A Life is Ended

Was at Bukit Batok MRT earlier to go to IMM to meet Amy to discuss life in general when i saw something none of us should ever have to see. And more importantly, no one should ever do.

Fast, efficient determined
Full of life and purpose
Full of resolve
Inexorable
WAIT!

With a scamper of feet
Three quick steps
screamed
leapt
end


I was standing no more than 2m away from her. That was 2 hours odd ago and i'm getting over the shock of it thuogh my tummy still feels queasy.

What could have driven someone to do that??? It sure makes any problems we have seem trivial when someone else has issues so insoluble that they have to do that. Are we as a society unable to care enough for people in need of help that they need to do something like that?

I hope the children on the platform get proper help dealing with this...it was around 2pm with lots of kids.

At the moment it happened, first thing that struck me was shock then this overwhelming feeling of sadness. Now, i'm just glad to be alive with trivial trivial problems and issues to deal with. God, thank you so much for giving me the life i have.

Old Uni Friends

L to R: Cheryl, Janet, Denise and Me

FINALLY met up with the bunch of them where we managed to update one another. Seems like everyone is moving on/settling down... man..positively felt oldish among them.

Anyway, had popiah and bbq wings in the coffee shop diagonally across Crystal Jade at Holland V. Btw, the teh peng there costs $1.20 a pop. Sheesh. Then we went for a proper dinner at this other coffee shop near Buona Vista CC. Walked and walked just for yu pian mee fun! Adjourned to NYDC after that.

Turns out Janet's cheewahwah, Louie ran off with some bitch. And when i told her my crazy indian neighbour had 5 or 6 of them in his house, she wanted to come over and check out his dogs to see whether he kidnapped her poor Louie. Thought she was kidding at first but several SMSes on my way home later, i was left in no doubt. She will be bringing a few aircraft carriers with her to liberate Louie if he is among the captives. Even if he is happy there.

Denise was a lot more civilized yesterday :) Didn't slam me against any walls, thank goodness. Think that's a symptom of people settling down. her hubby will have a tough tough time dominating her that's for sure. Unleash Gozirra at his own peril :P

Cheryl, to whom i spent heaps of time talking to on icq while in NY is now working in MOE. haha, gets to do what she loves best, read the papers. Even a good thing can wear thin too when u have to keep doing summaries of stories. But at least work is interesting and there is actually stuff to get done now, unlike her previous job.

Pain!

Hmm..price of the walk, a bit of carelessness. The irony is that i didn't trip on some natural impediment, but rather lost my balance on a railing and fell back, scraping my leg against a stone bench :) Oh i love the things we add to enhance nature.

Instructions For Use

Instructions! Read carefully before use.

Little Guilin In Bukit Batok

The way up is from Chu Lin Road


Ahh...the view...would be great if the water was deep green or at least black instead of the muddy brown that it is now.

*pant* *pant*

What goes up...


Those of you who know me and wondered where i got my legs from. here's your answer, cycling up and down this thing numerous times a day does that to you :P

Must come down...

Another Great Friday

Quote of the Day "i'm tirrreeed"

Played baddie at the SSS again. But this time all the boys were away for some match thing elsewhere, so got to play with a bunch of secondary school age girls. Most of them were pretty good and a pair of them beat me and Yu Hua (who had to play with her left hand cos she stubbed her right little finger on a bball). Dammit man, had to go pick up all the shuttles from all over the hall as the loser of a bet :P haha, all good fun.

Also met Hel's husband Chris. Nice guy who plays bball really well and decent baddie player too. Here's wishing you many great years ahead :)

After baddie, went down to town to meet Joanna where i made an utter fool of myself. Somehow i managed to walk the wrong direction from City Hall MRT when i was supposed to go to Chjimes to meet her. Doh Doh Doh. Well, another example of my lousy sense of direction.

