jax@blogger

Complain complain

2012-02-06T20:34:00.001+08:00

Nah, i just need someone to talk with.

Life goes on.....

2012-01-30T19:57:00.004+08:00

As much as it seems, I don't think i am actually shutting myself out. Maybe i am simply living life the way it probably best suits a character like mine. Maybe somewhere down the road, something else might happen in my life that would change me yet again in certain ways, be it good or bad. In any case, the intent is good, since its trying to make myself seems happy, even if it seems like a illusion sometimes.

Singapore Cafes

2012-01-15T10:40:00.013+08:00

People who know me probably knows i have this habit of visiting cafes during the spare time in my weekends. The idea of making a review on the cafes just dropped onto me and so here i am writing this post. I expect to update this post quite often, will let Google bots do the rest of the job.

If you want to check back this post now and then, just bookmark this page.
http://paranormalz.blogspot.com/2012/01/singapore-cafes.html

Mood Meter:
1) This place is crap..... enough said
2) kopi branch, that's about it.
3) Acceptable, but would look out for others.
4) Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
5) Fantastic! What else can i say?

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

West Mall (1 Bukit Batok Central Link #01-09 West Mall Singapore 658713)

Mood: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.

Nicely tucked in a small corner of the mall with at least 3 different layouts of sittings, anyone could find a seat that suit their taste. Usually quiet and always accompanied with soft music, at most times of the whole week. Staff are quite friendly.

Amenities:
Lack of power points (Actually i couldn't find any), its hard to get through all your work on the laptop on a single charge. The air-conditioning could be cold sometimes, but i guess its really out of their control. Wifi is virtually non-existent, if you need access to the internet, you got to pack your own.

Starbucks

The Central (6 Eu Tong Sen Street #01-29 The Central Singapore 059817)

Mood: Fantastic! What else can i say?
Its one of the smaller cafes but in the day, its the perfect place to find yourself settling in if you are looking for peace and quiet. Staff and customers who visit this place are equally friendly, you don't find this culture a lot elsewhere.

Amenities:
Lack of power points (made a quick eye sweep but didn't spot any). The air-conditioning just right, partly because its regulated by the non blocking sunlight. Wifi is virtually non-existent, if you need access to the internet, you got to pack your own.

Jurong Point (63 Jurong West Central 3 #03-52/52A Jurong Point Singapore 648331)

Mood: This place is crap..... enough said
This place is located in the new wing of the mall. Its really really small, with little walk space. Almost 100% of the times i walked past, its filled to the brim. The place has no separation from the mall itself, so you can expect not to welcome any peace here.

Amenities:
Lack of power points (I did see one, but i don't think its functional). Its quite warm here, not sure why.

Northpoint (930 Yishun Ave 2 #01-07 Northpoint S769098)

Mood: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Its one of the more popular spots you find but its not really recommended if you are looking for peace and quiet. Its pretty crammed but the service is fantastic. I had ordered a mocha but forgot to indicate 'soy', only remembered it when i walked over to the receiving counter, which was by then too late. I made a last ditch request and they offered to change the drink to using soy even though i hadn't paid for that and they were already on it.

Amenities:
The power points are abundant! Almost every seat on the bench has a powerpoint under. Perfect for mobile warriors, a big plus point. The air-conditioning just right. Wireless@sg and wireless@sgx is there, but i couldn't connect to the WWW. Its probably my configuration....

Holland Village (255 Holland Ave Singapore 278983)

Mood: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Although its situated right in Holland Village, its actually quite a nice and quiet place to read or do your work. On the 2nd floor you get a bench facing the windows where you get a view of what's going on outside. They were playing some light music while i was there, so the whole atmosphere was pretty decent, without the noise and such.

Amenities:
There's about 6 power points spread across the bench. It seems they have made this a feature in a lot of their outlets. Its a plus point for the tech savvy people of this country. Wireless@sg is up, and pretty fast. This is quite expected since there ain't a lot of people hoarding the bandwidth here. Mobile network seemed pretty fast too, again, a plus point.

Rochester Park (37 Rochester Drive Singapore 138640)

Mood: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Its a 2-storey terrace house converted into a Starbucks outlet. The place is very spacious but its pretty warm when i was there on a Saturday. I think there wasn't enough air-conditioners for such a big place. I think this place would be very quiet during the weekdays, but with the crowd on weekends, the place got pretty loud due to the echoes. The staff don't seem very familiar to their work, first thing i notice is a lack of coordination between the staff at the counter. I guess the rapport ain't there yet.

Amenities:
There's only a few power points in the entire building. Despite being a new outlet, it didn't cater for mobile warriors like it did in other outlets. I guess it wanted to maintain an 'Atas' image and strive to keep inconsiderate over stayers away. There's no wireless@sg here, though i see a 'Starbucks Wireless' with no encryption. My advice, don't use it in case its just a phishing attempt. There's another thing, the toilet seems to be locked all the time.....

West Coast Plaza (154 West Coast Road #01-01 West Coast Plaza Singapore 127371)

Mood: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Its located on the 2nd storey near the main entrance of the building. Their layout is split into 3 sections. The first being near the counter, there are very limited tables in this section. The second being located on the outside portion of the building, this section is really really warm. The third is located outside Starbucks, but still within. This section has more tables and since its within the building, the temperature is comfortable. The whole building is pretty quiet for a weekend, but as usual its usually hoarded by students who are unwilling to share tables. Lucky for me, a Caucasian lady was willing to share her space with me.

Amenities:
There are 2 power points in the 3rd section, and that's about it. No Wireless@SG but again i saw a Starbuck Wireless, note the Starbuck without the 'S'. Toilet's right around the corner so it should be a big problem for those who need to go and come back quickly before their belongings get stolen.

Goals for the harmless menace

2011-11-20T06:46:00.004+08:00

Had my first experience 'working' with a bunch of kids on Saturday, its one hell of a job....
Taking care of young cousin and sister aside, the next closest thing i had with kids was the volunteering event with my company where i only have to follow one kid around while the group roam in Sentosa.....Compared to this event on Sat......i say again, one hell of a job.....but there's also the sweet lining, right at the end of this post. :)

I had first saw the request on Facebook for help on facilitating a goal setting workshop for primary school students. I attended the brief and it turned out that its not really a volunteering event, but more like a parents-paid event that has limited budget. Either way, i offered my services after hearing out the brief and volunteered to have my allowances donated to the trainer's other volunteering group.

Came the day and about 2 handfuls of volunteers turned up in red. Due to my inexperience in this area, i am assigned to work with another volunteer (Most volunteers take up their own group alone). Mine was a small group with a good mix of boys and girls, but what i didn't expect was the hyper-activity that would come from them, it almost feels that they had too much to burn.....lol.

Among the kids, there's this fierce looking little girl who seem to have a grudge on me. When we were going through the introduction, she refuses to introduce herself, and gave me the 'evil stare'. Her little cousin follows suit. So imagine you got 2 kids down there giving you the evil grin while you are thinking of ways to keep things moving. Next thing the young girl said stunned me, 'I want to kill you'. lol!!! We were just 5mins after forming the group and i got kids who want to kill me liao.... Then the group went super-hyper and were talking about suicides, falling through the skies without parachute, throwing people off the building...... really, i can't believe i am dealing with kids under 11 years. Throughout the 6 hr event, i was wrestled, punched and strangled, but i eventually understood that they were getting comfortable with me and thus were less constrained with me, besides most of those punches were pretty friendly, except for one that really hit my rib-bone...ouch. My tag description probably also played a part, i wrote myself as 'Calm', they probably figured i won't get too angry no matter what they do, I would also rather that they hit me than the lady assigned to work with me. In the 6 hr event, we played games that serves to articulate certain positive traits. Trust me, its always better to put them in the games, give them something to focus and they won't think of doing funny stuff. I tried my best to emphasize the lessons learnt but time and size of the group makes that quite difficult sometimes.

One of my kids broke down when the trainer tried to get them to visualize what would happen to them when they fail their exams. For the record, and with due respect, i don't agree with what the trainer tried to do here. In my opinion, 10, 11 yr old kids are not mature nor well-equipped enough to handle unnecessary emotional stress. Although i believe it was unintentional (Since we were never briefed about this segment), but he had tried to make the kids re-lived his own bad childhood, i think that really was unfair to the kids. What he accomplished was to merely induce their guilt (for the truely sensible kids), or their fear (for those kids with parents who only care about saving face). That's not going to help the kids at all, the whole workshop is supposed to be about getting kids to their goals, their dreams, not getting them to imagine the terrible consequences. I took the weeping kid out for a chat. He gave me an impression i don't see alot in kids his age. He is working towards his passion, and he don't want to let anyone down. I gave him some pointers, asking him to also learn how to cope whenever he feels overwhelmed.

Although i came home tired and now nurse a backache, it was a good and satisfying experience for me. At the end of the day, some of the kids (especially those who punched and wrestled me) actually came by and said goodbye. The little kid whom i chatted with gave me a really bright smile, and that, has really made my day. :)

Weird.....

2011-11-13T21:32:00.001+08:00

I had curry, brownies, 2 types of ice-cream, and yet nothing happened.
That's really weird for me.... did the AMS had a healing effect or what?

Rank of Stupid

2011-11-12T08:59:00.002+08:00

Drinking myself drunk like that last night, that's definitely near the top of the most dumb things i ever did.

I am no highlander

2011-11-07T01:03:00.006+08:00

"I came home perspiring non-stop, weigh 3kg less, and feeling a bit giddy...."

Just the second day on the 44 hour train ride from Chengdu to Lhasa, I developed really really bad headaches, accompanied by days of persistent nausea and also a night of LS in Lhasa. For more than half of the trip, I was inflicted with AMS symptoms, which finally acclimatise after the trip to Shigatse. For most of the Tibet trip I couldn't sleep at night due to the very bad headaches, and if I do catch a few moments of sleep, I would be haunted by dreams that make me do impossible things. So it went that way with me sitting on the bed looking at blanks for about 7 to 8 days till the night at Shigatse, which finally saw me sleeping for a proper night. The headaches still got to me now and then during the rest of the trip but at least I could sleep through most of the nights from then on. I was really lucky to have a group of travel mates who were understanding and took care of me during my worst days.

Most of the trip was on the mini bus, we were entertained by the video system during most of the traveling, otherwise we would be dead asleep on the mini bus. I caught most of my sleep on the minibus, apparently the headaches weren't that bad when I sleep upright.

Due to a heavily snow covered mountain, we were unable to pass the mountain and thus missed Namtso Lake, one of the main attraction of the trip. But having the opportunity to walk under moderate snowing with snow covered mountains scenery is quite the first for me. The satisfaction and the freezing cold actually numbed my headaches for quite a few moments, its one of those times when I really enjoyed it despite the headaches.

The company was fantastic, they were really a group of fun loving people who really knew how to make fun and have fun. This was especially so during those times when we gathered during the nights, I know I will miss all that. EL and Ting the inseparable 两 Jie Mei, somehow it always amuses me when they go squabbling away at each other. WJ and Audrey, the good buddies, one is a perfect vocal comedian while the other is a perfect singer and an affectionate wife who shares her experience with her husband at home by writing her feelings down on a snow covered pool table, I bet they will do great if they decide to career change to the entertainment world :). ZF and ham, the lovey dovey couple, they never fail to keep the group entertained with their 冷笑话. Lin lin, whom I thought was part of the basketball team till near the end of the trip, thanks to her 黑糖, it helped with the nausea during its worst. HY and Thomas, the 'Save the earth' heroine and hero, who never failed to look out for recycling points even when they are over 4000 meters above sea level, also thanks to hy who helped to look out for her friend when I was worst hit with AMS. Serene, the all powerful shopper, every destination is a shopping opportunity. She is also one of the few in the group who is humorous enough to help laugh when I try to crack a lame joke or two. JT, my bunk mate, the explosive and expressive comedian in the group. I realize he has quite a firm personality under that comedian cover though. Have to thank him for providing the midnight entertainment with his weird snoring when I couldn't sleep due to the AMS, and for tolerating the noise I made during my sleepless nights.

Our Tibetan guide and driver made a good combo too. The guide insists on speaking English although the group speaks Mandarin. I can tell he is one of the more honest people in Tibet. I hope he do well in what he does. The driver was quiet during the first portion of the trip but he became more vocal as time goes by. Must say he have quite the skills, driving, talking on the phone and adjusting the video player all at the same time. I witnessed a lot of close shaves, either with crossing animals or oncoming traffic. He also took care not to smoke inside or near the mini bus, though he broke the rule once on a super cold morning when the sun wasn't even up. Forgiven.

Despite all the fun, this trip did made me realize that I really really sucked as a person. I couldn't be as fun like the others did, I couldn't find so much to talk about like the others do, I couldn't be as expressive as the other guys are, I couldn't seem to catch the trends and fashion that the group follows. Sometimes when I tried to do the above, I became awkward instead. I just couldn't seem to integrate and ended up like a pretty much useless quiet guy in the corner. I never understood why I had such a lousy personality and why I couldn't improve myself even after all these years of trying. *sigh*

The Tibet/Chengdu trip ended with me having a heavy heart, as i couldn't shake off the feel that its my last and final trip with people I really enjoyed being with, because I wasn't sure if I can bear myself being the one again, who couldn't contribute positively to the mood of the trip because I couldn't perform like everyone else.....

