Spot the boo boo. Sign's outside Penny Black at Boat Quay. Even MS Word will miss this one. Copywriters/editors might want to correct the structure but let's go with spelling first. Nice story though.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
A Singaporean Must Have Made This Sign
Spot the boo boo. Sign's outside Penny Black at Boat Quay. Even MS Word will miss this one. Copywriters/editors might want to correct the structure but let's go with spelling first. Nice story though.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
This Long Weekend
- I realise that this weekend was my third 4-day weekend since Christmas. Time for the real work to begin.
- I put my foot too far out while doing triangle pose in yoga. I didn't know it could be too far out.
- There were 12 students in yoga class today, the second day of the new year. And they weren't all angmoh if you were thinking that.
- My nephew can't balance well yet. I pushed a soft toy elephant him and he fell backwards, hit his head on the floor and cried to high heaven. Sorry.
- I still like fish fingers. In the army, on Thursdays I think, a few of us just had fish fingers with chilli sauce and oranges later.
- I have two Tim Tams sitting in milk in the fridge.
- I bought a pink shirt, my first ever. Last week, I told my mother that pink was a sissy colour and she didn't buy sheets in that colour. What's happening?
- I got the fewest ever Chinese New Year messages this year. Two SMSes I think.
- When I go to sleep on the weekends, I listen to 90.5fm. Yeah the old fogeys station. I keep waking up in the middle of the night (on the weekends) and I will hear "The Way We Were" done my Gladys Knight I think being played. And I would sing along in my head. But then i do that with all songs I recognise.
- I VPN-ed to work on Monday and settled things for tomorrow. And cleaned out my Inbox.
- I watched Titanic, again, on TV last night. I felt emotional. And also wondered how they did the large scale ship shots. Damn, must be the pink shirt.
- I also caught the Star Trek TV episode where Captain Picard got Borg-ed. So cool.
- The doorbell wasn't working and my neighbour had been trying to pass Chinese New Year cookies and oranges and an angpow for my nephew to my mother these last two days. She saw me coming home from yoga and asked me "Boy, you mum not in ah?"
27. Duties Done
Synopsis - Four kids on a round-the-world holiday tell Mom they'd write home. All four do but none of their letters reach home. Have they fulfilled their moral obligations?
Nice names. I was looking for some kind of code in Hew, Drew, Sue and Lou.
Anyways, Baggini explains that the story of simple letter writing and non-receipt has greater implications to bigger moral issues. Kinda freaky but the extrapolation is valid.
All four kids made attempts to communicate with their mother and through no or little fault of their own, no letter made it to mom. Their intention though genuine, sincere and manifested, the intended outcome did not materialise. Is this a question of responsibility? All four kid did as required of them. So in their minds, it's a non-issue. "Yeah Mom, I wrote. What nothing came through? Shucks"
Read more >>
Nice names. I was looking for some kind of code in Hew, Drew, Sue and Lou.
Anyways, Baggini explains that the story of simple letter writing and non-receipt has greater implications to bigger moral issues. Kinda freaky but the extrapolation is valid.
All four kids made attempts to communicate with their mother and through no or little fault of their own, no letter made it to mom. Their intention though genuine, sincere and manifested, the intended outcome did not materialise. Is this a question of responsibility? All four kid did as required of them. So in their minds, it's a non-issue. "Yeah Mom, I wrote. What nothing came through? Shucks"
Read more >>
Monday, 26 January 2009
A Trip Up The River For A Rose
Got home at 4am Sunday morning after a night at Indochine Forbidden City with Rose and Ken visiting from Hong Kong followed by supper in Bedok North Ave 4. Yes quite a night. It started off with dinner in Little India. I had two pooris with beets, potato masala, masala chicken and chickpeas. Wolfed it all down with very sweet tea. (Are you hungry now?) I left mummy in the train up north at Raffles Place and walked up the river to Clarke Quay. I had my camera, a planned move to capture the heart the island at night.
