Monday, October 31, 2005

death: part i

my paternal grandma passed away on mother’s day when i was in primary 3. that was my first experience with death.

it was sudden and totally unexpected as she had always been in good health. the entire clan was present as it was one of the usual sunday gatherings that we always had at our grandparents’ place.

my grandma had not been feeling well for a few days since the exhumation of my great-grandmother’s grave. it had been so long ago that i was too young to remember if she had passed away before or after we had reached her place.

she had checked the almanac on hindsight only to find that she shouldn’t have gone for the exhumation as it was taboo for women to engage in such activities on that day. a gp was brought in to certify her death while she laid on her bed in the bedroom.

after that, it was a week of colourful, traditional chinese funereal rites and rituals.

and then, there was this one night where the whole clan cramped into my grandparents’ tiny flat because my grandma’s spirit was supposed to be back for one last look of her loved ones.

an elaborate feast including chinese wine was laid out for the ghost constables, niu tou and ma mian so that they can eat their fill and hopefully get drunk, giving my grandma more time to see us.

no sightings by me though.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

butterfly

saw this pale green butterfly seeking refuge from the heavy rains outside on my bath towel.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

new bods trunks

bought this pair of trunks a few days ago...

ever since i started attending aquafit classes at my gym this month, i realised that my old pair of bods trunk has lost its elasticity and i'm only left with my trusty speedos.

so i grabbed this when i saw it on sale at seiyu.

Monday, October 24, 2005

parco bugis junction

went down to bugis junction to buy shopping vouchers for monica’s birthday present.

the service counter girl told me it’s out of stock. yes, that’s right. you read correctly, business is that good until they can’t replenish the stocks fast enough.

she didn’t volunteer when the vouchers will be available again. i had to ask her the question. and guess what’s the answer? no idea.

duh! why am i no longer surprised with such service levels in singapore anymore?

sigh…

african violets

my pot of african violets in the office is in full bloom again!

it started flowering since december last year and had been doing so intermittently throughout this year. only recently had the buds started flourishing so much.

yeah!

Friday, October 21, 2005

hp last day @ ibm

hmm… it has been quite some time since a colleague has left for greener pastures.

although hp actually belongs to another team, he was able to click very well with my team sometimes joining us for lunch.

i find him very helpful and ever-willing to go the extra mile for colleagues. he’s the expert to go to if you’ve got any questions on lc.

outside of work, he’s always joking and full of humour, never afraid of making a fool of himself.

a rather chatty person who probably can charm the birds off the trees. :P haha…

all the best to his future endeavours!

nissin cup noodle

my sister passed me a pack of cup noodle for me to try.

very cute, right?

but it’s not cheap though… costs $3.25 per pack of 4. 2 packets with doggie oden and 2 packets with piggy ones.

slurp.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

death

ky just sms to say that his grandfather passed away…

seems that his grandfather has been in poor health for a long while liao so it wasn’t a surprise to us.

it’s only when a death is sudden or unexpected that throws people off-balance.

come to think of it… all 3 of my grandparents have passed away suddenly at home.

my paternal grandmother on mother’s day when i was in primary 3. my maternal grandmother when i was in junior college. my paternal grandfather when i was in my final year at sim.

my deepest condolences to ky and his family.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

72 @ seng poh road

one of my ns friend had bought a unit at those pre-war walk-up apartments in tiong bahru, a rather quaint neighbourhood.

me & ky dropped by for a look-see since we were having lunch in the area.

sk paid around $280,000 for the 2nd storey unit and did it up simply. he did away with a bedroom to enlarge the living room. the layout of the flat has a longish shophouse feel.

there’s even a private back door via a spiral staircase which another of my ns friend thought it’s interesting.

is it nice to have a place to call your own? definitely.

but the privacy and freedom also comes with lots of additional expenses and household chores too. something which i can’t afford financially and not prepared to do so since i’m getting away with minimal chores at home now. :P

besides, i take it as an opportunity to spend more time with my family while i still can.

ikoi @ miramar hotel

made the reservations for the restaurant 3 weeks back. and yet i couldn’t get a table for saturday night dinner. it was already fully booked! so it’s really that popular...

settled for today’s lunch instead. just as well since it’s gordon’s birthday today.

ikoi is a rather small restaurant serving an ala carte buffet. $30+++ for both lunch and dinner.

ky and me were mainly interested in the sashimi. had quite a few servings of sake, maguro, hamachi, tako and kajiki sashimi. very fresh indeed, no fishy smell at all.

besides sashimi, we had salad, temaki, california maki, chicken teriyaki and ebi tempura. the food is generally of good standards. we were also served 2 soups that were not on the menu: teapot and seafood soup.

we had to wait for a while for the food to be served after ordering. wonder how bad the waiting time will be if there was a capacity crowd.

overall a good dining experience.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

lan yu

ml asked me if i’m interested in the show. at first, i thought she was asking if i would like to watch the play since the movie was banned from commercial release a few years ago.

can’t remember the controversy nor the plot until ml reminded me with the synopsis. it was critically acclaimed and the movie and actors won some awards too.

