are you tired?

IN the canteen at my base, there's this young man (but older than me) who handled the Zhu3 Chao3 stall... He is a malaysian (from Sarawak) and would always change from his shirt and shorts into a formal attire after his work..seems to be aheading somewhere else for more stuff/work. Still, guess everyone would see him as just another malaysian worker?

But today, while i was walking to the MRT station, i ran into him (he was in the same direction) and we pick up a chat (quite a friendly guy). As i learnt that he's still proceeding to boon lay for some more matters everyday (despite that he had worked for hte entire day) , i asked him:

"arent you is tired"?

"tired? with a aim you will never get tired."

This sentence left me with a deep impression immediately.

Then he added
"many people live a day and plan a day, but never gets far. But if you plan far and aim for it, you will get very far in your life"

he is indeed very motivated and driven.

And as we chatted on, i realised that he is not just a simple worker. He is full of knowledge and ideas. He had attended talks and had learnt from people regarding their experiences in business... And he's very observant too, certainly. Seems like the type who would venture into business eventually...

His level of sense could even be better than some of the people i know in my office.

Really doesnt sound like what would have come out from the mouth of the person who works in our canteen, to my surprise.

Then he shared with me that at this talk by a Taiwanese businessman, he said
"A person might not suceed with talents, but he will if he believes in his dreams" (with will power too)

So true..

So right when i'm at the time of still deciding on my future...

Anyway, his Zhu3 Chao3 wasnt tasty.. full of MSG always.. but i guess it's ok, 'cos i doubt cooking in the canteen would be his main thing... he is certainly capable of much more...

Hmm...

Wonder how would he be, say 5 years later? Surely would have gotten much more further than now.

.

all in a day's work

recently me and my colleagues seems to be getting tired of the job.

Same thing over and over again everyday. The new management made life worse.

I had been here for 1 year and 3 months...but that's nothing much compared to my colleague's 5 years spent.

Thankfully, we are still able to find some fun from every little thing.. hee..

Just like today, 2 piece of engine parts placed in the workshop can be arranged to look like esplanade



and some inspiration from my colleague turns him into a "salted-egg-superman"



lame hor?

There's more in office..

Look at the example on me:



It all started previously when they referred me as one of the radar tower, 'cos, as they said, i'm pretty tall and always looks over the parition when called... just like the camera on the tower...haa...

By the way, others are not spared too..



.......

haha....

"easy" job...

(written on tuesday, 20th sep, in office... only til today then i have the chance to upload this at home ^-^")

My job for today... to send items for my Department Cross country run and to do shuttle bus service, fetching staff from City Hall mrt.

It's held at the Marina promenade Park (behind Ritz Calton, under the ECP to the part where you have the "entrance" where the duck tour makes her splash. So in order to drive into the park to place the logistic, we have to go in via the ducktour "entrance".

Sounds simple isnt it? Indeed it is. Provided if i'm lucky....

But i'm not. as i was driving the van along the ducktour track to move out, suddenly there's a van (no seen just now) parked in the centre. Obviously the driver was finding a place to rest... Nevermind, i just squeeze past you lo. But that's not the end. At the end of the road there's another car parked there (new one, again) Now it's too narrow to squeeze through it... so i have to make a detour on the grass patch...

and... the van got stuck in the soil. Damn it.

My colleague hop off to check on it. The right rear wheels was in the soft soil.. No matter how i rev, it's still spinning on the spot..

The best thing is, on this sight, instead of helping, that van driver and that stupid car driver drove off asap.... &*#$%#@$#

So we have no choice but to use whatever we could find... stone, pranks, tree branch, etc...placed under the wheel, dig and dig the soil, forward, reverse, it still doesnt move...

Called up my colleague (the in charge for the event, who's already stressed up enough) and he would be on the way down, on foot....

so 20 over minutes passed, until some of the other people from my department happened to pass by.. they were on their way to the event. With them helping to push...we are finnally released.. phew... was still afraid that i might have to see the head of transport if anything happens to the van... luckily still in a piece with no damage ^-^

But in the end, coz of the time spent, i didnt get to do the 2 rounds of shuttle service... -_-"... Luckily there's 2 other vans doing it..

stiil, haiz, feel damn bad after the event... seems to have caused more trouble.. haa...

charging done, sentosa!

trust me, for early last week, i was nearly on the edge of collasping already.

no energy (mentally) no energy (physically) no energy (in work) no energy (for everything)

Other than the problem at my family side, i guess it was also due to my workplace getting shitter and shitter. (this's another story.)

Luckily, my pre-planned 3 days leave came right nicely on time... and yeah... on leave for 14 - 16th.

More time to sleep, to recharge and refresh, and to go out with shufang ;) *happy*
(she having holidays too)

Dying for a friends gathering too... So when Dom sms us for a trip to sentosa on the coming saturday, i "signed up" for it immediately.