So snap I did. I met an ex-colleague who was doing the same outside Riverwalk. Apparently Melvin was accompany his shy cousin around the city during the festive period. I went up the path to colourful Clarke Quay. It seems like no one parties anywhere else. The place is packed with locals and tourists, all hungry and thirsty, keen to see and to be seen, all in the name of having a good time.
With time to kill before the meet up, I found myself at The Crazy Elephant and had a good bluesy time with a Stella. Artoir that is. The band was amazing! The lead guitarist is magic and the American lady singer Jeanne French has got the lungs to belt out the raspiest of tunes with gusto and gumption. She did Bonnie Raitt and Muddy Waters and other classics I couldn't place. I managed to record their rendition of the Bill Withers classic Ain't No Sunshine for your enjoyment. (Pardon the poor lighting and not so great quality)
It was a good night catching up with some people I haven't seen in quite a long time.
Well, Happy Lunar New Year and may the Ox not shit around the place.
So snap I did. I met an ex-colleague who was doing the same outside Riverwalk. Apparently Melvin was accompany his shy cousin around the city during the festive period. I went up the path to colourful Clarke Quay. It seems like no one parties anywhere else. The place is packed with locals and tourists, all hungry and thirsty, keen to see and to be seen, all in the name of having a good time.
With time to kill before the meet up, I found myself at The Crazy Elephant and had a good bluesy time with a Stella. Artoir that is. The band was amazing! The lead guitarist is magic and the American lady singer Jeanne French has got the lungs to belt out the raspiest of tunes with gusto and gumption. She did Bonnie Raitt and Muddy Waters and other classics I couldn't place. I managed to record their rendition of the Bill Withers classic Ain't No Sunshine for your enjoyment. (Pardon the poor lighting and not so great quality)
It was a good night catching up with some people I haven't seen in quite a long time.
Well, Happy Lunar New Year and may the Ox not shit around the place.
Saturday, 24 January 2009
Fit As A Fiddle
I had a medical check up done last month. It was the second medical I had ever done in my 34 years. The first was about 5 years ago? I had been thinking about doing a full medical in a while but I took the step my HR sent an email about an offer from SATA (what to do, I am Singaporean), and I would be able to claim the amount from my company medical plan (what to do, I am Singaporean).
So medical tests require you to give/deposit things - pee, blood and crap. The last item presents several unique trials to those intending to pass a sample to a stranger. As part of the first medical I did, the passed me a plastic test tube with a screwcap. Undoing the screwcap, one finds it is attached to a thin plastic tube with a screw thread design. "When you collect your stool, just plunge this screw into different areas into the stool, ok" - words that will register with you for life. 'Collect my stool'? Goodness. The sales lady said "don't let it touch the water ah". That would contaminate the sample wouldn't it?
This time around I had to go to the SATA office to get the receptacle. Same test tube design but no screw thread. I had a little scoop at the end. Alrighty time to collect some samples.
The most difficult bit was trying to get a sample having starved for the past 12 hours.
I have friends who were physically violated to obtain this very personal sample. The nurse/doctor/stranger stuck an implement into their asses to do the job. Yikes!
Anyways, all went ok. That is until I got my results a few weeks later.
The doctor, seemingly nice lady that she is, passed me a folder with sheets of papers with names of tests and meaningless numbers next to them. She told me my bad cholesterol was a high but not high enough for medication; my BMI was high and I needed to lose weight; and last but not least, my uric acid was high and increased my tendency for gout.
Gout, that was a new one. The cholesterol thing I heard before. Gout, goodness. I was concerned and research was necessary. The uric acid forms crystals between the joints and that's why it hurts. It's a form of arthritis. So it boils to the food I eat. I can't take too much purine. Turns out I need to watch my intake of nuts, legumes, meat and seafood. Now I must cast an evil eye on that big bottle of Skippy in the kitchen. But how do I not succumb to sambal goreng and kacang with ikan bilis at a Malay food stall? Chialat. Indians eat a lot of dahl aka legumes. And it turns out sardines are not good for gout sufferers too. My life is over.
No lah I ain't all miserable. I just have to watch that I don't over do it. At the same time, I realise it's hard to avoid nuts. People with nut allergies in Asia would have died many times over already.
