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

trade my life with fortune and fame

it was all dark when my alarm clock rang this morning, i had to take extra seconds to realize what was going on. turned out it was raining very heavily outside.

damn i wish it was sunday.

the traffic was not that bad though, except for some buggers who refused to turn on their headlights despite a dim morning light. don't they know it's hard to spot them from my side mirrors among those water droplets?

i know we are supposed to save the earth, go green and limit the petrol burning etc, but must we jeoperdize our safety in the process? plus, how much could we safe by switching off headlights anyway?

like a spoonfull of petrol.

my throat was a bit uncomfortable this morning. damn i knew it was coming. i already had a bit of running nose yesterday, thanks to those people carrying germs around me.

but at the moment when i saw the company doctor, somehow the flu stopped and i looked every bit like moron on the patient's chair craving for free mc.

i was like, 'i had the flu', while breathing through a nose that was as dry as the sub saharan desert. the doctor prescribed me some pills anyway, and thank god it was not some flour-based pills just to be polite, because after swallowing i fell asleep a good half an hour into heroes season 2 opening last night.

the show was definitely not boring or anything. i love heroes. in fact not only heroes but all those superpower shows. if i were to talk frankly, some of the days i did fantasize of suddenly finding myself with powers and then work towards greater good for humanity.

silly eh?

i signed up for a facebook account few days ago. i found out about it from (and i dread to actually telling this) that tai-tai terabitha wang's column in friday's today newspaper. you know, the column that talks about her version of singapore walk-of-life every friday.

it is so not cool finding out about the hippest thing in town from an auntie.

an auntie! that pretty much summed me up, isn't it? a boring lad living in a cave with zero information on latest trend.

i don't know how do people keep track of these things. i mean, last end of august, the heroes actor and actresses came to singapore vivo city and i only found out about it a week later while browsing other people's blog. how pathetic is that?

i'm mad with my friends some times. if i found out about some scandals, or office gossips etc, i would waste no time in telling them. that's the least i can do, impart information and wisdom in this world of globalization and networking.

but for all i know, the news from their sides never get to me.

when i browsed through singapore network on that facebook main page, those ppl always mention about some clubs or places i've never heard the names before. even on tv channels news asia just now, there was this news about a new brazilian martial arts cum dance that had the singaporeans strutt their stuffs to, looking very cool. i was so envious.

and me? the thing that kept me going this whole week, is the break fast gathering in nasi padang hajah maimunah restaurant tomorrow.

it's drizzling boring in my life's calender.




...ed

let my fingers do the talking

i submitted my resume to the new company branch last week. i'm so glad i finally did it, like a burden finally off my chest. at least now the ball is in their court.

after a short break last weekend, i've been trying to get on track as usual but my motivation just wasn't there anymore. god forbid, now i dread to go to work where time seems to stand still.

i really need a time off.

i updated my friendster account today. created an account few years back but never seriously put anything into it. everybody else seems to be using it then, it already sounded a bit lame. i mean, do i need to jump in the bandwagon?

plus, i felt a bit uneasy when the people i know read the stuff that i wrote. like they're invading my privacy. ok i know i wrote it for the public but public for me is faceless audiences, not someone i know the first name of.

i guess i'm just having problem showing my weaker side to the people around me. i mean, i'd never discuss about my lower increment to them, or my frustation when my subordinate being promoted above me, or even the fact that i felt bad when my msn messages went unanswered.

i just thought that if i had written it down, it would become true. it would become facts and not just my sentiment.

but i guess, you can only run away that far from reality. so here i am posting thoughts and blogs in my friendster account. if i'm lucky, my colleagues who are among my contacts there won't even notice my postings. think about it, why should they?

i've long given up of finding anybody in my office. engineers are boring people anyway, and that is just not totally my sour grapes. so my good friend found his now-wedded-wife in the office copy machine room. big deal. do the rest of us need to make two of unnessary things and cause more trees to be chopped down?

after all, if things are meant to happen, they will happen. we just need to make the best of it.

i mean, look at britney spears. she's married, ok, was married, have kids and everything but look what she ended up into? drunken divorcee that could not even lip-synched properly and now facing hit and run charge.

but again, she's filthy rich at least. and me? i still have to go to work tomorrow and keep watching my watch every 10 minutes hoping it's already 5 o'clock.

maybe i should start copying more papers.



