A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Tonight after work, I have to stop by the store to get some batteries for my camera tomorrow.

The cruise doesn't actually set sail till 2359 hours. But being the cheeky boy that I am, I've taken the day off tomorrow, just because I don't see the point of slaving over the work computer when I'm gonna have fun soon. =P Afterall, I am only a temp, so I don't have any future in what I'm doing.

The cruise is gonna be awesome. The only weird thing about the whole cruise is that we will be boarding at night, which means we'll go on board and sleep in a few minutes. Not really fun at all. I reckon it would be better if they set sail in the evening, then at least we'll have a few hours to explore the ship instead of exploring our rooms.

Nevertheless, I shall try my best to go camera-crazy. I will try to get shots from the moment we approach the ship to the moment we are about to leave. Also, I wanna try to get some sunsetting shots. That is, if I remember. Or if I'm not too busy in the pool trying to impress girls roaming the deck. hehehe it's not like it's my fault. It comes naturally. lol

I just hope that my digital cam can capture the sun setting. It's not like a professional camera or anything, so the lighting of the shot might get affected. Oh well, I will still try, if I can.

Well, mum arrived last night. It was ok. I haven't seen her in nearly 3 months, so it wasn't a very 'needy' arrival. I mean, it was nice to have a new person in my weekly routine, but unlike my brother, who hasn't seen her in nearly 15 months, it wasn't too significant that I saw her again. There hasn't been too many changes since I departed, but she did mention one thing.

She said that I did look 'bigger'. I think bigger in the sense that my shoulders have bulked up, making me look broader. From all the swimming I do, I believe.

She also asked if I have grown taller, but I'm not sure if her suspicions are really legitimate because growing taller to a point where the difference can be noticed is a little bit hard to believe when the absence has only been 3 months. Of course there are cases when that does happen, but very rarely.

Maybe I have grown, maybe just a little bit. Give it that. It'll be nice to think that I am still gonna get taller than I am now. But of course, getting too tall would be just as bad too.

My calculated 'predicted' height when I was two and a half (I think) is 5 foot 11.75 inches, or 1.82m. I don't know whether I will ever reach that height but that is pretty tall. Especially for our family. Our tallest uncle, who is my mum's younger brother, is 5 foot and 11 inches. So if I by some weird chance happen to grow to my predicted height, I would be considered the tallest person in our family, which I really weird. I don't like to be the tallest. You gather a lot of attention. But I'm also glad that I'm not too short either. It's a nice blessing to be tall but not too tall. Actually, I wouldn't mind not growing any taller. I reckon I'm at a nice height of 1.75m as is. Growing to 1.80m would be really weird.
It's really fascinating actually. Because I remember the time when I was the 2nd shortest in the family. For a very long time (hehe), I was always the 2nd shortest in the family. But as soon as I turned 13 or 14, I became the 3rd shortest/tallest, then as I approached 16, I became the 2nd tallest. Not long after, I became the tallest in the family. Amoz keeps saying that he 'allowed' me to grow taller. That he 'gave' all the 'good & nutritious' to me. He claims to have done such a wonderful deed for his little brother, allowing me to get all the seafood, and lots of other miscellaneous vegies which he doesn't like. It's not like I try to eat them all the time. They just look so lonely on his plate and I thought they needed to meet some other 'friends' ... in my stomach. =P

See, works both ways. By eating them, I am filled, and they have friends. And together, they can get to know one another, eventually getting burnt with each other by the pH 2 hydrochloric acid in my stomach.

Together, we care. We love.

Wow, just looking over the blog entry, I can't believe how much rubbish I've written. It's amazing how much nonsense I can blog about. Absolutely shocking. Seriously, do you guys actually read these stuff? What's so interesting about what I'm blabbing on about? It's just me going on and on about how work smells like my feet, and how I am looking forward to joining the Police Force. Besides that, I don't think there's any relevance in what I'm blogging about. ahaha

Anyway, I'm blogging at work now because the cruise is tomorrow, my boss is not here, and I really don't see the point in my working my butt off when I'll be working on Monday again. So I'll just let it all accumulate and then deal with it some other time. Now, I'm all set for a relaxing time on the cruise. I just hope it doesn't rain. If it does, I'll be so very sad. I won't be able to take pictures on deck but I should still be able to swim, if they allow it. Actually, if it does rain, it wouldn't really matter. We'll just hide inside the ship and enjoy whatever facilities they have on board, although, it would be better if it didn't rain. Also, if it does rain, the ship might experience a lot of turbulence which would make everything horrible.

In any case, it will be awesome and I hope to bring back lots of wonderful pictures for you guys to see!!! Until next time...

Bon Voyage to me!

Armageddon

Overall, I'm hanging in there by a thread. Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I'm drained. I really need to leave this life-style. And I reckon the upcoming cruise is keeping me 'alive'. Plus, the thought of mum coming tomorrow is allowing me to kick whatever strength I have left to keep going.

Just remembering how I somehow managed extend my working contract really makes me so much more depressed. I'm trying my best to supress the knowledge that I will be working for another 5 days (in actual fact 5.5 days because I have to work that Saturday as well ><") by remembering that I am going on a cruise!!!