2011-10-23T08:11:00.004+08:00

i haven't got the time to pack this time round, so i just dump everything in without thinking. bad move... bag's heavier than it should be..... think i will make this a lesson learnt, don't dump, always pack....hahaha.

so here i am on this marathon, first on the train to the eastern tip of the island to catch the 4.5hr plane ride to Chengdu, thereafter a 2 hr van ride, and then a 44hr highlands train ride, which brings us to Lhasa, Tibet.

so bye bye to my boring life of work (hey i made proper handovers ok!), tv shows, anime, games and study, while i enjoy the company of 12 fun loving ppl in the land of the lamas, well at least for the next 2 weeks anyway.

Everest North Base Camp - Opportunity missed?

2011-10-19T21:58:00.003+08:00

*sigh* Probably not going to see this view liao....

[Everest North Base Camp]
[http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/4194/0/7/mejores/fotos/semana/]

11680 days of breathing (Plus 1)

2011-10-17T20:32:00.010+08:00

I just took my 11680th day of breath not so long ago. Its quick, yet another year. I tend to have this habit of updating my blog on my birthdays, cos its one of those days where i usually have something to talk about. Morning wake up i saw a bday post on my Facebook, was actually quite surprised. Its always nice to have friends who remembers. Soon after, more friends followed up with more bday messages either via FB or SMSes. I took care to reply every single one of them. So this day was spent in my neighborhood's Macdonald's. No, i didn't have a Mac kids party there, but i was offered a free kopi though (Come to that later). The weather was really hot, and i decided to lug my CR to this Mac cos of the aircon and a single power plug which they were kind enough not to seal away. So there i was quietly in my own cosy corner, working on my competencies (Don't ask) on the CR, surfing the web on my tablet, and reading notes from the online course i am taking. Then this ang moh lady with a bunch of 'followers' march in looking for seats. The place was pretty full so they didn't have any luck. The lady suddenly walked over and introduced herself to be from Macdonalds, saying that she won a kopi coupon from those monopoly stickers and would like me to have it. Of course i thanked her and accepted it. Was thinking to myself that i am rarely so lucky to get anything free, until i realise i was the only one in the entire place drinking kopi. I also finally understood why i get such damn good services today (Staff were opening doors for all patrons, unusually chatty with patrons, unusually 'happy faces' and unusually responsive -> They were actually running to customers and offering to help them throw their trash when they see customers moving to do it). I was actually laughing at the scene, all just becos of one VIP. The rest of the night was spent at home looking at competencies (Again, don't ask :) )

For the past months i have been quite busy with work. The new project comes with a new scope and has really been keeping me on my toes., plus the ECA which i still can't shake off, everyday is full of different stuff i have to do. I seem to spend more nights alone in the office nowadays too. Sometimes i do feel like i am a one man team, with no one to turn to (Turn here i prob get blank stares, turn there i prob just get redirected). But thankfully, i now have kakis who share my needs for breathers, and we would catch a kopi break now and then, though my boss boss expects us to bring our laptops down and work through our breaks, really. I'm told that i am dealing with just a small project which really just reuse what others have done, not even enough for show. Well, i can't refute that.

I have started to take up a couple of online courses as well. First assignments i already late, and they don't mark late assignments, so scored 'gosong' on first round. Lucky the course is free, and no penalties are imposed. But then, me being me, even knowing all that, i think i will still chiong 100% for the rest for the weekly assignments and mid/end exams. Pretty dumb of me, i definitely agree, and can't seem to change that. To be frank, my health seems to be going south recently with all these work and stuff.

I also seem to have taken myself off most of Facebook and almost entirely off instant messaging. I still scan through FB on my phone when i travel to and fro work, comment a bit here and there, reply a bit here and there, but in general, i have stopped a lot of Facebook activities. I think its becos most of the times i am just posting stuff which people might not even be interested in (Check-ins, sharing of crappy jokes which I thought was funny). Its like shouting to yourself while standing in the middle of the crowd. So i am one living proof that one can wane off FB quickly no matter how involved he/she was in the past. For instant messaging, its really just about stopping something which was never utilized. Though i have a whole chunk of contacts, but really only about 2 of them would actually chat with me. It became most evident when i was cleaning up my harddrive and i noticed that there are only 2 contacts with logs more than 10KB. One of them i would occasionally meet up for drinks or short runs so we do catch up with each other, the other hasn't appear online for quite some time as well, we also seem to have less and less to talk about, busy busy life and boring boring me i guess. Eventually i also found it not necessary go online.

As a person, besides the worsening memory, more white hair, i guess i have reached the second enlightenment. First one was when i was 14? When i went super turbo mode and became a young super nerd who only knew how to super study and super learnt nothing else like having fun and being fun and being smart. This second enlightenment seems a bit different though, I learnt to let go, accepted past, accepted now, accepted future, accepted me. I still suck at inter-personal skills. I'm still either offending friends or making ppl uncomfortable, i have no idea why and how, and these were never my intentions. Its prob my lack of a sweet tongue or its simply the aura i give bah hahaha. I also seem to reject less of people influence's on me nowadays (both the goods and bads), though there are still many lines which i would never cross. In a big word, i think i am a bit more nonchalant nowadays. My mischevious friend in the office who had me tagged as 'The Serious Guy' on his Spark probably needs to change that now. :)

Comments (Yah comments)

2011-10-17T20:10:00.002+08:00

Long story cut short, fixed.

My sis was telling me she can't comment on my blog using her Wordpress account. That's the second time i heard the comment, first time i heard that from my friend in the office but i tested with my own account and it works. So i was thinking maybe browser issues (Chrome and Firefox updated themselves recently).

I spent a little bit more time finding out if something's really wrong. True enough, i realize i can only do a proper comment if i log on as a google account. For other accounts, either the submit didn't work, or the screen didn't show the submit button during word verification (Its actually hidden and accessible by hitting the tab button). I ran through my settings and found 2 plausible solutions.

1. Disable word verification (Didn't want to do that cos spammers will flood me soon enough)
2. Disable the convenient embedded mode. I chose this, apparently the feature doesn't work with my current template, which i am too lazy to source and change for now.

Now, i think the comments should work liao.

Too dependant on electricity

2011-10-16T11:34:00.000+08:00

It was an unusually hot day, especially when its after some nice doses of rainy days. I even wondered aloud to myself if that will fry some circuits somewhere while i was on my site, and i really am 'suai' enough to get myself right.

So i was walking back home after a long and tedious trip from my site in Mandai area via the NS line -> Circle Line -> Bus, when i noticed something amiss. The surrounding seems a bit different, kinda dark. That's when i realize multiple blocks are without power. I was hoping my block would be spared but i was disappointed when the block appears in my view.

While i climb up the stairs up to the 10th floor, there were lots of people streaming downstairs, i hardly see people walking down in my months of climbing the stairs...... I asked one young family how long the blackout has been, they said more than 30mins, and its getting to warm to stay in the flat. There i was wondering, if the power doesn't come back up, you guys will have to carry your kids and old folks back up..... I guess i will leave the rest of the story in the form of a picture book, its something i learn from a friend who reads picture books to his less than a year old boy

Part of the estate that falls into darkness.

This little scholar by the candle light seems happy

The flat is now supported by candles....

Like moths, the humans starts to gather in the light. And if you see carefully, 7-Eleven is the only shop to have power.... and aircon....

SP Services did a nice job keeping the residents updated, by flashing messages on a moving van

Me and my only connectivity to the web, with a dying battery...

All the cheers you can hear when the power came back on with the installation of a huge mobile power generator. But this was not long lived cos the power tripped again after around 15mins. The cheers became the Boos and vulgarities. Didn't capture that cos i was stuck in the shower when that happened......but it was fun listening to all those crap.

Jack, of all trades

2011-09-30T21:32:00.005+08:00

Was attending this course lectured by a Santa Claus lookalike Canadian for the last 5 days. Throughout the course, he would be asking who in his class of 30 are 'Software Developers' or 'Test Engineers' and such. I didn't respond to any of his queries, not because i am not, but because i probably am. Confused? Well...

My job scope is actually pretty diverse, depending on the timeline and the complexity of the project, sometimes i am this, sometimes i am that, and a lot of times i am one of a few. Lets just list it down. Requirements Engineer, Software Architect, Programmer, Test Engineer, Systems Engineer, Systems Integrator, Project Manager, Software Manager, Technical Lead. Some of my younger colleagues have it worse, on top of all the above, they would have to be Procurement Officers as well. Charging a single portfolio with such a diverse scope of roles, this is really quite unseen among my peers in the IT line, and other industries for that matter. It usually turns out that i can relate to any of my peers's on the job's stories regardless of which IT line they are in (Systems, software...etc). In case anyone thinks i am complaining, I am actually quite happy with my diverse roles (Well most of it anyway), it actually quite fit in well with my interests and personality, having the opportunity to be on the back-end systems and software development side on things. The only caveat about this is that it takes quite a while to be really really proficient in any one role, since you don't really have the opportunity to grow in any specific role, and i am talking about decades.

The lecturer doesn't seem to be aware and i noted that some of my colleagues doesn't seem to realize it themselves too, since they responded to just the software developer's role. I do hope my younger colleagues do know that their scope of work is really much much more than just a software developer.

So now i wonder, if someone asks about my title, what should i tell them? That i am Jack? Of all trades?

Blogger comments

2011-09-30T19:32:00.000+08:00

Apparently my blog's comments system is down.

2011-09-29T00:25:00.001+08:00

Tonight again, like last night, couldn't get myself to sleep. Eyes closed and I start seeing scenes of life in my past and future playing back, just like how its like when you are dreaming, except that I am not asleep. Then again, when I do sleep, I almost always dream, of the same things as well, which usually only have sad content.

I wonder how I can dampen my brain activity at night, so I can have nights of sleep, real sleep.

Before we forget

2011-09-28T18:23:00.002+08:00

Its been a while since the website is launched. Should go take a look.

www.beforeweforget.org

Everest - North Base Camp

2011-09-25T12:02:00.001+08:00

This is where i gonna be.

[Everest North Base Camp]
[http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/4194/0/7/mejores/fotos/semana/]

Worth

2011-09-24T23:30:00.001+08:00

Saw this video shared on Facebook.
Oneself's worth is determined by others, actually.

Detox

2011-09-20T07:51:00.001+08:00

I wonder if a moderate lactose attack is actually a good and cheap form of intestinal detox.

The guy who drank alone

2011-09-12T22:35:00.002+08:00

There was this guy in his late forties who would on a nightly basis find himself a clean spot and help himself with a couple bottles of beer and music. Its actually nothing awkward or suspicious about him as he's always there after 9pm, always sober and never made any trouble. Just that today, it was a scene that i actually felt a wrenching squeeze in my chest.

Its the Mid Autumn Festival, lots of kids, young people, teens and even some elderly were at the basketball court right in front of my block. The guy was there at his usual spot with his beer, and his portable radio was playing some Chinese oldies. It was quite a contrast, those on the court laughing, having fun, chatting, while he was sitting alone just a few meters away, watching them. I was sure that the guy had also hoped to live such a life, having friends, not being so lonely, and alone. He probably couldn't joke like most other could, he probably couldn't make up hundred and one interesting topics to talk about, he probably couldn't make people feel good when he's around them. He probably did try all of the above, he probably got himself hurt (Unintentionally by others) when he did try. In the end, he probably stopped trying, having understood that people get uncomfortable because he tried so hard. In the very end, he probably begin to seclude himself, probably not because he wanted to, but because he find no other spot where he would be accepted for who he is.

Maybe the next time i see him, i should get myself a beer, sit down beside him, and talk.

On many occasions, i wonder if i will become like him. Somehow most people are comfortable with me only if its about work. Outside of work, most people just stayed a distance. I really wonder, am i such a bane?

2011-08-26T13:09:00.000+08:00

Don't understand why i reacted like that, and why it affected me this much. I shouldn't have reacted, i shouldn't have been affected.

Obliging tool

2011-08-25T20:00:00.002+08:00

Lol day by day, night by night, as the days passed i feel more and more like i am just an obliging tool to most people. But i guess i have only myself to blame for not being able to be interesting or fun. :)

私は人間のですか？私はないのですか？

Money in, Money out

2011-07-10T20:33:00.002+08:00

Since a few years ago, some time after i started out work, i started to upgrade the stuff in the small flat i live in, either by buying the stuff straight, or to encourage my parents to change them depending on the items. So far, the 21" CRT TV on a standalone cabinet has become a decent home theater system (with some components won from a lucky draw by my sis). My parent's 30 yr old bedroom finally got a full facelift, definitely way overdue. In the kitchen, we got a new fridge and washing machine (which sadly seems to be giving problems lately). My sis also tries to put a few stuff in like message machines and oven. I guess my mum is finally more relaxed about our household finance and more willing to spend money, glad that she brought up the idea to change our sofa, which was given second-hand from my aunt many years back when she got a new one.

I had always wanted to pull a upgrade of the other room in the flat. Like getting a double-decker bed and trash the existing 2 beds which my sisters sleep in, this would create a sizable space for other stuff like study tables or wardrobe. Wasn't successful in persuading my sisters in going for this idea since they didn't have a thing for double-deckers. I don't sleep in the room so i guess i really don't have a say in things, so well, plan dropped.

I realize i have not spent anything extravagant on myself for a very long time, except for the new computer i bought to replace my faulty one 3 years ago. I have regularly spent money on trips, both for myself and for my family, but never really got myself stuff that i can use everyday. Here i am contemplating if i should pamper myself with something which would cost quite a bit but would be interesting to use, or should i just save up the money. Hahaha....tempting.

