Been a While
Saturday May 28, 2016
Things have been insanely busy, as usual. Where do I even start? So much as happened since the last blog post.
Doomsday Clicker has been performing well, and we managed to hit all our deadlines - but not without some troubles along the way. The v1.3 Android release saw a torrent of negative reviews reporting the game would not boot properly, and since we were lined up for featuring, it was of utmost priority to fix the issues. The Game Sync implementation wasn't as robust as we had initially tested, and pretty much my fault, so we scrambled to build stability around all those systems. Thankfully, things came together in the end, and we secured our featuring on Google Play and the iTunes store. I've had a lot of feedback from friends who have enjoyed the game - especially the amazing and catchy soundtrack.
In honour of its successes, the PikPok 19th birthday party was completely Doomsday Clicker themed, with an amazing volcano cake with Monkey and the Red Button on the top, and three cocktails and two shots bearing the names of some of the doomsdays you can cause in the game. The atmosphere was fantastic and it was good to see heaps of people there. There was arm wrestling - we even managed to convince Mario and Tyrone to go head to head. There was dancing and shenanigans but all in all, I think lots of people had a good time.
There was an exciting thunderstorm a few days ago, lightning illuminating the night sky just after midnight, with some heavy rain accompanying the storm. I would have counted 30 flashes of light in the five minutes I was watching, some strikes being very close to the city itself. Wellington's geography means it doesn't get many thunderstorms, so it's always such a delight to see them - as long as you're indoors and warm.
Mat was down last weekend for some 30th birthday parties. We met up with Tim for his at Spruce Goose, and afterwards Mat went for board games with that crew while I went to Phil and Will's for their flatwarming. They had moved into their new place over Anzac weekend - I helped them shift a lot of their bulky furniture and drove the truck for them. Mana and Vix rocked up with some ingredients for making mulled wine, and what a fun time that was! I didn't realise it was so simple - create your syrup first with a little bit of wine, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, orange peel, lemon peel, and any other spices or fruit you want to throw in. When the syrup is the right consistency, pour the rest of the wine in and let it warm without boiling, or the alcohol will evaporate. Easy!
Strawberry Fare's last day is tomorrow. It is truly the end of an era. They have decided to close their doors while the owners look to focusing more on their other restaurants. The past couple of weeks have seen hundreds of loyal fans trying to get the last desserts, myself and Mat included. They weren't taking any bookings, so I decided that I would try going at 11am on Sunday morning to secure my final Devil's Dream Cake. Sure enough, no one was stupid enough to have dessert for breakfast except for Mat and myself, so we enjoyed our final meal at Strawberry Fare forever. You could say that it was...a bittersweet experience.
At the start of the month, I was in Auckland for Mel and Jarrod's wedding - number four of seven this year. The weather was stunning and the location was picturesque. I was on parking warden duty, so had to be there early, but with my swanky haircut and sharp suit, I was exuding confidence and style as I greeted the guests and directed them down the driveway. The wedding was really nice, given they had only a month to plan it. Everything fell into place and it ran smoothly. The next day was Mother's Day, so we went out for yum cha to Sun World in Newmarket, and then back to my sister's to see my two nephews. They're growing up so fast, especially the little one. He's not as moody as he was the last time I saw him, so it's good to see him being more sociable and having more fun. So cute!
There's been karaoke, Andrew's 30th at Five Boroughs, NZIF shows - Eli Matthewson of Jono and Ben fame, and Taking off the Bird Suit - we had hotpot, Ghibli movie nights, Iron Giant at the Embassy, Formal Friday at work, Dianne's birthday and Vix and Tessa's flatwarming. There's been plenty of Louis Sergeant desserts, lunch at the Crab Shack and a massive seven-tiered rainbow cake for Keir's farewell. I need to remember to blog more often or I'll forget all these memories.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:16pm on Saturday May 28, 2016 :: 0 comments :: 
ANZAC Weekend
Monday April 27, 2015
Whew.
I've been on the flat hunt for a while, but have finally signed the tenancy for a studio apartment just around the corner from my current place. More than anything, it's the relief of having accommodation and knowing that it's all sorted. Flat hunting sucks. There are so many overpriced places out there, really looking to screw over potential tenants. This place is going to cost me twice what I'm currently paying, but it comes with a carpark and is in a good area of town, so I'm happy to go with it for the time being.
Jono and Charlotte have been in the country and visited Wellington this weekend. It's been awesome catching up with them at all the various good food places around Wellington - brunch at Spruce Goose, yum char at Majestic Cuisine, lunch at Fisherman's Plate, dinner at El Matador ($80 worth of lamb!), pastries from Louis Sergeant and ice cream from Kaffee Eis. We celebrated Andrew's birthday at Heaven's Pizza and then had karaoke at K Zone. We played a few games of Love Letters, messed around with the foosball table and table tennis table at work, and played some Sega Mega Drive too. It's been an action-packed weekend with lots of social interaction and I'm pretty exhausted from it all - but so worth it!
I went to the dawn parade on Saturday morning too. They estimated 40,000 people had turned up at 5.30am at the newly renovated Pukeahu National War Memorial to pay their tributes and to remember the tragedies that had occurred 100 years ago to the date. It was an emotional, poignant service, with a great sense of unity and respect. It was awesome to sing the national anthem with so many others in honour of those who had died at Gallipoli.
Work-wise, we had a pretty informative Tech Day last Friday where I gave a presentation of how my project had been going, as a follow up to the presentation I did earlier in the year on how I intended to plan the project. We had a good product review last Thursday and we're hitting alpha this Thursday, so things will be busy in the coming week!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:19am on Monday April 27, 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 ::