Work is really making me very depressed. Even though it's a temporary job, every aspect of the job tears me down into this mode of depression I didn't think existed. Seriously, I didn't think working could get this bad. I believe I'm taking a pretty 'heavy' working life because working 9.5hours each day is no laughing matter. It really takes a lot out of you. And then it's there that you realise that time is so very valuable. Having time to myself is so very valuable. That's one thing I miss. Having time to myself.

I know once I do my NS, there won't be time to myself anymore. But since I'm not in the Police Academy yet, I might as well enjoy whatever freedom I have while I still can.

Speaking of the Police Academy, I talked with the only friend that I know who has been to the Police Academy about what takes place in the NS training course.

Basically, he said that the training is so much more relaxing and requires a bit of using your head as well. Half the day would be committed to lectures and the other half would be the training for physical combat and other physical activities like climbing obstacles. On the whole, the training is very much more 'laid-back' than the army because in the army, most of the training involved requires soldiers to be able to fight in a war if called for at any moment. Whereas in the police force, all that is really required is that you maintain the situation in the country. Nothing too extreme, like going overseas and getting killed. =P

Another thing which really makes the whole going into the Police Academy experience a whole lot better is the chance of being able to drive. Apparently, I may have to take my highway code to get my driver's license when I turn 18. w00t!

I still remember being sad in Australia when I found out that if I went to do my NS early, I won't be able to get my driver's license when I turn 18. All that's changed now! I should be able to get my license if they allow me to take my test and start driving around. I really am looking forward to that. Except I really hope I haven't 'rusted' in my driving cause I haven't driven since November of last year. So it's been a little while. Still, I don't think it will be too bad. It's like riding a bicyle ya?

On a completely different topic, in case many of you don't know, Singapore experiences light pollution. At night, I am unable to see the stars because there is too much light in the sky at night. It's really sad for me because I really love to see the stars. Back in Geelong when I would take out the bins for recycling, I would look up and see the countless stars in the night-sky. Ok ok, I guess you could count them, but you get the point. It really is breath-taking. Just to imagine that the stars that we see today are millions of light years away is really extraordinary. As a matter of fact, we could be looking at stars that no longer exist. So very cool.

If I'm not mistaken, a part of the very famous Eagle Nebula was recently discovered to have been destroyed by a supernova which occurred around 6,000 years ago. The accuracy of these statistics may or may not be true but nonetheless, the thought of such distant space objects being destroyed despite being visible here is really fascinating, I reckon. I guess that is one of the many reasons why I had an interest in Astronomy. Another reason is the knowledge that these space objects are exponentially massive! Just thinking about the sun being a puny star compared to the other stars out there really caught my interest. And if you reckon that's cool, just think about God being even GREATER than all these massive space objects. Absolutely mind blowing!

So just to finish off, I'll post these pictures that I got from my physics teacher last year as these images compare the relative sizes of these recognizable space objects. Amazing really. Just to think that our earth seems to big already, these other objects are many many times bigger.

Enjoy! ^^

And to think that Antares is not the biggest space object in the universe. Out of all the known stars in the universe, it ranks 11th as the largest known star, under a red supergiant called VY Canis Majoris. Absolutely massive!

(courtesy of wikipedia)

You can't even seen the sun in this pic. If you want to see it, just click the link and have a look at the enlarged picture by clicking on the symbol that appears on the right bottom corner of the image.

Police Academy: What an Institution

ah ha, ah ha... great.

Today, they asked me to extend my contract for another 5 days because the lady who I'm actually covering doesn't actually come back till the 14th or 16th of March. So if I left on the 7th of March, they would need to either go without me for another few more days, or they would have to re-train another person to do my job for 5 days, which is really silly. And that is why they asked me to stay for another few more days. Actually, it was more an on-the-spot notice that you will be working for a few more days. They didn't give me much of a choice because both my 'bosses' were looking at me, as I tried to wiggle my way out of it. One gave goo-goo eyes, while the other 'intimidatingly' stared down at me. Being in such a miniature position, I didn't have much of a choice. Even when I said, "Do I really have a choice?" the head supervisor took it as a, "yup. You're staying" on my behalf, walking away before I could even inquire about a raise =P
I mean, after all, they need me. They need me to stay for another 5 days, so I thought I could take advantage of their vulnerability and get a pay increase, but obviously, he was very 'experienced' in this area. Knowing that I might ask him about the pay, he quickly walked away saying, "So I'll give you a letter of extension!" scattering away from the department.

That's the story of my life. No body knows that I'm around. No body. Not even my parents noticed me. One day I went to school, and when I came home... they'd move. -- Mr Cellophane of Chicago

Fortunately for me, my parents didn't move while I went to school. Although, I do remember being left at a store once when I was 3 or 4 and I didn't know whether I would be found because I was so scared. I kept circling the place until I started crying. The place was so big (well, I thought it was big), I don't think any of the staff noticed that I was alone circling the place. I still remember circling the shopping centre several times before I ended up sitting down on this 'platform', where they had placed all the dressed up model-statues, as I started to cry. Everything from then on was looking very blurry because my eyes were all watery. If I'm not mistaken, I sat in such a way that I was crying with my arms dangling to the side. So imagine this little kid, sitting on a very low platform, with his arms dangling to the side, crying. I think crying in such an adorable position would make everyone in the store who saw me feel really really sorry for me. hehe

Eventually, after an hour (I think. Hey! I was a kid. I didn't know how the time worked), my mum came running through the store, looking for me. Not entirely sure what happened after that. Maybe I got ice-cream.


