What's That In The Tree?

OMG a blue bird, a blue hue so bright that we were distracted from lunch and had to pull out the cams.


Soon we had to bring in the big guns (the anomalous ornithological surprise created quite a stir and attracted much attention. The bird didn't move though).

Colleagues Eve and Boon were the ones with the patience to 'shoot' the kingfisher. A distraction from routine I guess.

I sent the image to a nature geek friend, Ben, who identified the colourful visitor as a Collared Kingfisher. Alrighty. The bigger joke was that we saw a lam jiao in the office.

The Coolest Way To Tell Time

Watch this for 30 seconds.

Did your jaw drop?

What a bloody cool idea. Many hands to spell the time of day, 300 to be precise. This is sheer creative and technical genius. That honour belongs to Christiaan Postma, a Dutch designer. Many hats off. And a nod to Mr Chew for the worthy twitt.

Selamat Hari Jadi Jo!

That's in Malay and I figure it would be the same in Bahasa Indonesia. It was Jo's birthday last Friday and we had unwittingly (at least to me) planned a lovely dinner at Cumi Bali. Some of the group had been to this quaint little restaurant at Duxton Hill before and remember the volcanic chilli sambal, fragrant spices, thick gravies and succulent meats. So this time, it was a matter of repeating the same formula. We had the
- kailan
- brinjals
- bendi (ladies fingers/okra)
- sayur lodeh
- assam fish
- beef rendang
- chicken madura (satay)
- perkedel (begedel)
- ikan bakar (a fish butterflied, smothered with otah and baked)
- fried chicken
- tahu tempe
- grilled cumi smothered in peanut sauce (squid)
and chendol

All this lime juice and two types of chilli - killer and gentle stab at tongue-numbing.

Jo brought friends for us to reacquaint with and the rest of us arrived unglamorously late. We gathered to celebrates Jo's XX birthday and eat like starved wolves. It was a glorious event. Gorge, gorge. Then we sprung the blingest of surprises, a black and gold (chic to the hilt) Adidas watch. The brilliant eyes of Carolina and Mun Hoe sought out this perfect timely creation. And boy, was the birthday girl happy. Happy birthday Jo!

Woof and burp. We went on to Artery to prolong the mayhem, cordially and in civilised fashion over not-so-good white wine and not-so-clear wait staff. Anyhoo, I hung out till one-ish with Fatman Amos, Din, Jo and another bloke who teaches at RP and collects nice watches. They told the best stories man - leaping off into mid air from end of a log, diving half drunk, drinking rusty beer, puking at work among other laugh-out-loud tales of mayhem, insanity and opportunity. And I caught a ride home. Sweet.

The Week's Ups And Downs (And Fun Ups)

Work has been strange lately. Projects starting and stopping. Meetings that never start on time. Taking over from people, having changes made to the work, and being told to continue. People telling us to do part-2 work even though they know that part-1 work has been canned. Rounds and rounds of work that has been approved locally but rejected in a couple of days by some blokes who wake up 5-6 hours later. Thoughts and ideas down the drain. And for others, credit not given where credit was due. There are people I listen to losing faith in other important people they work with. Others complaining about not having enough people to do the work yet people are not sticking around, and not moved around to shore up the vacuum. I've also discovered people who think harder about what they are doing to make the outcomes better. There are also a few who want me to listen, sit in and think about their ideas. There was good cake last Thursday, the kind one should lick off the plate. I think it has something to do with the winter-spring changeover thing. Good thing I had a beer and some time with funny friends at the end of the week.

Why Is NTUC Income Travel Insurance So Cheap

I dunno man. A bunch of us are going on a trip soon. So I have asked all if they would like to ge travel insurance to cover any crap that may, touch wood, happen. The last this same-ish group went to Bangkok, a phone was permanently lost and luggage with newly-purchased bras went missing. So did the necessary and scoured website for quotes. I found that most insurance providers were charging double the premium for a similar policy with NTUC Income. Seriously. One of travellers decided to stick to her AIG plan and has forked out $32 versus the $16.50 (pre-group discount) the rest owe me. I remember also my GE insurance guy telling to get travel insurance from NTUC too, some time back. Strange. So the cheapos got the cheap deal and we all hope never to claim anything.