Went to HV to eat at NYDC where we expected Rachel to meet us but she left her wallet in her office and so decided that she had to go get it at 10 something! Anyway, ended up going all the way to Upper Thomson to meet her and Xin Li. Along the way there, Joanna and I, who are about as talented at direction finding as door knobs, managed to make a major wrong turn, then drive past the prata place and land up at Nee Soon camp before we realized we'd overshot!

Have to say the prata there was really good. The paper prata was like having roast duck rice where there was only duck skin. The whole prata was the best part. Rachel ordered some weird thing, prata with pork floss...which is like...err.... nvm. Anyway, she proceeded to mutilate it like the way a pack of lions take a buffalo apart, but at least the lions finish it off. Rachel left what looked like roadkill behind. :P

After supper, my lousy co-conspirator was so "i'm tireeedddd" that she missed her cue to help in our scheme. She had the temerity to laugh hysterically when Rachel shot me down like a hunter would a duck! Grrrr..she claimed "Chicken, Mutton, Beed...and Satay ah?" as her defense.

Army Daze II - SISPEC... Suffer in Silence....

SISPEC - Suffer In Silence Plus Extra Confinement
"Extra" - Weekend guard or COS duty

It was exactly that for me as i never really came to accept the harsh (by my standards) injustices that NS inflicted us. Not that i can complain really, i almost always brought punishments down on myself.

SISPEC got broken into two phases by the time i went in Basic Section Leader's Course (BSLC) and Advanced Section Leaders Course (ASLC). I was simultaneously most popular and popular. For me, signing extras in one's or two's was lame. I had to do it in blocks of 7's and 8's.

First big one was for playing football after lights off even though we had a navigation exercise (Navex) the next day. To make matters worse, i was supposed to be "excused leg"..you know like semi cripple so i couldn't walk long distances. By the tmie i had finished playing and walked back to the company line, i saw a whole bunch of people doing jumping jacks and pushups. Mystified, i sneaked in for a closer look, thinking it was the company opposite mine that was being punished. Anyway, i calmly walked towards them but no sooner had i turned towards the stairs did i hear my name shouted out. It was my company being punished!! They had a turn out and found a few of us football jokers missing! Man, i can still remember the baleful stares. The next morning, i was threatened with being charged, which i thought was silly. Sent to DB for playing football after lights off? HA HA. Unfortunately, my CSM was in a good mood so he just gave me that evil smile and said, "You sign 6".

Upon which i dumbly replied, "Sign 6?" 20 push-ups later, he explained that it was 6 extras.

Keep in mind the course was supposed to last 13 weeks, so for the second half of those 13 weeks, i spent a day in the guardhouse or as COS one day of every weekend.

That wasn't the end of it either. In our so called major exercise at Tekong (which should be renamed Tekan), i managed to misfire after our platoon had executed a harbour for the night. That my PC was a real bastard ensured that we had to relocate. The next morning, i was told to see the CSM to sign. When he saw me again, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"So near the end of course ask you to sign for what? Nevermind, you take 7."

HAHAHAHAA...2nd or 3rd last week and you want me to sign 7, right, i will pay those back. Somemore i still otanged him 3 more at that time. He would get the last laugh as i got posted to ASLC, in the same company.

ASLC passed without further incident until our last exercise at Tekong where i proceeded to do exactly the same blood thing. The shot pierced the silence of the night and was followed by the roar of my PC, "Corporal HOW!!!!! IS that you again!!"

To the shock and amazement of everyone, i replied "Yes, sir, it's me, again" Clear as a whistle in the immediate silence. You have no idea how quiet startled people can really be.

LOL, amid groands and muttered curses, we shifted harbour again. I think my PC and fellow platoon mates shared a rare moment of solidarity there. Everyone roundly hated moving out after having moved heaven and earth (rather leaf litter) to get into a comfortable position. Oh i took 7 for that too. And i had only just finished serving the others from BSLC.

Grand total for SISPEC without having to be formally charged, 6 + 7 + 7 = 20. In a 26 week course i signed 20 and spent 20 weekends off, in camp. Oh well, had no gf and parents weren't in Singapore anyway, so i was kinda ok with it. Besides, it meant i could enjoy the wonderful camp beds :P

After passing out of SISPEC, i was sure they would post me to a Basic Military Training school. I mean they couldn't possibly want to send a section commander into the field who misfired everytime he went into safe harbour, right?