A day with kids

2011-06-24T19:05:00.001+08:00

Chasing all around after kids, plucking kids off walls and rocks they weren't supposed to climb, holding kids back from the water they weren't supposed to tread, carrying them high up for the photo-shoot which the photographer didn't bother to wait, making sure they are always safe and happy. haha i admit i got really tired at the end of the day. But it was all well worth it.. Thanks kids for the day of fun :)

Fuel, the wrong side.

2011-06-23T19:33:00.000+08:00

I don't know what is fueling this unrelenting unhappiness and discontent in me.
Is it certain individuals? Is it me? Or is it the life that i live itself?

Have no answers, and i don't know where to look.

2011-06-04T22:44:00.003+08:00

I'm really really tired of it all, mind and body.
No one seems to be able understand.
So all i can do is to mask my tiredness from showing.

The spirit revives

2011-05-08T12:28:00.002+08:00

The Singapore General Elections 2011 has been a victory for all true blue Singaporeans, in my opinion.
Its been a very long time (ever since the quick diluting of the native population, and since the time when citizens are now simply referred to as residents ) that the country come together as a nation to decide how they would like their Home to be governed. At the same time, the political event that is closely observed by the international media dispelled the popular belief held by the ruling party that the new generation of young people are politically apathic.

Now that the populace have cast their votes ,and shown the ruling party their concerns as the citizens of the country, i hope the government, ruling party or not, will work together to bring back the national spirit that hasn't shine for the longest time.

Heart less

2011-04-03T00:33:00.002+08:00

I really wish i could dig out my heart and throw it into the sea.
All my heart can do is to constantly inflict this insurmountable, wrenching pain onto myself.

The untangibles

2011-03-24T22:00:00.005+08:00

People talk about it, authors write about it, movies base their entire stories on it and its on the list of almost everyone at some point of their lives.

Different people gained it at different stages of their lives, in vastly different ways. Some people sought it by making others happy, a born talent not everyone has. Some achieve it by accomplishing a little something everyday. Some have it by demeaning everyone in their path and swim in their suffering, sinister indeed. Some simply have it by celebrating each day they breathe.

What's this wonder? Its 'Happiness'.

What happens when its darker twin become a part of a person's life? This may happen in various ways. Something could have happened in that person's life so drastic that it would hurt him/her like never before. Or someone could be living a stagnant life for so long that he/she realize its not happiness. Or someone could be actively searching for happiness yet that he/she doesn't even realize they don't know what they are looking for.

What's this darker twin? Its 'Unhappiness'.

If someone is unhappy, every big, small, good and bad matter that happen to them only make them even more unhappy. Yes, they will probably be disgruntled and 'make a fuss' even if good things happen to them. They could become pessimistic and lose sight of what really mattered to them. Its a vicious cycle like a twisted pair, become more and more tangled in the realm of anger and frustration.

If someone is happy, every big, small, good and bad matter that happen to them only make them even more resilient. Pretty much nothing could break their faith in themselves, and in others.

They are twins, yet their influence can be so different.
So, is my answer in the number 42? I hope it doesn't take the destruction of a planet to find out.

New Zealand Trip - 31st Dec 10 to 18th Jan 11

2011-01-23T09:22:00.002+08:00

On 2010's New Year eve, i was on a Qantas airliner enroute to Sydney(Australia)/Christchurch (New Zealand). This is a trip that would be packed with adventures all over, where my dreams of a road trip where you drive across the country from town to town without a guide, and 'flying through the skies' come true, and this post serves as a summary to the daily posts that were to come.

The first impression i get of New Zealand when i first landed is the sun. The skies are clear and the rays burned down on land without much obstruction. At the same time, the air is cold. Light breeze that stirs up removed the effect of the scorching sun. With such a combo, anyone could be sun burnt without themselves knowing it, especially when the local meteorological services reported a value of 14 on their UV scale of 1 to 11. So you could have guessed, its suncream everyday. Despite that, there were some who wanted a nice tan and avoided suncream till the mid of the trip, when sunburn symptoms start to set in...hahah...

The very next thing any Singaporean will notice is how friendly the people in NZ are. I'm not just taking about people in the service line, i talking about everyone walking about in the streets. You will be surprised how people tend to greet each other even though they are total strangers. In Singapore, you would probably throw a weird stare if a unfamiliar fellow Singaporean greeted you out of the blue on the streets or public transport.

As a road trip, this means you drive A LOT on the road. A typical drive each day through cities, towns and mountains take you a few hours to complete. Luckily, most of us are licensed drivers, so when one driver gets tired, another simply take over. As for V-Comds, well, it doesn't really matter, it means getting a nicer reclined seat to sleep on, the GPS unit does all the hard work of navigation. Driving in NZ means you have to be considerate. This is not just about courtesy, its necessary on some of the mountain roads. On many roads, there are bridges which are only 1 lane in width, with no traffic lights or anything of that sort. Vehicles on opposite ends of the bridge would need to pay attention to conditions on the bridge and give way accordingly, although the worst thing that could happen is 2 vehicles ram each other at high speeds on the one lane bridge if both refuse to give way. Well, this reminds me of an possible fatal accident i could have caused to my travel mates, which i'm really really really relieved that it did not happen. We will come to that in another post.

Hopefully, i can depict all our adventures on a daily post in the next few weeks. So, lets just keep a lookout on this URL. :)

The new year to come

2010-12-31T12:06:00.005+08:00

Its that time of the year when people are in less productive moods and spend some time clearing their leave and spending the off days with their family and friends, or doing something other than work. Down to the very last day, i would usually sit down and think through the year. 2010 has been a lot of downs, not much ups. But on the bright side, i see myself pulling out from the downs, not matter how bad it was to me. At the same time, i gained some new perspectives. Now i see myself better and learnt my limits, which means i could avoid more downs in the next year.

Having looking back, i know what are the things i should focus on from now on. One of the things i could possibly still move forward is my career. Career, as long as you put the effort, you will make progress somehow or another. One of my friends at work told me, its difficult for me to call it a career with my non-aggressive personality. I will take that pointer seriously, and will see how i could move along that line. But at the very base, i should try to build up some extra knowledge in the domain i am working on and applying innovation to it. Its quite a niche domain, and if i do it right, it could be a turning point in my career. Its going to take effort and resources, but i am giving myself all the time i have for it.

Another possible item i could focus on is my family. Parents wise, it would be a minimal duty for me to maintain their current lifestyles, which is definitely fulfilling compared to the old times. Seeing them age also reminds me that i need to always maintain my composure, control my temper, and not do anything rash that would disrupt the family lifestyle. Sisters wise, i'm not sure if they would be contributing financially in future, especially after one of them once declared that i should be the one to do it since i am the son. That did piss me off but i guess i can't do anything about that if thats what they feel. I do hope the minimal they would do after they get married and all, is that they still visit their parents regularly. Old people, there's not a lot to please them, but entertaining visits from their children and grandchildren always brighten up their day.

Other stuff, when opportunity arises and if i can commit the time and money, i will still go on trips where possible. But these don't always come by and are basically impromptu (Which means its difficult to plan in advance). I do hope i can bring my family out for a Taiwan trip somewhere next year though, it would be the first family trip we have, and the first time my parents get to fly in a plane :D

I seem to be making resolutions in this post, but they are not. Its just things that i need to remind myself of.

So good bye, 2010 and hello 2011, later from the skies over the ocean. ;)

New Zealand Tramping - To be

2010-12-30T22:12:00.005+08:00

Before you create a new tab and start googling for the word, 'Tramping' is just another word New Zealanders use for 'Trekking. After the Nepal experience and the NZ exercise trip during my NS days, i had always wanted to go for a trek in places like NZ. When the opportunity arises, i basically jumped in, albeit i couldn't make a swift decision last time due to other possible commitments. I'm glad i did.

I would be traveling with a much smaller group this time round (About half the size), but there are other news to this trip. For one, this is going to be a road trip, meaning we get to drive round the country on our own vehicle and looking for accommodation along the way. That sounds quite the adventure and i think i am going to enjoy that. For 2, there might be a whole set of adrenaline pumping adventures to be made, like Sky Diving (Yes! Mr Scared of heights going to do something stupid to himself again!!), Water Rafting, Quad Biking, Glacier walking..... I don't know if i get to try every one of the above, but if possible, why not?

The star of the trip would of course be the tramping. We had originally planned for the Milford Track, slated to be the finest walk on earth. Alas, its so popular that we couldn't book a slot for the huts. So we made for the 'second best' and booked the Routeburn track. It should end with a Milford Sound cruise so probably not so bad. But this time round, we ain't trekking with a guide. Which means, we have to carry our own water and food supplies, on top of the other equipment. After the 'Broke down' of my lungs and legs in Nepal, i made sure i do some prep for this trip. I'm not sure if its enough, but lets hope my body could keep it there for the 4 days to come. :D

Like every trip, i like to take a shot of my luggage before i move out, its actually a good way to see if i had gotten at least a bit smarter in packing luggage. The conclusion, i still pretty sucks at this. hahahaha...

Before packing

After packing

Molding

2010-12-13T20:43:00.003+08:00

For a long time, a lot of people around me always have commented on my personality, and telling me that i should change here and there. I could even remember one good friend of mine who was so pissed off with my spoil-sportiness. Some of the more common comments i get would be,

"Don't be so serious" (This is the top on the list, i get this A LOT from all sorts of people i meet)
"You need to open up"
"You need to open up more" (Yeah, that's what they say when i thought i fared quite ok on the 2nd line. Go figure)
"Very boring"
"Try to be humorous"
"Learn to talk more 'cork' "

...the list goes on.

Apparently, the above are an essential part of the de'facto traits a modern good guy should have. After hearing too much of these, i gave up ignoring eventually, and tried to go along with some of their suggestions. Its a strange and long process, consciously trying to do certain things which i normally won't do by instinct. For example asking questions to which the answers i sometimes already know, in an attempt to remain engaged in peoples' conversation. Or trying to exaggerate certain actions or break really lousy lame jokes, in an attempt to break the 'seriousness' that seems to follows me wherever i go. I don't know if any of those made me a more comfortable person to associate with, but i guess this is one of those things where you can't see results, your life just shape along it.

Try as i might, there are still many many many pockets of time when i would just revert to my quiet self, suddenly in deeps thoughts, or suddenly freeze in time admiring certain scenery so serene.

*****

To be fair, there are also those who would tell me, "Be who you are", but such people are rare. But these are also the ones whom i know are genuinely comfortable with me. You could say, our frequencies match. I'm glad these people came into my life, i treasure their friendship and family-ship more than anything else. :)

Gorilla mini

2010-11-20T13:12:00.006+08:00

3 weeks after my purchase, i finally received my $4.15 *pirated* mini gorilla tripod through the mail. On first impression, i thought its slightly smaller then expected. But this means it can be nicely tucked into a side pocket and used anywhere, anytime.

Lets put it to some simple tasks and see how well it does.
As a normal desktop tripod, its perfect for my PowerShot A1100 IS compact camera.

As a not so normal tripod, its even better! :D

Going to bring this along on my next overseas trekking, thats where this tripod will be put to the test when the situation demands it. ;)

It really depends on who you are

2010-11-12T23:36:00.002+08:00

Its weird how people treat people. But i guess sometimes people tend to be hostile, avoid, or feel irritated whenever a certain person approach, or attempt to interact. Most times the poor person probably have no idea what's the reasons behind all that. In time, that person realize that there's actually no reasons, it is just because that person is that person. What can be done is to get used to it, don't feel frustrated about it, because those people probably don't care about that for you anyway. Just try to learn who doesn't feel comfortable with you and avoid getting in their path too much. That way, no one get upset and you don't have to bear the guilt of being the one who spoils it all, again.

Thirty first Sixteenth October

2010-10-18T23:12:00.002+08:00

It kinda started off weeks before when i was given a bowl of 'Mian Sian' with 2 boiled eggs from my mum, a routine she would never forget for anyone in the family. Fast forward to the day before and i was presented with an envelope full of vouchers with a list of names mainly from my project team mates and my group of great friends whom i have come to consider as close.

The day itself was originally planned to be in an air-conditioned cafe reading books and doing the dumb PKE. But a couple of my buddies suddenly called and i was jio'ed for a kopi session which we haven't done for weeks. It was nice updating each other on our lives. Someone earned his freedom by tendering his resignation, and we were celebrating his grand act that was held for so long. Someone went AWOL for a few weeks and came back with yet a new girlfriend, i am always amazed at how this buddy could just simply fall in love with a woman, one after another, just like that.

At night, my little sis surprised me with a cake. But i think my mum had a share in that idea. It felt kinda weird cos i don't usually get such celebration from my family. Same feeling when i was presented with a cake from my colleagues last year (Well, minus the look for ppl to share cake feeling haha). I'm actually much more comfortable singing the bday song for others instead, maybe its because i wasn't used to getting my birthday celebrated. :P

* * * * * * * * * * *

I reminisced at my blogs for the periods near my bdays. Its nice when i was able to look back sometimes for various reasons. Some content may be sad but most remind me of happy moments. One day, when my memory finally fade away, at least there's this blog that marked my trademarks and i won't forget my family, my friends and myself.

I'm glad i blogged. :)

A new arrival

2010-10-17T14:51:00.002+08:00

I had mentioned in the last post about a friend waiting for a wonderful arrival, and how he would probably be increasing his blogging activities. Well, as anticipated, ta da!

Congrats to Leslie and Carine with the arrival of their little prince Bertrand. :)
http://lastsplash.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-member-to-family.html

oNcE iN a WhILe

2010-09-21T22:24:00.004+08:00

My last post was on July 18th, commenting on an anime i had watched. So its been 2 months of cool down for me, and i still got nothing nice to write about. I guess i will keep it that way, till i find something nice to blog about. Its a miracle that i had kept this blog alive for more than 5 years anyway, with the advent of social sites like Facebook. In the meantime, i probably will continue updating my messy tech blog.