Since everyone in my family members already know, I can post this here.
I went for my NS early enlistment registration this morning, to have some documents signed with my auntie saying that my enlistment is 'voluntary' because I'm not 18. And while I did that, they also told me that I would be enlisted into the Police Academy. That's right. The Police Academy. The scenario when I found out was something like this.
My auntie and I were seated behind this desk with this lady on the other side. She went on about how these were early enlistment documents, blah blah blah.

Then she said, "Do you know your date of enlistment?"
I replied, "Yeah, 10th April"
She scrolled down the document saying, "Yeeaa... Correct. You'll have to report to the Police Academy on that day. Ok, we'll need to--"
I interrupted her saying, "I'm sorry, what?"
"The Police Academy at Old Chua Chu Kang Rd." Ok, I was completely shocked and surprised when I heard this because I was enlisted into the police force. I didn't know what to say. I just turned to my auntie and gave her this very surprised look.
I think she said, "Oh ok, the police academy," giving the lady one of her friendly smiles. I turned back to lady and tried not to be too shocked and I guess I could say, dissapointed at the time, by the news. I tried to remain calm as possible without freaking because in all honesty, I was definitely not expecting the Police Force. I have always been told stuff about the army and how you will have to go overseas for training, and how massive everything is in the jungle. And when I say massive, I mean insects and other weird creatures which you don't ever wanna meet. Ants are the size of a standard mobile phone in Brunei. Imagine that.

As we processed the documents, I managed to grasp the fact that I will not be going into the army but rather, the Police Force. It was hard to realise that I would not be fulfilling our family's record of becoming army officers, because both my dad and brother are officers. So I was a bit sad, but still, I reckon becoming a Police Officer would be even more wonderful! I never considered becoming a police before. The only time I 'sorta' considered joining the police force when I watch simply too many CSI: Miami episodes and the thought of becoming a forensics officer came to my mind. Besides that, no, it's never occurred to me that joining the police force would be awesome.
Why awesome? That's because no one in our family, both on my dad and mum's sides, has ever become a Police before. Not in NS and not in life. So these 2 years will be a very very interesting experience because I will be the first ever. I really don't know what to expect really. Besides the general idea that I will be chasing criminals, controlling crowds/riots, driving around in a chick magnet, I don't know what to expect. Is it gonna be the same 'life-style' in the academy as compared to the army? Is it gonna be hard? Is it gonna be depressing? Am I gonna be tanned? All these will be answered in no time at all.

I guess I am a little bit disappointed also by the fact that I probably won't be handling as many rifles and other miscellaneous weapons because I will probably be limited to using the hand-gun. My auntie said that I may be handling other types of weapons that people in the army don't handle like the sniper and stuff, provided I become a sniper. Or even the SWAT team, if that falls my way.

Then comes the thought of having a badge. Wow, a badge! So much better than getting those things they get in school for recognising good works, or whatever they call it. It's not important. What's important is a police badge. Oh baby.

The Land Before Time

Whoa, that was a close one. One of my supervisors came in just a few moments ago, and I had left my monitor screen on the blog entry page. Good thing blogger’s format for blog entries look very simple and depends a lot on all the HTML coding and stuff. So it wasn’t too bad, I hope.
When he left, I heard him say to the head of department (who sits just a few steps away from me but is behind a wall), “Can I talk to you for a minute?” It was just a few moments ago!!! I can’t help but wonder if he wanted to talk about me. I hope not. Oh dear.

Anyway, they can fire me if they want. :P hahaha, ok, that’s just a bit too harsh to say, but in all honesty, with just a few days to go, firing me prematurely would do me wonders. Lol, even though it would be a terrible to have this on my job resume. Oh yes, I can see it now.
Job experiences: Fired after working as admin for 4 weeks. Reason for being terminated - blogging during office hours. That’s just great.
I told myself I wouldn’t quit this job, but getting fired would be one way in getting out early. Bleh, it’s not important. No way am I gonna get in trouble for this.
Anyway, I was reading some of my previous blog entries back from before I started work, and I came across me saying,

My point is, after this 'experience', I told myself that I didn't want to be underpaid, like that again, for my effort. If I'm gonna work, I'm gonna work hard. So they better be good when it comes to the payment because what I'm giving them is my best work.

Well, I can’t say that they are underpaying me here, but I also can’t say that they are paying me enough. For the amount of work I do, I reckon I should be paid more. Then again, I always think I should be paid more, so there isn’t really much of a difference. But I think I can strongly say that I have worked hard. I really have put my back into the work they’ve given me, even if I haven’t done it willingly, I did it anyway because I have to. Afterall, my boss is right behind me! Even if I’m not working, I try to look busy because if I don’t, it feels like my boss’s eyes are watching my every move. How do I know? Simple, I’d go to a website with a black background, and when I do, I can see her reflection on the dark background.