Alrighty then.
Wikipedia on Gout >>
So medical tests require you to give/deposit things - pee, blood and crap. The last item presents several unique trials to those intending to pass a sample to a stranger. As part of the first medical I did, the passed me a plastic test tube with a screwcap. Undoing the screwcap, one finds it is attached to a thin plastic tube with a screw thread design. "When you collect your stool, just plunge this screw into different areas into the stool, ok" - words that will register with you for life. 'Collect my stool'? Goodness. The sales lady said "don't let it touch the water ah". That would contaminate the sample wouldn't it?
This time around I had to go to the SATA office to get the receptacle. Same test tube design but no screw thread. I had a little scoop at the end. Alrighty time to collect some samples.
The most difficult bit was trying to get a sample having starved for the past 12 hours.
I have friends who were physically violated to obtain this very personal sample. The nurse/doctor/stranger stuck an implement into their asses to do the job. Yikes!
Anyways, all went ok. That is until I got my results a few weeks later.
The doctor, seemingly nice lady that she is, passed me a folder with sheets of papers with names of tests and meaningless numbers next to them. She told me my bad cholesterol was a high but not high enough for medication; my BMI was high and I needed to lose weight; and last but not least, my uric acid was high and increased my tendency for gout.
Gout, that was a new one. The cholesterol thing I heard before. Gout, goodness. I was concerned and research was necessary. The uric acid forms crystals between the joints and that's why it hurts. It's a form of arthritis. So it boils to the food I eat. I can't take too much purine. Turns out I need to watch my intake of nuts, legumes, meat and seafood. Now I must cast an evil eye on that big bottle of Skippy in the kitchen. But how do I not succumb to sambal goreng and kacang with ikan bilis at a Malay food stall? Chialat. Indians eat a lot of dahl aka legumes. And it turns out sardines are not good for gout sufferers too. My life is over.
No lah I ain't all miserable. I just have to watch that I don't over do it. At the same time, I realise it's hard to avoid nuts. People with nut allergies in Asia would have died many times over already.
Alrighty then.
Wikipedia on Gout >>
Monday, 19 January 2009
What To Post? What To Post?
At the start of the year, I told myself to restart my attempts at thinking harder and writing out my thoughts for The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten blog I have. It's the title of a book I bought and it has philosophical stories for the reader to think about and explore in the crevices of his/her rationality and imagination.
So I have just posted something about Chapter 26 (there are 99 in total). And I realise I have neglected this blog. I haven't posted anything since Jan 11. Yikes. Is there nothing to write about? I don't think so. Do I not have pictures? No, I have plenty. Is there not a life to live? Yes there is. Goodness.
I could have posted about how I went to yoga just once last week and went to a self-imposed make-up class on Sunday. I could have written about how a friend had trouble separating $0.0075 per coin deposited in DBS bank versus 0.75 percent of the total sum (See I told you I was SO gonna blog about this). I could have written a short tale of my headache last night, started at 3am, had to take a Panadol in the middle of the night, woke up with it still throbbing and had 2 Panadols at work. I could also have tackled the keys to write about how cute yet mischevious my nephew was getting. Also about how crowded the trains are getting or how the gahmen is thinking of spending our reserves (we have $240 billion by the way). Hmm. Oh yes, my healthcheck suprised me with higher than normal uric acid count - that's potential gout folks. That sucks right. Talk about it later. And how Uncle Tong cracked my neck first week of the year. Or why I think the photo on the left is pretty and that many people like the one on the right.
Go buy the book and read one chapter at a time.
So I have just posted something about Chapter 26 (there are 99 in total). And I realise I have neglected this blog. I haven't posted anything since Jan 11. Yikes. Is there nothing to write about? I don't think so. Do I not have pictures? No, I have plenty. Is there not a life to live? Yes there is. Goodness.