Its interesting though, apparently i'm not the only one who has stopped blogging. All the personal blogs which i used to visit seem to have totally stopped their blogging activity as well, except one, who is awaiting for a wonderful arrival. I guess this friend of mine will be increasing his blogging activity pretty soon with lot of interesting stories and photos :D

Jax, over and out.

Brave Song

2010-07-18T11:37:00.002+08:00

I was watching this anime series, Angel Beats. Episode 7 really sync to my feelings and emotions. What the male lead was looking for, is also what i am searching for. Will i find that piece of me?

The theme song of this anime is called 'Brave Song'. Here's the link to that song.
http://mp3bear.com/inc/do.php?job=share&id=1775076

Romaji

Itsumo hitori de aruiteta Furikaeru to minna ha tooku
Sore demo atashi ha aruita Sore ga tsuyosa datta
Mou nani mo kowaku nai Sou tsubuyaite miseru
Itsuka hito ha hitori ni natte Omoide no naka ni ikiteku dake
Kodoku sae Aishi waratterareru you ni Atashi ha tatakau n da
Namida nante misenai n da

Itsumo hitori de aruiteta Iku saki ni ha gake ga matteta
Sore demo atashi ha aruita Tsuyosa no shoumei no tame
Fukitsukeru tsuyoi kaze Ase de SHATSU ga haritsuku
Itsuka wasurete shimaeru nara Ikiru koto sore ha tayasui mono
Bougyaku no kanata he to ochite iku nara Sore ha nigeru koto darou
Ikita imi sura kieru darou

Kaze ha yagate naideta Ase mo kawaite
Onaka ga suite kita na Nani ka attakke
Nigiyaka na koe to tomo ni ii nioi ga yatte kita

Itsumo hitori de aruiteta Minna ga matte ita

Itsuka hito ha hitori ni natte Omoide no naka ni ikiteku dake
Sore demo ii Yasuraka na kono kimochi ha Sore wo nakama to yobu n da
Itsuka minna to sugoshita hibi mo wasurete doko ka de ikiteru yo
Sono toki ha mou tsuyoku nanka nai yo
Futsuu no onna no ko no yowasa de namida wo kobosu yo

English Translation

I was always walking alone, When I turned around everyone was far behind
Even so I kept walking, That was what strength was
“I’m not afraid of anything anymore,” I try to whisper to myself
Everyone becomes alone someday living on only in memories
So that I can love and laugh even in loneliness I will fight
I will show no tears

I was always walking alone, A cliff waited for me at my destination
Even so I kept walking as proof of my strength
The strong wind blew against me, My shirt stuck to me with sweat
If I can forget everything someday living will become so much simpler
If I fall past oblivion that’s just running away
If only the meaning of having lived would disappear

Before long the wind died down and the sweat evaporated
I’ve become hungry, Did something happen?
Together with vibrant voices a pleasant scent came along

I was always walking alone, Everyone was waiting

Everyone becomes alone someday living on only in memories
Even so it’s fine, I will call these peaceful feelings my companions
Living somewhere I will someday forget the days that I spent with everyone as well
At that time I won’t be strong anymore
With the weakness of a normal girl tears will overflow

Yoshi!! Gambatei!!

2010-06-28T19:28:00.009+08:00

Comon! I knew you would break out of this invisible sunken black dark hole. Good job! You are well on your climb out. Lose the chains that bind you so tight from those who impressed that you aren't a good person, nice person. You don't cheat, don't hurt, don't rob, probably the only bad thing is that you don't know how to be fun, how to please people, make them feel good. In this era, people don't feel you are a good and nice person to be arnd with at work, play or even rest but no one would see you as a meanie baddie too, cos you failed even when you tried to be one hahahaha!

Yup keep it up jax, continue to occupy yourself with lots of things, laugh out loud and smile wide wide at the slightest crappy joke or scene you see, work very very hard at what you are supposed to work at. You are climbing out of that big dark hole you dropped into, and when you are fully out, you would catch up with whatever you have been missing out during the time you are in that hole.

Yoshi!! Gambatei!!

A break?

2010-06-21T08:03:00.007+08:00

i think i need a long break, but that doesn't sound quite right. Its true that I'm tired, but it doesn't feel like a break is going to make me feel any bit refreshed. Though i never brought myself to admit, probably because of some useless ego, but i know what i need, is to earn back my confidence, self esteem and my beliefs of being a good person which seemed to have been totally drained from me in the course of the past yr or two. Seriously, i don't really know how to go about rebuilding all those when almost every day i am always reminded of my worthlessness by people and things around me.

In a big part of my life, i have always pondered alone and chosen my paths at the forks of my life. some decisions i made were plain stupid, now i see it, but too late to regret about it. Some decisions were wise, though it may not have been the best. This time round ain't too different i hope, its just that i no longer have any real options in sight. My world is vast, yet empty.

Mid life

2010-06-07T20:19:00.000+08:00

Today i had to relinquish a certain task i am doing in my project to another team member. I had to do it because the team mate is picking up stuff which i am doing instead and i realize i am actually the 'unnecessary component' in the process of completing that task. I made the 'beneficial to project team' decision and voluntarily handed over that task. Its not the first time i found myself in a spot where i shouldn't be, but it seems to be more frequent than ever for the past few months.

What is wrong? Am i losing my touch? Or its just because i am simply being too accommodating to everything else but myself? Should i kill my softness and be the bad guy (Bad guys are always the happy ones, right?). If so, how do i do it? ; How do i disregard the feelings of all those around me? How do i be totally indifferent to how people feel? lol, asking myself stuff which i know i would never be able to do....dead end here.... lol.

*sigh* Nothing seems to be going right in all aspects of my life, is this what people call the mid life crisis? This feels so crapped, i need to look for a new direction that suits me. I am always there when anyone around me needs advice, but when i am pressing my own red button, i realize there's really no one i could talk to except for a dumb dead blog.

Courage

2010-06-06T23:37:00.008+08:00

After so many years of bottling, i finally took the courage to let it out.

I already knew what the outcome would be, but at least now there won't be any more wild guesses ,false hopes and sleepless nights. Despite all these, it ended in a amiable nature, for that, i am glad.

Its the first time i did such things, and i probably would not be able to do it a second time again in my life.

I had made a promise, and i will keep it.

Game : Final Fantasy X

2010-05-29T21:55:00.005+08:00

Everyone knows about this game, i don't have to talk about it.

What i really wanted to do, is to share their theme song (end credits) which mesmerized me just now. Its really beautiful, just like the title of the song. Now, i can't (shouldn't) upload their song, so i shall link you to some online streaming i found online. If you want the full mp3, a simple google for "Suteki da ne" will get you some results. And at the bottom of this post, the lyrics..... ;)

Suteki da ne				Isn't it beautiful
kaze ga yoseta kotoba ni oyoida kokoro kumo ga hakobu ashita ni hazunda koe				The wind, like a heart that swam in the accumulated words The clouds, a voice that was shot into the holding future
tsuki ga yureru kagami ni furueta kokoro hoshi ga nagare koboreta yawarakai namida				The moon, a shaking heart in an unsteady mirror The stars, gentle tears in an overflowing stream
suteki da ne futari te wo tori aruketa nara ikitai yo KIMI no machi ie ude no naka				Isn't it beautiful, To walk together in each others hands I do so want to go, To your city, your house, into your arms.
sono mune karada azuke yoi ni magire yumemiru				That heart, held within your body In those confusing nights I dream
kaze wa tomari kotoba wa yasashii maboroshi kumo wa yabure ashita wa tooku no koe				The wind, its halting words are a gentle illusion The clouds, the broken future like a distant voice
tsuki ga nijimu kagami wo nagareta kokoro hoshi ga yurete koboreta kakusenai namida				The moon, a heart flowing in the clouded mirror The stars, broken and swaying, like tears unable to be hidden.
suteki da ne futari te wo tori aruketa nara ikitai yo KIMI no machi ie ude no naka				Isn't it beautiful, To walk together in each others hands I do so want to go, To your city, your house, into your arms.
sono kao sotto furete asa ni tokeru yumemiru				That face, A soft touch, Dissolving into morning, I dream.

TV Series - Lost

2010-05-28T01:25:00.002+08:00

This is one long winding TV series that started off pretty well in 2004. I followed it for around 3 seasons before deciding it was getting dull. But after missing 2 seasons, i picked up the story where i left as the new season seems more promising with the story lines. After a long 6 years, we finally saw the finale of the TV series. To be frank, the final season of the series does try to explain a lot of stuff that baffled viewers for the past years, but even through to the finale, not all questions were answered. I must say though, the 2 hr finale is pretty well done. My two cents worth, don't drag a series past its worth, though ratings is all that the cable companies are concerned with.

A Lost fan who had followed and analysed the series came up with a Q&A page. He meant to answer a lot of questions raised in the show, in his own perspective. So if you are still lost after watching the Lost finale, you probably might want to visit this page so you can have a good night's sleep :)

http://screenrant.com/lost-finale-explanation-kofi-61464/

Book: The Odd Body

2010-05-16T11:40:00.004+08:00

Q: Why do men have nipples?
Q: Why am i taller in the morning?

That was one of the set of questions found in this book, "The Odd Body", written by this Dr. Stephen Juan. Dr Juan attempted to answer from a scientific point of view, a list of questions regarding the human body which are commonly (and not commonly) asked by people.

Some questions are interesting while others may seemed a bit far fetched for the average reader. The author tried to answer some questions by directly referencing literature from other sources, and its quite evident from the difference in tones and in some cases, repetitive questions. Some answers were referenced from sources that were as old as 30 years, and were not followed up to the time when this book is published (2004). That kind of put a doubt on the reliability on the answers provided since the scientific world has advanced significantly for the past years. This book would definitely provide more credibility if the author would spend another year or 2 following up on the cases he referenced before publishing.

This is not a book i would be buying off the shelf but if you are bored enough and want to be surprised a bit by some of the things that you thought you knew, it would be an entertaining read from the library near you.

As for the nipple? Go read the book.....lol.

http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Body-Mysteries-Wonderful-Explained/dp/0740741888

Book: Morrie: In His Own Words

2010-05-02T13:09:00.010+08:00

"Learn how to live, and you'll know how to die; learn how to die, and you'll know how to live"

That was the last aphorism [An original laconic phrase conveying some principle or concept of thought] quoted in the book by the late Morrie Schwartz. If you have read the book "Tuesdays with Morrie", you would be familiar with the author of this book.

Morrie had contracted Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's Disease, a fatal disease that had gradually taken away Morrie's independence and left him with death itself. But Morrie was not your average man, he was wise, and he used that wisdom to aid him in his final journey. This book contains part of that wisdom which he had wanted to share with the world, in the form of aphorisms which he had painstakingly documented. Here's a few which i would share here.

"Expect things to be inaccessible, unattainable, unreachable. When they are, don't get too frustrated or angry. If you do, let it be short-lived"
Morrie described some of his personal experiences when he gets frustrated, and conclude with this. 'I want what i want when i want it: When i don't get it, I'm frustrated. But if i don't demand that it be there at this very moment, the frustration is reduced and the objective will still be achieved, though it takes a while'.

"Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it. Reminisce about it, but don't live in it. Learn from it, but don't punish yourself about it or continually regret it. Don't get stuck in it."
A lot of people would say to themselves at some point of their lives: 'If only i had done this. If only i had married that woman. If only i had taken that career step.'. These are signs of being stuck in the past and it is such a waste of time. Morrie would rather pick it up by asking himself, 'What can i learn from it? What did i learn? How does it help me right now?'.

"Don't assume that it's too late to become involved or to redirect your interests"
It may be too late to do some things, but there are always other opportunities for you to be involved in something. Even a smile of encouragement to someone who is having a bad day can make you that person's inspiration.

"Take in as much joy as you can whenever and however you can. You may find it in unpredictable places and situations"
Morrie had a whole paragraph on this, but what caught my eye was 'You can find joy in practically any situation if you are open to the experience of happiness.'

"Be hopeful but not foolishly hopeful"
You could be hopeful that something would happen, or someone would respond, but expectations must be realistic. If you already knew for certain some facts, don't hope for the impossible. On the other hand, do not feel hopeless.

Although some people might say, "Oh, i could come up with those words too", but i doubt those people could feel as much as the author in applying these words. Most of the reviews i saw had recommended this book to those who are critically ill (I found this book in the health section of the library too). I felt that this book deserve a much greater scope of audience, both the sick and the healthy, young and old, because the wisdom found in this book could apply to anyone in any stage of their life.

I would highly recommend this book, in fact, i would buy this book and place it on my desk top. On and off, i would digest some of the words written in there, and when there is such a need, i would spread the words in this book to those who might benefit from it.

http://www.amazon.com/Morrie-His-Own-Words-Schwartz/dp/0385318790

Seeping (its a good thing)

2010-04-21T22:45:00.003+08:00

I seem to be getting less and less affected by emotions, getting more and more numb. Learning to let go of life does helps. I guess that's a good sign, its definitely better than feeling down day after day, week after week.

learn to let go.....

2010-04-16T17:20:00.001+08:00

Learning to let go of the parts of life which are leaving you dangling, bit by bit, piece by piece and when that is all done, you will earn the right to finally find peace with yourself.

Book: Rush Home Road

2010-03-31T20:02:00.005+08:00

'But that's life, she thought, some people have love, friendship and good fortune come easy, some have to work for it, and some never get it at all.'
That is quoted from the main character in the book which i finished reading recently.