...ed

foodMOREdelicious

Provence Bakery and Cafe

once upon a time (and up till now) in holland v, there is this small and cute bakery shop, called provence bakery and cafe.

a friend of ours introduced us to this cafe, so one day we called everybody up to make an outing to this place. the way she described the bread here made it sounds to taste like a little drop of heaven.

for me, i was just glad to have a reason to meet up.






the moment we stepped into Provence, the aroma of breads welcomed us indeed. the ambience of the cafe by the patio is typically europe, as we enjoyed the tasty breads and freshly brewed coffee, what more was there to ask for?








i don't get it though why the bread replica on the mainboard looked all black and overcooked. this is so misleading :p

the first thing that caught our eyes was the notice on the main door, saying wassant has sold out. to tell you the truth, i don't even know what a wassant is, never heard of it. anyway, it was ok because our friend recommended the milk bun, so that was what we gonna target and ambush.




ok the moment of truth. the milk bun was quite nice, the bread was tender and the milky custard filling melted in your mouth. get the shop attendance to reheat it for you if it's all cold, they are bunch of nice, friendly and all-smile people, hats up!







my other favourite was the cinnamon bun. the top sugary coat was not all sugar since i could taste the strong sweet fragrance of white egg. it was nice. the cinnamon aroma was pretty subtle i could barely noticed it. it's like it was there on first munch, and not there on the next. interesting indeed.






Hajah Maimunah Restaurant

it was the second day of ramadhan, it was friday, and i was not working when i reached enlightenment right after waking up from my afternoon nap at 4pm.

we must break fast at hajah maimunah!

how my parents spotted this place first, i had no idea. you know, whenever my parents come all the way from kl to visit me, they would make a trip to this place. that, considering they have to take 2 bus rides all the way from simei, which for them should be almost feel like a quest, believe me.



....


it's one of the 2-storey shophouses along this small lane beside joo chiat complex in geylang. not very stand out if you asked me. i've never noticed it before. in fact, few of my friends got lost despite my directions - opposite joo chiat complex, a few shops after hotel 81.

don't be turned off by the queue at the main entrance though, because it moves pretty fast. in fact, maybe even faster than those early morning mrt stations today newspaper distribution queue.

once inside, you'd be overwhelmed by the whole circusy atmosphere there. i mean, look at those waiters zooming left and right balancing trays of rice and dishes with much zest in between those fully seated dining tables! skillfully avoiding customers trying to grab a seat like a volture spotting dead meat.

not that you'd find volture food there, 'coz all the dishes should be fully cooked and looked really yummy from the display window. they have such a variety of selections there, kuah lemak, sambal goreng, masak asam etc etc, you just name it.

my only complain? is that i hardly have time to chose the dishes properly. by the time i arrived at the dishes counter and had clearer look at the menu, it was already my turn to select. so i ended up with some impromptu selections. oh well.

our favourites? definitely the siput sedut. i mean, we finished 3 bowls of that alone. i guess after fasting the whole day, eating healthily wasn't exactly the agenda on top of our minds. the beef rendang was very good too, tender and tasty. and i personally like the tahu telur, although that probably was just because i am such a tahu telur freak.

we took the ramadhan buffet, which was only $11.90 per person. cheap, right? and no nonsense like extra charges for deserts, drinks, even no service charge, taxes etc etc too. $11.90 net. full stop. never had we bitched before about how we were ripping hajah maimunah off, you know, instead of the usual restaurant ripping us the customer off bitching.




the mightyly siput sedut

satisfied customers, happily ever after. we'll be back for sure!

...ed

wake up call

i woke up this morning and just sms my boss saying i'm taking urgent leave.

i just don't feel like working. yesterday, i was discussing about this new project with my colleague, and in the process my brain just felt like retreating. i had no urge to argue. i kept on thinking, what's the purpose?

it all started when i had the annual performance evaluation with my boss last week. i must say, the increment was not that flattering, only 6.9%. minus that with the extra money i have to pay monthly for that blood sucking ocbc housing loan, i just get like $40 more. duh big deal.

my boss said that my pay is already at the ceiling, which means as long as i don't get promoted, my increment would be limited. the problem is, he expects me to excel in wafer fabrication process, which we do not even do here in our plant, and then show leadership qualities.

what a crappy bunch of reasons. the only guy that got promoted in our group was from wafer fab plant, so he knows all those things. so naturally people go to him if they want to know about wafer fab stuff. not only people, even the bosses go to him. from there i guess where he looks like a leader. sort of.

that puts in me a losing battle, doesn't it? i mean, i can't be working in a western food franchise then be evaluated about my knowledge in sushi, right? plus, i'm starting to think that i could have overstayed in current company. this is my 7 years for god's sake, and that in semiconductor industry in singapore, is like ancient.

now that i'm not in the office, i could update my resume. it's friday anyway, and who works on friday? ok i do my weekly report on friday but overall, the work pace is much slower on friday, not to mention the long lunch people always go for, so it's not that i'll be missed much anyway.

actually i'm glad to be home. today is the second day of the fasting month. yesterday i felt all lonely during lunch break, you know, when everybody gets up from their workstation suddenly noticing the people around and the atmosphere is all lively. but i was just like, oh i'm staying put today. i felt so left out. it's not the food that i missed, but the company during breaktime.