Initially i intended to go down at 830am for breakfast with dom and gang.., but as a sudden situation arises at my grandma's on friday night (in which we stayed til very late) i went down at the later timing, with the rest of the people..

The first activity for us started with a game of captain ball... With all the energetic guys and girls, it was so....fast paced.. hhaha...towards the end of the game i was really losing breathe... but it was fun... havent had such a "workout" for ages.

Half time for the game and some rest...with some photo taking here n there... ^-^



After it, we treked down the beach, where most of us had a kayaking session...except for me, kent and Lynette (jinie's friend). And yup, i was made the offical photographer, from the shore.. haha... except for the time whereby i felt tired (and sun-burnt) and went back to the comfortable mat where kent n lyn r seated...only to be shouted back...to continue with the photo shooting.. hahah...



wah, jinie n kenneth very pro huh, but iz and yan jun seems to have problems with the direction at first.. they seems to get further and further at the start... haha.. and as the 2 kayak take turns to come nearer to me for photo taking, each of them nearly went in to this same 2 person (who were in the sea), at the same spot... guess they certainly werent too happy... haha...

And derrick... (who went in sea later due to the lack of single seat kayak) was having difficulty to get into the kayak and to move out to sea...despite help from me, he was still been repeatly washed up shore.. hahah... until jinie and kenneth came down and helped him... haha... was really a fun time.

(better dun comment anymore, coz i didnt even go into the sea... haha... if it's me, certainly i'll have created the joke of the day...)

After the fun time on sea... we went on to take the chairlift ride uphill. This is really new i guess? didnt even know its existance.. haha... As the name suggest its something like a bench that carries you up the hill..like those you see at those snow ski mountains.. so other than the rod that holds you, there's nothing else...with your legs dangling in the air... hehe...



sound scary right? First impression was indeed abit. But as we started to move uphill, it was all ok for me....perhaps because of those towers that i had climbed at work? And certainly derrick have no problems too coz he (lucky guy) had already taken such rides during his ski at Korea.. It was pretty peaceful, except when kent shouted my name from behind several times...haha...and i shouted back his too. Anyway it was pretty fun to shout on the hills... stress releasing??

The view was really great... wah.. saw the new construction for the train station, the PSA/CBD view, and the great down hill tracks which you could travel down on a Luge (like a motor-less go-kart to me) after the chairlift ride, if we pay $2 more just now (3 for $15, while one uphill chairlift is $3/pax). Wah...see-ing the hairpin turns really reminded me of initial D...;) .. wanna try that next time!!



With this, we ended our day in sentosa. A shuttle bus ride and train took us to orchard, where we had dinner at mache ;) Ok guess i might sound like a mountain turtle now, but the food is really nice! and the price wasnt too ex too somemore... Had a great time there, with all the jokes and laughter..

Not forgetting, kent got his girl to come down to join us all for dinner too... hey kent, finally get to see your girl... congraluation for getting such a nice girl!! she's sort of similiar to you...from my impression? cheers!

After dinner, we had some walks around in heerens and cine, and day ended with everyone heading back home... guess everyone was already very tired by then! Me too, was already in quite a blur mind le.. haha

Frankly, it was really such a long time since i had been out in a big group for outing for an entire day.. It does bring me back memories of the past... Or could i just felt it so strong now coz i was in the stage of my life? Or i just...think too much le...

No matter what, i still enjoyed the day. Alot.

Thanks to everyone..

sigh.

hi guys.

It's been more than a week since i had update this blog. Or rather, since i had laid my hands on my comp... I had one of the most tiring and worst week in fact... My maternal grandmother suffered from a stroke and me and my family went down to hospital every night. And we had to face one of the worst relatives we had in the world... here's why..

(hope u dont mind this long post...allow me to vent out all the frustrations...)

*****

It all started on last Monday (5th sep), when i received a call from my sister that my grandma had a stroke, and was on the way to TTSH.. After work i rushed down, and she's already awaiting treatment at A & E. No, it didnt happen suddenly. As a matter of fact, it happened the day before (sunday). When those uncles were been called down, they "thought" she was simply choked with phlegm and didnt "bothered" to send her to the hospital...Why? Money. Decision? Wait and see how first. We didnt even know about it at that night then...it was only when my father and sist came on monday afternoon that they realise it wasnt as simple....

Fine. And when she's sent to the hospital? Only one of my uncle (4th uncle), my big aunt (wife of the 1st uncle), one of my cousin and my family were there. The 4 other uncles was un-seen. My 3rd uncle (who was my grandma favourite son, and the always most bossy but never took any responsibility) only said "call me when there's any need" and stayed at home. Ya right, when we called you later in the night your stupid phone was already off.