Postings were done in a big shed where the Officer Comanding called out names followed by place of posting. After lots of Nee Soons, Tekongs, my name got called, "3rd Sergeant How Kin Wee, SPT"

WTF?! School of Physical Training?! KNS. That's a whole other story.



Check out other army stories here.

Ikea

Anyway, met up with Joanna and we went to Ikea to try the Swedish meatballs that so many people have been raving about. Have to say they were quite nice but...hmm...dunno which corner of my tummy they disappeared to man! As i was walking, i could hear them knocking around in my tummy...that bouncing sound as the sound echoed in my empty tummy. :P

Was supposed to get a whole bunch of things from Ikea but somehow just kept walking around and changing my mind and in the end just ended up with a shower curtain. Wanted to get this really nice and soft quilt cover set but the darn place didn't have it in super single size. Single, queen, king....super singles is for..fat people like me! Com'on Ikea!

Anyway, Joanna got a plant from there, wonder if it will survive :) Apparently her last one kaputed in the office. hehe, she needs to look after her plant the way Leon from The Professional looked after his. :P

On the way back, we "almost" hit the back of a reversing lorry on a ramp off the AYE! haha...i say "almost" but really, it was quite a distance away but i'm just plain jumpy in her car :P

Freaky Old Bugger

Decided to to some gardening today. Tried to get rid of some of the morning glory that is in the throes of a violent effort to suppress my pandan leaf plantation.

Was a little worried about snakes but that turned out to be the least of my worries.

The back house is owned by an Indian guy and he came out to talk to me while i was using a rusted chopper to slash at the morning glory. he kept repeating over and over that the pandan leaves are very fragrant and so attarct all kinds of animals, snakes basically. So i told him i knew that but he kept going on, much like what i'm doing now. Anyway, soon he changed tack and said that even dogs and people are attracted to it to which i thought he was a bit crazy but i didn't say anything. Next he offered to ask his gardener friend to come in and level the patch which of course i said "no thanks". By now i was a bit annoyed but what he said next really freaked me out. Keep in mind it is 7th month now, and i am staying alone, he said, "That's what i told you last night, right?" Of course i didn't talk to him last night. But he kept insisting that he spoke to me over the fence last night! Bugger!!

Fortunately, his maid was in the background tending the washing machine and i saw her waving to me and signalling that the guy was cuckoo. You know, the sign where u twirl your finger around the side of your head?

thinking back now, i wonder if even she was real, or maybe some wee ghostie trying to hide something!


View from my room window. Notice all the pandan leaf plants? And the morning glory scrambling all over them? Grrr

Try This

People, try this out :)

http://personal.baker.edu/web2/cdavis09/roses.html

i haven't figured it out yet either.

Evil Machine

I ALWAYS knew that machine was evil! But i've finally gotten confirmation after numerous incidents. Just a few days ago, it managed to steal one of my V5 pilot pens and spin it around like mad until the ink came out. This time it's eaten my comb and spat it out like chewed sugarcane! Can't eat plastic huh! i had better keep my wallet and phone out of its reach :P

Short Walk

Not a lot to think or write about but lots of stuff here is bringing back memories, which i would like to preserve. Thus the describe a picture style or narrative.

Jogged to the end of the street and up into a new trail they made into the bushes. The trail led to the mass of bushes overlooking Xiao Guilin. Didn't know the darn thing has become so muddy! What an eyesore! But it still reminded me of the times my friends and i hid in storm drains leading into the pond to catch tiger barbs. Don't think i'll touch that water anymore. Think teh tarik and u're not far off.