since i was not gonna be deprived of my usual breaktime, i just read newspaper to kill time. there was this news about an old lady who was killed after being hit by a bus and then pinned under the tyres. what a tragedy. but it's her housemate description of her that caught my attention, because let's face it, people get hit by a bus everyday here.

her housemate said she's a lady with no hobbies. she would go to work, and come back from work, and occasionally go to the supermarket.

duh. i so don't want to end up like that. gone after achieving nothing i mean, although of course who wants to be pinned under the bus like that too. i mean, if i were to look back in my life, would i see something worth to cherish about?

one of the technician in my company fainted last sunday when she was about to leave for work. by the time she reached hospital, the doctor pronounced that she had already brain-dead. last tuesday they took off her life support system.

shocking. i used to submit job request to her to boil out chip from packaged memory for analysis. my memory of her is that, well forgive me but she was such a cranky lady. she would questioned my submission form, till i had to draw what i wanted. wasn't someone that was easy to work with definitely.

anyway, in her demise announcement, they described her as someone who was very lively. well that suits too i guess, cranky equeals lively, isn't it? i heard there was no symptom at all before that stroke, which is scary since she was only slightly above 50 years old.

people die very easily it seems lately here in singapore. last month there was this guy who was only 25 years old if i'm not mistaken, joined the cross bridge marathon and dropped dead while running. apparently he pushed himself too hard. i don't even know you can die from that.

perhaps those incidents could tell us something. if we want to live longer, we should not exercise and not go to work.

ok maybe not, but i guess we should just live the life fully. i mean, you can wake up and get ready go to work, where you have spent the last 7 years of your life before realizing it's impossible to climb the work ladder further, but God could decide 'ok that's it' anytime. so tell me, does it matter if i master the wafer fabrication process anyway?

oh gosh, this is not my mid life crisis, isn't it?




...ed

a simple pleasure indeed

i like to eat that 2 dollar rice ball from mr bean. i've been eating that quite frequent recently for dinner, stopping by at this branch near simei mrt everytime on my way back from work.

it tastes good, healthy and cheap. only that i'm not sure if frequent intake is good. i mean, it's not something that people eat everyday, right? how i do i know it's not doing something bad to my body?

especially after someone has said that i'm a bit flabby at the abs.

oh god, i realized it myself actually but to have someone put it in my face like that? it's like i've been given a reality check.

so i went for a jog today. i really did. i couldn't even remember when was the last time i put on my running shoe, you know, to run because i hate this kind of endurance stuff. give me sports anytime but running or swimming is a torture.

it's not my fault i'm a bit under exercise recently, my regular badminton partner is missing in action, and don't even get me started on tennis. the bowling season is over too so what's left is me + my hand.

oh but not before clinching the top prize in company bowling carnival held at marine bowl east coast last aug-18. my team came out first. on top of that, me and my doubles partner swept clean the high series and high game trophies too.

how great was that? for once i felt like i'm invincible, well, at least till that same night when i played with my friend in yishun safra and lost to him with only 136 pinfalls. but then, i was probably tired or something.


the weekend that we finally waited for was finally over. the wedding in jb was, well, fun. it wasn't all oh-my-god fun but it was ok. i guess the hype leading to the day was too big, so frankly i was hoping for a little bit more.

i mean, i didn't get to meet all those people that i hoped to meet. those long-lost friends. even those that were there, somehow were not around to chat much of the time so when i think about it, the only difference about the wedding with the usual dine-out was the fact that we were all wearing green.

still, i was glad to be there. i did.



snow white and 7 oversized-dwafrs

d'throne for the 1-day king

you'd think a group of friends having gathered on saturday night would resort to doing something, well, fun considering we only get to meet like this once in a blue moon but somehow we found out we were on the way back to singapore at 7pm. that pretty much summed it all up, doesn't it?

ok maybe it was my decision too, but it was raining, and some of us had to do errands at the end of the day, so it's not like we could do anything anyway. to save the night, we detoured to the night safari instead.


that wasn't my first time in the night safari. ok i've seen most of the animals, and let's face it it's not like you'd see polar bears there, but it was the company that i enjoyed most.

plus, i didn't get to see the animal show last time round, nor did i touch any slimy-looking-but-suprisingly-dry phyton so that was still a worthwhile trip.

fun in the safari tram

we paid $5 each to take photos with these cheetah and phyton, only to be forced by the safari-lady later to touch the snake. i was like oh-thanks-but-no-thanks but the whole earth was staring at me from down the stage, so i touched it anyway, for a good 5 seconds.

it was like touching a cold, moving wallet. seriously.

bet the cheetah all bored

not enough befriending mother nature, we went to jurong bird park the next day. but not before my first visit to hajah maimunah restaurant in joo chiat. i've been wanting to give this place a try like forever, and since my bangkok friends wanted to eat malay food, the time couldn't be more perfect.