For nuts , she's their own mother!! Doesnt him (or them) be even more worried?? Taking their money seems more painful than their mother's condition. F**K.

Now's about my that big aunt. My grandma had been living with her first son family, hence you can say it was under my big aunt care...She had hired a maid to take care of her, but we all know she was never good to my grandma, other than when the rest of the relatives were present... True enough, when the A&E doctor came out, she was trying her best to claim credits and act fillal... wah lao, if she's really that good, my grandma wouldnt be in such a state.

From the doctor, it was confirmed that she suffered from a stroke in her right brain, hence the left part of her body is paralysed. Also, now she have difficulty in shallowing and speaking.. So she had to be hospitalised for further treatment.

As we waited in the ward for the doctor (doing his night time rounds) to come, the nurse does her checks and settles all the arrangements for contacts... comes the part when she ask for a volunteer to be the learner person (to understand the condition), no ones volunteers. Yes, even that aunt (who's been living with her and taking credits) didnt step forward, until she's been pushed to do so... Or else, my sister would already had volunteered, when things shouldnt be in this way (we are already considered outside of the family, cos it's the maternal side.)

And when the doctor finally came, he did his checks... and his atitude and tone was really bad...sounds more than a cop questioning criminals as he asked us questions...ok, guess he look young and is really stressed out. Once again, that aunt was just there saying "i took care of her this and that".... and when he asked why my grandma wasnt been observed more carefully, she pushed all to the poor maid, who just kept quiet.

Please la, cut the act... we knew since day one. By this time my cousin was already having a real black face, and stood aside quietly... She was real concerned with our grandma, much more than those sons. Further more, she knew all the stuff too, when to assert her rights as a client for things to be done (ie: call for neurologist to assess my grandma), with all the right tone to get things done. Perhaps it's her career, and also from all her experiences...her own mother (my eldest aunt) had passed away with cancer; and she had been running in and out of hospitals due to her mother and her in-laws.. I really respect her.

And my sister too... Not only her knowledge from her dip course in physiotherapy was put into practise, her unlimited care and gentle-ness was much better than any nurse there... Throughout the entire night she just hold on to my grandma palm and rubbing it to show that we are all there... kept telling her it's ok and communicating with her.

The most heart broken should be my mum... Actually, she had been blaming herself for moving out 2 years ago... When i was still at Hougang, our unit was just next door to my grandma and my 1st uncle's unit. Back then, whatever happens it would be us to settle....they just never bother much and we was taken for granted...further more, during then my grandma didnt appreciate my mum...she only "see" her favourite son...eventually my mum couldnt take it anymore (many stuff happened) and so we shifted out, leave it all for "those-who-lived-nearby" to handle. Who knows, after we left that aunt changed her face...

Still, what filled her now was more anger than grief.

By the time everything was settled, it was already pass midnight...Before we left, we asked my grandma who she wants to see.. apon the mention of her favourite son, she shook her head hard. Real hard. Guess she was finally disappointed with him. My cousin said something very true... "It's ok, that guy will grow old one day too." Very true. We will just stand aside by then and watch his fate. Or maybe i would already had forgotten about his presence.

*****

Up to wed, she was in state of dizziness still, drifting in and out of sleeps for the entire day... It was until thursday that she gotten better, and had a clearer mind, complaining about her hunger and could still check that we are fine when we visited her...

Certainly, the maid was very much happy too... she had been attached to her for slightly more than a year now, and she had already take it as if she is her own grandmother... She was soo worried that she actually cried when my grandma "woke up" from her long "sleep" that day... it was such a heartwarming moment...

There was this moment that i couldnt take it too... it was thursday, when it was the first time that she suddenly called for me... as i move over and held her palm, she cried suddenly, and it took us all by surprise... Why, we kept asking but she just didnt say (or we didnt catch it).. trust me, i nearly cried too.... My father guessed that she cried 'cos she was sad why all those sons of my uncles didnt come, but instead it was all those from the female side who came almost daily... And i believed it. She always been so traditional, and the "wai sun"s (external) will never be better than those "ne sun"s (internal). Perhaps this event had really changed her thinking.


Initially, it was already expected that she would be discharged on sat. But friday she was down with fever due to infection, and she went back to the state of dizziness... The discharge date was delayed, until monday (12th sep). The fever was gone on the day of discharge, but she was still not quite "awake" yet...until now. haIx. With my mum having off from work tomorrow, we would be going down to visit her at hougang, and i hope to see her be better.

*****

This, indeed, had changed alot of stuff. Physically, not only she could not move her left side limps, she cant speak properly now and had lost the ability to eat... "Food", in form of "liquid milk", had to be inserted by the means of a tube, directly into her throat. On the other hand, she had seen all the true colours of the people around... which son doesnt care, which is a fake, which son have the heart but not the money and energy to support it... (you xin wu li) , and who are those that really cares.