Rubber seed i picked up along the walk/jog

Too bad a tree had fallen over if not i would have wakled on down to Xiao Guilin itself. Was about to climb over the fallen tree and push through the branches when i saw a huge trail of red ants. Not to be trifled with. Besides, my lard ass was already feeling a little tired. Fleeing for home and a cold shower was too compelling to ignore

Genetic Doping

Check this out

ttp://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/23/marathon.mice.ap/index.html

"Instead of improving times by fractions of a second, the genetically enhanced marathon mice ran twice as far and nearly twice as long as naturally bred rodents.
The engineered mice ran 1,800 meters before quitting and stayed on the treadmill an hour longer than the natural mice, which were able to stay running for 90 minutes and travel 900 meters. Evans said he has not seen any adverse side effects in the engineered mice."

First thing that came to mind; IPPT? No problem lah!

Second, I reckon the first people they should try this therapy on are the people in California Fitness Gym, the one near Orchard Cineleisure. All we need now is to install dynamos on the treadmills there. Blackout? What blackout?

Of Longans, Coconuts and Home

Okay..i've officially started my coming home bout of sickness. 2kg of longans and 2 coconuts saw to that. Yes i know longans are heaty, but coconuts were supposed to be "cooling" right?? Looks like the yeethei forces overwhelmed the leong forces this time. Next time i'll stock up more coconuts.


Thing with coconuts is that they are damn inconvenient to break. i'm not allowed to use the chopper at home.

So what i do is use the back of a spoon to break a hole through their eyes and stick a straw in to suck all the brains out much like the Starship Troopers brain bug's modus operandi. The tricky part comes next. I use that stone u see to whack the living daylights out of the coconut which will eventually crack...not fully so i don't mess up the flesh inside. A little too difficult to do in the dark at night, so that means i can only have coconuts when there is light. Guess coconuts will have to go nocturnal. *mad gibberish mode still on*

I also thought of the brilliant idea of putting coconuts in the freezer so when the juice freezes, it would crack the coconut open through the expansion of the ice block forming inside. Good sense prevailed (after my sister asked how i was going to drink a block of ice) and i didn't try it. I won't try it until i finally accidentally bash my fingers with that stone. Upon which i am sure i will pitch that stone as far as i can. Hopefully it won't kill anyone.

Oh well, maybe it will kill anyone trying to climb over my fence to use the tap in my washing area. A few years back, a cousin staying at my house actually caught a maid from the house behind ours cimbing over with a while basket of clothes to wash. WTF is all i can say. Too bad she didn't skewer herself on the jagged fence and give her employer lots of grief. I can't imagine her climbing over on her own volition, which means i have to watch out for my neighbours climbing over to save a few cents. No fear, i've dug up the back garden and instaledl a pit filled with of bamboo spears coated with faeces. Much like what the viet cong did in Vietnam. Ok, a bit morbid, but my back garden is so overgrown with pandan leaf plants that i'm going all primal. Soon i'll coat my face with mud and hunt for rats with a spear!

Trespassers Beware!

Old Friend

Was out and about and bumped into Joshua, a childhood playmate. We've lost contact over the years and seeing him brought back a lot of old memories. Like how we would go to Xiao Guilin and catch tiger barbs using cut off coke bottles, caught tortoises from there too. All the cycling and scooting in and out of abandoned (in the process of major renovations and left open) houses. Oh, and i remember him and his small BMX bike that he could bunny hop to the extent of being a kangaroo jaunt.

Also remembered a couple of other secondary school cycling friends:

Conrad Choo
Son of my art teacher Edward Choo. This guy always had the spiffiest bicycle hardware. Oh, he also managed to annoy the hell out of another teacher that was staying in his apartment block. Every morning, he would hold court over one of the two lifts in his block for a few minutes. Don't quite remember how he did that. Prolly by dropping a bag in the way of the doors.

Jeremy Hu
Son of Dr Richard Hu of finance fame. This guy managed to have 2 accidents in one day. Oh, think i also managed to get scolding from his dad for calling his house too late before.

I still remember how we cycled to school on rare occasions and had to park our precious bicycles at the back of the class. Our teachers never knew what to make of it. Wonder how everyone is doing now...