i was glad i did. visiting the restaurant i mean. you know it serves one of the better malay food out there. if you're all for malay food, give it a visit. it was cheap too, $19 for 3 people. don't be turn off by the queue, it's moving pretty fast, and there's ample dining tables in the 2 storey unit.

it was my first time in jurong bird park. it took a good 20 minutes drive from simei, which just shows how small singapore is, or maybe just how efficient the highways are.

a rockstar ready to ruffle some feathers

i don't think the park is a kind of place that you must go before you die or something, it looked kinda old and worn out but i quite like the lory loft. it's this jungle section covered with high rise nets where you could walk from stage point to stage point by crossing wooden hanging bridges. apparently it's the world's largest walk-in lory flight aviary, where there are easily 1,000 free flying lories that flock all over you for a drip of that special nextar water.

check out the photos i took with my canon G7.

gosh it was fun playing with the birds. i felt very much like a sugar-sweet-honey getting swarmed by bees. never had i felt so eagerly desired-for in my life.

ok that was obviously a lie.

the thing is, i had fun. what's not so much fun?

the fact that i have to continue with my physical endurance activities.

bummer.



..ed

matrimony of mass destruction

it's almost midnight and i just got back from bedok south. man i felt adventourous tonight. i was already bumped out after my friend cancelled our usual dinner outings because someone's grandmother had to die and he resorted to attend the funeral instead.

the good news is, my headache healed so i could be all set for a friday night's rendezvous. i don't know, i get headache everytime i'm hit by the singapore rain. i'm not kidding. i guess that's why we never see kids playing in the rain here. the rain is simply hazardous.

that, or maybe just because they've managed to simulate rain-playing inside xbox 360 or something.

too bad i didn't have my panadol extra with me today because, well, we don't carry panadol to weddings, do we?

what happened was, a bunch of us skipped work, or let's just say we went for an early lunch at 9.30am. a colleague of us got married today at hougang virgin mary church. being some warm hearted, thoughtful friends like we are, we opted to watch the ceremony. after all, it sounded more fun than work.

turned out, it was good that we decided to gate-crash the wedding because apparently, it was otherwise only attended by his mother, an aunty and his 2 housemates. that's all, only 4 people. there were lots and lots of empty benches, i felt a bit like robert langdon searching for the holy grail in an abandoned church.

i mean, i know that the couple is from the phillipines so there was not much relatives and friends around but still, weddings must be all buzzy and festive, right? so we went 'surprise!!' when our dear friend entered the church, gave him a little shock of his life before filling in 2 more rows of seats.

it was raining very heavily at that time, which was ironic on a wedding day just like alanis morrisette's song. it was even up by a notch for us today because when we were stranded at the taxi stand heading for the church, not able to move because of the downpour, the taxi never came.

i call it the taxi bitch situation. you know, when you try to drive and been blocked by a streetfull of taxis, but when you really need one it's as if they are all swallowed by the earth.

when we finally got one after 20 minutes of cursings and swearings, the main church door where the driver dropped us at, was closed. the only opening to the ceremony was at the keyhole.

talk about not being invited.

so we had to detour, running under the heavy rain around the building to find the alternate entrance. by the time we settled down, i was already drenched, my hair went flat and my headache started pounding. i felt like i was at the end of a quest, all beaten up good.

friday morning matrimony


at last, our dear friend is safely married and living happily ever after. well, at least he won't have any shock coming anymore since they already have a 2 year-old daughter. they have been living together for years, and i think they just got married so the wife could get the visiting visa easier.

the things is, last weekend i went back to kl to visit my parents. also because my little brother was going to return to the states after spending summer holiday in malaysia, so i wanted to meet him before he flew off. my other brother was at home too, so i got to play with his son, my nephew.

and i must mention, taking care of a one year old child is not easy. everytime i let him on all four, he would crawl towards to door, or the stairs, trying to grab all those electrical cords along the way. not able to just escorting him anywhere, i carried him up, but couldn't do for long for long because my arms would sore and my back all painful. imagine carrying a 10kg dumbell consistently around.

i so have a new found respect for parents.

only after i got back to singapore by bus, i read about the express bus accident in malaysia that killed 21 people. scary huh. come to think about it, the bus was speeding too throughout the night on the highway when i took the bus after work last friday heading for kl. once in awhile i was woken up by the shudder, like when the bus tried to overtake a big lorry on lane 2, which was overtaking a small car on lane 3.

those people that perished in that accident when the bus fell over the cliff and hit a big rock before overturned in a big drain, never woke up from their past midnight sleep.

after this kind of mishap happened, those relevent authoritied would stir a bit and make noise. it's all very predictable. how could a driver with 15 summonses and 2 warrants be allowed to drive the bus, which by the way failed the brake inspections 3 times? where the hell was the traffic police?

not only on highways, in fact, it's hard to find even a neighbourhood police in malaysia. or at least in kl where my parents are staying. i mean, our house is only a block away from the police quarters, but still, one time you forgot to close the main house gate at dusk and voila! your bicycle is gone.

