dilbert

some of you might already know that i’m a fan of dilbert, the comic strip by scott adams. being a cubicle-dweller, i sometimes see the exact same situation illustrated in real life.

guess what? he has started a blog too!

i like his brand of humour and the way he makes fun of managers and management trends.

here’s what he has to say about getting onto the bandwagon in his latest newsletter…

MY OWN DILBERT BLOG
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When I see news stories about people all over the world who are experiencing hardships, I worry about them, and I rack my brain wondering how I can make a difference. So I decided to start my own blog. That way I won’t have time to think about other people.

People who are trying to decide whether to create a blog or not go through a thought process much like this:

1. The world sure needs more of ME.
2. Maybe I’ll shout more often so that people nearby can experience the joy of knowing my thoughts.
3. No, wait, shouting looks too crazy.
4. I know – I’ll write down my daily thoughts and badger people to read them.
5. If only there was a description for this process that doesn’t involve the words egomaniac or unnecessary.
6. What? It’s called a blog? I’m there!

The blogger’s philosophy goes something like this: Everything that I think about is more fascinating than the crap in your head.

The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making it to the end of the sentence that probably didn’t need to be written anyhoo.

If that doesn’t inspire you to read my blog, I don’t know what will.

national library

first time at the multi-million dollar spanking new national library…

and i wasn’t there to borrow a book or do research with their extensive reference collection…

was just passing by and needed to use the toilet! :P hehe…

wah! noogee house

was on leave today so had lunch with my mum at this new place by the same people behind wah lok at carlton hotel.

that explains the “wah!” in the name. in case you’re wondering, noogee is coined by combining the 2 words: noodle and congee. both of which are available in many different versions on the menu.

the dianxin menu is served until 11:00am only. i would think the reason is so that the business at wah lok will not be compromised by the new kid on the block.

unfortunately, we were not in time to sample the dianxin menu. i had wanted to find out if it’s just as good as the restaurant's.

the xia jiao [dumpling] soup and the char siew & soy sauce chicken were average only. nothing to shout about. in fact, i find the meat combination expensive [$10] for the small-sized portion.

the seafood noodle is more generous with its ingredients and greens. can be shared by 2 persons if you’re ordering dianxin and other side dishes, or even 3 persons if you just want a nibble.

i also tried the steamed rice with chicken and chinese sausage. quite like it as it’s comfort food for me.

service is good. the staff actually changed the plates for us without asking unlike crystal jade. the food, however, is not outstanding nor very much better than crystal jade.

hello doris, diane & johann

gave johann a ring after we had our pratas since he lives just round the corner. doris suggested going for the board walk near his house.

thomas couldn’t believe his ears. i couldn’t help but laughed at his tortured reaction.

we had to reassure him that it’s a very short route lasting not more than 30 minutes.

johann joined us sporting his new toy. a gadget from polar that will monitor his heart rate and measures the distance he covers.

it was a more peaceful walk compared to the treetop walk. there is a rather cool section where the boards actually extend over shallow waters.

and then johann revealed that he had been reading my blog!

he’s the first jcgang member to tell me so. now is doris’ turn to not believe her ears and she demanded to know why i didn’t tell her that i had been blogging.

my reply? it’s for the observant folks only. haha… :)

johann commented that i didn’t really blog about him except for mentioning him as the father of janelle. haha… trust him to be jealous of his own daughter.

talking about janelle… diane told me about the sweetest thing she did.

she had brought a recent copy of 8days to diane and excitedly exclaimed, “uncle mun yue, uncle mun yue!” while pointing to the picture of hong junyang, one of the project superstar finalists.

didn’t know there’s any resemblance between the 2 of us. anyway, i shall remember to buy her some nice cookies the next time i see her. :)

doris also asked if i’ve got any sponsorship deals like xiaxue.

i was like, huh? how to?

i don’t get traffic of 10,000 visitors like her… perhaps i should change my blog’s name to xiayu [raining]… write something bad about a kuala lumpur trip… blog controversial remarks on the use of handicapped toilets and use *&%$#@ or some colourful dialect expletives. :P haha…

treetop walk

*** brace yourself for my longest post ever ***

doris only managed to confirm that the trek is on yesterday when ky and doris’ friend, wendy said that they can make it.

originally, we had planned to meet at 9:00am at macritchie reservoir. very early for me considering it’s hari raya puasa but we had to be realistic since the trek to the treetop walk and back is expected to take 3 to 5 hours as written here.

however, wendy suggested 8:00am instead since she has a lunch appointment. in the end, a decision was made to meet at 7:45am at bishan mrt.

that means i have to wake up at an ungodly hour of 6:00am so that i will be punctual and still have time to grab some breakfast. i’ve not woken up so early for a very long time. i only keep such hours when i go for my icts.

it was raining when my handphone alarm sounded off at 6:00am.

received an sms from ky… he’s not going because it was raining heavily at his place .

sms-ed doris, she replied to say that it’s not raining at yishun…

what the heck… just do it!

decided to take the new sbs service 52 to bishan on a whim. played with my camera "action" mode while waiting for the bus…

after a while, i was the one and only passenger on the bus until it reached sin ming.