We're (Singaporeans) Ugly People

Shucks, Li Jiawei just got knocked out by that irritating North Korean grunter/screamer. man...i'm sure she makes those noises even in her sleep!

Anyway, i can see the headlines in the sports pages tomorrow already..."Li Jiawei Upset by North Korean".... coupled with the "Sorry Singapore" splashed in The Newpaper when Ronald Susilo lost.

First off, Ronald, there is nothing to be sorry about. You tried your best, and came away with great experience if not a relatively successful trip. Sure, he lost to the Thai guy badly, but he managed to bring his game to a higher level to beat the Chinese world number one. Surely he deserves great credit for that, and not just on the day after he beat the Chinese guy but even the moment he lost to the Thai guy. I found it extremely disappointing to read/hear comments by people saying that he had no mental strength etc etc and therefore lost. For goodness sakes, weren't you the same ones who said he had great mental strength and tenacity to beat the world number one? Please stop being such flip flops guys. AND, what he needs from us is encouragement and appreciation for his efforts, not our derisive comments like "cannot make it lah". People who say such things, YOU are the ones who "cannot make it".

How are to expect future generations of sportsmen and women to succeed or even consider a career in sports if we,
1) Belittle them when they lose (as they surely must sometime) even after having performed beyond themselves
2) Make general remarks about how they will always stumble somewhere. It will soon become a stigma if not already. It's almost as if these people want them to fail jsut so they can trot out the same old phrases.
3) Offer a HUGE cash bonus for succeeding when they really should be using that money to give them better training and prep work. Would $250k more spent on helping Li Jiawei have prepared her better? I don't know but surely it couldn't have hurt.

And to those people and their load of crock about how they disappointed us. Were u the ones playing? Were you trying your best to get a medal so as to get a cash bonus to make your life a little easier? Were you the ones who would have the medal hung around your neck? I didn't think so. So please don't act as if it is the end of the world for you, it is the two players who have to live with the disappointment AND derision of misinformed miscreants.

Great Friday

Today has been great despite a wet start.

Was supposed to meet Hel at Singapore Sports School (SSS) at about 3 something to play baddie but because the skies were going all dark, i left the house earlier. Just in time too; i got to the bus stop no more than a minute before it started pouring. Phew...or so i thought. The wind started to pick up and i ended up totally drenched! Dammit...decided to stick it out continue on my way instead of running back home in the downpour to get more change. being the kiasu singaporean that i am, i had 5 t-shirts and extra shorts etc etc. BUT no extra socks!! argh! had to get a pair from West Mall (Bukit Batok MRT).

The SSS is actually pretty impressive looking. I love their baddie courts; the ceiling is really really high, lights are oh so bright, lines are proper ones instead of tape (which was the case in NY). They even had two synthetic carpet courts.

For my first game, i played singles with a 13 year old kid who was no taller than my armpit...and he proceeded to run my silly! I hate peeps that can run and run and run! I stay with them for the first 10 or so points but i inevitably get tired out and lose.

Next game i had, i partnered Hui Hua (ex national player) against my friend Hel and the little kid that just murdered me, Aloysius. that was a real hoot. Hel has this weird way of hitting forehand lifts...kinda like waving to tell someone to go away.

Anyway, the people there are really nice and invited me to come back again next week. I prolly will. After baddie, we went to town for dinner. Hel's hubby couldn't make it. Anyway, we had Japanese curry at a place near where the National Library used to be. I had beef curry which was excellent :) While waiting for food, we played helicopter cards. U know the kind where u challenge one another on things like speed, altitude, crew, length, etc.

GLUTTON me had a huge plate of rice witht he beef curry then ordered more rice! hehe, even finished Hel's curry fish, which she couldn't finish. Oh, washed it all down with about 7 glasses of water.