i guess it's hard to keep a watch on the safety of the commoners when the policemen are busy escorting vips around all the time. have you seen how much security the ministers or royals have in malaysia? you'd think they are hamas or something. others would be to make arrest everytime there are talks by the opposition parties.

so there you go, a nation without much law and order. when i walked pass through the immigration officer at jb checkpoint to leave malaysia last weekend, the officer just brushed me aside without even seeing my passport. the 3 automatic gates were non-functional and the 2 officers in charge were merely chatting with each other.

it would make another 911 incidents for them to buck up and really do their job i suppose. for all i know, someone's grandmother would die because of that, then my friend would have to cancel on me again and i would be forced for another rendezvous.

why am i complaining?



...ed

drifting apart like a plate tectonic

i always dread opening my letter box. unlike in the past when i could get fanmail, ok normal written snail mail from friends saying hi, now what i get is either bills, payment reminders and in case of today, notice of house loan interest increment.

man, apparently the interest rate will be increased to 5.25% per annum instead of current 3.5%. let's see, that works out to be about $260 extra i must fork out per month.

damn.

i was kinda bumped out for a moment, staring the letter in disbelief feeling as if i got robbed in broad daylight but in a totally legal way.

but then in the end, after i came back to my senses and the ringing of 'what? noooooooooo....' already left my head, i realized this is the kind of thing that you can never do anything about.

nothing. you know, like the weather. you can bitch about it all you want but when it's going to rain, it will rain anyway.

maybe i should pick up squash or something and try to win the prize money. i can always do with an extra income considering all the surmounting expanses around me. i've already ruled out stocks and shares cause i'm a brain dummy for stuff like that.

i went to kallang squash center last week to catch the 2007 singapore women masters event matches. ok my intention was to actually watch nicol david play. she's a malaysian and she's the current world no-1 player.


see, anything in possible in this sport. i'm sure she doesn't give a damn on any bank's increase of interest rate.

it was the first time that i watched the sport, i mean really watched the sport. and i must give them due respect. unlike tennis when you can pick your butt while awaiting the return ball, in squash the ball comes back so fast you need to be mentally and physically alert all the time.


plus, the rallies are long. if roger federer can serve and kill on the next stroke in wimbledon, in squash you can go to toilet and return and the rally still goes on. seriously.

it was a joy to watch. except i found it harder and harder to get seats as the tournament went deep into the draw. mainly because it was a free seating so people tend to bring their whole clan to the hall.

2nd round : nicol david(mas) vs rebecca chiu(hk)

i was all comfortable on the 5th row during the 2nd round match. in quarter final i was already at the last row. during the final, i had to stand on the concrete wall of the balcony with my hands holding tight the metal holder of the roof for my dear life because god knows it was 2 levels down on my other side.


i was that determined alright, and luckily it was worth it. nicol gave us a lot to cheer for. she thrashed her opponent, the world no-2 australian natalie grinham in straight sets, which was a delight especially because i didn't think my arm would hold for another 2 more sets.


still, i woke up in horror the next day because my arms muscles were all painful. the company open bowling masters for previous league players was that morning at 9 and i really wanted to cause a ripple at the very least.


either it was not that bad in the first place, or due to the magical properties of squibb's counterpain balm that i rubbed all morning before the competition, my arms were fortunately holding on fine.


in fact, i came out stronger than a powered up pac-man. i started off strong at 188 pinfalls, and maintained 170-ish pinfalls throughout and got 209 pinfalls at 6th game. by when i was the suprise leader of the pack.


i mean, i was never one expected to win this, especially after coming off just 3rd in deparmental game last tuesday, you know, considering the level of play there. after all, what can you expect from a competition that awards you $10 cold storage voucher?


but nerve got better of me. some bugger let slipped that i had a good chance if i were to maintain my level of play for the next 2 rounds, which automatically made me think of the congratulation notes and respect i was going to get. i was totally counting the eggs. plus, they stopped the game for awhile to recalculate the current standings and changed my lanes so it kind of broke my momentum too.


so before i knew it i was drifting apart like a plate tectonic.


i finished off 2nd, which is still good too. i mean, if you tell me i'm gonna be a serious contender for the title, or even to get top 5 yesterday, i'd say blahh.








so i have to be grateful. it's easy to feel down instead considering the chance i've let go but i'm not gonna ask for more.


except, you know, wishing if only they had given us a million dollar prize money instead, so i can be all like, 'house loan interest up? who cares...'