Usually, I feel scared because there’d be times when I would see her head pop out as she dips to the side to see what I’m doing. It's really petrifying because I'm not meant to be doing that, so to see her seeing me see something else, it's scary. It's even scarier when I see her eyes divert to the side so that she's looking at me. That even worse! It means she's trying to be subtle in her approaches to watch what I'm doing. It's not fair because I do that all the time! I mean, she's trying to be me! Sorta. I'd try to be subtle in observing the things I watch so that no one knows that I know. I prefer to remain unnoticed. ^^ hehehe, I don't know why I'm blogging that on here... =S Better stop. =P

For the first time since I started working, I, along with the entire working staff, were dismissed early at 5pm yesterday. It was awesome going back early because by the time I reached back, it was still bright outside! Unbelieveable because usually I would come back and by 7:30pm, it's getting dark already. So when I got back yesterday, it was so nice and bright. Ahhh... so very nice. I liked it back in Australia because during summer, the sun would rise before I woke up and would set around 9pm or so. The only part I don't like about that is that the sun would wake me up around 7:30am each morning. So I would wake up around there, and start my day, even though I planned to sleep in. ><"

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl

Left and right, aunties are pouring in the ang paus. I am not hesitant to accept. Simply because I am running low on pocket money and every single one of these ang paus will help. Now, everything is 'ok' again. I should be able to live off these ang paus for another few more months. After which, I will have to start to eat into my bank savings again.

Overall, the CNY break has been pretty good. A four day weekend, spending it with family, it was nice. I guess the same will happen in another year or so.

Last evening, Earl and I spent time with Florent as a final goodbye. We went to Earl's place to have dinner then we played soccer on the XBox. Initially, I was supposed to go down to Pastor's house for a CNY dinner. However, the dinner kinda clashed with our farewell dinner with Florent, so instead of going to Pastor's house, I chose to spend it with Earl and Florent. After all, Pastor's house will be here for as long as I'm here.

Initially, I was planning to go to pastor's house (which is approximately 1 hour from Earl's place), spend an hour or so there, then head off. We left the house at 3pm, got to the closest MRT station at 4pm, and took the bus that they told us to take. However, we didn't know where to drop off because they told us to look for this road which wasn't specified on the Bus Route Brochure. We sat on the bus, and waited and waited, eventually ending up at the bus terminal. By the time we were at the bus terminal, it was close to 5pm, and I was meant to meet up Earl and Florent at 6pm. No way was I gonna make it in time if I went to Pastor's house.

So I decided to take a taxi to the nearest MRT station and head back, as Amoz continued on to Pastor's place. Basically, I wasted my time and money going all the way down to Pastor's place and heading back. I didn't know that was gonna happen and if I knew we were not gonna find the place in time, I would have just stayed back. Oh well, things happen.

But I made the right choice. Going back to Earl's place was a choice I never regretted because I really enjoyed playing XBox and spending time with Florent and Earl. Maybe it was because I played pretty well and managed to beat the two of them in the closing stages of the night for the Konami Cup. In any case, it was very satisfying.

I can't help but start thinking about the cruise. It's so near. But I'm not focusing too much on the cruise because I know I have a few more days of work to go till I can actually leave the country. You could say I'm containing my excitement because there's no point getting all excited when I have to drag my so-very-depressed carcase through work first. One thing at a time.

In all honesty, I wasn't actually planning on bringing the camera on the cruise. I think I got all caught up by the thought of just wandering around by myself not having a care in the world of what is happening, I didn't stop to think about taking some photos during the cruise. But thanks to Sarah, she pointed out that I should take some photos during the cruise and I reckon it's a great idea! =P Thanks Sarah!

So hopefully when I return, I will have many photos for all of you to see!

I will try my best to take as many photos as I can. And I also promise that I will post a ridiculous number of photos on the blog so that you guys can be entertained. It will take a long time trying to get them all nice and pretty on the blog, but for you guys, anything. =P That is, provided I go 'camera-crazy'. ^^ Nevertheless, I reckon it will be cool!

I apologise for the very mundane blogging style during the last few posts. The reason being, there hasn't really been all that much to blog about. I try to blog about as many stupid and silly things as possible, but I think it's gotten a bit repetitive. At this time, I have to wait for the cruise to try to bring back some stories and then after that, it'll be another month of 'mundaneness', but after that, it'll be time for the army. I'm sure once I'm in the army, there will be very interesting stories that I can tell without breaching too many laws. I'll be crying as I get these stories for you guys to read because they'll probably torture us in the process. A great story right there.

But I'm sure there will be something more interesting to read than me retelling stories of having to control myself from regurgitating food from lunch and spewing it all over the work computer.

What can I say?

In Her Shoes

We played 2 hours of street soccer yesterday, and I'm on the verge of collapsing.

If it wasn't for chairs, I think I would be sitting on the floor for the majority of the day. Better still, lying on the floor. Despite how it only lasted for 2 hours before the rain came, those 2 hours were very intense, seeing that I haven't played any sport since coming here. So having to run so hard under the blazing sun, it took a lot out of me.

The game was such that the team who scores first wins, and then they'll play the next team. On average, 1 match would last for 5-10mins, but during my second game, we were playing for around 20-30mins because no one could score! It was terrible! I was playing striker, so I had to run so much, I was on the verge of collapsing because my feet were killing me, and on top of that, I found it so hard to breathe. Maybe it was because of the hot humid air, or the fact that I had 'puffed' myself out from all that running. Either way, I was exhausted in that match.
My shirt was literally soaked in sweat, and my legs were covered in another nice shiny layer of sweat. Also in that match, I managed to pop one of the water blisters on my left foot that formed sometime during the first or second match. I felt the blister go 'pop', spewing liquid all over my socks. Mmmm Yum!