The story began in the present time in the book's setting with a young girl Sharla Cody, neglected and troubled girl who never receive any love like any other child would. This little girl's life is to be transformed by an unlikely guardian, Adaleine Shadds. The story alternate distinctly (Separated by Chapters)between the past and present, with the past focusing on Adaleine's sad life of seventy years, and the present on the positive impact both characters have on each other. In the end, Sharla found a new life, through a coincidence that would be so profound, and Adaleine, who finally found peace in death, joining all those who had passed on before her.

Its quite a heart warming story, especially towards the end, seeing how young Sharla and old Addy found that dependence and spark of life in each other, which they both seem to have lost in their journey through life. At times, i could almost feel for the characters. I thought the ending was quite abrupt though, without giving the readers a better insight of Sharla's life after Addy passed on. But i took great comfort in reading that Addy could find peace with herself, when she finally leave the living and join those who passed on.

The story will tug your emotional senses through the depicted suffering of Addy's life, and yet manifest that kind of hope which she is able to pass on to Sharla despite her own decades of misfortunes. A book i would recommend indeed.

http://www.amazon.com/Rush-Home-Road-Lori-Lansens/dp/0316069027

Anger uncontained

2010-01-25T22:50:00.002+08:00

Different Monday, same outburst.

Looks like i am losing myself in anger and negative emotions..... i wonder how i ended up like this.

Preparedness.

2010-01-18T23:34:00.004+08:00

There's this video of an American chap warning about a possible powerful earthquake happening in Singapore sometime in Jan 2010. We all know through scientific facts that the odds of powerful earthquakes and tsunamis hitting Singapore are currently very low. I'm usually a person who reasons based on facts and logic, but for some reasons, i get a rare weird feel when i listened to his clip. Did a bit of digging after that and realize that he had recorded different versions of similar videos and posted them all over the web. Intentions benign or not, this guy made efforts to make sure his words of a possible calamity (Earthquake or not) got out.

Whatever are the facts or beliefs are, or if that guys is sane or not, he did say one thing that holds truth. People have to be prepared for disasters, know how to respond, how to manage. In these times of natural disasters and man-caused terrorism, people have more reasons to be prepared. But looking at the evacuation drill we had in our office today, i doubt people are really as prepared as they should be.

Why so angry?

2010-01-11T22:08:00.002+08:00

Its not the first time i let personal issues affect my work, but i think i really brought it to a whole new level today. My mood was pretty bad since i woke up today and almost every innocent entity (dead or alive) that got near me today, suffered the wrath of my own anguish. Only when the time cross into the night, when only the lifeless souls and hungry rats are roaming the office, that i think back and realize how many people i might have offended today, either with my tone of speech or my unrestrained use of words.

I have been grappling with the issue for a long time, and yet it still affect me as strong as it always did, even when i thought i could get over it. Moments of free time always see my mind rampaging through cause and effects, and every time the demeaning finger always point to myself.

Yes, i am angry. Not at anyone else but myself.

Boxee

2010-01-10T15:55:00.002+08:00

I heard some hoohah on it on the web but never really bothered to find out exactly what it does till now. This day i went to download it (Its free) and i am pleasantly surprised by the features it provides. It would be great if they can port features of this platform into my ACRyan Media Player as well. Note that Boxee is coming up with the media player version, an effort with DLink? Its bound to get people looking at it, definitely.

So what's Boxee?

Its in general an entertainment box which you can install on your computer (Windows, Linux and Mac??). Once installed, you can configure it to scan through your computer and network for movies, photos, music. That's something which lots of free software does you might say, but here's the value-add. Boxee can scan your folders and try to identify the show or music, and then connect to the internet to download the relevant synopsis and cover albums for that movie or music, apparently, its supposed to work with TV serials as well. So if you bought movies or TV shows in retail DVDs, theoretically, you can load all of them on your computer and let Boxee do the rest. (I said theoretically didn't i?)

Of course that's not the only stuff Boxee does, it also connect to popular video sharing sites like Crunchyroll, and stream the videos off the web on your Boxee screen seamlessly. I said seamlessly, not without pauses.

Nice software, nice UI. I like it.

Advertisements.... for real?

2010-01-06T22:28:00.001+08:00

lol!! This lady is good! and definitely too free lol!
http://kitchentigress.blogspot.com/2010/01/ocbcs-birthday-cake.html

Cone headed

2010-01-01T18:42:00.002+08:00

Now i get a bit of understanding why products and services always suffer a downgrade of quality when China starts doing it. Its probably because they want things to be done much much faster in much much larger quantities.

I went to this EC House for a haircut today. Ok, i was too bored and decided to go for an haircut even though i should probably do it next week instead. I am served by this Chinese national. Its the first time i am served by a Chinese national after visiting this shop for so many months. So i said, tidy, thin and short, like i said all the time. He really took it at face value and start using the shaver. The whole session was damn short, think 5mins at most. He really do it extremely fast and almost entirely with the electronic shaver only...... I guess the rest is obvious.

Now i look like a BMT recruit who had his hair grown halfway mark without trimming. I guess i would either shave it all off my head entirely and walk into monk-hood earlier, or wait for the hair to grow a bit longer while i try to make it look a bit more decent myself.

Xmas eve and New Year eve

2010-01-01T16:03:00.003+08:00

Recently a friend and i were chatting about what we did on the Xmas and New year eve's of 2008, and we had to resort to looking up our own blogs to get a hint of what we did. I looked back and found no entries mentioning about what i did on those days. I do remember where i was on last xmas eve, but couldn't remember anything i did on New year eve. So this year, i guess i will pen down how i got through 2009's xmas and new year eves, in case i want to remember this a year later.

Xmas eve
Of course its work as usual, very few people would trade a day's leave for half a day's absence. I left the office at around 4+ pm, and took a bus down to VivoCity. There i met up with some very old friends and settled for the movie Avatar. I booked the tickets for the NON-3D version and was 'pelted with stones (verbally)' for not choosing the 3D version. Haha.... I knew this would be a long show and watching it in 3D goggles with specs on is really not a good idea. Anyway, Avatar is a good show in my opinion. I especially like the part where the characters always reconcile with nature. It reminds me of another tv series from the US, called 'Meet the natives'. In one scene, the aboriginal natives were shown how some better living americans preserve their looks by facial injection. One of the native said, 'They can try to do this on the outside, but how about the inside? People grow old, that's how it is'. Can you see the great wisdom of the natives?

So after the nice long show, we settled for a drinking session at one of the pubs in vivocity. I got myself quite tipsy, apparently for the second time in the year 2009. Thereafter, i went home and slept the night away.

New year eve
I left quite early at around 1+pm, and had lunch at Telok Blangah coffeeshop. Saw a new shop (used to be a barber shop) selling bubble tea and some soy drinks i think. Interestingly though, their shop is opened, but not for me. After the lunch, i went down to Plaza Sing to meet a friend and know some new friends (Although by right i should be able to recognize these new friends via some photos in the first place....i am bad at faces lah). Well, that was the plan. But some calls here and there ended up with me going to Orchard, getting a bit lost, reach lido meet the rest and then straightaway walked all the way back to Plaza Sing....hahaha. At least now i know how much Orchard Rd has changed, but i have no idea why they blocked off the road for pedestrians.....the underpass is quite a pain unless u know exactly which buildings are situated where. I think i can topo a jungle better...hahaha.

So we watched Bodyguards and Assassins. Its quite a good show in my opinion but i was really put off by the poor editing. There were many scenes where its obviously cut with the scene and music changing so abruptly. You can't help but wonder what you missed. And they were quite comical by asking so many well known actors to come out and die. Some don't even have to die, just stand there like a ghost (Literally!!) for less than a minute ok liao..... *diao*.

After that some of the group headed to 313 for some shopping while i head back home on the MRT where i was constantly irritated by this Chinese national shout-chatting on his phone....

Thats it. Bye bye 2009. Hello 2010.

End of year resolution(s)

2009-12-27T20:15:00.002+08:00

Some humans of this world have an interesting practice. They like to set yearly resolutions of what to do or hopefully to be done in the next solar orbital period. There are no binding effects, and a lot of people probably don't follow through with all their resolutions. I remember some years ago seeing some very young earthling setting loads of resolutions, i always wonder if they are really going to get those things done within the next orbit, or are hoping that some other fellow earthlings hear them and help them fulfill their resolution.

Resolutions are just resolutions. Resolutions should probably be simplistic, for a couple of reasons. One being not having to remember a whole list of things to do and keeping track which can be done or not. The other being an achievable target for the next year. Don't go hoping that you will be driving a posh car driving similarly naive women around next year when you are still just draining pocket money from your poor parents and struggling with your studies.

After thirty orbital cycles on this earth, i learned through both hilarious joy and immense pain that some things would not go the way you intended, no matter how sincere you feel about it and how hard you try to change yourself to fit into it. Sometimes, you just have to take one step back and tell yourself that in this world, not everyone gets to be happy. Its the balance of life, you just have to learn to accept.

So for my 2010 resolution? Its simple. To keep my own fats in check so the tailored pants i just ordered don't become another set of expensive white elephants. I really don't want to use any more pieces of paper which earthlings called 'money' on the outer decoration of this in-proportionate human body next year.

E.T. signing off.

Xmas jingles

2009-12-23T23:06:00.003+08:00

Our office had our Xmas celebration today. Not sure why it was held on the eve of Xmas eve this year, but as always, our welfare team made quite a good job out of it. The morning part was an address by our big boss. It is rare to see a more 'let go' side of my boss. Among all the 'Big Boss addresses' for the past year or so, this is probably the most interesting and entertaining.

In the afternoon is when all the games begin. I have to take my hat off the welfare team, they are never short of ideas. First is a modified win-lose-or draw game, then its a number game, and finally a role playing game. All the games are pretty entertaining, the idea is to have fun, it doesn't matter who win or lose, and i can tell that everyone there had a great time. Of course, i tried to immerse myself into the games and try to 忘我 a bit. I guess it worked out pretty well, everyone in the team enjoyed themselves, even the audience seemed entertained by our cranky acts in the role playing game.

For some reasons, i am on quite a low for some time. This event came well to lift my mood a little. I have to admit though, if i did close myself off, there's no way this merry mood would have affected me.

So what did i get for this yr's xmas?
A personalized mug from the welfare team, and a portable speaker from a Secret Santa, who apparently has a knack of drawing.

How to tell if a girl is NOT interested in you

2009-12-23T21:22:00.004+08:00

I saw this article on the web, and look at the long list of comments....
In other words, learn to accept the negative cues.

http://felixker.com/love/how-to-tell-if-a-girl-is-not-interested-in-you/

Cut and pasted whole-sale....

This is not a very tough question. It can be a tough question too, depending on the girl. Everyone has a different character, thus it’s impossible to know if the girl is interested in you by just following the points below.

If she’s not interested in you…

She NEVER initiates contact with you, be it on MSN or sms.
She is uncomfortable with light touching for eg. playful punching or nudging.
She cancels dates with you without proposing a make-up date.
She does not even agree to go out with you and does not suggest alternative timings.
She pours out all her emotional baggage to you. (When not together yet.)
She takes a long time to reply your sms or may not even reply.
She playfully call you her brother.
She talks about other guys to you.
She is indifferent towards you.
No matter how hard u try to impress her, she just ignore u.
She never want to look at your eyes, or stay any minute with u and would find uncomfortable with u around.
She will not engage in open communication with you
She makes up stories for not wanting to meet you
She keeps things about herself from you.
She is self absorbed and preoccupied with her own life which does not include you.
She rarely initiates a call or sms to you.
When you ask her out for a date, she’ll ask, “who’s going?”
You buy expensive gifts for the girl, she thanks you very politely and tells you not to spend so much money on her or that there is no need to even buy her a birthday gift.
If you invite her to concert or expensive dinners, she tells you that she is not free almost immediately.

That’s almost all, but this doesn’t apply to all girls. You must know that some girls are generally too shy to express their love for you.

Guys, although it’s the 21st century, I feel it’s only right for the guy to take initiative.

Whats your opinion?

In this city

2009-12-23T21:00:00.004+08:00

Everyday, a middle aged man with a bandage across his lower calf would push a trolley along the street, stopping by every rubbish bin, and scour for any remains that could be exchanged for any value. Following this man a few meters away would be an old women, with an old umbrella as her clutch and a flowery bag sling-ed over her shoulder.

When i first saw them walking the streets more than a year ago, the old woman was the one leading, teaching her mentally challenged son the few ways to survive in this economy driven city.
I have since understood that the son is probably diabetic, and has to bandage his legs due to the effects brought on by the disease. Time and age has now switched the roles of the mother and son combination, the son is now always ahead of the mother, whilst the mother keeps up with the son. Watching this scene almost everyday, i could almost tap into the thought of the mother. 'What is going to happen to my son if i go tomorrow'. Sadly, the son would most likely be oblivious to the concerns of the mother.

This is just one scene i came to see a lot nowadays. A friend recently posted on facebook an image, which has a poster on a laundry shop, saying 'If you are unemployed and need an outfit clean for an interview, we will do it for free'. I wonder, is this a gesture we can see in this small country where it seems that everyman is for himself.