Australia Sings For Lebanon For Pangea Day

Pangea Day is on May 10th. Pangea is the name of given to the land mass that comprised of all the continents and islands we are familiar with today. Some 300 million years ago Pangea started to spilt. Wegener's Continental Drift Theory started thought some time back. Remember that wondrous moment when you realised that South America sor tof fit into Africa? Today, it's about bringing the world together with film. Here's one bloody nice way some people have done that.


That's damn sweet. There are other videos that have been made on the same theme - one country sings the anthem of another.


Go find out how you can be the world citizen at www.pangeaday.org

What Your Wii Could Do

Johnny Lee is one smart man. He took his Nintendo Wii remote and made it do things beyond controlling games. His motivation was for great technology being used by many for a lot less. And his platform for communication is YouTube. Go watch, you'll have fun.

Hope In Obama Speech

The Big O made this speech post victory in Iowa. Not new but inspiring, especially the bit about hope. For a copywriter, it helps to see the tactics he uses to stimulate and motivate. Good moving stuff.

Got the link from Jake Marsh's Pownce page.

Need A Job That Will Drive You?

Without reading carefully I was thinking the guy who came up with the dumb taxi rules for the CBD got axed. Putting the noodle to good use, I find that the LTA is looking for someone else to think about how to screw up our public transport system. This time with buses. Well, if you think you can change the world, go ahead. I am thinking that there should be another requirement - must not drive a car.

I have a suggestion - a night bus service to bring party people in MOS, Zouk and St James to Tiong Bahru and River Valley for supper. I was hungry last night.

We're Screwed, Still

I was watching Idol Gives Back last night and it reaffirms the fact that we've farked ourselves as people. It's quite depressing to know that a kid dies every 30 seconds because of malaria, that there are 14 millions orphans in Africa because their parents died of HIV/Aids and kids in the US can't play outside because they might get shot in a drive-by gang shootout. The developed world is concerned about money, oil and not getting blown up while teenagers in Africa can't go to school because they have to look for food each day for 3-4 younger siblings.

Carrie Underwood sang George Michael's Praying For Time, and suddenly the weight of the tune hit me.

"These are the days of the open hand
They will not be the last
Look around now
These are the days of the beggars and the choosers

This is the year of the hungry man
Whose place is in the past
Hand in hand with ignorance
And legitimate excuses

The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure
If we have too much
But we'll take our chances
Because God's stopped keeping score
I guess somewhere along the way
He must have let us alt out to play
Turned his back and all God's children
Crept out the back door"

It seems that way doesn't it? We've all just run off and done our selfish things. Left to our own devices, we have carved out the world and exploited its resources and each other to feed the greed and our love of money. I suppose it was a natural progression of survival of the fittest, survival against competition. The competition is us. Cavemen beat each other up for the nicest cave and hairiest women. The Greeks beat up anyone who wanted to picnic on their beaches. The Roman Catholic Empire used religion to drive the non-aligned out of town. So did the early Arabs. We even fought wars over salt and pepper. Sounds all quite dumb now.

In Singapore, we are ingrained to be the best. Maybe it started from us getting kicked out of Malaysia and having to fend for ourselves. After we got into a cushy state, we started to get snooty. Unashamedly, many Singaporeans rub in it our neighbour's face. What we hardly appreciate is how lucky we have been and are now. If you keep your food in a refrigerator, your clothes in a closet, have a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in, you are richer than 75% of the entire world population (Miniature-earth.com). It's so easy to take what we have for granted. Worse still, we have become immune to bad news, apathetic to the pain of those less well off. Out of sight, out of mind. "It doesn't happen in Singapore". We are more concerned about clothes, cars, parties, promotions and wedding dinners. Me, me, me mostly.

Given our state of screwedupness, I think some people were hoping that Christ did come around and wiped the slate clean when we toasted the turn of the millennium. In Star Trek, we, as a planet, woke up our ideas when the Vulcans accidentally came across a light speed signature and paid us a visit. Then we met some bad ass aliens but that's another story. If there's ever a time for divine intervention, this could be it.