..ed

a weekend of titanium wonders

gosh i feel bloated. at least it makes me sit down and write instead of lying down on the bed like what i always do whenever i'm at home. seriously, it's as good as if i hang my spinal cords outside the main entrance, i just get horizontal all the time and slack in between these walls.

bless that ocbc titanium card. i signed up for the credit card while i was in nissan showroom a month back and just got this whole bunch of discount vouchers. a lot. from dining to travel to spa treatment, you name it. they must have really wanted people to sign up for this thing.

except most of them expire on july 31st, so i have less than a week to take advantage of them.

which to think about it, it's kind of evil.

still, i managed to drag my friends to sushi-don restaurant near rendezvous hotel just now for dinner to use one of the voucher. we spent $78 and only paid for $48, which was a good deal. at least i managed to fulfill my craving for salmon belly sushi.

ever since i shopped at tampines giants, and bought the salmon belly sushi there, i was hooked. ok addicted more like. it has this sweet creamy taste with soft texture that almost melts in your mouth. i'm not kidding.

i believe some things are just meant to be eaten raw. i mean, that was how our first ancestors ate their food, weren't they? you know, before they discovered fire. and they still managed to evolve and everything.

for one, they didn't get any summons which probably why these days we hardly evolve any more.

we are just stressed nowadays. and we swear a lot. i know at least i do. i went to newton circus hawker center on friday night after work and found out this notice of parking offence being slipped underneath my wiper when i got back to my car.

damn. that was my second time. getting fined i mean.

the only consolation perhaps is that i feel like i've joined the experienced drivers club that pay summonses and fines all the time. in fact, i bet i can always let slipped during those empty talks session with my friends, like, 'oh i must remember to pay my parking fines today'. it gives me this whole bad boy vibe among them.

which is what i so hope my fellow condo mates have realized about me by now. i mean, to ask me to become one of the 9 condo committee members during the annual general meeting is a bit too far-fetched, don't you think? especially after they've seen me for like just 20 seconds.

i was like, 'ok maybe i'll consider'. it was my first time attending this meeting since i moved here 2 years ago, so forgive me for being a bit blur. after all, i was just being polite.

how could i know later, that last year's committee got scrutinized for every little things that they put down in the presentation? i mean, let's just let those people who compared 2006 and 2007 annual reports figures to handle the whole thing, shall we? i really don't feel like volunteering to paint red dot on my chest and write 'shoot here'.

so i left in the middle of the meeting. i just chickened out. i expect when they wanted to call me to give a bit of introduction about myself before opening the voting session, they must be puzzled why i was not there.

good work adie. one of the best.

well, it's not like i have any chance to properly pull out anyway. i might never even see these people again, nor have we braided each other's hair before so it's not like we're gonna miss each other.

although i might really have to think of braiding those that really matters to me. ok i might not need those committe members right now, not directly anyway, but when i wanted to add air pressure for my car tyres just now, i realized i needed my fellow latio friends.

this might be a bit embarassing but i never know how to add tyre's air pressure before. when i asked one of the shell attendant to help, he asked me what pressure value i wanted to put in, and i was like, what?

last time when i used to cycle, i could always press the tyres with my hand to see if it had enough air in it but i guess it's a bit more complicated with cars.

i'm not ignorant you know. at least to what it matters. when people asked me how much is my fuel consumption, like how many kilometers i run with each petrol fill i said i have no idea. i really don't. i mean, we still have to fill the petrol anyway inspite of what the data shows, don't we?

ok maybe later when i decide to change to another car and need to compare but that's like a thousand light years away.

i might as well free my mind off those question marks and read my harry potter and the deathly hallows. i've completed once and now reading for the second.

i'm not a harry potter freak ok. i just like the series in a normal amount. it's like a journey, when you have reached the target destination in a hurry and now merely repeating the same route while appreciating the side scenery that you've missed the first time.

the best thing is, i can even do this in my horizontal mode.



...ed

the end is near

my eyes are tired, can't seem to focus anymore. it's just like when the effect of polyjuice potion wears out and harry needed his glasses back.

i've been reading that new harry potter and the deathly hallow since morning. to think i actualy woke up before 7 and rushed to east point's popular to queue for that book.

so uncool for a non-teenager.

it was a non-event actually. there was this boy that dressed up in robes ala hogwards student but he just paraded between cashier counters to counters without even looking at the customers. what's the point?



there wasn't even too many people out there too it was foolish to even think there'd be some devilish one shouting spoilers like 'harry's dead!!'. seems like i'm never gonna have a chance to practise my avada kedavra spell.

anyway, i've been enjoying the reading. although it's a bit sad when you know it will end once i clear the last page. with every page i turns, there's a danger of someone dying.

which is stupid really. just like when you cry watching, say, bambi. i'm sure it's so sad when the guy stopped drawing the deer.

the supplement i ordered just being delivered at my doorstep. few days ago i read this article from yahoo about 25 ways to fight ageing, and they have taking alpha lipoic acid as the no-2 item.

when i went to plaza singapure for dinner last night, i stopped by GNC and asked about it, you know, just out of interest. man, it costs $128 for a 30 days supplement.

