my 20th birthday!

Alright, to me, birthdays arent just birthday... for friends that doesnt see them everyday, it's more than a chance for gatherings. At least it's something other than chinese new yr or xmas that would get people back again for a reason...

So for mine, it seems good, coz being near to jinie's, at least i can tell myself "hey the next gathering is soon" when jinie's ended that day. Indeed, just one week later, another fun day which i look forwarded to.

Hence, here we go... Last sat, 22th October 2005, we went to Sentosa. Although there's only derrick dom iz and me, hey, we had fun!

From just taking photos at the colourful Siloso... (and having some cold sweat for iz, in fear of his head-impact if he slides off)



...to the happening kayak session...



oh my... first me and dom started by figuring out how to turn...2 newbies here...until derrick gave us his guidance from far, from his single seat kayah.

then we changed, with me kayaking with the "pro" iz, whom brought me to the limits,

and lastly to "partner" with derrick, which then, the waves became strong suddenly, and the both of us was just kept been swept back shore as we tried to get on to the kayak and move off... i used all my powers and derrick's leg was bruised from the knockings... Most "jialiak" one was IZ, who fought with the waves bravely with his single seater and.....got swept over....and donated his specs to the Sea God. And lived without specs for the rest of the day.

Kayaking is very relaxing too... As me and derrick move on slowly, we covered the whole area til the next lagoon (yeah). He even tried lying down behind...as quoted from him, "it felt better than osim message chair"... i believe it, coz when i went right side off course and need help in paddling back to the left, there's no response....he-was-asleep-for-the-moment....hahaa...


....to the time on the sand...

A relaxing time to sit down and chat, enjoy the place, and sun tan (for dom and iz)

as dom chose the "traditional" way to tan, IZ did the more "extreme" way... Bury in sand.



yup this is the the first one... as we found it too shallow, we dig a deeper hole nearer to the sea, and tala, a good place for him to lie in.



see the happy faces? haha..

another fun thing... u guys notice before there are some hooks on the shelter's pillars for you to hang your clothes? Hang a camera there instead and take a group photo...and u get a nice angle ^-^



...to the chairlift + luge!!...

If u recalled my previous post (last trip to sentosa) i did mention about this b4... and so, now we tried it! (cheers!) The chairlift part up is the same, even the views are the same, but just that it's faster this time (coz there's no stoppings along e way this time)

And finally the luge....Although it seems simple in design (just a flat thing with a bar, pull back to brake) , but hell, it could go very fast downwards! As just we left the starting point, the "pro" IZ zoommmed off... and i didnt see his shadow for the rest of the journey... ok lo, i just release the brakes later than him mah.. haha..

anyway, it's really fun. The straights were wide, and the hairpins are steep...finally a place for me to put what i had learnt about Apex/cornering in practise...haha! a few turns, i see the brown colour fences and cones... damn, it's approaching the end... so short?? no wonder they gave packages that even have 4 trips in one go...argh.


happy faces (2)...


...the cause of excitment ;)

....to taking photos with sunset!....

something calm after the exciting ride. By now it's already time, just nice for sunset... Took some nice pictures:


My personal favourite....tricks with flash...heehe.


After Sentosa, time to meet the rest of people for dinner, at Cartel Plaza Singapura.
Nice to see also jinie, kent, kelly, benji, and Zhichao! Was a great meal with many chats around... and very worth it too for the item we shared, was so full after it!



Not forgetting zhi hao and angela too... they were having their class gathering nearby and the 2 came over to send me their wishes.. thanks! Good to see our zhi hao to be still as cheerful.. hee.

and the cake came ^-^


...a long wish...

fyi, the cake was very tasty too! The pieces really melts in your mouth...yummy!

The cake was so nice... as nice as everyone who came and spent the day with me. thank you.

- + - + - + - + - + -

23th October, actually day of birthday ...who else can i celebrate it with? of coz shufang! hehe.... Really great to see her, especially after not see-ing her for the past 2 weeks due to her projects. Nevertheless, we had a great day shopping around at bugis/suntec, and had dinner at Mache....yummy! Especially the crepez that she ordered....wah, the berries fillings felt so good in the mouth! Think i got her cravings for ice-creams and crepez back again.. hahah!~

(paisei, no pix for this! Camera down.)