And my dear friends.. please cherish those kins you have around you... frankly, only now then i kind of regretted not spending more time with my grandma when i was younger, at my old hougang house...when she still could do everything...

And take care of your parents... It really very bad for anyone to suffer such a pain at such a age.

*

quick info quick quick updates

first of all, happy teachers day..!! wonder how many of you guys went back to our old schools today? unfortunately, i wasnt able to, coz of meetings today and lack of manpower...

i n f o . . .

1) Chicken pie lovers, read here! With a recommendation from my colleague, last sat me dom and derrick visited "Don Your Personal Pie Club", located at China Square Central. Paisei huh, dom and derrick, i lost my way a few times as we walk from raffles place mrt, and made both of you to walk a big round with me... hehe... Anyway, the Chicken Pie is very very nice~!! Crisy exterior, with juicy fillings... big chicken pieces forms the great kou2 gan3, accompanied with half a boiled egg... and all these at $3.80, for a quarter, & $15+ for the whole pie. (a quarter size slightly bigger than a Polar Puff.) Must try!! (cakes and coffee are available too...heard the cakes are nice, havent get to try..)

Don Your Personal Pie Club Pte Ltd
20 Cross Street #01-34/35/36
China Square Central
(Far East Square opp)
Tel: 63274344
www.donpieclub.com.sg
mon-fri: 8am to 9pm, sat/sun/PH: 8am to 5pm


2) Wanton mee lovers, your turn now: today other of my colleague brought us all to his favourite wanton mee stall, at ubi. And no wonder it's his favourite, 'cos it's cheap & good! At $2.50, other than the char siew, you have alot of chai xin, mushrooms, shreded chicken & chicken feet..& it's not only 3 wanton in the soup, but 7 or 8..! Most importantly, it taste good. The noodles neither have the taste of the "powder" (common mistake from other stalls), nor like plastic, but is nicely cooked. The soup doesnt only taste of MSG like other stalls...it's pretty Qing1 Tan4. Unfortunatly, the place wasnt too accessible (it's in the industrial park)...it would only be convenient when you happen to pass by... and the opening hours are short.

HENG KEE Wanton Stall
Blk 3021, Ubi ave 2
First stall to the left in the coffeeshop #01-0139 (if not wrong)
Up to around 2,3pm for weekdays, half day for sat, and closed for sun.


u p d a t e s . . .

1) Bought myself a USB Bluetooth adapter from sim lim the other day. "yeah.,finally can transfer files to my computer liao.." ya right, first my nokia software cannot detect the Bluetooth drive, now the software cant even be installed... nevermind, sort it out slowly...

2) ...but new things are good too. Saw the brand new Kia Rio.. wah, great improvement over the last model... door closed with a nice "thump" and the cabin was not too bad...a bright interier.. The rear of the hatchback seems to look like the new Opel Astra though... a good bargain @ $47000 plus.. hope the insurance would not be expensive (common "problem" for KIAs) ..private cars are better coz at times they can go faster, especially for long highway trips...

3) ...like P-I-E (not pie) which is quite long...guess i was too bored on the road during work that day, cos i start to "measure" the distance while we travelled from one end (TUAS) to the other (loyang)... it's around 45 to 50km... anyway, this shows how "big" singapore is too... haha... but still...

4) ...despite the distance, driving is getting more expensive with the recently rise in petrol price... OMG.. pump in premium grade ones and it's nearly $1.80 per litre...nearly 170% of diesel ($1.053 per litre). Hope that the hurricanes would be over soon, or else things would get really bad.. For now, i can only switch off the aircon (when it's cool) and be light footed... driving seems to get less enjoyable....

5) ....and my sister tries to lighten up the driving experience...as she pasted a doramon sticker on my dad's van window... -_-" Aircon-man with a doramon?? hahaha...

Dom's 20th Birthday!

First,

Happy birthday to dom~!!

Last saturday, 20th Aug, we celebrated Dom's 20th Birthday, at the Fish n Co Glasshouse branch. As we all know, Fish n Co staff are good at birthday thingy, so it seems to be a great place for birthday celebrations (i'll go to all these later)

Quite a number of people came, and i had really havent seen quite a number of them for a really long time..! The list includes: Dom, derrick, jinie, kathy, jasmine, pearlyn, kent, IZ, soon leong, benji, and me.



Really have to thank kent soon leong and jinie. Coz in order to buy the cake and pass it to the counter at the 1st storey, snd still without to be seen by our birthday girl, they have to come in later after we had enter the restaurant.. Once they arrived, everyone settled down quickly and had a great time catching up with each other, with photos snapped here and there

And there's really a lot of photos... haha... this is the first time i had my entire memory card used up by a single event~! to be exact, 125 of them...and not all moments are captured by the way. And part of the time mine and derrick's camera wasnt with us.. as soon as they were laid on the table, they would be taken and photos are been shot at the other end of the table..haha! Sure you guys had fun! (p/s: hope u guys have no problems getting your shots from the online album!)



