3 LittLe Things I Appreciate on 5th May

1. Mum's Cake
She bought a cake .. and I onLy reaLised it when I came home at midnight. Everyone was aLready soundLy asLeep. So, I cut the cake on my own.

2. WiLLiam's NoodLe Soup
As normaL, we had our supper at the coffeeshop. WiLLiam ordered an additionaL NoodLe Soup just for me on my speciaL day. (But I have aLready eaten one fuLL pLate of fried rice)

3. Wai Keat's Doraemon Cake
My coLLeague at the community cLub who gave me a pLeasant surprise when one moment he found out about my birthday, and the next, he was there with a cake for me. WouLd have faLLen for him deep if I were an the opposite sex.

SimpLe With Love

Today is one where of every other day of the year, you receive many, many nice messages from good friends, Long Lost friends, cLose friends, distant friends and famiLy.

Happy 25th birthday to me.

And many thanks to aLL who have remembered (or being reminded) of this good day.

A New Obsession

In a bid to spice up my aLready duLL Life, I bought a compact camera which costs me about SGD800.

I feeL so darn good about my Latest acquisition.

.. finaLLy understand why women simpLy cant get shopping out of their Lives. It is, to them, a form of 'therapy for the souL'.

For myseLf, this is a period in time where I dun even know where I am heading but just foLLow as time goes by.

It sucks.

This cannot go on ....

Where there's Life .. there's death.

Where there's Good .. there's Bad.

Where there's a Beginning .. there's an end.

Like a coin - there wiLL aLways be two sides to Life.

A Tribute to the Greatest Man

He is born in 1922 on Hainan Island and has a scar on the abdomen from WorLd War II.

After the war he comes to Singapore with his spouse.

He was a Loud man in the neighbourhood of Hougang Avenue 4.

When I was a boy, He used to own a western food restaurant in Orchard vincinity.

Then He cLoses it down as the government wanted to redeveLop the area.

He opens a smaLL coffeeshop seLLing porridge in the Late 80s around the neighbourhood, but cLoses it down after a year or two due to bad business.

During my earLier years in primary schooL, with Mum working, He fetches me back from schooL and aLways carries my heavy bag.

Sometimes he does the cooking, and grandma does the fetching.

He conversed in Hainanese with grandma, and that is how I Learnt the diaLect.

I was a mischievous boy with good resuLts, but now, I am totaLLy opposite.

After grandma was gone, He became toned down and seLdom goes out of the house.

Those years after primary schooL, I moved back home and visited him once a few days, then it was once a few weeks, then it was months. And every time, he asks me if I have enough pocket money, and gives me $20 even when I have.

He became bedridden after the MiLennium, and as the years go by, He suffered from dementia.

My Grandpa passes away on 2 ApriL 2009.


He is the greatest man I have ever met.

Party @ Lawn (PeopLe's Association Headquarters - The Old Kallang Airport)


With Vivan (ULu Pandan CC) and Liyan (Ci Yuan CC).

With coLLeague buddy, Sean PauL (no punt, that's the reaL name).

With Sean, Vivian and Liyan.

Buzz

Somehow this month the office has been buzzing with new peeps - temporariLy.

We have an intern from Ngee Ann PoLytechnic and two temp staff - aLL gaLs.

And so, not bad, made new friends! But they be here onLy tiL ApriL. .. =(

Office aside, this week is reaLLy cooL. My beLoved LiverpooL thrashed ReaL Madrid 4-0 and then Manchester United 4-1. On top of that, my team Greats aLso took to the top of the ESPZEN League.

That caps a wonderfuL week for myseLf. I hope everyone had a good one too ..

Singing in the Rain

Thursdays are aLways good, for me particuLarLy.

Of course it has to be - being my off day. In addition, my constituency footbaLL training and games are on as weLL.

Today was a good day as the pLayers came back after a 9-month exodus since exiting the Last tournament in May 2008. There were new faces too, as I dragged my good friends Cong and ZR aLong for a "seLection match" where they sure have performed decentLy weLL.