Time: 9:30pm

Rachel finally called after having finished her religious studies class (?!) and we met up with Joanna and Rach's friend Neil. Went to the Coffee Club outside California Fitness Gym near Sommerset MRT. Was Q'ing up waiting for a table when Rachel started mumbling something to me and making eyes. Was wondering what she was on about when she finally gave up and said loudly, "The guys behind you are GAY!!" Right...okay *shrug* haha

Joanna ordered a Muddy Mudpie and being pretty clueless, i just ordered the same. Man, it was heavenly. Lots of oreo crumbs with fudge. Ice cream cake :) Too good.

As it turns out, Neil and I were in the same school all the way from primary up to secondary, ACJS first than ACS. He even knew my cousin Alex and has been to my late grandparents' house!

All this time, i felt like i was in a sauna. So bloody hot and humid cos we were seated in the open air section. Didn't help that there were so many water decoration things around us. SWEAT SWEAT SWEAT. freak! Lucky the cologne and deoderant held up.

Joanna is flying off to Sabah tomorrow to be with family so we ended early. Frankly, i was quite relieved and it was great that Joanna had a car to drive. She stays like the next main street from where i am. Man, car air-con never felt so good! Along the way back, there was some road construction thing which blocked Joanna's view and we...ALMOST hit a cab. haha...thought it was pretty funny for some reason...earlier in the night, Rachel was telling everyone about my erratic driving skills. Anyway, can't blame Joanna for it, the stupid construction work essentially made a blind corner in the middle of a freaking big junction!

Apart from that minor bit of excitement, made it home all good :)

Thanks Hel for inviting me over to the SSS to play baddie and then treating me to a sumptious dinner.

Rach, Neil and Joanna for a great lot of trash talking that was funny all the way through.

As soppy as it sounds, it is always great to have good friends to hang out with.

Back in Sg

Okie dokies...am back in Singapore

Have finally gotten my computer together properly and even though the connection is still a bit wonky, at least it works. Thanks heaps Hel for helping me lug stuff around in Sim Lim :P

On another note...was walking to the MRT at Bukit Batok the other day and was approached by this cute girl to do what i thought was a survey, but she turned out to be a Prudential marketer.
Some of the questions were pretty thought provoking, later on that is.

Age: 26

Income: Zip

How much do you save a month? I am a net spender at the moment ( i could just see her mind going "credit card abuser!" I don't have one anyway so all is good.)

Are you working now: Nope

Etc etc....So i'm 26, jobless, and saving zip. The latter two should, hopefully, be changed within the next few weeks.

ANYWAY, turns out she was selling some Prudential savings plan thing that gets 5% - 9% interest instead of the 0.5% that i'm currently getting at POSB. Which in itself is another story.

Went to POSB hoping to get a new account set up but found that they still had my old account active! The grand total in savings in there? No more than 10 bucks! Those buggers have been taking 2 bucks from me each year for the past 5 years! Anyway, deposited a hit the ground running cheque frmo my dad and was glad to find out that cheques cleared in 1 working day. Unlike Australia which requires 4 or 5 working days.

okie dokies...more on this stuff later

oh...and peeps whom i have been harassing at your offices, brace yourself for more calls from me :)

The link posted by prissy doesn't seem to work properly on the tagboard
so here it is :)

http://www.intellectualwhores.com/masterladder.html

Guys who are having trouble bedding women AND keep getting booted into the abyss, please read it.

Girls who profess to wanting a guy that 1) knows how to take care of her 2)have goals and aims ie 50 year plan broken into months 3) has humour.......read it too :)

Darth Peacher approaches! 

Peach Picking

Seeing as how i will be going back to Singas at the end of this week, National Day holiday was our last chance to have a drive out of town.

Being Monday today, a lot of the fruit had been picked already by people over the weekend BUT there was still heaps to choose from. We ate our way along the rows of trees. Until by the end of it, I know i'm not gonna be eating any of the peaches we've picked and brought home. erks...


That's me reaching for low hanging fruit!

Last Supper?

Very much the same pattern as my usual Saturdays. Wake up and eat non-stop till i'm ready to burst then actually burst in my throne room. *coff* *splutter*

Had Dim Sum again in Flushing cos i was to meet Lei for a going away dinner thing. But since i was real early, i spent about two and a half hours *trying* to read a book while in a bubble tea place, Sago. Problem was, i kept getting distracted by all these girls walking in and out. Most of them were like stick insects though, you know the kind that might get blown away when a gust of wind comes. The book i brought along, Bushworld was a good time killer.