Not forgetting, the food was great! yummy...( see the happy face? haha...)



After we were done with our food, the moment came. The staff came with the cake, and dom was been made to stand on her chair, while the birthday song was sung loudly! Yup, the whole level knew who's the star tonight..!
(The staff are good.. not only they allow "outside" cake, they knew when to bring it up, what to do (cheer and sing), plates and utensils are provided too! And this is widely known, coz other people had similiar celebrations too... That night alone we seen/heard 2 or 3 other people standing and birthday songs/cheers too ^_^ )



Dom was certainly not empty handed too. Check out e picture for the amount of gift she received! (on way back she seems as if she just went shopping)



And of cos, the best is derrick's for sure... Not only it's a specially made (only 1 in e world) MTV of her, it was nicely wrapped up and even "broadcasted" on the spot! Woh, dom was melted... haha!!



After the dinner and spending some time at Plaza Singapura, sadly i have to make a move first.. Heard there's more after it.. The remaining people was chilling out at TCC...wish i was there!


...the night was real fun.. More importantly, glad dom had enjoyed it alot too!!

3 days quickly

Quick updates of myself... As mentioned earlier, monday i was having flu, and tuesday morning it gotten worse so in the end i was on MC. But well, at least i can sleep for the entire day and to recharge back all the energy i had lost over the past few days... ^-^

Wednesday i was back at office, but still with the tipsy-ness from those pills..grr. The entire office was getting crazy too, 'cos our new director had came out with this "SPOTIN" thing (sounds like "Blogging" ah.), which requires everyone from the entire department (yes all. HQ, maritime, cantoment, Traffic...) to create a webpage in the intranet about themselves...and the dateline is 26th august morning (tommorrow). As all my pic are at home, i rushed out one last night...a 4-page-with-frames webpage...And since i was running out of ideas, i just scanned my security pass for my "face"... hope it doesnt look too corny... ;p

Meanwhile, my lucky sister...just received her pre-launch copy of the Initial D movie DVD too, by post..happy girl haha.. i only have time to watch the "making of"... but it was already good enough! ;) I realised there are many deleted scenes from the movie, and Jay Chou dubbed his own voice for the Cantonese version. And the behind the scenes stuff are...cool.

Today... the crazy-ness continues... at 4+ pm everyone in my division (maritime) were busy with their sites... For those early birds, they did nice flash animated pages... those busy ones got a template from the net and edited with their info. One created a crossword puzzle with his info as the answers. One shaped all his stuff into the shape of his initials (and the words cant be seen. too small.) Some just place a photo and 3 lines of text, against white background. Some just place a simple "testing page" or "under construction", only to fill up their "place". The best? "You are not authorised to view this page"... haha...

Should be all back to normal tomorrow?

paisei oh, heez.

There's always a chain reaction for things, so are for tiriness too...

First, friday night i gotten activated for standby duty, after which when i finally gotten home it's already 3am.. Sat we had great fun at dom's bday, but was so tired after it... For the whole of sunday i was at Jurong, and today.... down with a runny nose... *sniff*.

...So that's why you see i havent got to update you guys about sat event (dom's birthday) til now... hehez...paisei huh, will get a nice one up here asap... tomorrow night hopefully oh...

p/s: anyway, i had just uploaded all the 125(!) photos from dom's birthday. ;-) Now all are up at my Yahoo Photos. Please do follow the link on the top left side!! Any photos u want to develop? Drop me a email and i'll email them to u... :)

bye siemens, hello nokia

last week, i told myself i had enough... my siemens wasnt still quite that stable (ya it hung on me again, and again), it lacks quite a number of stuff, and battery life wasnt that good... But, the trade-in value looks good... so before the price drops any further, why not i trade it in for another brand new phone with more features (from another brand, of coz.) And make it a flip phone too as might well.

A flip phone had been my ideal shape actually... but i always cant find one with a balance between price and features... The new Sony Ericssons (K750 included) are too pricy for me... for the other brands, either they lack in the software (connectivity) or the stuff they have..

So, after some research, the best choice appears... Nokia 6260. Nice price, and it have all the features i need ;)

And saturday, i bought the phone, with my SL65 traded-in and a 2 year plan signed (on my mum's new line) Actually, it was slightly a "risk" for me.. While normally i would find a real sample of the phone and tried it out first, i didnt this time... all my info was from the net.. From what i heard, the major complains were the bad build quality, the difficulty in single hand use, and the camera resolution...but hey, thankfully it wasnt that bad at all..! In fact, the camera was much better than my SL65's... at least i can take up to 640X480, and the colour and viewfinder are much better than the SL65.. Anyway, if i'm really to take proper pictures, i would have taken them with my digi-camera. True, some of the buttons do not feel that good, but it's still acceptable... Overall, the casing quantity feel is good. And guess my palm is big... i could sms with my right hand only.. hehe...