the bus arrived at bishan in a rather quick 35 minutes and i rushed off in search of breakfast. gobbled up my macdonald’s big breakfast in double-quick time, got to eat else i’ll definitely faint from hunger during the trek.

met doris and thomas at the pick-up point at 8:00am. wendy and his brother, victor soon joined us too.

waited a while for terence and diana. since the 5 of us couldn’t fit into the car, me, doris and thomas followed terence’s car in a cab to kim’s place at jalan lembah thomson.

that’s where the "secret" entrance of the trail is situated. don’t bother trying to locate it on the map because it is not an "official" start point. we set off at 8:30am in an adventurous mood.

when our side trail opened into the main route to the treetop walk, we encountered many runners along the way. doris is surprised to find so many health nuts running so early in the morning on a public holiday.

most of these runners [of all ages and gender] were in their running gear and nothing else, not even water bottles. some teenagers were even running in sandals and slippers!

compared to them, we seemed overdressed in our bermudas and trackpants; over-equipped with our backpacks containing our water-bottles, insect repellants, umbrellas, etc…

victor’s nike fell victim to the trail. he had not been wearing those shoes regularly. both soles came off eventually and had to be secured with elastic band and shoelaces.

although it was cloudy and the ground was still wet from the earlier showers, it was still humid.

walking and chatting merrily, we sometimes occupied the entire width of the trail impeding the runners’ way. probably pissed off quite a few of them as they had to slow down to pass through us. :P

only after a rather long while did we encounter other trekkers. the trail merged with the venus drive entrance route to the treetop walk. that’s where we encountered the holiday crowds of families out in full force.

doris couldn’t believe that the treetop walk can be this popular. ever so gungho, she kept talking about wanting to proceed on to bukit timah hill but nobody took her seriously.

finally reached the ranger station which is a short distance away from the treetop walk.


we had to scale a rather steep slope to the starting point.


here we are on the suspension bridge…






views from the bridge…

me and doris took our time on the bridge making the rest wait for us. hehe… :P

towards the end of the treetop walk, there’re signs that advised us not to turn back. i jested that it’s the "nai he qiao" which one has to cross on the way to reincarnation in chinese folklore so you’re not supposed to turn back. haha… :)

after the bridge, it’s many flights of steps up… and then down… to the board walk that will bring us back to the ranger station.

we decided to exit by venus drive and bade our farewells to kim and terence.

trekked past a stream… sighted an adult and baby monkey.

strange but true, we came across workers cutting the grass by the stream. didn’t know this trail requires "maintenance" too. no kidding.

by the time we reached the public carpark at venus drive, we had trekked for about 2.5 hours.

victor was craving for prata, so we took a bus to casuarina road for my favourite crispy plain prata.

a delicious and satisfying end to the morning physical exertion.

nostalgia

it was drizzling today after my aquafit class at capital tower.

the rainy and cool weather always make me think it’s december, putting me in a pensive mood, as the year-end is the time of the year which you take stock of the year that has gone by in yet another blink of the eye and the sweet anticipation of the coming festivities with family and friends.

feeling nostalgic, i decided to take a bus instead of the faster but boring train ride home. the train station being further away also helped to make the bus ride more attractive lah. haha…

i didn’t have to wait very long for sbs service 147 at chinatown complex.

the double-deckered bus went past the bus stop where i had waited at to go home in the hot and humid afternoons of my secondary school days.

it didn’t feel too long ago that i was wearing my [easily dirtied] uniform of white shirt and pants, but actually, that is more than 17 cringe-inducing years ago. that long ago, huh?

past the place where poh han used to live… passed by bukit merah central where hdb used to be… past where jeffrey used to live.

how things have changed after all these years…

myself, the people around me, the places that i’m familiar with…

now there's mobile tv to distract [or irritate, depending on your opinion] you on long journeys while i used to have just my trusty walkman.

change is the only constant, cliched but nevertheless true and apt.

my only wish is that these changes, painful or otherwise, are for the better, helping us grow, taking little steps towards being the perfect friend, son/daughter, brother/sister, daddy/mummy, etc...

sky garden yoga

actually was supposed to do my regular tuesday workout before the yoga class but was too lazy since it’s deepavali today.

the class at george street was conducted by chris out at the sky garden. The weather was perfect with a strong breeze threatening to blow off our mats.

my body was in a lethargic holiday mood… feeling a bit weak since i only had brunch. the seemingly harmless stretches almost made me break out in cold sweat. my hamstrings were rather tight from last thursday interval training.

i kept wishing for the class to end… since there weren’t any clocks around and i wasn’t wearing my watch, i have no way of knowing the time.

arrgghh… got to endure…

oommm…

remembrance

there’s a programme on television today in memory of the late singer, teresa teng [deng li jun] commemorating the 10th anniversary of her death.

she’s one of the most immensely successful singer of my growing up years with a huge fan base in asia, including china and even japan.

in fact, my uncle wai was a fan of hers, collecting all her albums, sometimes even buying multiple copies of the same album!

the programme made me ponder if there’s anyone who will still remember me 10 years after my death…

how would i want to be remembered?

what kind of legacy [if any] will i leave behind in this world?

a filial son… a caring brother… a great friend…

someone who has, in his own small ways, touched the hearts of the people that he comes across in his daily life and had made the world of his loved ones a better place.

cheers to life!