I know I wrote a similar post after I watched Blood Diamonds last year. Don't think we have changed very much. Sigh. I visa-ed $20, and went to sleep, and had a hard time waking up this morning.

The Trick Is To Go Slow

I managed to get through 6km yesterday without walking. Slow jog. Nice and easy and it took me through 5 laps around the Woodlands misaligned triangle. It felt good. Felt even better when I got through 12 then 6 chinups after. Yeah, showing off. Haha. So yeah, the trick is to go slow and take the time - breathe and enjoy the pace. I had radio in my ear - anything from 98fm to 92.4classical. It works.

rrrttteewwqqaassddfgghyuijklop;mnbvcxzrreettttyyyuuuoookkjjhggfddssgl hgfffytt

Sorry, Had the urge to clean my keyboard. Overly oily letters bug me.

Anyway, take it slow and get the job done. But most importantly, try.

Sembawang Beach On Sunday

First Five In A Long Time

I ran 5km last night. My first in a long time. I usually try to complete 6km of run and walk but yesterday, I was motivated to go further because I need to "intensify my routine to get past the plateau". That's advice from a fitness expert I heard on radio. Well then, I huffed and puffed and stomped the pavement around a misshapen triangle of land bordered by Dr62, Dr64 and Ave6. Woodlands of course. With radio in my ears. I didn't run like the wind. More of a fast jog I like to believe.

No pain today, so that's a good sign I guess. Probably means I should be doing 6km instead.

Marathon planning? I dunno. Maybe. Need to a doc about the knees though.

Kumar Blows The House Down

Saturday night was another adventure (see earlier post on NUS) of the jam packed, rib tickling kind. We, friends and colleagues, went to see Kumar and Sean Filipe perform at the final show for Camp Comedy at St James Powerhouse. Thank goodness we had a spot near the stage. It was a blast and we laughed till we ached. After Fandi Ahmad, maybe Sim Wong Hoo, and Jack Neo, Kumar is one Singapore's favourite sons. Or daughter as the case may be. His jokes were classically raunchy and irreverent. All the races kena, all the gahmen also kena. But that SG life eh. We laugh at our complaints and we complain at people laughing. Haha. It was time and money well spent. Thanks to a colleague Lawrence for the kung tao.

Lost In NUS On A Saturday

Gerald asked me to accompany him to NUS to a Start Up Singapore talk on Web 2.0. I told him I would rather be sleeping, especially after a beer or two the night earlier.

Nonethless, I managed to wake up after about 5 hours sleep and made my way to Clementi to meet an equally sleepy Gerald. We took the 96 at the interchange and proceeded to get lost in the labyrinth that is NUS.

Firstly we got off the bus at the third bus stop, apparently at the suggestion of an ex-NUSian Georgina. Ahem. I checked the map where we alighted and we were miles off base! So we crossed over, waited for the internal bus, and hung out with kids in yellow Yishun JC tees for the next 10mins (they seemed lost too), before getting told to alight at the "last stop oredi". Goodness, where fark were we? Prince George's Residences - chi chi accommodation for foreign students? Goodness.

So Gerald and I walked to the NUS Business faculty. We passed the Incubation Labs where we imagined students under huge lamps concentrating hard, constipated in thought and creativity, to churn out that one big egg of an idea. We did eventually end up at the right place, having lost perspiration and calories to get there (after many a slope and bend I might add).

So we sat down to listen to people talk about Web 2.0. We figured we may have something to contribute given we work in the industry of making Web 2.0 work for our clients. Well, let's just say it was a little been there, done that. Enlightening for the kids but not so much sparkle for us lao jiaos. Ahem. Hao lian.

So we joined two people I know and met at the talk - Van Tan and November Tan (she manages Pulau Ubin Stories), unrelated. One was a speaker and the other, attendee. Consumption of the reception ensued (I had way too many eclairs but they were so good) and we even got a ride out to Dover from Van (so nice). Well a morning adventure done and dusted, time for a nap.

More pixes at my Flickr.