as if they are made from diamond powder or something. how can you improve your overall being after buying that when in the end you'd be led into depression mode anyway once seeing your account statement?

so i tried this local website www.nutritionpark.com which i found while browsing through the internet. one click and before you knew it, it's on your doorstep like magic as if you cried accio supplement! and it's cheap too. barely 50 bucks inclusive of delivery. this is so the way i'm gonna manage my supplements need in the future.

but of course i had my doubts too. i mean, how do you know it's authentic and not some unsafe substance that make your chest grow or something? it's not like it has a shop that you can bang the door on, or drag the police to. but i guess, i have to take my chances.

i know i can't expect this kind of stuff that i really need to just being given to me anyway, you know, as a present or something. last friday, a female colleague of mine didn't know what to buy for her good male friend's birthday so she asked me what was my most memorable birthday gift for tips.

and i was like..

'yeah of course i've received a memorable gift before. it was..'
'wait, what about that time when i received...'
'well there must have been something..'

which by that time she already looked at me with this funny face. gosh have i really ever received one? memorable gift i mean. when it took more than a few minutes cracking my brain to find one, it surely not that memorable, isn't it?

but i'm sure that sounded worse than reality. i mean, i remember that time when my friends brought me out for birthday dinner then in the end ended up eating cake squatting at this roller skating place in orchard because the restaurant didn't allow us to eat external cake.

or that time when they tricked me into going for tea break during work and surprised me with seah street deli's 7-layered chocolate cake that i so craved, which they bought surrepticiously during lunch time. although to think about it, that was actually as a small farewell before i went to oversea outstation, not birthday.

the point is, i'm sure i'm still blessed.

now what i have to find out, is who's not so blessed until ended up being killed in this last harry potter's book installment as rumoured.

maybe in the next page.



...ed

my heart is beating keeps on repeating

my brain is in a mess. it's now functioning like a hard disk with the red busy light kept-on-no-make-it-consistently blinking, you know like when all other applications run haywire and you're forced to restart the whole system.

somehow i started to give a thought on every single single little things, analyzing every acts and then checking my phone inbox every now and then with glitters of hope kept on coming and getting dashed all day.

no wonder ppl refers this as affair of the heart. it's an affair, it's meant to be complicated, or in some case, it would even potentially involve a mongolian model and bunch of explosives. maybe this is normal after all.

or maybe i just have too much brain space for unnecesssary activities. take yesterday, everything was good wasn't it when i was all busy? at least i did nothing that i could regret of.

aside from being inactive in the first few hours of the afternoon when i had headache. but again, not that i could control that, couldn't i? i don't know why i had these headcahes lately. maybe i should get my eyes checked or something.

the durian eating escapade in jb was a success. at first, it was close to getting axed because of some miscommunication. it's a long story, i wanted it on saturday instead of sunday so that we have more time to spend but someone already made arrangements for sunday because i never replied when it was suggested via e-mail blah blah blah.

anyway, that's all history. there was this local fruit fair in angsana that we went to. it involved a lot of waiting at first till 3 of us just went ahead munching without the rest joining. i mean, why make a simple task so hard? i wanted to eat there and then go watch movie, it was not really our fault if people got delayed because of house viewing or visiting clinic or whatever.

there was a long line queuing for tickets in tebrau city jusco. apparently most people went for transformers and harry potter. since most of us already watched transformers, and i already have tickets for harry potter on monday (although i didn't mention this to anyone), we settled for die hard 4.0.

which i'm glad we did. that was no doubt the best movie so far this summer. even better than transformers. who cares about car-changing robots when you can have john mc clain? when he hit that black-haired IT-girl bitch hard on the face and pulled her hair off, it felt like christmas. what about when he flew the car to hit that helicopter? never had i applaud violence so much in my life.

then we went to danga bay for a short karaoke session. i think half of johorians were there at danga bay on that saturday night. it was all buzzy with people eating, dating, karaoke-ing and even cycling with carriage-like vehicle. it was so lively.

what's unique, at least for me, for this karaoke is that we pay by number of songs instead of hourly. it's RM2 per song, so we paid for 10 songs. they had this small cage-like mirrored boxed room where you karaoke while people can see you from outside which make you feel a bit like creatures on display. i wonder what would people say when they saw us covering our ears while our more enthusiastic member screamed their lungs out singing. i guess the theme of the night was who could deliver high pitch screaming that could break glasses.

my friend drove me back into singapore after midnight, which was really a relief. i happily tucked in to bed and then realized i left my car in my company. man, how could i forget to bring back my car? i left it there so that i could take my friend's bike to jb in the morning.

i'm such a durr-brain.

the night would have been at least close to perfect despite all of that had i got to make that phone call, or even received a brief morning message but well, sometimes we just need to reboot our brain so we could move on.

i wish.