24th October...took a day leave, best way to avoid monday blues and had a good time resting at home, after 2 happening weekends ;) sleeping is shiok! heez.

- + - + - + - + - + -

Thank you IZ for the 2 events that u had planned! hard on you! very much appreciated. Have a good rest this week.
Also, thanks to u and derrick for my gift!~! Really nice for u all to remember my "messenger" bag... ;)

Thank you for everyone who came down on sat. Appreciated! Especially to Dom...despite your busy work and tiriness... take care friend!!!

Soon leong, it's really ok! felt bad instead if u were hurt on the way. Take good CARE!

lastly, Shufang! Thanks alot alot for your gift!! really like it... will take good care of it!~!


That's all, my 20th birthday (^-^)

Juz 4 a laugh (^-^)

(from my email at work, fyi.)

Does your Department have a problem in recruiting the right person for
the
right Job? If yes, try this simple experiment :

Put around 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an
open window. Then send 2-3 candidates into the room and close it from
outside.

Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours, and then analyze the
situation:

If they are counting and recounting the number of bricks - PUT THEM IN
ACCOUNTS DEPT.

If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks - PUT THEM IN
ENGINEERING

If they are arranging the bricks in some other order - PUT THEM IN
PLANNING.

If they are throwing the bricks at each other - PUT THEM IN OPERATIONS.

If they are sleeping - PUT THEM IN SECURITY.

If they have broken the bricks into pieces - PUT THEM IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY.

If they are sitting idle - PUT THEM IN HUMAN RESOURCE DEPT.

If they have thrown the b ricks out of the window - PUT THEM IN THE
MATERIALS DEPT.

If they are clinging onto the bricks - PUT THEM IN TREASURY.

If they say they have tried different combinations, yet not a brick has
moved - PUT THEM IN SALES.

If they have already left for the day - PUT THEM IN MARKETING.

If they are staring out of the window - PUT THEM IN STRATEGIC PLANNING

AND last but not least....

If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved
-
PUT THEM IN TOP MANAGEMENT.

Johor + Jinie Bday + my work

3 posts in 1. Here we go.


15/10/2005 Saturday

I havent been to malaysia for more than 10years. And i havent been overseas for 4 years. So when i was asked to go to Johor, i agreed immediately. And yea, saturday i made a trip across the causeway.

We visited City Square shopping centre, which is only a > 5 mins walk from the custom... and surprise... once we stepped in the place felt so like Singapore! Much better than what i expect. It's very modern and BIG...On the 4th or 5th storey there's a whole area similiar to Heerens Annex.. a shopper paradise.. And at the top floor there's Cinema and KTV...and surprise again, the KTV is Neway..Famous Hong Kong's K-box. wow.

And the time we spent in Neway is simply great. In every single way, it much better than KBox. The room is big and cozy, the system is user friendly and good and stable, there's alot of NEW songs, and the Lunch package...Not some delifrance pie or microwave chicken rice, but....a big plate of Chicken Chop Rice with sauce, Chicken Cream soup, salad, watermelon and drinks... all these at RM 14... after tax it's juz less than S$8 per person! And with a much much much more better customer service.

And ya, back to the "Annex" area, there are alot stuff and and shops too, while they are all not cramped up together...the corridoor is wide, so its not crowded & lots of space to move. Lots to see, and i bought shirt for myself...heez. There's a small cafe too, when u r tired in the "annex", similiar to Heerens'..

For the other shops in the mall, many are all the familiar brands we get here... You would realli feel as if you r in Singapore. A point though, there seems to be many Bridal shops too around too..haha..

Wanna make a trip there again!

1 day KTV + shopping at Johor, anyone?


16/10/2005 Sunday

happy birthday to jinie~~!!!


Thanks to our organiser issac, this is the first of the 2 events that we would be having for this 2 weekends. For this jinie's bday, we gathered at K-Box Marina Square and everyone sung their hearts out... shiok!