love story between 2 guys = alternative lifestyle = not mainstream = government ban

after watching the movie, felt that it was just a simple [dare i say sweet?] love story. nothing extraordinary except that it’s between 2 guys.

i also didn’t quite feel that the acting by the leads were exceptional.

somehow, i think that if the story was about a “normal” couple, the movie might even be panned by the critics and the actors might not have won any awards.

bodycombat & yoga

woke up early today 'cos i intended to go for the combat @ paragon.

jeanette, serene and sandy will be there for the class using the free voucher from the fitness first calendar. peslin, jeanette’s younger sister will be there later since she’s working today.

managed to reach the gym at 1:00 pm… very early for me on a saturday. surprised herlina at the reception when i told her i was there for combat.

the gym is filled with more people at this time and seemed to have more energy. rushed to sign up for class. it was a full class as usual.

i stood on the left at the front of the class while serene and sandy managed to find their spots on the right when they came in later. didn’t notice jeanette coming in.

had a good workout. sweated buckets.

jeanette had her sights on a personal trainer, chris. i told her he is a part-time model. she can’t stop drooling.

before we left for tea-break, chen hanwei was spotted leaving the gym too.

we went down to the basement to ah mei for kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs. after that we got back to the gym for yoga.

the class was crowded as usual. think it was a great workout for serene, sandy, peslin and jeanette. they’re not very flexible, can’t touch the ground with their hands without bending their knees. ;) hehe…

Friday, October 14, 2005

yoga by indu

alamak… issey wasn’t here tonight. the class was covered by indu, an indian lady.

it was a light workout of traditional yoga that concentrated a lot more on stretching exercises. there weren’t any sun salutations, triangle, or warriors poses.

didn’t sweat at all.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

$10,000

what will you say if your close friend ask you for a loan of $10,000?

hehe… no worries! nobody asked me that lah…

my friends know that i don’t have the $$$. me very poor one. :P

if you have the means to help your friend, would you require the friend to tell you what exactly is the loan for? do you feel that you have the right to know the reason?

shouldn’t your friend be entitled to some level of privacy?

i guess for me, it depends on the quantum and if i can afford to write it off.

so if it’s a small amount then i probably wouldn’t ask too many questions. but for a loan of $10,000 [which is a few times my monthly salary] then i feel that i have the right to know what am i giving up my hard-earned money for.

similarly, $10k may be nothing to a millionaire and he’ll say yes at the drop of the hat without any questions asked.

sound advice for would-be creditors:
1. never get into debt to help someone out of debt
2. only lend what you can afford to lose

i stand by the above in the hope that the relationship will never be adversely affected in any way by the loan.

cheers!

Monday, October 10, 2005

run

yeah!

i did a sub 27:00 for my 4.6 km run today. nearly killed myself… but it felt good. :D

Saturday, October 08, 2005

on the way home

sl asked me about my blog. i told her it’s very easier to get one started as it’s quite idiot-proof.

she forbade me to put up her photo on this blog. but i told her nobody will know who she is unless i name the guilty in the pictures. ;) haha…

sun with moon @ wheelock

this dinner was set up 2 weeks ago… yes, not easy to coordinate considering that we have to accommodate the quarter-end closing for some of us and a business trip for another.

sl and ph were early, they had already finished an appetiser when i reached the restaurant at 7:30 pm. yup, they’re that hungry.

we had a booth seat furthest away from the entrance. most private and good for conversations but also meant that service was difficult to come by.

since janet had sms-ed doris to say that they’ll be late as most couples with kids tend to be, we proceeded to order appetisers first.

i ordered the sun salad and yam cake while doris ordered the agedashi dofu.

sl and ph went on to order the okonomiyaki.

the sun salad came in a bottle. the waitress gave a bubble tea “mechanical doll” shake to it after pouring in the sesame dressing. the yam cake was bland in a delicate, japanese way.

the okonomiyaki had lots of cabbage and only half an oyster in the piece that i had. :(

by the time we’re about done with our food, cayden finally arrived with his entourage of janet, jason and nora. :) hehe…

cayden was in a good mood… we passed him around the table. haha…

i ordered the salmon kamameshi which is like a metallic version of our claypot rice. not a very big portion though. if not for the appetisers and the desserts later, i don’t think i’ll be full.

had warabi matcha which is green tea ice cream with green tea jelly cubes. nice!

the bill for me came to about $37. slightly expensive but a good place to go to for the ambience and when you feel like splurging.

jail sentence

yes, singapore has scored another “first”.

the 2 guys charged under the sedition act for posting racist remarks online have been convicted.

28-year-old Benjamin Koh Seng Huat, a kennel keeper at an animal shelter, has been sentenced to one month's jail. Separately, the court sentenced 25-year-old former assistant marketing manager, Nicholas Lim Yew, to serve one day in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000.

In passing sentences, Senior District Judge Richard Magnus said the two had crossed the red line by wantonly breaching the basic ground rules. He said passing a deterrent sentence was necessary so that such offending acts are tackled early and contained.


The judge also said that young Singaporeans may have short memories that race and religion are sensitive issues.