Right after the match came the rain.

I Love the rain. It offers opportunities to approach a day in a different manner. For us who have juz finished a match with muddy boots, the three of us went into the open and washed our boots by the cute LittLe drain where the rushing water was pretty cLear. It has been years since I threw myseLf inside the rain, other than some footbaLL matches where it came unexpectedLy. PeopLe may tink its a bit crazy for a 24 year oLd to "pLay" in the rain, but I dun care Less. I am enjoying.

Somehow if kampongs stiLL exist, this experience wouLd sure be more common.

Sometimes, we tend to forget the LittLe stuff we aLL did during chiLdhood, and that is why most peopLe are oLd not physicaLLy, but in their heart.

Embrace the rain, if you can, when you can.

ChanneL BBC

A random pick on one of the SingteL's Mio Tv channeLs brought me to BBC KnowLedge on a typicaL weekday evening. The broadcast was titLed "The Sun".

As I watched on, the program captured my attention so much that emotions struck me when they reveaLed how the sun works and that in time to come, it wiLL burn out and bring the end to the soLar system and totaL darkness to the universe.

However, it wiLL not be in our time. By then, Man may have aLready concLuded their own story since the beginning of time.

FoLLowing that was another documentary - "Human 2.0". It toLd of the generation of human beings of tomorrow, in a worLd where technoLogy wouLd have taken over aLmost every LittLe aspect of each individuaL's Life.

At present, the thought of the future is nothing short of bLeak, unLike the simpLe days of the Last century Less the unfortunate WorLd Wars.

Somehow, no doubt every being on earth can stiLL do their part for the generation of tomorrow, technoLogy is by far advancing way too fast to handLe.

With such a pace in Life, are you stiLL abLe to feeL?


Given the short time we have on earth, maybe we shouLd rethink the reason for our very existence, or eLse it wiLL be nothing but a waste.


PLease, take time to visit the Link as foLLows:

The Great Warming

The "LoneLy Hearts CLub" Affair @ Batam on VaLentine's



On the ferry to Batam.


I Like this picture - totaLLy twisted courtesy from Serene and Long.


Nathan, Serene, Jane, ELeanor, KeLvin .. Less Me behind the Lens.


That's Ms Vain with an attitude, and that's me trying to use broken MaLay to order food.


The cabLe ski experience, though we're onLy starting from the beginner's stage.


The LoneLy Hearts CLub members for the day.

VaLentine's was decorated with a LoveLy atmosphere around HoLiday Inn HoteL, and there we are taking advantage of it.

Where eLse can you rejuvenate yourseLf with chiLdhood favourite - A&W and its very originaL Root Beer FLoat.

VaLkyrie (The Movie)



Yet another exhiLarating movie added to my recent movie-whoring, based on a true story - of few heroic men who chose to foLLow their principLes despite sacrificing their Lives. Starring Tom Cruise as CoLoneL Claus von Stauffenberg, who attempted the assasination of HitLer and Led the coup in a bid to save Germany from further Loss of innocent Lives and shame.

Indeed, in war, victory beLongs to none. Everybody Loses something. Even though humans are born equaLLy of bLood, can we say that the soLdiers who die on the battLefieLd are not comparabLe to the Leaders? Is it fair that some peopLe are chosen to dictate others' Lives as such to send them to death?

I beLieve in democracy and freedom. Every man shouLd be their own dictator. And this movie has aLLowed me to understand one good man who sacrificed for the good of his country and peopLe despite coming against the odds.

Mugs and Oscars

There was this mug I used for many years since secondary schooL. UnfortunateLy it broke some time Last year. Since then, I have had three other mugs - big, smaLL and with artistic deco, but aLL of which did not Last through three months.

I stiLL miss my oLd mug. And thats why they say, things are gone so that one can appreciate how vaLuabLe these things truLy are.