I could have posted about how I went to yoga just once last week and went to a self-imposed make-up class on Sunday. I could have written about how a friend had trouble separating $0.0075 per coin deposited in DBS bank versus 0.75 percent of the total sum (See I told you I was SO gonna blog about this). I could have written a short tale of my headache last night, started at 3am, had to take a Panadol in the middle of the night, woke up with it still throbbing and had 2 Panadols at work. I could also have tackled the keys to write about how cute yet mischevious my nephew was getting. Also about how crowded the trains are getting or how the gahmen is thinking of spending our reserves (we have $240 billion by the way). Hmm. Oh yes, my healthcheck suprised me with higher than normal uric acid count - that's potential gout folks. That sucks right. Talk about it later. And how Uncle Tong cracked my neck first week of the year. Or why I think the photo on the left is pretty and that many people like the one on the right.
Go buy the book and read one chapter at a time.
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Quickie Fun
If you're looking for a good time, check out Apple Trailer page. Just the top 10 trailers to tickle your fancy and keep you smiling. And planning your cinema outings for 2009.
I have always wondered why there wasn't a TV programme that just featured movie trailers. They are so much fun to watch. I always enjoyed being early for movies to check out the trailers. All the anticipation and excitement about a film wrapped in a minute of action, drama, klaboois and kahbooms, kisses and hugs etc etc.
There's Star Trek and Terminator Salvation coming out this year. I got goose pimples listening to the "tah-dum tah-dum tah-dum" in the Terminator trailer. Woof.
I have always wondered why there wasn't a TV programme that just featured movie trailers. They are so much fun to watch. I always enjoyed being early for movies to check out the trailers. All the anticipation and excitement about a film wrapped in a minute of action, drama, klaboois and kahbooms, kisses and hugs etc etc.
There's Star Trek and Terminator Salvation coming out this year. I got goose pimples listening to the "tah-dum tah-dum tah-dum" in the Terminator trailer. Woof.
A More Than Normal First Week
Looks like I haven't really been living up to my blogging commitments.
By the way, there's a guy singing in some neighbouring block. Pretty loud karaoke. He isn't too bad, just that it's almost two in the morning.
And someone else just sneezed. Think it's from upstairs.
The first week of work hasn't been remarkable in any respect. There's work and it feels like 2008 hadn't really ended. More like 2009 just took on the baton without missing a beat. It's sort of the first time I think that's happened. There was always some subconscious recognition of the year change but this time it was just work, holidays, and work again. An unremarkable new year.
Though at the about the stroke of midnight on Jan 1, I could hear the fireworks from Johor Bahru. I couldn't see anything because of the direction my living room windows face and the inadequate height of my apartment, just echoey booming noises in the background to my third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series running on Star Movies. I hadn't really seen any of these modern day classics so I promptly plonked my aching left ass on the sofa and made like a potato till one-ish in the morning.
I didn't go out on New Year's Eve because history dictates that there be a human mess sprawled across town, inebriate but conscious enough to dial and wait for a pickup to a Taxi hotline. Finite number of taxis to an amorphous mob of sloshed partygoers roaming about the streets isn't my kind of odds. And it would have been expensive. We did get sparkling fruit juice from the nearby supermarket to pop and dish out at midnight. Whoopee.
So back to the normal week at work. I had goals for 2009 to key into the company system. Most of the department was quite tense about this. So the boss did her thing, shared her expectations, my boss did his thing and shared his success measures and I did my thing 2 hours before the deadline putting my 3 main goals and hoping for successful submission to a system fraught with delays and slow reaction. The other 'big' thing that happened at work was that my ex-employer is now my current agency which sort of made things interesting. So far so good.
I went to see Uncle Tong today to make adjustments to my spine to correct my recently inflicted back pain (refer to previous mention of aching left ass). He is a miracle worker. Snapped, crackled and popped my vertebrae, hips, head, and legs into their right places. Felt like a million bucks almost immediately. He told me "When you come here, you must learn to relax. Or else I cannot help you." I could feel my body tensing up as he put in the acupuncture needles and he could tell too.
On Friday, I discovered Oosters at Suntec, a Belgian beer place that serves mussels by the bucket and lovely french fries. Even the salad looked awesome, all served in large white porcelain bowls. I dunno but there's something about simple, white porcelain that turns me on about food, which I didn't get to try by the way. Just watched it served out to other patrons. But I did steal a menu. So we are going back there to ensure the theft wasn't in vain.
