dark, and brought me to tears from its pure unadulterated chocolatey goodness.
Two months until Wellington on a Plate!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:32am on Sunday June 22, 2014 :: 0 comments :: 
Busy May Leading to a Busy June
Saturday June 7, 2014
The weekends have been socially busy while the weekdays have been focused on finishing the v1.3 International Cup update for Flick Kick Football Legends, on both iOS and Android. There's an sense of doom and gloom around work at the moment, with a few people losing hope or feeling discontent about the current state of affairs. It's tough and it certainly carries an air of unease.
A few Saturdays ago, I juggled brunch at Prefab and Charles and Megan's engagement party with Wei's Star Wars marathon birthday party, then music at Central Baptist and the latest XMen movie - XMen: Days of Future Past - on the Sunday. We went to Veni Vidi Vici for Charlie's birthday on the Monday and then we celebrated PikPok's 17th Birthday at the San Francisco Bath House on the Thursday with a quiz night and much alcohol (I think my final count was a martini, three tequila and lemonades, two tequila shots and a pickleback)
Last weekend was Queen's Birthday weekend and we started off festivities with a delightful bistro dinner at Logan Brown, courtesy of some GrabOne vouchers, followed by some after-dinner drinks at Matterhorn. Having opted for the half wine match, I was in no state to continue drinking of any sort of alcohol at Matterhorn, but the dinner itself was fantastic and nothing short of the quality that Logan Brown always delivers.
On Sunday, I was at Cami's house for board games and party games (and waffles!), including some great games of Giant Jenga, Dominion and Werewolf/Mafia. Monday was pretty relaxed, but we went for dinner at Noah's Ark before watching Maleficent (it was meh.)
Wellington on a Plate's menu and event list for 2014 has been released so you can be sure there will be some epic posts around August. Yummo!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:24am on Saturday June 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
December
Monday December 9, 2013
Man... it's almost the end of the year. Things have been so busy in the last few months that I've once again neglected my blog. Why do I blog anyway? I guess it's a kind of historical document that I can look at in 50 years time when I have Alzheimer's and think of all the great memories I had at the time. Even looking back at how I write and what I blog about makes me cringe!
So since my last piece about flights to Malaysia, I've managed to secure tickets back home but unfortunately not for Christmas or Chinese New Year due to full flights during this peak season. I spent a lot of time negotiating with Malaysia Airlines, but to no avail. It's understandable though, just a bit disappointing. It would have been nice to go back for my cousin's wedding and see everyone again, but no matter, I'll still have a good time when I go back in Easter next year.
The game I've been working on has finally been released - it's Flick Kick Football Legends for both iOS and Android. We're looking at churning out a few more updates so stay tuned for extra content and more amazing user interfaces. It's been a tough project but the team have worked extremely hard on it and I think that we should be proud of what we've achieved and how polished the product is.
I've been deep in the Pokemon as well. Pokemon X has been a great game - I've clocked over 150 hours on it already. I've caught almost all the Pokemon available without the Pokemon Bank service to transfer Pokemon from previous versions. I'm thinking of moving onto Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies soon - looking forward to more [OBJECTIONS]!
In short... I've found a replacement flatmate, we had the work Christmas party, went out to Makara by myself to watch the sunset and the stars, saw the fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day, tried to bread Smudge, had the degustation at the Whitehouse on Oriental Parade and had an amazing meal at the new Little Penang, which has expanded to the place next door! We have affectionately called it "Medium Penang", and the food is still as delicious as it ever has been.
Life in the past two months has had its ups and downs. Sometimes I've felt lonely or frustrated about life - one time it was so bad, I was awake at 3am in the morning having an existential crisis. Other times I've felt a lot more anti-social than normal, or distant from my friends, like I need solitude to clear my head. In those times, I usually retreat to church to play piano, and I've found music to be so calming and therapeutic. It's probably just a phase though, so don't worry about me. People come and go; so do friendships. They say the only constants in life are taxes and change... and I should learn to be more adaptable and flexible in life instead of dwelling in the past all the time.
Dear future Jeremy. Count your blessings and be thankful for them. Cherish the friendships you have and be good to the people around you. Don't worry so much and don't let life get you down all the time. Never forget who you are and maintain a strong sense of integrity.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:16am on Monday December 9, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
End of the Villa
Friday July 23, 2010
The time has come to write my closing statements sitting from my desk at the Villa. It has been a really good 14 months living here, despite being so far away from everyone and everything. I'll miss the luxuries of a dryer and dishwasher too...ha, I've been spoiled. Anyway, Internet will be gone for [however many days it takes XNet to reconnect me], which means I'll also be missing out on the Starcraft II launch on Tuesday. Sigh.
It's been a tough few weeks for me, there's been so many things to organise in and out of work, so many things to worry about and plan for; however, there is light at the end of the tunnel and lots of events to look forward to in the upcoming weeks.
Work has been going well, I've been very busy with some good old C# and WPF work. Plenty of things to learn and experiment with - totally loving it. Just got back from dinner with some workmates at New Kor as well, so things at Sidhe are pretty sweet at the moment.
Quick list of notable things:
- I took last Monday off on account of sickness. Ironically, there was some news about one day sicknesses.
- Briefly took a gander at the All Whites parade on Wednesday.
- Had yum char last Friday thanks to the continued success of Flick Kick Football at the top of the UK app store. Not so lucky this week though.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:25am on Friday July 23, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Sidhe's Latest iPhone Games!
Thursday November 26, 2009
Introducing FlickKick Rugby and FlickKick Aussie Rules, the latest in Sidhe's iPhone lineup under the brand PikPok!
Yes you will find my name there under the credits. I made a small contribution in programming the camera (i.e., the field of view, the ball tracking, etc) as well as other miscellaneous bug fixes. Download it from AppStore for NZ$2.59 or US$1.99
 FlickKick Rugby |  FlickKick Aussie Rules |
Posted by Jeremy at 9:06am on Thursday November 26, 2009 :: 2 comments ::