This festive period proves to be pretty enjoyabLe with the traditionaL reunions of different cLiques of friends and famiLies. Just Last weekend, I had met up with three totaLLy different groups of friends, and man, other than spiLLing the cash on good food, the gatherings are just good.

TaLking about Oscars, I caught the movie nominated for Best Picture in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Draggy as it seems, it is one that faLLs right into my tastebuds with its Light humour and phiLosophicaL approach. As for the storyLine, other that toggLing between the present and past, this show is straightforward as it is.

Watch it, if you dun mind Lengthy shows. This is pure science-fiction at its reaListic best.

And. somehow on Okto channeL, they are broadcasting Oscar winning movies Like the one that just ended as I am writing. The show is about this girL, Sophie SchoLL, who's part of a resistence movement against HitLer's cause for the war. She was eventuaLLy executed at the age of 22, but not in vain.

The White Rose resistence movement with reaL person Sophie SchoLL in the middle. Copyright belongs to Dr George Wittenstein

No, I am not that knowLedgabLe, but I Love history as much as I Love footbaLL.

The Oscar fever is here, but where's my beLoved mug?

Mid-twenties Crisis?

I was away for a toiLet break when three chiLdren entered the Community Club counter. My coLLeague, Kris, attended them on my behaLf.

The chiLdren are Wushu students who did not know if there is cLass on this fatefuL day. When I got back, Kris toLd the chiLdren "Ok, the kor-kor wiLL heLp you find out if Lesson is on ..."

One of the chiLdren excLaimed ..

"He is not kor-kor ...... he is UNCLE!"

Kris Laughed waLking away. The other two chiLdren Left bemused. Am I facing the mid-twenties crisis?

I think I am.

SimpLy OrientaL

Drums, Lion dancing, firecrackers, brand new cLothes, ang-baos, gambLing, reunion gatherings.

The LittLe things associated with the Chinese every new year, are no different in 2009. That, is the Chinese tradition.

I was at Chinatown on Lunar New Year eve and saw curious ang-mohs snapping at the Lion dance performance with their cameras. It makes a typicaL chinese Like me proud, that westerners are appreciating our cuLture.

新年快乐, 大家 ..

The Office

BLessed are the ones who do not work in an office environment.

An office, so furnished with tons of documents, fiLes and computers are but just a pLace for us to warm the chair for eight hours as weLL as achieving the most important factor - $ati$faction ...

It is a compLexed pLace of simpLicity.

Add "communication" and "seLf-perception".
The office wiLL be a simpLe pLace of compLexity.

And that soaks the energy out of any good worker who just wanna work.


So freaking shacked, unfortunateLy not because of workLoad.

New Year Crossover



Spent the Eve @ Sizhe's ..



The fun was exceptionaL that night ...



The Guessing Game with tak-gLam Language, Hokkien. And just FYI, I suck at it.

Counting out 08 and for 09.

Deeds

Good or bad, not aLL deeds are recognised.

30 Dec 08 - Khing's adidas PP Gathering


Meet Mummy Khing, the onLy boss with the most weLfare. I Like her Lots, reaLLy.


Meet the adidas peeps. From Left: Zaabah, EtheL, Serene, ELeanor, Jane, Arthur, ME and JuLian.


The Past, Present and Future of adidas PP.


84's with HeLen & Khing.

Creation by Me.

Ms Santa Khing CLaus (extreme right) with her annuaL give-aways.

Vain Babes at work... =D

2009

A new year has, yet again begun.

2008 was a bore. I have not stepped out of this isLand the entire year.


SuddenLy, I think of Taiwan. Its been one fuLL year since my return from my Love. Part of my heart has been Left behind there and there can never be any pLace with such certain degree of fondness I have. There wiLL never be an opportunity to be so reLaxed and free as I was when I was there. It is a heaLing haven for loneliness, hurt and jadedness.

I miss Taiwan and its warmth and simpLicity.