2 days now, and no problem. Been using siemens since my first phone, so i wasnt too used to it at first... but now i'm adapting it fast... indeed nokia is user friendly ^-^ More importantly, no screws up, no data lost, no hangings, very stable.

But.. if the package includes a data cable, it would be perfect... For the whole of yesterday, i been living with a few phone numbers and a empty set only.. haha..until i'm able to borrow shufang's laptop to transfer in my address book (exported from SL65) and a few ringtones and stuff ...gonna buy a USB-bluetooth soon.

Nevertheless, one happy owner now. heehe. ^_^

.

camera away

I realise that i have more events coming up real soon that requires the need for my camera (and my hand is getting itchy too...)

so, during lunch time today, a trip to Canon service centre @ Keppel Bay Tower



Perhaps as today is a school holiday, there are quite a number of kids in the quite crowded waiting area (as u can see in the foreground, a kid and a pram... there are more) Of cos, other than kids and fathers, there are white collars, well dressed ladies, and some pros too, with their dSLR... woh.

Anyway, the service was quite not bad... Despite the number of people there, waiting time wasnt too long actually. Plus, there are cozy sofas, newspapers, and free flow of coffee (from a coffee maker) to make waiting time seems short.

(Just to add on, the best i had seen so far is Hewlett-Packard's, at Alexandra Technopark... for this, on top of the sofa and coffee, there's even "cater-style" snacks and internet access from several computers...and free parking, if you drove there. That's why last time, you get 4 person from my office just to service one PDA... haha..i'm one of them)

Back to my camera... fault found to be Lens problem... and as it's already soo long after warranty, it's $130 (includ. service charge)... Guess i would fix it first, since getting a new decent camera would cost me 400,500 dollars...

and they would contact me again in one week.. hmm... who knows, scully they would give me the offer like my colleague's. But even they dont, it's ok, 'cos i do like my present camera... she had seen soo much stuff together with me, over this short 2 years....

.

happy national day~!

belated... ;p.. didnt get the chance to touch e keyboard last night



Happy 40th national day!!


wishing everyone here all the best for this coming year,

more good news, more peace, more improvement in all our "weak" areas.


For those who are able to watch the parade at padang yesterday, hope it was great and memorable!

For those who miss it, it's ok, there's still next year ;)


take care everyone!

ThaiExpress-less (And happy Birthday Soon Leong)

First of all,

HaPpY bIrThDaY SoOn LeOng!!!
20th years old le orh....

ok, last nite, derrick, dom, pearlyn, jasmine, issac, soon leong and me had a quick meet up for dinner, for soon leong bday in advance. We went to the esplanade bay area cos there would be fireworks that night (hey leong, that's ur bday present.. hee) but wow... alot many other singaporeans think in the same way too.... so u can imagine the crowd there last night...

sigh, i miss my camera..!! (see previous entry)

The fireworks are simply spectacular..! There's one which are made up of red and white, which i find it nice and reminds me of our flag.. hee. And of cos, the finale, which was a continuous chain of fireworks...very captivating..

With digi-cameras and camera-phones so common, you expect everyone was busy snapping pictures throughout. Personally, i find the view -- all the small bright LCD screens in foreground, and the giant fireworks in background -- actually makes a very nice photo... again, where's my camera...haha


After the sky had cleared, we went on for dinner, at ThaiExpress (Esplanade branch). My previous experiences with this restaurant was not bad, but after this visit last night, guess it would be a real long time before i would ever step in one again.....

What happened?

Allow me to sum up in a timeline..

~8pm
Start to Queue
Waited for real long
There are empty tables inside, but queue not moving
People going from another entrance and occupy the tables

~9pm
Finally given us table.
Placed our order in a short while
Need to wait for 30-45mins for our food ah? ok lor..

~930pm,
Drinks are finally here...
(doubt they take 30mins to boil water right..)

around 1015pm
First dish finally arrive...

1030+pm
Last person's dish is served (it's only a simple chicken rice)

1100pm
Finish dining, bill please
Huh? $130+ ?? only 6 of us ok.
Made up of cancelled orders and... the bill for the previous table.
in the end? only $75+

1130pm
finally left Thai"express"

(For full details, please visit Pearlyn's Blog.)

what a long dinner...2.5hrs for waiting. even longer than a wedding banquet...


p/s: nevertheless, enjoyed the night with the guys!! If not for the long wait, i guess i wouldnt have so much time to interact with them, especially soon leong! catch up again soon..!