Yup this is the big room we got. From the right, you see Soon leong, Benji, Derrick, remy, IZ, kent, jinie, kathy, me, and Dom (who's taking this photo)




As we sang, our bday girl got an idea and we started a singing competition... haa... Every single one of us would choose a song of our choice and sing, after which would be judged for the 5 prizes... namely, best courage, best action, best gentlemen, best dressed, and the best of best. haha...



Trust me, i was actually quite anxious...it felt so different between when u sang seated and standing... heez.


Then, here comes the cake! Nice part of the plan again, this was a surprise i guess? Our dear birthday girl was so delighted.




ah, and the cake really tasted very nice ;)


Lastly, here goes the "prize" presentation... here are our following winners... hahaa..

and the group photo:



After the KTV, we went Marina Bay for steamboat. The rain did made the place wet, but it made it very cooling too... Very nice. And thanks to iz, it was since such a long time i ate soooo much prawns... haaha...

yummy!

With this, we ended the day... we had soo much fun... ;)



17/10/2005 Monday, onwards

After a happening weekend, it was back to work again. The monday was still as usual, same amount of faults again and the same bases to go again to tend to faults...

Until the time when the sms comes in to my colleague. Yup, it's not a rumour anymore, i'm offically going over to another section the next day. In short, change of job.

Well, this is both a good and bad news. After 1 year and 4 months at the Site Response Team, i had gotten really used to all the stuff and enjoyed all the time travelling outside. And i have a "boss" too (The regular who i'm attached to assist since day 1) too... But recently things had gotten tougher and more complicated, and well, over familiarised = sian. Soo...it's good for a change now, time to learnt new stuff and new challenges. Anyway, my partner is leaving the team too, for another section, later this year. He's much more "sian" than anyone else.. he's already been in site response for 5 years.

Anyway, i'm going over to the comms and computers team... handling accounts and comms. Yup, it gonna be busy, but well, i'm left with 6months of service... so it's alright.

And Tuesday i started my "learnings".... so far so good, pretty ok... but really quite alot to learn... and the style is really very different... This job requires much more customer service skills than what i used to do... And there are much more procedures to know. woh.

But finally, i will be getting my own table... hehe.... Coz since the start til now what i had been using is a shared computer (SLC, self learning centre.. just a point where everyone can surf internet in office) ...so at times pretty hard to do work... have to shift around oftenly... not anymore in future ;)

nevertheless, jiayou to myself! May this sat come quickly oh.....

.

oh children.

i wondered was it that always had been so, or i havent been noticing that until recently,

but... i realise, are children nowadays getting more and more hard to control or teach?

Crying/infants childrens on board trains should be pretty normal and common... but how about one that cries and screams (yes, with a glass breaking pitch) throughout the 30 mins ride? and the parents are doing nothing to ease off the child, while passengers rub their ears...

Crying childrens in shopping centres are very common too, especially for those who had not gotten what they wanted. But previously at Taka, i saw this father pulling along his crying son... and he gotten soo fed up that he just let go of his hands and the child just fell onto the floor, screaming even louder. Ouch.

Some other kids run around. It's normal again, but not when this little girl i saw was running towards the LRT tracks, with no signs of slowing down...The father couldnt hold her on time earlier when she slipped off, but luckily the mother was able to push the pram to block her from infront... phew.

Then, we have children hitting their own parents... In a train again, i saw this young indian boy (5 years?) refusing to sit still on the seat, and keep on hitting his mother , running his palm over her face and pulling her hair. While the grandmother kept nagging at the kid, the mother seems not to do anything drastic... oh my.

Similiarily, there's another boy (6 years?) who kept kicking and "punching" his father, on the LRT platform. As he kicks, he does as if he is the hero killing the dragon and kept entertaining himself with the "dialog"... obviously too much influence from TV... Despite warnings from the father, he still doesnt stops... and it continues all the way on the LRT... sigh, where's the respect..?

And touching on influence of media... i have my last example here... and i guess, the most shocking one...: Outside Cold Storage, a 4 or 5 year old boy hugging and kissing his younger brother...on the lips.... Aghh... i wonder does the mother saw this or not..???

It really takes alot to bring up a child properly...

hmm..

suddenly recalled that i was also quite a naughty child last time... oh no... would what i had done get back to me in future, when it's my turn as the father???


(-_-"")