Sometime before noon, the clouds came in, and it cooled down a bit. From then on, it was a lot more bearable. I was able to run without finding it too difficult to breathe. The only thing that stopped me from performing better was the number of water blisters on my feet. They weren't very small ones. They were pretty close to be considered large, and not just one or two, I could say there are just about half a dozen of them, scattered around both feet. Now, I struggle just to walk. But I'm guessing they'll be gone in a few days time.

Anyway, now my body is aching all over. After sleeping on it, I feel the aches and pain all over my body, especially in the abdominal region. However, if we were to play again, at the expensive of all these pains, I would do it in a second. But for now, I need time to heal. XD



Now for a totally different story.
On the way to church this morning, as I was sitting in a very silent Chinese New Year Day train with very few people on board, there was this young blind man who came onto our 'carriage'. And out of all the seats he was 'helped' to, it happened to be the one next to mine. This was a whole new experience for me, because I had never encountered this situation before in my life. I guess that was a part of realising that this world is filled with many different people in many different situations.

So this was what happened. The young blind man was helped into the carriage by these two indian guys who then directed him into the attention of another man who sat 3 seats away on my right. That man took a hold of this blind man and sat him down next to me. I was thinking, "eerrrr, thanks mate." lol. So there I was, sitting there, not knowing what I was suppose to do as this young blind man did the following.
When he came in, he was all teary and 'sniffy'. At first glance, I noticed that there was a tear that ran down his face. I'm not enirely sure why, but there was a tear running down his face. Anyway, when he sat down next to me, he was fully pressing against me with his left arm invading my 'personal space'.

Then, he started to sniff his 'mucus' (I'm assuming that was what he was sniffing in). It was ok at first, but then not long after, he started sneezing. It was the type of sneeze that could be heard throughout the train. I can still 'replay' the whole sneezing experience again. ><" It was awful because I was the closest person to him, and he was sneezing all over the place. He didn't cover his face or anything, so I couldn't help but pray for mercy from the Lord. If I happen to fall sick during the next few days, I think I can relate it to this incident. So I sat there next to him, trying to decide whether I should move seats and get away from him, or remain seated, supporting this young man. I then thought about the things he would have gone through being blind. I'm very sure he has been rejected for his disability many times in the past. Surely I couldn't leave him now. It would only add insult to injury. Plus, on many occasions, I will put myself in the other person's shoe to determine if I would like it if something I did would hurt the other person. In this case, would I like it if I was the blind man and the young gentleman sitting next to me left me because I was blind. Obviously, I made sure I stuck with the guy, even though he was invading my personal space. I tried to focus on my iPod as much as I can, but it was hard to not watch the people opposite me dissect the poor blind man apart. I mean seriously, is it so hard to mind your own business? And he was blind as well. Even if he can't see, he should be given some respect. It was very distressing watching these people stare at the blind guy. It got worse when he started to pull out his walkman which was plugged to this little redbox speaker. He was fiddling around with it, and this caused all the 'spectators' to watch even more intently. Argh! I will usually try to give people their privacy, even if they're doing something like this. But it was hard not to watch these people stare at this blind guy. There was this one guy, seated directly opposite me who leaned forward, and placed his arms in such a way that his elbows rested on his knees and his chin on his open palms, just so he could have a more 'comfortable' look. I should have done the same to the guy. I should have rested my elbow on my knees, placed my head on palms, and stared at the guy staring at the blind man. Anyway, after the blind man took out his walkman, he started to configure this cubical redbox which I assumed was his 'headphones'. He was rotating the box round and round, trying to figure out why it wasn't playing his CD. He eventually concluded that there was something wrong with the walkman itself. That was when he started to wonder if the battery had died. He turned to me and asked, "Is there battery a not?" Passing me his walkman, I took a look at the walkman and tried to turn it on, but was unable to. I replied to him in my 'still-morning' voice, "No. The battery has died." Handing back his walkman. A few seconds later he asked me again, "What time is it?" I couldn't hear him at first because he spoke in the other direction and I wasn't aware that he was in fact talking to me. I was actually listening to my iPod blasting into my ears because I didn't want to be distracted by this blind man, so music would have to distract me. I asked him again what he had said, but I was still unable to hear him. He mumbled some slang which I couldn't hear. It was kinda embarrassing to have to ask him the third time, considering all the eyes and ears attentive to our conversation. By the third and final time, I was able to reply him, "Eight fifteen" The whole experience of having to deal with very different people has taught me more about putting yourself in other people's shoes. Generally, I tend to do that a lot because I wouldn't like it if someone did something to me which wasn't really nice at all. So I'd try to treat people the way I want to be treated. But so far, my adventures on the train in Singapore has shown me that there are many people like this who you will meet because there are people like this. People who God created and loves unconditionally. Just imagining God loving this blind man shows that God favours no one but loves all, despite our disability and weaknesses.

Survivor: Borneo

Only one day left till a 4 day weekend for Chinese New Year (CNY)!!! Whooo!!

Unsurprisingly, this has kept me a bit more chirpy during the course of the past few days. Just the thought of not having to wake up at 7am and to rush around like a headless chicken as I try to get to work makes me wanna thank all the chinese for creating another new year to which we can all enjoy a holiday! Whooo!!