Nepal Trekking - Last 2 days

2009-12-23T20:57:00.002+08:00

Last second day of our stay in Nepal, Kathmandu. We bought tickets on a flight on Everest Express. This is a domestic flight which would fly you alongside the Himalayas Mountains and by passing Mount Everest at close range. Well, this ain't really a trip worth the cost in my opinion. There really ain't much to look at through the small port holes (Not to mention refraction and all), the only interesting part is probably a chance to sit in a propeller plane and to see a couple of lakes out of nowhere supposedly created by the effects of global warming. Its kinda interesting to see a clear blue lake in the middle of white mountain snow. hy is smart enough to skip this ride and went shopping with the el and serene. [Ok, el and serene smart also :D ]

One thing though, Kathmandu's domestic airport could be quite a mess and the security can be really messy. Our guide, being a very responsible one, tries to get into the check in area with us. As much as he tried, with various methods, he could not get through. We managed to sort things out ourselves in the end anyway.

Sins of global warming

Certificate for the flight

We got back to the hotel after the plane ride. Waved goodbye to el, ellen and serene who are leaving ahead on this day. We proceeded on some shopping. This is where the 买东西，吃东西 comes in, for the rest of the trip.

Bye bye ladies

Lunch at Ying Yang - And we actually waited for change when we have underpaid....hahaha

Enjoying our last dinner in Nepal :D

**** And the next day arrives ****

The last day in Nepal. Its been a short 10 days. We had our fun times, wild times, daring times.... all in a short span of 10 days. It was a very nice trip, getting to know new friends, experience another aspect of life, learned more about the world and myself, tried stuff i would never have done and felt the beauty of nature. I probably never achieved and enjoyed more in any other trips.

Thanks guys and gals, for making this such an unforgettable trip. ;)

Shots before departing.

Not forgetting to be charitable even when out on trips.

Time to slack

2009-12-20T00:05:00.002+08:00

I have this bad habit of really slacking off in the last 2 weeks of every year. Don't ask me why, my mind and body just want to be lazy at this time of the year, every year. I can already feel it going on....

Duties

2009-12-11T22:24:00.003+08:00

I am asked by a friend to help be a 'brother' on his wedding day tomorrow. So when my roles came, i was kinda..... ooooo kkkkkk....... Asking his friend who can only effectively down 2 bottles of beer to help him 'da' tables of liquor instead..... Oops....

Well.....i don't think i can go home tomorrow night if i were to really help him in that sense....

Record breaking

2009-12-10T23:53:00.002+08:00

After almost a whole year being flu free, my body succumbed to a plain old flu virus, coupled with an infection. I think the credit is all to the flu jab i got in the beginning of the year when i was to go to the USA for some technical assessment. Its actually quite nice to be able to be free of fevers and such for such a long time. I should probably go for a jab for the next season once the vaccination is available.

For now, its up to the beefed up antibiotics and painkillers, so far its doing it job well. Lets hope it lasts through the weekend.... i need it for the load of work and duties from now till Sat.

Nepal Trekking - 1st Nov 09

2009-12-05T22:56:00.006+08:00

Early in the morning, the group sets off for another adventure. We are going to glide through the skies! Not in an airplane, not in a cable car, but on a parachute, or a glider in this case. We travelled by van, up a hill and then jump off a cliff, with a qualified instructor in tandem that is. The car ride brought us up to about 1450 metres, where we waited and waited for our turn to jump. Yes, lots of people are jumping. The guys are quite excited about the jump, and were discussing and talking about it enthusiastically, about how shiok it will be, how scary that would be, how our height phobia is going to give us hell. Watching people taking off adds to that adrenaline. The ladies on the other hand, were unusually quiet for quite a while, maybe they don't feel the kick yet :D

You need clearance to jump....

Looking across the cliff we are jumping over...images edited for humor.... :)

Down here, we are assigned to our various instructors. The ladies were speculating which nice tall handsome guy they would be assigned too. For guys, anybody is fine, that is so long as that guy bring us up and down safely....haha. I was assigned a Russian (Or was it French??) instructor. First impression was that he had gone for a drug dose and haven't get out of it yet....haha... But it turn out he was a fun instructor, actually more noisy than me when we were up there. It kinda feels like he's treating me like a child, but that feeling was dismissed when he said the best part of his job was to provide entertainment and fun to those he brings on tandem glides. All in all, the experience was excellent, once you are airborne, there's no such things as height phobia. We spent 1/2 hr in the air and finally touched down, on my butts.....haha
Instructor who looked like he was on drugs...haha

Take off! Enjoying the glide up and down the sky

It was time to do a 6 hour drive back to Kathmandu, i think we spent more than 6 hours actually. This was when the rest of the day went down south for me. I had visited the loo more than frequent the night before, and woke up in the morning with a groggy feeling. Thought it was nothing much, and went for the paragliding. But on the way to Kathmandu, i find myself holding back to nausea urges and growling intestines. Thankfully, my instincts served me well, deep slow breathes and self induction to sleep helped me got through the 6 hr ride with no embarrassments. Yes, when you are asleep, the brain shuts off a lot of indicators, thus you feel better.

Side track abit, we found out from the news that there have been attacks from Maoist rebels. We weren't wondering so much if the roads in Kathmandu would be safe, but rather, if we get to 'stay' back in Nepal for a couple more days with our travel insurance covered...haha

Back in Kathmandu, dinner was not even the last thing on my mind. Some place to lie on with a toilet nearby is the only place i want to be in at that time. The rest of the gang went out for their dinner while i try to recuperate by downing 2 bottles of Bo Chi Pills..hahaha....

Nepal Trekking - 31st Oct 09

2009-12-05T11:20:00.012+08:00

Its our last day in the mountains today. We will be trekking all the way back to our start point, where we would take a ride back to Pokhara. This morning's breakfast was quite tasty, and a bit different from the other days. We had some weird shaped bread, which really is tasty. It reminds me of the bread i had in the US in the beginning of the year. Before kicking off, we took some last shots. Its funny as i watch from a distance how some of my friends are working real hard to take some good shots. :)

Breakfast and see how lh tried to create a good scenery...haha....

I manage to take some shots of our porters getting ready to be on the move. Since day 1, they are always the first to move out with all our heavy items. There's no way for me to catch up with them, they are really skilled carriers.

Porters gearing up

On the trek down the mountains, we saw several interesting scenes, some were funny, others are plain inspiring. There was this kid, dressed in a Doraemon tshirt standing by a tree on the path we were walking down. This kid weren't too happy when i tried to take a shot at him. After that one shot, i showed him the display on my camera and guess what, he jumped right back to his spot and gave me a nice warm smile when i asked if he wanted another shot. This almost certainly worked for me during the trip. I wondered if passersby actually show the pictures to those they have taken pictures of.

Everyone needs a reason to smile :)

On another path further down the mountain, we encountered this old man carrying an item up the mountain. From far i am already amazed at the size of the bulk he's carrying, but when he got closer, he totally wow'ed me. He's carrying a washing machine up the mountain. Someone might ask, why not drive it up. Well, in these parts of the mountains, there's no such things as roads. The only non human transports would be mules and donkeys, and i can tell you, even mules can't carry that kind of bulk.

The inspiring old man

Quite near to our destination, we went by this stream (think its the one with the waterfall). There was this lone kid enjoying himself on the stream, stark naked. I thought it was quite funny when he was balancing himself on the stones, falling into the stream and redo'ing it all over. He even lost his slippers amist that.

I had to take a few shots at this kid. :D

We reached the end of the trek and had a wonderful lunch. This is when we take a 2hr drive back to Pokhara. Of course, not before we take a few final shots here for remembrance. :)

Oei? Someone steal a shot ah? hahaha!!

We checked into the same hotel back in Pokhara. Dil was so kind to bring us onto a bonus trip, for free. He brought us to visit a temple that is situated right in the middle of the lake near our hotel. Having said that, it means we need to travel by water to that temple. Guess what, we get to row the boats ourselves :D Of course, this is nothing compared to rafting, but its nice to have a recreational rowing of boats for a change.

Row row row your boars.....gently down the stream....Merrily merrily.....

At the temple, we were all 'blessed', except for one.

Nepal Trekking - 30th Oct 09

2009-11-22T13:09:00.015+08:00

We set off in the early morning for Ghandruk. Along the way, we passed through Tadapani and a jungle adjacent to it. Going through the jungle is actually very pleasant. there's a kind of coolness and it felt very relaxing walking through it. According to the guide and some information board mounted near the entrance of the jungle, we could be expecting lemurs and leopards to cross our path in the jungle. There's even a 'Do not walk alone in the jungle' sign. Lucky for us, no leopards decide to pay this group of adventurers a visit. We do see quite a few lemurs too, but these are really well hidden creatures, always in the safe shades of the trees.

Sights and scenes on this trek

Walking through the jungle

See the lemur?

We passed through a couple of small living towns around here. In fact, it felt like there's a lot more human activity around here. I learned something about making cold drinks here, a very common method is to place the drinks you want to chill in a metal pan, and then allow the mountain waters to go through them, placing them in water and putting them outside the houses also work as well. One thing about walking too long, my mind gets a bit dull once in a while and i start finding myself 'bo liao' things to do. One of the stuff i did was to camera chase a bee....haha yes, i tried to do that with a Canon gshot. I wonder if people noticed me spinning around on the same spot, i wasn't being crazy...hahaha

Natural chilled drinks.

Success! Capturing the bee in flight.

Not a lot of people know about this, but i was disconnected from the group after we rested at one of the towns on this trek. Somehow, the whole group had left ahead before i came out of the toilet. After so many days of trek, i learned that most of the treks around here are single paths, and i estimated that the group had probably gone ahead 10mins at most. So i started walking down the only trek i saw. There were quite alot of ang mos (Sounds British) going down on this trek, apparently, they don't seem to be as agile as us Asians. On the way, i even help out some middle aged ladies when they realized they stepped onto a difficult path. I am pretty sure that they have thought me as one of the guides around here (Since i seem to be walking alone with no company). lol. They are probably as surprised that a 'native guide like me' could speak fluent English. Hahaha. So after around 5 to 10 mins of quick descent, i caught a far glimpse of Dil's umbrella, i thought i heard myself saying that i am on the right trek haha. When i finally caught up, Dil seemed surprised to see me behind. Haha ....he must be embarrassed that he would not notice a missing man from the 12 people group. I started joking around with him instead, singing his Rasham Firiri along him, works well in breaking the odd situation. ;)

We finally reached the Ghandruk Guest House, our last night of lodging in the mountains.
Everyone was in a more relaxed mood, the weather is good and there's hot showers. Lunch was served on small tables and everyone was seated such that they were facing the mountains. Its like a resort in the mountains, even the guide and porters were having a game of their own. We were then shown around the area by Dil and some of us visited a museum (50 rupees), some of us don't want to go in and had some fun of our own. My lips were practically cracking open at this point, every smile, laugh and speech stings, but some of the jokes this small group made really made me laugh despite the pain.

Our last lodge in the mountains

Our lunch view.... Something's a bit off isn't it? :)

Its time to relax

Museum
I had my little fun with a small bee that seems quite unwilling to fly away. I had it crawling around my hand before settling it down on a nice flower. Hanna had her fun demonstrating her massage skills by prickling the shoulder tendons on some of us, it certainly is a powerful grip lol. Apparently hy had such a high threshold for pain that she earned an interesting comment from Hanna. Haha i shall not post that comment here, if u want to know, go ask her yourselves.

Hannah showing off her massage skills

A little friend i made

This night is probably the most memorable of all. In the name of this being the last night in the mountains, we, the guide, the potters and the lodge owners partied our hearts out. We had local wine, games, songs and dances. Never mind the language barrier, we immersed in each other's joy perfectly. Ben and Hanna had a bit too much and finally concussed, but not before Hanna had her 酒疯. lol. Edmund set up his camera and did something really fantastic. Basically, he took a shot of someone, then 30 secs after that shot, another person could run up and draw imaginary lines using colored torches. I could have joined in the fun here, but i had too much of their local wine, got dizzy and concussed along with those who also cannot make it. hahaha....

And the party went

I heard lh is the one who 'drew' the dinosaur shot, wah seh.

Milestone

2009-11-22T11:13:00.002+08:00

I changed my identity card 2 days ago on Friday. This is a legal requirement for all Singaporeans who reached the age of 30 on or after 1 Jan 2002 to re-register their identity cards.

When i received my identity card, i looked at it and some thoughts flowed through. Nothing seems to have really changed for the last 30 years. I still hold the same names, i am still registered under the same address thanks to a certain HDB scheme which dictates that i am not allowed to purchase a Resale flat of my own till i hit the age of 35 due to my single (and available) status. Yes, as a single Singaporean i am not allowed to get a HDB flat of my own at all, i can only jointly own it with either a parent, an unmarried sibling or a spouse. Now i know why some people go through fake weddings with foreigners, both sides stood to gain. The only difference in personal information on the card is probably my face. The one on the old card was a picture of my 16 year old look. A comment from my little sis is that i now look less of a terrorist than i was....hahahahaha!!!

Half of my lifetime has passed, i seemed to have accomplished (more or less) the goals i set when i was 14 years old. Thinking back, i realized that in my pursuit of fulfilling my duties as the son and sibling, i missed out a lot on life, especially during the teenage years. I didn't get to do and learn a lot of things which other teenagers during my time would do. Now i am in my 30s, the lack of what i should have done or learned in those years has somehow directly translated to my failures in life as an adult. After trying for the past 4-5 years, i realize its kinda too late for me to catch up on those things that i lack, and to change what was perceived as my worst traits.

Its going to be a long 30 years ahead, hang it there jax. lol.