I got home early and watched a strange film on TV called No Such Thing. It was about this orphan journalist who chooses to be sent to Iceland to find out what happened to her fiancee and his 2 TV crew friends. There are different things that happen to stop her making her destination - even her plane crashed into the Atlantic. She eventually finds out about this "monster" who eats people and breathes fire and drinks a lot. The monster spoke fluid American English complete with swears. Strange and funny film. No she didn't get eaten.
A dog is barking now. It sounds small. Yelp, yelp. The singing's stoppped.
Alright, that sums up week 1. 51 more to go till the end of the O series.
By the way, there's a guy singing in some neighbouring block. Pretty loud karaoke. He isn't too bad, just that it's almost two in the morning.
And someone else just sneezed. Think it's from upstairs.
The first week of work hasn't been remarkable in any respect. There's work and it feels like 2008 hadn't really ended. More like 2009 just took on the baton without missing a beat. It's sort of the first time I think that's happened. There was always some subconscious recognition of the year change but this time it was just work, holidays, and work again. An unremarkable new year.
Though at the about the stroke of midnight on Jan 1, I could hear the fireworks from Johor Bahru. I couldn't see anything because of the direction my living room windows face and the inadequate height of my apartment, just echoey booming noises in the background to my third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series running on Star Movies. I hadn't really seen any of these modern day classics so I promptly plonked my aching left ass on the sofa and made like a potato till one-ish in the morning.
I didn't go out on New Year's Eve because history dictates that there be a human mess sprawled across town, inebriate but conscious enough to dial and wait for a pickup to a Taxi hotline. Finite number of taxis to an amorphous mob of sloshed partygoers roaming about the streets isn't my kind of odds. And it would have been expensive. We did get sparkling fruit juice from the nearby supermarket to pop and dish out at midnight. Whoopee.
So back to the normal week at work. I had goals for 2009 to key into the company system. Most of the department was quite tense about this. So the boss did her thing, shared her expectations, my boss did his thing and shared his success measures and I did my thing 2 hours before the deadline putting my 3 main goals and hoping for successful submission to a system fraught with delays and slow reaction. The other 'big' thing that happened at work was that my ex-employer is now my current agency which sort of made things interesting. So far so good.
I went to see Uncle Tong today to make adjustments to my spine to correct my recently inflicted back pain (refer to previous mention of aching left ass). He is a miracle worker. Snapped, crackled and popped my vertebrae, hips, head, and legs into their right places. Felt like a million bucks almost immediately. He told me "When you come here, you must learn to relax. Or else I cannot help you." I could feel my body tensing up as he put in the acupuncture needles and he could tell too.
On Friday, I discovered Oosters at Suntec, a Belgian beer place that serves mussels by the bucket and lovely french fries. Even the salad looked awesome, all served in large white porcelain bowls. I dunno but there's something about simple, white porcelain that turns me on about food, which I didn't get to try by the way. Just watched it served out to other patrons. But I did steal a menu. So we are going back there to ensure the theft wasn't in vain.
I got home early and watched a strange film on TV called No Such Thing. It was about this orphan journalist who chooses to be sent to Iceland to find out what happened to her fiancee and his 2 TV crew friends. There are different things that happen to stop her making her destination - even her plane crashed into the Atlantic. She eventually finds out about this "monster" who eats people and breathes fire and drinks a lot. The monster spoke fluid American English complete with swears. Strange and funny film. No she didn't get eaten.
A dog is barking now. It sounds small. Yelp, yelp. The singing's stoppped.
Alright, that sums up week 1. 51 more to go till the end of the O series.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
Not A Great Start To Oh-Nine Is It?
So what's bad that's happened?