My chirpiness was enhanced with my new hair-cut, and as a result, I saw light in the simple things in life. Why, just today, when I was waiting for the bus, I saw this girl again. She's a little bit 'abnormal' in the sense that she has several things 'wrong' with her. I won't go into details, but the thing is, when I saw her, with her friend (who didn't seem abnormal), they were waving across the street to this other guy who seemed pretty 'unusual' as well. I don't think I can say abnormal because he was too far away to judge, but one thing's for sure, they were friends. Maybe it was because he tucked his shirt in so deep, and his pants so high, that they have this 'togetherness' which makes their relationship so much easier to empathize for one another.
What I want to highlight about this is that when I saw their 'excitement' to see each other, I couldn't help but smile and be happy for them. I smiled for two reasons, which I have just realised.

Firstly, CNY is coming, and there's no need to be so gloomy about the whole going to work thing anymore. This is the last day till my 4 day weekend comes up, and plus, this is also the last week where I will be working for a whole week. The next 3 weeks, I will be working for 2-3 days per week, because of many many delightful interruptions. Only 9.5hrs left till I finish the final day of my full working week!

Secondly, my hair cut was really cool.

And finally, they were friends. Having friends can be a really beautiful thing. I won't go into "Oh, please don't take your friends for granted" thing again. I think I've done enough of that. But just to see them getting all excited about seeing their friend(s) again, it was really nice. Even 'special' people like them have friends too. It was really lovely to see that.

hehe, and to top it all off, after they went to meet each other at the nearest traffic light, I saw another slightly 'abnormal' boy again. He was standing on the same spot the girl and her friend were initially standing on, trying to look at the 3 friends meet. He was trying to get a look at them through the crowded bus stop. I was just waiting for him to scramble across to the others and get all excited as the other 3 have done. Sadly, I don't think they were friends, so it didn't happen.
Just for the record (which I think my family will only be able to know), he looked like this boy from Primary school in Myanmar called Sebastian. Sebastian was a slightly abnormal kid as well, but I won't say too much about him. ^^


Today, my boss is on leave till who knows when. All I know (or over heard), is that she will be back next Friday. w00t! Even though she's away, I will try to get some work done, but there will be less pressure to look busy. Anyway, today will be a beautiful day. Someone also told me that a lot of people will be taking half-day leave as well. Which means the office will be very relaxing. I just hope they leave at, or after, lunch. Then I will have the freedom chat and wander around the internet world without getting too conscious of who may be wondering what I'm doing now that my boss is away. I may even leave a few minutes earlier to catch the earlier bus! ^^

Tomorrow is CNY eve, but I will not be relaxing during the first day of freedom. As a matter of fact, I will be taking the day head-on, as I try to conquer the world at the same time.
I'm gonna swim at 6am again, then after the swim, I'll have my breakie and wait till I meet my cousin and several others for street soccer. I think that will go on till lunchtime. As soon as we are done, my french cousin's husband, Florent, my cousin, Earl, and I will be going to Earl's place to play soccer on the XBox. After that, I may be meeting up with Amoz's old primary school girlfriend ( ;P ), Melissa. Not sure if it's happening or not. If it doesn't happen, more soccer! w00t!
That evening, I'll have to be back at my grandma's place for the CNY eve dinner. It's tradition that you are at your father's side of the family for CNY eve. It's ok I guess. I haven't been back for CNY in over a decade.

Oh yeah, I'll just slot this one in too. Yesterday at work, we were all given a chance to 'lucky draw' for a CNY hamper. Fortunately, even a temp like me gets a chance to draw something. I took a number, and it turned out that my number drew 2 cans of abalone. In case some of you don't know how valuable the 2 cans are, you can estimate that both cans are roughly worth $100. My grandma showed me the other week that they were selling a can of abalone for $85. That's an insane price! I wouldn't feel very happy if I was eating that can of abalone. Sure, I should be feeling bad for eating a shark's fin, but hey, it's yummy. And plus, I couldn't say that I didn't want to eat this because it's expensive. It's too delicious to resist. What's the difference with the abalone? I don't know.

Fun With Dick And Jane

13 days till the cruise. 10 more 'working' days. 3 weeks left. That's all I'm aiming for.

People are telling me to 'hang on in there'. There's only a few more days till it's all over. And that's exactly what I'm doing. It's just like doing a freestyle lap in the pool. You feel like quitting as you approach the remaining 10 metres, but you mustn't. To quit is to fail. Hold on to whatever energy you have left, and press on. At the end, the reward is satisfying.
I'm taking everything at work on the shoulder now. Only a few more days left. I'm not giving a care of how people treat me. If you wanna scold me, go right ahead. I don't mind. Just do it. All I know, is that in a few weeks time, I'm gone.

Everytime my boss wants to make a fool out of me, I just let it slide. It's not like I have to have this personal relationship with her. Sure, it's fun to work when everything is going smoothly. But when everything goes wrong, and things start to pile up, everyone is stressed. Just don't direct that stress on me.
That's the kind of policy I'm taking now at work. Do what you want. I simply don't care. All I'm looking forward to is the cruise and the day I finish working!