Nepal Trekking - 29th Oct 09

2009-11-21T11:10:00.011+08:00

Woke up 330am in the morning and started washing and packing up. We are to make a 1 hr ascend up to Poon hill at 3210m to watch the sunrise. Its the first and only time we trek in total darkness, but heads up and you will be presented with a beautiful view of the starry starry night sky. I had my thermals on with heat pack tucked under and its still freezing cold out there. But about 15mins on the trek, sweating became inevitable. The sweat flowing on my body began to cool and gave me those sting effects. Though the time taken on this Poon Hill climb is only a fraction of what we would cover on a normal trekking day, the walk up to Poon hill is a straight up the hill job. It never occured to me to be so difficult trekking upwards in freezing temperatures.

On the way up

After about an hour of trekking (Frankly i don't know how long that was, i just climbed), we finally made it to the top. Seeing the tower gave me a sense of achievement as i catch up on my 'Darth Vader' breath and began taking shots of scenery around me. There's a weird feeling when i am up here, i felt great for being able to push myself all the way up, but besides that, i don't feel that there's anything great. Nevertheless, the gang had a whole lot of fun taking pictures.

Scenery on Poon Hill

We took enough pictures, had enough fun and began our trek back down to our lodging. While i was going up the hill, i already had a strong urge to visit the loo for the 'big number', so i basically chiong down the hill before the rest lol. But me being the crazy photo shooter (When i have the chance), i had to stop down sometimes to take some nice and hidden spots along the way. There was this stone slab along the way of Poon Hill. It appears to be placed there on purpose, with some markings in English and Chinese. ('Carry on' and '加油'). I realized that the scenery down the hill can be quite amazing with the morning sun shining down.

Some scenery we missed while climbing in the dark

When we got back to the lodging (and me completed my business), we were served with a sumptuous breakfast before we moved on with our descent. Yeh descent, that's what i thought. Now, descent doesn't mean u go downhill all the way, there are still tough up slopes along the way. Although descending downhill doesn't toll on the breath as much, it takes a lot off your legs, especially the knees. Quite a few of us experienced knee pains due to this. This part of the trek is where i find out about our song diva hanna, who could sing loudly even when we are trekking uphill. ellen tried following her shoes but gave up after a few sentences...haha. Not only that, the rest of the group also seem to be in a better mood.

Charlie's Angels.....lots of them lol

We ended today's trek at the Trekker Sanctuary Lodge at Banthanti Hill at 2660m. The special thing about this place is its tranquilty. There really is nothing else nearby except mountains and animal herds. Some of us were a bit demoralized at this, but for me, its the perfect place to sit down, relax, breathe the clean air, watch the blue skies. I took my own moments of tranquility sitting down on the chair, relaxing, watching the clouds formed and scatter, birds chirping, sheeps and chicken making sounds. Such is the moment of tranquility that i would never experience in the busy urban life of Singapore. For the rest, they started their routine of unpacking, washing, drying......etc. I realized at this point, our group really hang their assets everywhere they go, Singaporean style. :)

The lodge

Washing and drying....

The lodge owners decided to cook chicken soup for us tonight. While enjoying my moments of tranquility, i saw a guy swiftly grabbing the only chicken that has been happily roaming the compound. I knew immediately that this poor little thing is going to be our dinner. An interesting excerpt which i didn't manage to record in media, some of the guys and gals wanted to watch the slaughtering and happily march with the cook to the slaughter ground. A few mins later, they all came back with a gloomy face. Well, i am sure it doesn't feel good watching your dinner being slaughtered alive, that's something which urban people like us won't get used to so easily. :) But the chicken soup served on that night was taken up by everyone without much guilt, we had some games in the night before turning in to sleep for the day ahead.

Hungry men and the chicken that was to be dinner

Leonids Meteor Showers 2009

2009-11-18T14:58:00.004+08:00

Not as dramatic as 1999, but its a good show nevertheless.

My original plan was to camp out alone at ECP on the night of 17th Nov, but i decided to check out a Science Center organized event (Festival of the stars) at Japanese Gardens first, after all, the Japanese Gardens is just a 20mins walk from my place. It turned out that lh and mr also have intentions of watching the showers, so we decided to meet up at the Japanese Gardens.

Its quite a well organized event i would say, with ushers guiding you from the MRT, and a series of f&b bazaars, exhibitions, games, performances and even movie screenings all the way till 5am in the morning. I had my first taste of an Inflatable Planetarium tour, where you get to learn about the 88 constellations in our skies. Its basically a huge inflatable dome where they will project sky maps onto the ceilings of the dome, in almost total darkness. Quite an experience i would say.

The Inflatable Planetarium

Then there's the exhibitions and performances, all relating to science and astronomy. Besides these, we saw people playing with those remote controlled kites (www.goflykite.com).

Exhibitions and food bazaars

Scientific Performances by an Einstein look alike :)

lh and mr showing off their freebie :D

After much touring, we found ourselves a spot on the field, settled down and basically stared at the sky for the whole night (Dozing off on some occasions :) ). We were rewarded when the shooting streaks starts to pick up sometime after 5am. You can hear the crowd go wow! ah!...for every streak that went past. I guess the group gets quite excited about this increase in frequency. There's a moment when we decided to leave, all of us sat up and suddenly the crowd went 'wow!'. The next thing i know, lh, followed by mr were lying back on the mat again. lol, thats quite a funny scene. 605am, we got what we came for and set off home (And work after that for lh and mr).

The event was nicely done, there's just one really irritating incident that happened. This Einstein look alike was performing on stage and was abruptly cut off by an organizer. Most of us were irritated at how the performer was treated, what made us even more irritated is when the audience were told that our Finance Minister (Somehow he's the Guest of Honor) is coming in. So yah, he's the Finance Minister, but can't he just blend in with the citizens and residents of the nation and do whatever he wants later on? As opposed to interrupting a performance, walking in with a HUGE group of followers (Who are those people following??), and music and all those flashy stuff.....where's the part where our leaders should mix in with the residents?

Lousy start

2009-11-16T22:40:00.004+08:00

What a way to start the week.

Had a bad dream last night and woke up with a persistent throbbing headache.
My intestines starts to work up on me, lost count of the number of times i visited the loo today.
And at the end of the day, realized that my phone's phone function has been dead for the whole day. No wonder i got no bank or insurance calls/sms today (Thats not a bad thing i guess).

The only nice thing is the rare tranquility in the office today, i actually felt more productive today. Let's hope the rest of the week goes more smoothly, probably for a start....a clear nite sky on Tues night/Wed morning.

Sometimes.......

2009-11-15T08:42:00.003+08:00

Most new people you meet would befriend out of courtesy, that's a general way of things since you don't know that person well. Some would befriend people around them regardless. Others would show through shuns and ignoring if you ain't really someone they would want to truly befriend even if they had known you for years, that's good because i would know when to step away if my presence is making people uncomfortable. But sometimes i seem to be treated like a friend, and other times i am not. A lot of times, it almost seems that i would be a friend when i become useful in some situations, and after that, i am just another person in the pool. I'm truly baffled.

The thing is, i have never understood the real reasons. Yes i had heard from people (Either intentionally or not) whom i had regarded as close that i have a very boring nature, i can't joke and i don't have that 'My presence makes people feels good kind of charisma', but is that really such a bane? Or are there some really bad characteristics of myself that i am not aware of? Or had i unknowingly did something really wrong with those people i regard as close friends?

I must be really an outdated chap believing that sincerity, truthfulness is actually the way to go in human relationships, when in reality, those traits really doesn't seem to matter to most. Sometimes it can really be a torture, just trying to understand people, and understand myself.

Nepal Trekking - 28th Oct 09

2009-11-14T22:45:00.004+08:00

photos to be changed/updated soon!

Its a cold morning, but the morning view is excellent. The owners of the lodge were kind enough to heat up the furnace for us. I never knew scorching heat could be so soothing :) We had eggs and 'Pratas' (Forgot what its called) for breakfast and started off for our next destination in Ghorepani.

Morning outside the lodge

Smoothing..... :)

Yup, thats our breakfast. *Humpty Dumpty sat on the plate*

Getting ready to move off

Some photos on the way to Ghorepani

We arrived at Hotel Moonlight after another few hours of walk. i started developing shortness of breaths on this trek route. I consider myself lucky for not developing any other signs of altitude sickness. It is also on this trek that i got the nickname 'Darth Vadar', just imagine how darth vadar breath in the show and u will understand what i mean. lol.

We walked around a small market in the town where the guest house is in. though small, the market have almost everything a tourist would need, clean water, food and even a European style bakery! Its very cold up here at 2950m and all of us had to endure cold freezing showers, its so freezing that i literally showered 3 times, each for a portion of my body. Really couldn't drench my whole body in freezing water at one shot...hahaha. We had a full dinner, turned in for the night in preparation for the peak of the trek for the next day.

Ghorepani views and people

Group photo at Ghorepani

Leonids Meteor Shower 2009

2009-11-11T23:46:00.008+08:00

This year has quite a good prospect for Asia.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1783822/the_2009_leonid_meteor_shower/

There will be a cross stream this year at around 17th Nov 2100hrs Universal time, which translates to 18th Nov 5am Singapore time. Sinces its pre dawn, Asia can expect 200-300 meteors per hour. Every time this year, i always recall that time when i ended up going to the ECP beach alone watching the skies in the middle of the night. I sure am the type who can't clean forget unhappy times lol. Hahaha ...... knowing my boring nature, i probably shouldn't have tried asking the second person along that time.

So this year if weather permits, i guess i would be planning to spend the night of 17th Nov at ECP Mac, then stroll my way along the beach before dawn. Even if i don't get to see any shooting stars or fireballs, i guess the early morning solitary stroll along the beach would be a nice thing to do too.

Looks like i will get to use up another day of 2008 leave, yeh......

Nepal Trekking - 27th Oct 09

2009-11-11T21:41:00.003+08:00

More photos from other cameras coming soon!

This is the day we would start our trek. We gathered for breakfast at 7am. Eggs and bread again, i got the feeling this would be the kind of breakfast we would be having every other day :). We traveled by van after breakfast and finally reached our destination 'Nayapul' after 2 hrs. Its pretty cold, but not enough to spoil the mood. I got myself a wooden walking stick, its not as sophisticated as those professional metallic walking sticks which most others got the night before at Pokhara but this piece of stick definitely suits me well, saved my life and limbs quite a number of times till date (yah, i am writing this during the trek). I noticed that our guide, Dil, was carrying an umbrella. For most parts of the way i always assumed that it was his walking stick or something to that usage, it turned out that he had really intended to use it as an umbrella. Didn't i hear him say that it won't rain at this time of the year?? *diao*

Shades. Checked! Sticks. Checked! Drinks. Checked! Food. Checked!

Chiong ah!!!

Check point: Ok, lets take a break. But we really haven't walked that far :P

The trek started off on a relatively flat terrain, going through a small rural town. Something i learned about their life here, though in poverty, tough life and in bad hygiene, the people deeper in the mountains are really those who are contented and happy. After a few days in the trek, i was actually thinking that this would be a nice place to settle in permanently if one fine day i got so tired of city life. We are trekking from Nayupul to Ulleri. The beginning of the trek is ok, but as time goes it gets tougher. its probably due to my lack of training (lol, already slapping myself on the face for the lack of exercise).

We finally hit a lunch point after a few hours of walk and had refreshing ice drinks, food seemed extremely delicious at this stop...hahah. Despite the altitude, its really hot during the trek. My clothings were socked and you could see sweat lines forming on my backpack as well. After lunch, i took time off from the group and went to do some photo shooting. there were some very sporting kids and they were more than happy to pose for me when i showed them my camera.

Lunch!!!!!!!! *slurp!*

Sporty kids. I call them the 3 Divas :)

We continued our with our arduous walk (ok, prob only for me haha). I started getting cramps on my left leg. Lucky for me, our guide has this wonder ointment which got rid of my cramps (at least temporarily). I had a couple more cramps along this route, which was quickly resolved with the ointment. But along the way, i had to endure the pain and control my pace whenever i feel a full fledge cramp coming in. I'm not the only one who ran into problems though. hy encountered a little logistics problem when her trekking shoes suddenly learned how to 'sing', with the mouth flapping wide open with every step she walked. Her woes were temporarily alleviated after Dil transformed into a cobbler and glued back her shoes, but its hy's saviour Ben who helped tied up her shoes later in the trip with comms cord that allows her to finish the rest of the trek comfortably .

Free cobbler service, lucky hy :)

Not forgetting to take pictures with the nice scenery and people

We finally trekked to our destination and checked into a nice lodging, Neera Guest House. Its quite cold here, but the view is excellent. i was quite worn out from the climbing but the tireness was totally flushed away when we visited the local school. here, we donated the items we had prepared in singapore. the children even performed a set of their PT for us. The locals brought us on a short tour of their school, the facilities are mediocre but to them its the best place for a education for their children. They also showed us a library donated by a french lady before us last year. I am sure all of us felt really great to be able to do something for the children here. Looking at our bball champs, el and serene, they even took a shot at basketball, amazed at their vigor lol.

Our first lodging in the mountains

All for a good cause. They happy, we happy :)

Look at the kiddos on the right :)

The donated library that really has everything, down to a loan book

Their classrooms

A fantastic dinner was served at our lodging (Never mind the salt, everything somehow just taste wonderful with this tired out body, i needed the salt to avoid cramps too). We even had games and alcohol later in the night. The mood was definitely merry. even i, who had to refrain from too much alcohol (cos i talk rot when i get high) drank along.