.

is this yours??

Does this look familiar to you? Had you lost a pair of earrings recently and just could not find it? Had you sat in my van recently?

If it's all a "yes" to above, please call me. This might just be your earrings.

By the way, they were discovered when my dad was cleaning up the van. Was found in the gap of the rear bench, suspected to had been dropped off from the pocket.

Had already asked my sister and shufang too... does not belong to them..

so, if you are the owner, do inform me and i will get it back to you..

Thanks!!

.

blank screen, blank shots... oh my god!!!

I have an event coming up tomorrow and now, 1 day before it, my Canon A60 camera had decided to call it a day.... Just tried to on it..but instead of the colourful LCD display, i get a blank black screen.... "aiya, nevermind, think only the display spoil, i just try to live with it first lor..." ....and i shot a photo to try. And? it turns out to be a black picture...

so the 5 minutes quick diagnostic results? Lens/chip problem. Damned...she's totally down now.

Bought her on August 2003, second hand. She was nearly new, 'cos the previous owner had gotten her as freebie from a purchase. Started with a "mileage" of 60 shots when i first got it, the counter now reads 4031 shots, after nearly 2 years of usage.

Heard from my colleague previously that when his Canon A70 failed (similiar problem i think) and he took to the Canon service centre, it's was beyond economical repair (BER).. so they gave him an offer of topping up $120+ to get a brand new A95 (the set only, without the rest of the package) , while they will keep fhe spoilt camera (for spare or whatsoever, i dont know).

would i get a similiar offer like this, this time? hmm...


but for now, derrick arh....gonna depend on your camera again liaoz.

taxi = hazard?

Were you struck in the so-called (by the EMAS) "massive traffic jam" today on ECP after rochor road? Perhaps i'm one of the witness of the cause of the accident, but i guess it had left an impression in me now... b'cos in all my (young) years, this is the first time i saw an car accident happening in front of me... (previously only the "after effect")

5+ pm today... i was with my colleague on ECP, on the way from office to marina south, for the national day carnival (yes i'm involved...anyone wants to go?? Details later...) As we were chatting, i noticed that there were some clouds of sand on the opposite side of the highway... And because of these sand, a taxi, on the right most lane, stopped to still. The next 4 or 5 cars behind stopped too, but not for the 6th one (a taxi)... It was too late, and it just went into the car infront...and a '98 Mitsubishi Lancer (my favourite model...again..) went right into this taxi, immediately... everything happened soo fast, a series car accident all right in the view of me and my colleague...

So, after around 30mins at marina south, work done, left for home.. I got a ride from my colleague to Pasir Ris. As we entered the highway from marina south, the jam had already extended to here..(it's off-office peak, to make matters worse...) When we finally reached the spot of the accident, then i realise it was worse than what i saw... There's already an ambulance there, so there's injuries...(earlier i still thought there's werent any injuries...) There's another (Brand new) Mazda 3 onto the back of the Lancer too... and the front of the Lancer was partially below the rear of the taxi... so u can see the extend of the impact... but thankfully, it didnt reach until the windscreen, or else the injuries would be even more worse... But the best thing is that, the very first taxi, which stopped on his path unnecessarily, was gone.

Heard from my colleague that it's always the most troublesome matter in cases like this... If your car is being crashed from behind, yes you can claim from that guy's insurance company, but you have to claim from yours first (while the companies sort out the case for months...) But once the other company had paid back your company, then you can enjoy back the No-claim rebate (taken as no claim) ...But if you are the person crashing onto others' car and when they claim from your insurance company, not only you would lost the rebate, you might have to pay a higher premium next year.

And if it's a case of multi car pile up, and if you are the one in the middle, good luck. The case will be much more complicated... it will depends on the action of the person infront.... to claim from you? or not.

But in many cases, the person who caused the accident might not be there...so you just become the innocent one.... Like in my colleague case 2 years back...During then, a BMW cut into his lane abruptly... he e-braked and avoided a crash, but his rear was smashed by a Taxi... his brand new Toyota Corolla was only 2 months old then... and the BMW? sped off.

Hence, no matter what, in an accident, it's always trouble, headache, and heartache.

Pity the drivers involved today on ECP...

And...moral of story for all drivers... :

always keep a safe distance from the car infront, and look far...
....and i will drive carefully too....

zoo, hostel, national library

Sunday... a long day.. but a great day ;-)

(started at 8am plus)

Morning

Earlier, my department suggested a welfare event to visit the Zoo.. and since yesterday was the Home Team family day at the Zoo, my dept guys decided to combine ours with the major one too... (save the work) So, yesterday morning, me and my colleagues, with the free tickets, visited it. Wow, guess i havent been there since my primary school days? and in comparsion of what's in my memory, the place looks so much different now...! Also with the number of staff and families there, the place is soo crowded... what was printed on my ticket suggest that the package is for more than 5000 people... o_0

Anyway, here are some of the pix i took ;) enjoy!

family of wild pigs


kids-are-excited-with-her-hops-Kangaroo


rare white tiger


camel's lunch


zebra -- my sister did not spot the Zebra at night safari previously...so i took this for her. haha


Horse ride -- the only in singapre? (as they claim)


Many many penguins


penguins... pretty cute eh them


And of cos... how would i miss out "myself??"