Oh dear. I don't know how I'm gonna fare when I actually do start working! If I work in a place where I really have no interest in, I have a feeling I'm gonna whine and complain the same way I'm doing now. Fortunately, I never do any of that on this blog. Sorta.


At the moment, there isn't anything really 'exciting' going on. Besides how I got a haircut today, everything is pretty much repetitive. It's all about how I go for toilet breaks at work every now and then. And if I'm not going to the toilet, I'll be going to the pantry to grab a cup of water just so I could go to the toilet. And it's all about me restraining myself from wanting to dump my cup of water all over the 'open' photocopier machine everytime I pass by it from the pantry. And sometimes, it's all about having the integrity to not wash my hands multiple times, just so I could use the hand-drier. It's not like it's my fault that I want the day to pass by. Everything is just so repetitively boring.
But since it's so very repetitive, I might as well tell whoever reads this how repetitive everything is, since I haven't done so in the past. This is what I do on a day to day basis each morning as I go to work.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
07:00 - Wake up
07:40 - Leave house
07:45 - Have breakie at hawker centre
08:00 - Hope to be at the MRT station
08:25 - Hope to be at the bus station
08:45 - Hope to be at work
09:00 - Hope to start work/Hopefully still reading internet
13:00 - Lunch
14:00 - Work
18:25 - Leave work
18:30 - Hope to be at the bus station
18:45 - Hope to be at the MRT station
19:05 - Hope to be off the train
19:10 - Hope to reach back
20:00 - Jump on the comp
22:00 - Prepare for bed
22:30 - Knocked out

Wednesday & Saturday
The only difference on Wednesday is that I go swimming in the morning. And it goes something like this.
06:00 - Wake up
06:30 - Hit the pool
07:10 - Get out of the pool
07:15 - Buy breakie (usually roti prata)
08:00 - Pray that I'm at the MRT station (extremely unlikely)
09:00 - Work
etc.

Saturday is somewhat similar. Only if I'm not working that Saturday, my schedule will be less hectic.

All this does not include me going for band practice for church, but I won't post that because it'll get way too boring. hehe


I'll retell something that happened 2 days ago. It's nothing very 'amazing'. It's just a story to fill up the blog post. Since, I have nothing else better to blog about.
The other day, I asked my friend from Australia, Andy, how to transfer songs from my iPod to my laptop. Seeing that I was travelling around with my iPod all the time, and not having a 'base' for my iPod to work with, it was really dangerous that all my songs were on this little thing travelling around in my pocket. So I managed to get the program to download my iPod songs onto my laptop. Who would have thought that my transferring the songs that day would have been a smart thing to do (seeing that I've gone without an iPod 'base' for about 2 months now, I reckon it was about time I had it in a hard-drive).
What happened was, just a few days later, my iPod battery had died out, and I had to recharge it at work. I plugged it in, and recharged it, as usual. I've done this at work 2 times already, so I wasn't expecting anything different.

Well, the obvious happened. When it finished recharging, I unplugged it (after clicking "Safely Remove USB Mass Storage Device" of course! Never pull it out without clicking it! No no no) and scrolled the iPod screen down to "Shuffle Songs". I clicked it, and nothing happened. I clicked it again, and still nothing happened.
I wondered, "Oi! Don't tell me the centre button is stuffed up! Impossible."

I scrolled back to the "Music" selection, and clicked it. It worked. I clicked it again, and went into "Artists" and it was there that I discovered that beyond that, everything was completely blank!

"Waahhh!!!!" I cried in my head, "How am I gonna survive at work for another 7.5 hours without my music!!?!" Before I knew it, it was time to go home.

The point is, I was really glad that I backed up my iPod on the computer, otherwise I will be crying myself to sleep each night, just longing to have some sorta noise as I doze off. So the moral of the story is, don't pray pray (play play) with your songs. Make sure you store it before something like this happens to you!

Just a quick note before I finish off. I was really surprised to find this article in wikipedia.org. They explain a lot about the 'Singlish' language and all the weird slangs. If you have time, just have a look, and be amused at the same time. I have no doubt that the person who provided the examples in the article has some really close connection to the Singlish world, if he is not Singlish himself. lol They are really standard examples actually. Amusing to say the least.

Titanic

Let's kick off this blog post with a bang!

I found this so amusing when I went for one of my daily toilet breaks today. I did my usual trip and when I was in the process of washing my hands, I spotted this plastic folder in one of the cubical up above swinging back and forth. Not having a clue what that folder was doing there, I observed a bit more intently. Soon, I notice this ‘mist’ emerging from the cubical. I thought someone was spraying something to deodorize the ‘strong aroma’.
“Very strange to do something like that,” I thought to myself, “Surely it’s not for that purpose.” I mean, why in the world would someone spray something and wanna have it blown away with a folder? Doesn’t make sense. Not in a cubical at least.

I prolonged my hand-washing routine just to have a longer look at the ‘mist’ rising out from the cubical. What I saw later was something I did not expect because I was in the company toilet.
I noticed a hand in the corner of the cubical wall holding a cigarette and along with it, was the folder swaying back and forth, trying to blow the smoke out of the cubical. It was so funny seeing a guy trying to smoke during office hours but can’t leave the office floor. So he resorts to smoking in the toilet cubical as he attempts to diffuse the smoke throughout the toilet. Haha I mean seriously, how often do you see people smoking in the company toilet cubical using a folder trying to blow the smoke away? Maybe it happens a lot in the working world, but it was a first and probably for some of you who are reading this.