Dinner!!!!!! Yeah.... i see food go crazy

It was a good start to the trek, subsequent days only get better. :)

Beefing up for APEC summit

2009-11-10T23:48:00.003+08:00

I walked out of City Hall MRT today heading towards Suntec Convention Centre. What appears before me is a pretty ugly sight. I saw a group of police officers, dressed in their beefed up attire walking towards the mrt. I did a head count, 14 of them. Alright, even if they are heading to their posts, shouldn't they show more professionalism by walking in a more organized manner instead of chit chatting 'ba long long' in a big group like this along the way?

*sigh* Despite all appearances put up, they sure gave a poor impression to the early morning crowd at raffles city. But then again, some of them looked like they are in their late 10s and early 20s, nsf policemen?

Nepal Trekking - 26th Oct 09

2009-11-09T22:53:00.005+08:00

More photos from other cameras soon :)

Didn't sleep well over the night, woke up earlier than planned when i realized i couldn't sleep anymore. Our guide Dil, had advised us to meet down for breakfast at 7am, before we would drive down for our white water rafting event. Somehow breakfast couldn't be served in time and the guide had to bring us to a neighboring restaurant for breakfast. I have to admit, its was partly our fault coming down so late. :P Breakfast served are eggs, bread, potatoes, tomatoes and hot drinks, but its quite a posh environment for a place like this. Off we go in our van to the rafting point, its a 3 hr long long ride. As usual, sleep is the regular business here.

Finally reached the rafting point, we were geared up and and given a safety brief plus a short tutorial on the basics of rafting. Really, it sounded simple but what was to come ain't simple at all. We grouped ourselves and on my raft we have ben, mr, me, ellen, lh, hanna, hy and the instructor in that order. I was told before that heavier people would have to sit in the back of the raft, while lighter ones sits in the front but its only during the rafting that we were taught that those who sat in the front have to be strong rafters to keep the raft in check during rough rapids. I'm the smaller size of all the guys in that raft so i place myself in the 2nd row for a start, but was given the chance to be in the front row from the mid of the 3 hr rafting. Its a real challenge and i would say its the most exciting part of the trip, i almost fell off the raft when i encountered a rough rapid while in the front row. Our rafting is generally of grade 3 level but we were exposed to a hard level 4 as well. If u ask me, i would probably try out another one if i had the chance, without the swimming. :) Its sad that we couldn't take any photos during the rafting, no one had a genuine water proof camera...haha.

Lunch was served at the end point of the raft ride, it was a simple lunch made by the locals. One thing i quickly learn about food of the poorer locals here, fresh meat seems to be a rare treat. Nevertheless, the locals made the best of what they have and lived their lives through. Its this kind of experience that allow me to feel the contrast of life we have in the city. I remember someone telling me about Singapore food, its 'point and u get it'. (The 'chup cai peng' stalls). Down here, every bit of food is precious. From this point, its another 3 hour ride to 'Pokhara', another city but at a smaller scale compared to Kathmandu. We had our dinner at a nice Nepali restaurant. the waiters even gave the diners a nice performance. Its strange cos its as if i could understand what the dance is about. Let me try here, its about a guy who gets to know 2 young girls and they started having fun dancing and blah blah blah..... haha super lame of me. Anyway, hy commented that one of the dancers looked a lot like one of our colleagues. I agree :)

Dancers of the dinner Dinner is served :)

We rested our night at Hotel View Point, which offers quite a nice night view of the nearby hills. Just to note, their hills ain't nothing like our Bukit Timah hill. ours is machiam an ant mould compared to this.

Hotel View Point

Night view

Nepal Trekking - 25th Oct 09

2009-11-08T19:38:00.006+08:00

i set off early in the morning with a 10kg box full of donations, a 14kg backpack and a 5kg carrier bag in tong's cab towards Changi airport. Reached there just in time to meet some of the waiting group. we quickly checked in, had breakfast and made our way to the plane

It was a very pleasant 5hr ride, chatting and joking around during the ride, which somehow couldn't happen on normal days. That's probably one of the best part of the trip that i would really miss, that would probably not happen a second time. Arrived at the Kathmandu airport around noon local time. The pilot reported a 23 degrees Celsius but the sun seems to reduce that feel. we checked into this nice Kathmandu Prince Hotel. Lucky for some 3 of us, we got a nice 'suite' rather than a normal 3 man bunk.

Shots of Kathmandu Prince Hotel and our suite

Settled down and the newly arrivals moved off to meet el and gang for pizza lunch. Apparently el had gone on a drinking session earlier and ended up a bit high. Everyone was slightly surpirsed on her heightened state.

Anyway pizza was normal and was quickly done, we got a taxi ride heading to Buddha Gate. Down here, the traffic is really messy. U got both left and right side driving, and cars can really go everywhere as in u can just cut into any lanes. also, drivers here really horn a lot. any big small matter also horn and scold. I actually find that comical sometimes. Seriously, i am surprised that there ain't accidents i seen so far. Except for a huge truck stuck in the drains when we are heading to the trekking station.

Buddha Gate, as the name implies, is actually a temple of the Buddha. I noticed that this temple has Hindu gods like the monkey god, yet has a strong Tibetan culture. seriously i still have no idea how Nepal and Tibet are linked to each other except that over some long years, Nepal has seen an influx of Tibetan refugees. As time passes, their cultures intermingled and Nepal developed the way it is now. I managed to have a go at those spinning bells, supposedly for worship and luck purposes. we basically spent around 10mins going 1 round the temple spinning the bells. (later during the trip, we heard that we were supposed to go round 7 times.....oops)

Buddha Gate Temple, and sunset at one of its surrounding restaurant

Spinning for luck

Dinner was served at the Everest Steak House Restaurant. i had a sumptuous chicken sizzler. Its been a day with many impressions and the group finally turned back to the hotel. There were no hot showers that night but the weather ain't that cold. Late into the night, el brought up 2 bottles of red and sparkling white wine. Well, the group savored it before they turned in for the exciting day that was to come next.

Cheers for the night

Nepal Trekking - The team

2009-11-04T21:45:00.005+08:00

Alright, let me do a quick intro on Team Nepal. :)

Picture drewn by serene.

In the order of room assignments.....

We have our almighty leader, Eeling (el) who painstakingly planned the entire trip and brought the whole team together despite her very very busy schedules. Serene the cool, enduring lady, who is stronger in will than any of us combined. Huiyi (hy) the warm sunshine girl, who would put on as many layers to keep herself warm, and those around with her laughter. Lay hian (lh) the always gentle lady, but never seem to show a sign of fatigue during the trek. Hanna the diva, who could so beautifully sing and dance even along an uphill trek where most people would be panting through. Ellen the tall lady with a quick stride and a good chatter, i find myself stretching my legs just to keep pace with her on some treks. Ok, maybe that's because i got short legs haha. Tracy the next Everest conqueror, who is so fast that she would disappear from my line of sight within seconds of any trek in any kind of terrain. Weineng (wn) the rear party, which i am also a part with, cos we are always the last 2 in the entire team on the uphill treks. But things were different when its a downhill business :D Edmund the camera pro, who would run to and fro the ends of the team and take fantastic pictures, all these despite the ardious trek on some of the way. Mingren (mr) the most polite chap i have seen, i have never encountered another Singaporean who is so courteous and well mannered. Even the initials is M.R...haha. Ben the man of the team, who would go to the rescue of anyone who needs it, and provide the entertainment for the people during the trip. And of course, Dil our fantastic guide, who provide the directions, recommendations and sometimes entertainment during the trek.

And here's some special intro to the items i couldn't have done without.
My wonder wooden walking stick, which at some times saved my life/limbs. I couldn't have done some of the trek without it. My ever trusty running shoes, who would have known that this SAF issued NB running shoes could be so reliable even in those trekking conditions. My Timberland trekking pants, which was given to me on my birthday a few weeks back by my good friends and colleagues. The windproof water resistant pants proved to be a perfect mate during the early hours of the daily trek and during the paragliding.

Nepal Trekking - Packing

2009-10-24T15:30:00.004+08:00

I'm the lazy bum, so not expecting to wash my clothes on a short 10 day trip, think i will use those time to go out view the night skies, walk around.... Having said that, it means i probably have a bit more baggage to carry. I am still trying to skive off some weight.

And from this.....

To this.....

Still trying to pull off some crap where possible...

Nepal Trekking - To be

2009-10-20T22:45:00.003+08:00

It started off with someone asking if i am interested in a Nepal trekking trip. I have always wanted to experience a rural trek, so i jumped in. Over the past months i would try to run at least twice a week, but with me OT'ing late into the night in the office too often lately, the training fell short in the last month or so. Though i basically tried to run/jog up the stairs when going office or home everyday, i doubt that will make any much difference but its better than nothing :D

Other than the apparent lack of physical training, i guess i am actually quite ready to drop my work (temporarily of course) and enjoy tormenting my body [I mean it! :)] for the 10 days in a foreign land . If things goes as planned, i would also be trying out some stuff which i haven't got to do, whitewater rafting and paragliding. YES! I am going to enjoy scaring myself to death! hahaha! Me and my height phobia hahaha!

Besides the adrenaline rush, i probably will get to build better bonds with some friends and at the same time make new ones. My stuff are mostly gathered. Well not really packed yet cos i basically dumped the stuff i need in one corner waiting for me to waterproof it sometime this week.

And of course, thanks to el for the 英雄贴 onto this trip ;)

*Watch out for the blog entries to come :)*

Sleep

2009-10-20T07:14:00.002+08:00

I really really need that proper sleep which i haven't got in a very very long time......

Kiddo laugh

2009-10-19T22:37:00.002+08:00

I like the laughter of this little kiddo :)

Most lame

2009-10-17T01:08:00.002+08:00

If you ask me whats the most lame upgrade i did for the past 5 years, i would say its the upgrade from Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard to Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard. Enough said, don't waste your time and effort there.

So funny

2009-10-16T18:38:00.002+08:00

Went around asked about 6-7 people....all ganna rejected......looked kinda like a fool.....ahaha
So funny, received a bday cake but found no one to share with...Ha ha ha...

cmd laugh.exe /force

2009-10-15T22:42:00.002+08:00

Ok jax, laugh .... ha ha ha

But i'm not laughing....

cmd> laugh.exe /force
Access Denied.

Apparently

2009-10-15T18:51:00.004+08:00

A lot of people think i am stressed out due to work, apparently very few people understands me, if any at all. I am not surprised anyway.

There are other things which can trouble a person. Whatever thats troubling me so much, the only remedy is perhaps time, and lots of it. So meanwhile, work and work is the only thing in this world that i have to keep me in one piece.

Phoenix

2009-10-14T22:16:00.002+08:00

Phoenix, life starts after death. Finding a new path at the end of the road.

This sentence just suddenly came through my hand (Not head) without me thinking through.
haha....sorry sub-conscious, i don't really understand what you are trying to tell me, at least not now. :P

Its really simple

2009-10-13T22:44:00.004+08:00

In a quick twist of words, i got some information out of my team mate. Seems that he (they?) feel that i am quite the slacker in the team? I might be interpreting too much into it, but that is pretty much i gathered.

I have to admit, i can no longer focus and plan ahead like i did before, my memory is deteriorating at a rate which sometimes i wonder if its normal. I could not really motivate myself like i used to. What i used to complete in a few hours now probably take me 3 times as long just to think it through. So really, i can't blame anyone if anyone lamented that i am not delivering as promised.

For what's its worth, i have always given my best effort and most sincere, be it be studies, work, friends, family, and those i especially care about. But i am starting to wonder, was i the sincere chap, or the outdated fool..... because it seems that the answer lies in whether you are able to so naturally make people around you happy, and it doesn't really matter if you truly cared about them, so long as they think you are.

Comic diary

2009-10-12T22:47:00.002+08:00

My friend started driving a taxi recently and is posting his experience in his blog in the form of comics. His first entry looks promising, do take a look.

http://sillyeggegg.blogspot.com/

Comments all gone

2009-10-12T22:22:00.003+08:00

I just realized that all my comments are gone after i overhauled my blog site. I'm not sure if i can recover the comments, but i guess i will try it over the weekend.

Its actually those comments in the posts that i felt is more valuable.

Overhual

2009-10-11T09:12:00.002+08:00

I overhauled my blog site yesterday.
Today i shall overhaul my computer's OS.
I still don't know if i will end up with a windows system, but i think i will be gone from the web for quite some time.

wrt drinks

2009-10-11T00:00:00.002+08:00

I'm going to make it a point to control how much i drink in a group.
Though i don't get drunk in some sense, but i say and type things which i probably won't when i am sober.

灌

2009-10-10T11:12:00.003+08:00

I found myself drowning with much more alcohol than i normally would. Maybe its the drinking environment, maybe its because of some news i heard, i really don't know anymore. At that time i didn't seem to mind, i just wanted to keep drinking, and prayed that i fall dead with all my thinking and feeling functions switched off, i am just too tired of feeling and thinking anymore. My body went feeble, i started walking wobbly, but alas, but my brain ain't switched off, i still hear, see, think and feel.....

.....

2009-10-05T07:55:00.000+08:00

....

idiot

2009-10-02T17:34:00.000+08:00

How do you spell idiot. IDIOT
I don't understand myself sometimes....

Wrong note

2009-09-30T22:09:00.000+08:00

I hit the wrong note during lunch today.
Think i shouldn't try too hard to joke.

A dog's feelings

2009-09-28T23:05:00.000+08:00

Saw this somewhere on the web. Take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymAyA-qjwUk

The 'Guru'

2009-09-22T23:59:00.000+08:00

According to the 'Guru' at the workshop tonight, i might probably fall under the category of 'Some bunch of weird guys', so he described.

Maybe he's right, and the majority of people would probably say so too, and maybe not, for a small minority of people whom i still haven't encounter.