Being the lost puppy that i was with directions, lei had to park at some giant carpark and walk over to find me instead of me being able to find the giant carpark which was 5 minutes walk away and that i've been to two or 3 times already. Pathetic.

Not having fully digested my Dim Sum lunch, we soon found ourselves at Minado, a buffet place with heaps of seafood and sushi. Man....crab legs, oysters, beef steak (for the first time in a buffet i've been, the beef wasn't overcooked and but was instead done medium rare :)) ). I'm such a glutton. Despite the hangover of lunch, i managed to wolf down two plates of steak and sushi. Also had green tea ice cream which was really good. Annoying thing with that was they only provided tiny little plastic cup things, kinda like those plastic cups the hospitals use to put patient daily pill dosages in. Luckily i had the common sense to get a rice bowl from the hot food section :) This way, i managed to bring two giant scoops of ice cream back at a time. Had four in the end. As if i wasn't full enough after the ice cream, i just had to try the Alaskan Crab legs. Managed to cut my finger in the process of stripping shell from flesh.

Thanks heaps for the treat, Lei.

After dinner we headed on down to Ray's house to meet with Monik and the others that had gone out with her, they had some farewell outing for one of their close friends. The bunch of them are pretty darn tight having been hanging out together every week since high school, 8 odd years ago. Remember one of my earliest entries about a BBQ? haha...Monik was the chick that had quite a bit to drink and started spouting rubbish :P And Lei had to sit through it all in mortal fear that she would embarass him in front of me and Judy. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough rotten-grape squishings to make her high :P Poor girl had to settle for a few drops of red and some plum wine, which smelt kinda like ammonia to me.

Life here has been serweeet but really, the banquet has to end sometime.

Bush Talk

LoL, just love David Letterman. Every show will have a segment dedicated to the latest bit of Bush Speak.

"Our enemies are determined and resourceful, so are we.
They will keep trying to harm us, so will we"

Singapore's r/s with China/Taiwan

Most of you from Singapore who have been reading the papers will prolly know more about the continued controversy over DPM Lee's visit to Taiwan. Let me add a little background to it courtesy of an article in the Far East Economic Review and conversations with my dad. Opinions are mine.

Thin History
Let's take it back a long time, when SEA was still struggling against communists elements. Singapore did not exchange ambassadors with China at that time because of its neighbours' fears that Singapore would become a "Third China". Apparently, Singapore was the last country in Asean to establish an embassy in China.

However, by that time, the SAF was already using training grounds in Taiwan. For the same reason as above, we did not move training to China. Anyway, an understanding was reached between Singapore and China at the exchange of Embassies sometime in the 1970's. Singapore would recognize that there is one China while China would not protest Singapore's political VIPs' visits to Taiwan so long as they were kept low profile and the visits were done in unofficial capacities. If it were today, China would certainly not have agreed to that term, but at that time, Taiwan's leaders were still mainland Chinese who had fled there and they believed just as strongly as China's leaders that there was only one China. Fast forward to today, and Lee Teng Hui and Chen Shui Bian were born in Taiwan and have no affinity to China.

The situation is thus very different. Especially since Chen Shui Bian has been very aggressive in pushing against China's limits. DPM Lee may well have been within Singapore's right to visit Taiwan but with China so riled with Chen Shui Bian, it hit a raw nerve. Sure, SM Lee has visited Taiwan after these two have come to power but his stature is a lot different. They all know him well.

Opinion
For Singapore to then say that we are a sovereign country and should not have our foreign policy dictated to us by others is, frankly, quite a weak argument (i'm very tempted to speak my mind in more descriptive words but heck). And worse still, provocative! China has is on the verge of being confronted by Taiwan with similar statements and here we are emboldening them. Besides, who are we? We are a little dot on the map where if you looked into any world Atlas, the dot for Singapore's capital city on the map hides the island.