1. Three Singaporeans died in a Bangkok club fire on New Year's Day.
2. Israel decides to attack Gaza.
3. I got back pain from a yoga pose in mid-class.
Point 1 is just depressing. We lost one person to the Mumbai terrorist attack and now three more locals perish horribly in a fire. Are there more Singaporeans out there now putting themselves at risk? I am over-reacting. Perhaps we are just used to safe Singapore versus all the crap we hear about everywhere else. We are too well protected, too safe, too unfamiliar with all the bad things we hear about on the news. It's a sad way to usher in 2009.
Point 2 pisses me off. Most people think the Palestinians are terrorists, all of them, the women and children and tea-drinkers. There's Hamas who have clearly made themselves known as terrorists. Unfortunately, they run the Gaza strip and even more damagingly, launch missiles into Israel from their people's brick houses. So Israel decides to go whole hog into Gaza, bombing buildings to kingdom come. Now the ground forces have gone in to eradicate the militants. 450 dead Palestinians and about 5 dead Israelis.
Yes, it is ok for Israel to defend itself. It is ok for the Palestinians to be pissed. It is not ok for Israel to blockade the territory so that the Palestinians can't live like normal people. It is not ok for Hamas to send missiles into Israel but think about it - the Palestinians got chased out of their homelands 50 years ago and were not allowed to return, had their families shattered, economy screwed up, education and healthcare left to pieces, no real semblance of a nation, much less a society. When people are put down too long, they turn to violence to keep themselves alive. (One of the Sikh sacred symbols is a dagger, a reminder of the persecution of religion's followers in the 1600s and the right to arms as self-defence). Israel has not allowed Palestine to 'live'. Palestinians live horrible lives. So how can they co-exist?
I am worried about the bigger repercussions. Will the Arab countries come in to defend Gaza? Indonesians already want their government to send troops to protect the Palestinians. Will Iran launch a naughty pointy thing towards Israel? How will the US help anyone anymore? The UN is simply making a lot of noise thus far while homes get blown up and people die and mothers worry. Expect more crap from the Middle East.
Point 3. Oh it just hurts. Especially when yoga is supposed to fix things. Ow.
1. Three Singaporeans died in a Bangkok club fire on New Year's Day.
2. Israel decides to attack Gaza.
3. I got back pain from a yoga pose in mid-class.
Point 1 is just depressing. We lost one person to the Mumbai terrorist attack and now three more locals perish horribly in a fire. Are there more Singaporeans out there now putting themselves at risk? I am over-reacting. Perhaps we are just used to safe Singapore versus all the crap we hear about everywhere else. We are too well protected, too safe, too unfamiliar with all the bad things we hear about on the news. It's a sad way to usher in 2009.
Point 2 pisses me off. Most people think the Palestinians are terrorists, all of them, the women and children and tea-drinkers. There's Hamas who have clearly made themselves known as terrorists. Unfortunately, they run the Gaza strip and even more damagingly, launch missiles into Israel from their people's brick houses. So Israel decides to go whole hog into Gaza, bombing buildings to kingdom come. Now the ground forces have gone in to eradicate the militants. 450 dead Palestinians and about 5 dead Israelis.
Yes, it is ok for Israel to defend itself. It is ok for the Palestinians to be pissed. It is not ok for Israel to blockade the territory so that the Palestinians can't live like normal people. It is not ok for Hamas to send missiles into Israel but think about it - the Palestinians got chased out of their homelands 50 years ago and were not allowed to return, had their families shattered, economy screwed up, education and healthcare left to pieces, no real semblance of a nation, much less a society. When people are put down too long, they turn to violence to keep themselves alive. (One of the Sikh sacred symbols is a dagger, a reminder of the persecution of religion's followers in the 1600s and the right to arms as self-defence). Israel has not allowed Palestine to 'live'. Palestinians live horrible lives. So how can they co-exist?
I am worried about the bigger repercussions. Will the Arab countries come in to defend Gaza? Indonesians already want their government to send troops to protect the Palestinians. Will Iran launch a naughty pointy thing towards Israel? How will the US help anyone anymore? The UN is simply making a lot of noise thus far while homes get blown up and people die and mothers worry. Expect more crap from the Middle East.
Point 3. Oh it just hurts. Especially when yoga is supposed to fix things. Ow.
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