Polar bear very lazy, not swimming... sleeping on the open...hehe!



there are some other sections too which i had missed out (due to time)... ie the fragile forest...perhaps next time on own bah?


noon

After the zoo, i went straight down to causeway point to meet shufang. Woodlands...is where i lost my way again, at the confusing HDB block 700 plus carpark...hahaa.. need to be more familiar next time! But...in the hurry, i realise that i forgot to close the ERP IU cashcard cover after i had parked in the hdb multi-storey carpark ;-p... and with the frequent cases of car windows being smashed by thieves for the cashcard....this is certainly one of those worst moments i had, when i recalled about the cover, only at causeway point after lunch.... if any thing happens to the family van, i can forget about the keys for a long time...! so, as i try to relax myself, shufang bought her stuff, and we rushed to the carpark...thankfully, nothing happened...phew.... lesson learnt... in future, check cashcard before leaving!

At the hostel... due to some reasons, shufang had changed her room to another block in hall 7. Just next to the carpark now, it's seems to be a better one cos there are more air flow now compared to the previous one.., and her roommate seems to be a nice girl too (althought i havent saw her yet...hee..she was outside) Hope that she would have a good time now! take good care...

late evening

Third and last thing for the day... After bidding good bye with shufang, i set off for Bugis, to meet up with derrick and dom... hey to think of it, it's really a long time since we 3 meet up! Really just like the good old times ;-) Derrick suggested to go to the new national library, so we had a meal there at Hans... not a bad place to chill out! And many laughs during dinner too ;) After dinner, we checked out the reference section... quite a number of school old yearbooks are there! Good when you had lost yours, or just want to check out your friend's "young looks"... hehe! There's also the archive of old newspapers in microfilm, dated all the way back to 2 centuries ago! Interesting to me... (ok la, i havent try them before...haha)

(Anyway, if you recalled, i mentioned previously that i would take photos on my next visit right? This time, my camera is all ready with battery, but i do not have enough time to take cos it was very near the closing time (9pm) then... .so... hehe...)

After it, we had a quick shopping at bugis and city hall, for dom's presentation. (good luck dom!! for your presentation! hope it went great!!) Then, i had to make a leave first, cos i have to rush down to pick up my mum from her workplace....luckily no jams at CTE..hee.


(got home at 11pm)...

tired? certainly. But had a great day ;-)

Bonjour~~! help moi launch GT4?

Yesterday, while i was with shufang at orchard, we decided to went up to the Sony Gallery Shop on the 4th storey of Wisma. Initial idea was to take a look at my "proposed" SE K750 and the price, but there wasnt much new news that i had gotten there. Instead, my eyes landed something at the Gallery -- The latest Gran Turismo 4 game, running on PS2 and a big Projector Screen, for playing on the spot... drool...

but, there's already this small boy (3yrs old?) "hoarding" onto the game.. a quick look at the track timing suggests that he had been playing for 6 minutes, and all he had done was only forward, bang, reverse, bang, forward.... Nevermind, i just "queue up" behind and wait... (anyway, shufang's best friend had called her too on her mobile, and she already chatting on the phone by now... paisei ah girl, hope u r not bored for those minutes..!)

finally, i guess the little boy had gotten bored and ran to the PSP next to it... hehe, my turn!! wow... totally impressed with the game... the range of cars to choose from already had left me drooling...especially all those japanese domestic models... click click click , and my Toyota Altezza Glita roar in to life ;) Once in race, the physics and handling of the car is soo impressive... it's so realistic! (and it means it's hard to play too...u got to be a pro..haha) And oh yes, the graphics and effects are stunning too..shiok

The next 5,6 mins passed by quickly, and i'm done with my race. But as i hand over to the controller to the next person (a caucasian tourist), he stopped me and asked

"excuse me, could u help me go de menu?"
"eh? ok sure,"
"if can change to english mode better?"
"ah, this is japanese version... i guide you?"

and while we are at the car selection screen, immediately his cursor went to Renault..

"Ah, you from france?"

A nod and smile from his face tells me immediately that they are really proud of their domestic products ;)

And a cool Peugeot 206CC was selected and he's in the game... wow, so pro, what a good driver. Guess he had already mastered his GT3 at france.

Gran Turismo... What a great and perfect game, for car enthusiasts.... and this is internationally recognised too.