i go green and i like it

as a support to go green save the earth movements, i reconnected myself to the nature during recent weekend drop-ins.

although i don't do anything contributive to the ozone layer there, or for anything for that matter other than strolling leisurely down the paths, i figured by appreciating the beauty of the sceneries and then put them up for others to see, i could create awareness among us that these places could go extinct if we keep on destroying the earth by living in the dark sides.

ok i can't even go through all that without laughing.

the truth is, we're almost out of places to roam about in this tiny island. every week it was like, ok where should we go this time? it became a chore lately so we ended up on these nature reserves. they were perfect for cooling down the fast city pace, although literally we were instead burnt by the hot striking sun on these exposed area. good for tanning, not that i need it haha...




if you're wondering, no this is not in phuket.

this one is at the Labrador Park, near harbour front. i've passed through the alexandra road junction many times but never noticed the entry, mainly because it looks like an abandoned road path.


i was glad i ventured in. at the other side of the hill, there was this almost secluded jetty that we could hang around on. it was so relaxing, and to think it was only a shortdistance away from the overcrowded vivo city.

why is it called labrador park, i have no idea. i saw a couple of dogs around there but none of them were labrador. some things just have no answer, not one that i bother to find out anyway.

me on the jetty. those jeans were killing me, i should have worn a bermuda or something under that steamy weather.

see that black dot on the top left? it's half UFO i accentically captured. haha ok it's this irritating spot that never went away eventhough i cleaned my lense. damn, time to send my canon powershot G7 for service.

and this is also the shot that made me realize i need a haircut.

this one is at Bottle Tree Village in sembawang, up in the north. apparently there was this guy alex neo that was so mesmerized by this tree in australia that he shipped over 6 of them to singapore for the cost of $30k each. rich people does all the crazy stuff, don't they?

alex neo isn't the only one. i was mesmerized by the trees too that i just have to put it into action, resulting in this photo on the left.

after all, this is all i can do considering there's no way i can fork out $30k to ship this kind of tree elsewhere.

not now anyway.

in limited space like s'pore, i think the government has done a good job in preserving these greenery sites. there are so well-maintained that each visits feel like a nature escapade.

i just think that when you have not much of something, you will treasure it more. like nobody cares about the orang utans until they were almost extinct. something like that.

for me, i just need a place to go to during those lazy weekends.

my baby that carries me to all those places. and no, it's not enviromental friendly



...ed

what do you say to taking chances

there's nothing more refreshing than a short break from.. well, i was gonna type work, but i guess a short break can get you refreshed from just anything. ok especially from work. it gave me time to think things through.

i should have this interview for the job transfer on my last day of work last week. however, it got postphoned at the eleventh hour because the interviewee had an urgent meeting to attend to. so off i went for my holiday while few of my friends signed up for the new company during my leave.

the thing is, the more time i spent with family and relatives, the more it got me thinking how i'm gonna miss this kind of leisure time at my new job. how i'm gonna miss hanging out with friends after work every friday. how i'm gonna have to throw my tibet and yemen trips next year into the drain and decay.

see, things happen for a reason.

to put things a bit onto perspective now, here are the reasons why i want this new job.

• it's a start-up plant, so i'll be among the pioneers. rare opportunity.


• big career growth potential. in current company,most probably i'll stop at principle engineer. i could move further up.
• whole new areas of technology to learn. it's where most of the actions are.


• valuable experience and entree in my resume.


• rumours of uncertainty on the future of my current department

and here are the cons.

• long hours, probably up to 12-14 hrs a day plus O/T. now i work 8am-5.30pm.


• high paced fire-fighting environment. stress stress stress.


• 5-days shift, tue-sat or sun-thu (more pay on weekends though)


• far. it's 30km from my house = $200 extra petrol + 15 minutes longer journey.


• hard to take leave, let alone long ones.


• almost comparable pay. more O/T money though but in expense of my off-time.

now tell me should i go for it?

i just wish there's a sign from the sky or something that could help me decide. one moment i think that this is all just work, something we do to make a living. do i really want to push myself to the limit and suffer just for status greed? i'm fairly happy now, with my own condo and car in metropolitan singapore with plenty of time to do other stuff. after all we work to live, not live to work.

but then, i don't want to grow old and look back with regret that i pulled out not because i'm not competent enough, i'm not qualified etc etc, but just because of fear. because i fear the extra hours and commitments. plus, i can never have enough money until i can afford my dream-SUV bright-coppered nissan murano V6.

do i still want to use this dice?



...ed

the list that matters

last weekend i went for break-fast at changi airport.

i love it there. they have lots of restaurants that charge you the same as they do in the city. the best thing is, you don't have to compete with the mad city rush.

even in the unlikely event that you do, the crowds are much more fun. i mean, people in the verge of holiday surely are in way better mood than say, people that has just left work with their blackberry firmly within their grips, right?

plus, it's just 5 minutes away from my house.

after meal, i stopped by at watson. while making payment for the gatsby hair wax that i wanted, i saw this great big book on the counter. it's a kind like the monster book of monster in harry potter, except it doesn't bite, and also no teeth or chains for that matter.

ok it was just a big book. it says 'chewing gum purchaser' on the front in big capital letters. surely enough, there were 2 boxes of chewing gums beside it. dumstrucked, i asked the cashier lady,

'what's this book?'

and she replied, 'list of people that bought the chewing gums'.

ok that was a stupid question, but oh my god it's what i think it was. curious, i picked up the book, and sure enough there was this long list of handwritten names.

ok so the singapore government has relaxed the rule a little bit. apparently now they no longer banned chewing gums in this country, but you must record your name if you buy any.

how crazy is that? i expect later if they found a piece of eaten chewing gums sticked on the mrt rail, they would summon the whole list for interrogation or something.

don't say i didn't warn you.

anyway, it's 2 more days to thursday when i will take the bus back to kl. at last the time is near. i decided not to drive back this time because...