He said callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects had the potential to cause social disorder, regardless of which medium or forum they are expressed.

The judge added the right of one to propagate an opinion on the Internet is not and cannot be an unfettered right.

It is only appropriate social behaviour of every Singapore citizen and resident to respect the other races in view of Singapore's multi-racial society.

channelnewsasia.com


as much as i recognise that what they have done should not be condoned, but has the law been overly heavy handed in these 2 instances?

would not a warning and a fine suffice?

as noted by the judge, young singaporeans do not have any memories of race and religion issues because we’re “blind” to them.

we grew up in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. having to interact with people of different races and religions is part of our everyday lives. i don’t think our generation or those after us judge a person on the basis of his race or religion anymore.

neither do i feel that racial or religious hatred can be so easily propagated by a few bigots here because we do think of ourselves as singaporeans first and foremost regardless of creed and colour.

that had been evidenced by the reportedly more than 200 responses to 1 of the offender’s online posting.

as i’ve mentioned before, i’ve never heard of the sedition act prior to this episode. i agree that ignorance is not a valid defence for breaking the law. but shouldn’t the investigators looked deeper into the intentions behind the remarks of the 2 accused?

were they really made in an attempt to incite racial and religious hatred or out of hot-headedness and idiocy? shouldn’t the law distinguish the difference?

the blogging community has waited with abated breath for the judgment.

while many have argued that blogs are personal journals that are meant to be read by a selected group of people, the fact remains that these private diaries exist on the web which is accessible by practically anyone in the world.

the sentencing has clearly acknowledge that the internet is a mass medium just like your trusty newspapers and other paper publications, that means the same standards will be applied uniformly to it… at least here in singapore.

that said, maybe it’s time for the internet-savvy younger generation to be media-savvy as well.

ippt

the dreaded 4-letter word for every [unfit] nsmen...

gordon finally cleared his ippt today after 2 attempts. he had some problems with clearing the 2.4 km run under 13:00

think i better start training for my ippt soon since my ict is coming up next february… need to work on my pull-ups and running liao…

Friday, October 07, 2005

changing appetites @ marina square

ms tan and madam tan joined pl, serene and myself for dinner. :) had to queue for table since it’s friday night.

i had the teriyaki black pepper pork ribs. it came with fries and a serving of coleslaw. the food was ok. nothing to shout about.

pl had beef. jeanette had a seafood pasta while serene and marilyn had fish. pl remarked that her beef was nice and tender. the rest didn’t have any complaints with their dinner.

changing appetites feels like a copy of café cartel. even the menu and pricing are quite similar. in fact, there’s a café cartel just 2 units away.

overall, it’s just a casual place to catch up with friends over decent food if you don’t want to spend too much.

after that, we adjoined to bakerzin at millennia walk for desserts.

stuffed.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

one george street

had to re-arrange my yoga schedule because poh ling can only meet for friday dinner since she’s going off to attend a colleague’s wedding at malacca on saturday.

went china square food court for a light dinner of fried fish soup. skipped the rice as i intended to do my run before the yoga class.

sat by the pool to let my fish dinner settle. cool breeze. nice view.

wouldn’t mind working out here on weekdays except it’s much further from the mrt than capital tower is. furthermore, there’s no covered walkway from the station unlike capital tower.

had a good run on the treadmill, about 5 km including warming up and cooling down. sweated buckets as usual.

why don’t the treadmills here have built-in fans like the ones at paragon? :(

did some stretching while waiting for the bodyjam class to end. noticed herlina was in the class. issey is already here, talked to him bit.

herlina was surprised to see me. told her i’m there because i can’t make it for friday’s class. she asked me about serena’s class and i told her it’s faster-paced than issey’s.

saw some members previously working out at capital tower attending the class. quite surprised to see that they’re quite flexible too… hmm… must be regulars.

typical issey’s class, not too “siong”. a good crowd considering it’s at such a late timing.

however, i wasn’t very “comfortable” with the studio as there weren’t mirrors in front for me to check/correct my postures.

but the nike mats here are thicker and had better traction because it’s the more expensive double-sided version.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

aquafit

feeling kinda bored with my workout routine lately so decided to go and try out the water aerobics class at capital tower.

rodney, the instructor, tried something new today.

instead of the usual aerobics moves, we basically had body combat in the pool. too bad there weren’t any audio tracks accompaniment. that would have been swell.

jabbed, punched, hooked and kicked my way for 1 hour with nary a drop of sweat. we even did partner work!

cool.

Monday, October 03, 2005

run

went for my run again… feeling rather lethargic today… i think i need a running buddy to push myself further. sigh...

timing: 27 mins 30 secs

Saturday, October 01, 2005

bali bomb blast

it happened again…

closed to 3 years after the first bombing in october 2002, suicide bombers have targeted once again the resort island of bali, a popular destination for many australians and japanese.

the tourism industry there had barely recovered from the last incident is now plunged into another period of uncertainty with cancellations for the next 2 months not helped by the reports of casualties and injuries filing in.

although smaller-scaled damages were wrought this time round, it is no less horrific with more than 20 deaths and around 100 injured. most of them tourist from media reports.

scary.