...ed

excuse me for this i just want a kiss

it's that time in my life again when i feel like living the song lyrics. you know, when suddenly things happen in rhythms and you start waltzing you way through the pathway.

so on the way back from work just now, i stopped by the music store to buy kelly clarkson's my december album. who cares about what crap clive davis was complaining, i so dig her new songs.

maybe not those you-hurt-me-so-i'm-gonna-hunt-your-whole-clan-down numbers, which by the way build most of her album mood, but the other positive notes ones.

i don't know if those melody could break my heart or save me. one thing sure, this fire is getting hot again but i'd still touch the flame 'coz i'm a curious cat.

so far instead of burning, it tingles in a good way. you know, like the after-sensation following that extra wasabi in your sushi piece.

although someimes i'm confusing as hell. i'm north and south. i'll probably never have it all figured out, but what i know is i wasn't meant to walk this world without ever experiencing this.

the only lesson i learned now, the hard way potentially, is that something can never be divided, as abundant as it appears to be.

not equally anyway. that's why we have prime numbers.

anyway, i'm not gonna worry about my timing, i wanna get it right. i hope i creep where i belong and finding not what i knew all along.

man i feel very much alive.

although it feels weird being home on thursday night. normally i'd be at the bowling alley around this time. it's the step ladder final tonight but our team already missed the cut. we could have done better but i guess it's just impossible to have all things to go your way.

i don't wish bad things but i don't wish those bowlers well tonight.

ok maybe this is the time to actually spin those damn-i-hate-you-i'm-gonna-scream numbers.



...ed

a little bit too much foodelicious

i think there's a little baby fat around my tummy. oh sweet lord what have i got myself into?

although it makes sense actually. i had it all coming. think about it, i didn't exactly lead an active life schedule recently. no tennis, no badminton, no swimming. what i did after coming back from work, is slump on my bed and watch friends.

can't really blame myself because i just went through successive hectic weekends. when you're being deprived the luxury of resting on that precious off days, the body kinda tend to compensate during the other 5 weekdays.

i blame the human anatomy.

remember the christina aguilera concert? that was 2 weeks ago on saturday night. i must say christina rocks! my god that girl has a horse power lung, george bush better forget iran and whatever nuclear craps they're building because this baby jane has the original reactor pipes that could blow you away.

a pity that the singaporean concert crowd sucks on an otherwise a perfect night. i mean, i know that the hall looks a bit like lecture theater but that doesn't mean we have to act like being in one. stand up for god's sake. while christina was blasting her moulin rouge number, my legs almost wanted to jump off my pants and people still sit as in detention center?

at least 2 caucasian ladies came up with their senses and stood up to dance but the police came over to ask them to sit because they were obstructing the view. duhh..

anyway i still enjoyed it, although i swear next time i must fly out of this dull-jud city and watch with other fun crowd. or at least take the free standing ticket instead because i guess the way singaporeans see it, unless the ticket states 'standing', they are gonna do what we normally do on seats. sitting.

that was followed by a late night supper at tampines ave 2 because after that rush of energy and adrenaline, we just needed time to calm down and bring our heartbeat to the original level. that black pepper roti john special flooded with mayonnaise didn't seem that sinful then.

on wednesday we had this FoodMoreDelicious team building event for our office department started at 2pm, which meant a short working day. i love team building activity. ok the bonding thing is pretty ok and it's all paid for, but most importantly we can escape work and got regarded as good and supportive employees. it feels like christmas for some people.

what we were supposed to do after being divided into several groups, was to solve 10 given clues that would pinpoint a location and the food each. we must then travel there and eat to get points. it's kinda like the amazing race, except we have our bosses to drive us around, and get to eat all those free famous food.

so among the clues we solved and went to were the yu-tiao, beancurd and durian in geylang, takoyaki in bugis, gelare waffle ice cream in holland V (is gelare originated from australia? someone should question the validity of those clues), paper curry rice in kitchener road, meatball in IKEA and wantan mee in old airport road.

never had i so many food to eat without actually realized the consequences with each bites down my throat. any consolation though, we got 2nd in overall, and that yet rewarded us another large box of food goodies for us to further consume. urghh...

on food hunting around the island

on friday after work i took a bus back to kl because it has been, i dunno, last january?? .. since i last went back to my parents house. plus, my brother just came back from the states for summer holiday cum work practical so we were gonna have a little family reunion. except unlike chinese new year reunion which only happens at dinner, this time it felt a bit like harry potter grand hall dining when the food magically appears on the table around the clock. in a span of 2 days, we had fried macaroni, durian deserts, sandwich, mee jawa, lemang and rendang, roti jala and chicken curry, kfc and chocolate cake, you know, on top of normal rice meals.

home made chocolate cake

it was nice though, being pampered once in awhile like this. until you spot those unwanted bits around your tummy which even the biotherm homme abdoscuplt couldn't not fix. i so must resume my workout regime now.

and yet i still plan for a durian eating escapade in jb this weekend. what was i thinking?



...ed