1) i'd rather sleep on the bus than driving through the surely congested roads. if you've seen the news, it's safer to be on the big bus in this festive rush than in those little tiny cars.

2) cheaper. you won't believe how much the blood-sucking tolls are charging you to get to kl and then later to get back to singapore these days. they might as well point a gun at you and demand all your money.

i've already got most of the things prepared and ready to go. i went to this orphanage in east coast road last saturday to make my religious tax almsgiving for the relief of the poor which is compulsory this month. to my suprise, they gave me a box of cookies in exchange for the 5 dollars that i paid.

i mean, we should be the one giving or donating things to them right? not the other way round. i felt bad, but it's rude to reject a gift anyway so i accepted. maybe they got a lot of those cookies donated to them or something until they just had to give it away. yeah that must be it.

i've also bought the indonesian monica lapis legit cakes from geylang serai, which i brought back every year before. i've got a packet of nicely wrapped freshly made malacca dodol ordered from my friend, and i've also bought this new watch for my little brother from suntec city.

one thing left is to buy some toys for my dear 1-year old nephew. by the way, his mother, or my younger brother's wife, is already 3 months pregnant with their second child. my sister told me few days ago.

great.

what a perfect timing. i can almost hear those old folks in my grandpa's hometown greeting me when i visit them this festive season,'see your younger brother is going for his second child, when is your turn to get married?'

damn those M word again. you'd think in this time of lots of unrest in different parts of the world, they would get their minds to something of more importance.

like those burmese civilians protest against their cruel military junta which we so need to help, or random gunshot killing yet again in america which should make us think again of destructive media effect, or even darfur rebel group clash with government in sudan that we need to get the world attention to, and all they can think of is marriage?

i mean, wake up and smell the coffee people. i'm almost outta lifelines here.


..ed

make music not missiles

forgive me for being dormant. try not eating the whole day and then have sumptuous dinner, you'd cringe for bed at 9pm too. i felt just like a phyton after meal.

however, i managed to drag all my limbs to roam around bugis shopping street just now. it's friday night, it's a sin to stay at home anyway. (btw, i saw this guy wearing 'make music not missiles' t-shirt just now which i think is so cool).

i must say it was a relief to be away from work. the past week had been crazy. we had 2 half-days training conducted by this guy from our main US headquarters, so i struggled to complete my usual assignments on time.

the good news is, i felt motivated working again. it's as if everything went back to normal. as if that unfortunate paper stating my pathetic increment and no promotion never ever came. like it was all just a bad dream.

i watched nicole kidman latest movie, the invasion few days ago. it's about this outer-space organism that invades human body system making them devoid of emotion.

supposedly it would make the world a better place. they said (ok actually the infected people said this before forcing that outerspace substance onto normal people), when people don't have emotion, they don't argue, they don't quarrel so they would be no more confrontation or war.

which all makes sense if you ask me. just ask those people in iraq.

apparently the infection would start to take effect only after they fell sleep. like a short incubation period. which is probably why i'm no longer dissapointed right now. heck i even started smiling at my boss again, you know, instead of picking pins onto his voodoo doll.

especially after the career roadshow at my company last tuesday. the thing is, our company is gonna expand to a new plant in north singapore. the roadshow was to promote that new site and encourage people to transfer there.

i'm so interested. it's a start-up plant so it's all a fresh new challenge for me, you know, considering i already felt like hitting the wall in my present position. career wise, it's definitely a better prospect. and the money supposed to be better too.

only that life would be hectic a bit at the beginning. i guess i would have to let go the luxury of going back from work while the sunlight is still strong.

but again, it's not like i was doing anything significant with my life on all those days when i came back early from work anyway. i mean, what did i do? i just went back home and slumped on my sofa. i might as well spin those time for making overtime money. i just have to think the whole thing as an investment. suffer now for better future.

that's why i have to make sure my current boss would let me go without much hassle. even if i have to suck it all up a little. after the weekly conference call with US site this morning, i had a personal talk with him. he was all, 'ok i think this is a good career move for you and i'm ok with your transfer application blah blah blah but of course i hope you'd stay'.

yeah, right.

that's why he gave me that pathetic increment and no promotion. to get me to stay. i did not know that.

i don't get him sometimes. bosses do the craziest stuff if u asked me. i mean, 50% of our topics when we got together, you know, during tea breaks or taking water from watercoolers, were complaints about our bosses. like today, the bosses herd together from one room to another having closed-door talks, prompting speculations among us ,the commoners.

anyway, i'm not gonna fret about that much. for all i know, i already submitted my application. now that the ball is already in the other side's court, i'm left crossing my fingers.

even if it means crossing them while being dormant on bed at 9pm.



...ed