We are so small, we can't afford to be principled. What we need to be is pragmatic, which has been what we have been all the time. We've been bowing to American wishes and policy for so long, why do we not follow the same thing with China? We are so dependent on foreign trade, we should never offend our biggest trading partners, especially one that holds so much potential to growth and which is so vital to our country's wellbeing.

However, as gloomy as it looks, i reckon a lot of it is rhetoric. China must know that Singapore's position on one China has not and will not change but can't let it slide so easily because then others might be inclined to visit Taiwan. I reckon we should be blaming the friggin Taiwanese leadership and media for making such a big deal out of it. The real challenge next time will be which side Singapore will take when the contest for the Pacific rim between China and the US is fully entered into. Talk about having a foot in each boat. Hope we don't end up being in neither boat and in the water instead.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Finally caught Fahrenheit 9/11 a couple of days ago.

Seems that Bush's oil companies have been direct benefactors of Saudi oil money, especially from the royal family. They even have a nickname for the Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar who is better known as Bandar Bush. There were also many other startling connections revealed in the show. Like how every oil company Bush has been involved in has failed. Loved the sequences in the show that had Bush declaring that Airuk had new-Q-ler weapons and WMDs. Actually, i reckon Bush was right in that.

Afterall, it was the Americans that gave the Iraqies chemical weapons in the first place when Iraq was trying to fight the Iranians. Next time when they give another dictatorship chemical weapons, let me humbly suggest they secrete location beacons in them secretly, so finding them will be easier next time.In an incident a few months ago, American forces found a roadside bomb that they suspected contained WMD chemical compounds. No doubt had they turned the bomb over, they would have found "Made in America".

I just don't see how any American who has watched the show could ever vote him in. Perhaps only the employees of all the failing oil exploration companies and consultancies that he holds shares in. And luckily for him, there are other issues that he supposedly does well in. Though articulate speech isn't one of them. Several of his verbal slipups were in the show too. Will leave you to see it to find out :)

Saturday Bunch

My Saturday bunch :) Lei, Monik, Serena and me. We were the usual gluttons, ordering 7 dishes for 4 people. Thankfully, one of the dishes was no longer on the menu so had to be cancelled and the waiter had the common sense to "forget" one of the dishes we ordered. So only five dishes arrived in the end and still we couldn't have finished it if not for Lei not having eaten a full meal in two days.

Me = Brown Bear

The whale watching was all good but i was getting pretty darn hungry by then. Considering that for the past few days, i was eating almost nonstop. The salmon bake was an outdoor bbq style thing where they had this huge pit for bbq'ing the salmon steaks. I had 5 chunks of it. Will have to add salmon to the list of things i won't eat for the next month or two.

Speaking of which....102kg and counting!

Don't think the term "fluke shot" comes from this fluke shot. Though it's supposed to be reasonably rare for them to swim near the surface.
 

Puff Puff Puff...wonder if Nemo's somewhere in there. 

Alaskan Cruise II

We visited three of Alaska's cities during the cruise; Ketchikan, Juneau and Sitka. A good thing about guest services on the ship was that they helped you book shore excursions. So we went for one at Juneau that included whale watching, Mendenhall Glacier and a salmon bake.

The naturalist that followed us for the whale watching trip turned out to be be a philosophy major! Reckon we can all become naturalists like that. Though i have to say he was pretty knowledgeable. We were really lucky on this trip he said and even he got excited. We managed to find a pod of 8 - 10 whales doing bubblenet feeding. Also saw harbour seals, sea lions and a bald eagle nest.


This was what the Naturalist called bubble net fishing. What happens is the whales circle and blow bubbles, forcing fish to ball up. Once there are enough herring in there, the whales emit 200 decibel blasts of whalesong to stun the fish. We got to hear the noises cos the boat had an underwater microphone. Toned down a bit of course, considering that a jet plane taking off generates 130 decibels.

blogger playing games again...sian ah...pics above as u must have seen