Alrighty. Time for something different.
On the 28th February, I’m going on a cruise! I know I didn’t speak much of it in my blog because I didn’t want to talk highly of it so far away from the actual cruise itself. But now that we’re getting nearer to the departure date, I think I can start ranting a bit more on the cruise because that’s all I’m focusing on now as I try to endure the mundane life of working.
The cruise is a three day two night cruise to Malaysia. Despite heading to Malaysia, most of our trip will be spent onboard the ship so I will be roaming the ship, trying not to get into too much mischief. hehe, try.
Today at work, I decided that I would wander around the website for the cruise to have a good look at the ship’s specifics.

It’s a 13 deck ship with the most expensive room on the ship at roughly $2,500 per person. It includes an in-room Jacuzzi and a balcony. I think the fact that you either have to be ‘given’ this room as a gift from someone or that you are a stinking rich millionaire speaks enough for this room and there need not be more said about it.
We’ve gotten the cheapest room, which is just $300 per person. It’s actually a special-rate room because we booked our ticket 60 days in advance. A very standard room but it looks awesome nonetheless. Here are some pictures of the different rooms on the ship. I hope all this is legal =S If not, in a few weeks time, I don’t think this blog will exist any longer, along with the person who writes these entries.

Executive Suite with Balcony

Junior Suite with Balcony

Oceanview Stateroom with Balcony

Oceanview Stateroom with Window

Oceanview Stateroom with Porthole

Inside Stateroom

I believe this is the room that we’re gonna get; the Inside Stateroom. Despite it being the cheapest, I think it's still good because we won’t be spending most of our time in the rooms anyway. There are plenty of things to do aboard the ship so I will only be going into the rooms to sleep or to retrieve any of my stuff. In the ship, they offer a wide range of activities like The Picture House (Cinema), The Lido (showroom), Oasis (Games), Aquaswim (jet current exercise pool) (Gonna try this for sure!), The Library (books and internet) and my favourite, Mediterranean Buffet and Terrace. The word ‘buffet’ appeals to me at all times. Regardless of nationality, it usually will.
I’m gonna bring in a bit of cash to spend on myself because this will be the last time in two years that I will be able to enjoy myself so recklessly. I just hope that it won’t be too awfully expensive onboard; otherwise it won’t be all that fun anymore.


And so the countdown begins. I’ve been counting down the days till work finishes and now that the date of the cruise approaches as well, there’s even more to look forward to! People tell me that the ship will seem like it’s not moving at all because it sails pretty slowly. I guess that’s ok because I wanna spend more time exploring the ship. I just hope the countdown won’t pass by too slowly! I don’t want to explore the working world! I’d rather have it over and done with. I love being a temp.

Mulan

This was what happened during the presentation for work yesterday.

When we went for the LG presentation, I was simply accompanying my boss, but the thing is, the people at LG didn’t know that. So they all thought I’m actually ‘working’ for the company I’m in, and as a result, I benefited as much as she did!

This is what happened. They showed us around, presenting their new Home Theatre models and DVD players. That was all cool. What wasn’t cool was when their people starting asking me questions like, “So what kinda DVD player are you looking for?” Because my boss explained earlier that I was researching for a certain type of DVD Combo set for a client. (but in actual fact, I was simply taking my time, scrolling through the features, not paying attention to much detail. The only thing I remember about the Combo set is that it is a DVD Mini-Home Theatre system. Besides that, I knew nothing.) When they asked me stuff like that, I’d usually bluff my way through with either a lot of nodding accompanied with an “I understand” hum (even though it’s more an “I’m confused and I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about” ‘hum’), or, I would be looking up to my boss to cover me. Fortunately, nothing too embarrassing has occurred… yet.

Anyway, back to the story. When the presentation was over, our ‘guide’ scurried across to another part of the room and picked up a sentimental gift. Well, it was quite sentimental to me at least! He went and had brought over a complimentary DVD player for the both of us. The first thought in my head when he handed it to me was, “Is this mine!?” Like far out! You’re GIVING me a DVD player!?
As soon as I came to my senses, I remembered that in our company policy pamphlet, it said that we weren’t allowed to have the gifts given to us by our clients and must have it handed over to the company. I felt disappointed when I remembered this because in all honesty, I really wanted one. I didn’t have access to a DVD player of some sort here in Singapore, so having a DVD player would have been awesome!
As my boss and I went out, I asked her, “Are we actually allowed to keep these gifts?”
She replied, “Yeah. If you want it, you can have it.” I was so happy when I heard this. It was actually an ‘unsaid’ prayer that I had answered! Amazing! Truly God knows what we want even though we don’t ask for them! Thank you God!

My boss then told me, “Actually we’d usually get gifts like a notebook, or a pen. There was this one time when I was given a nice black coat with [name of company]’s name on it, but nothing ever this expensive before. So you are very lucky.”
It’s great to know that God pours His blessings on us, even though we don’t deserve or expect it. I think this really was the highlight of my day. In all honesty, it was a wonderful gift. I couldn’t have asked for more at the time. ^^


In other news, I have been told my enlistment date for NS. It was verbally informed over the phone so it’s not a formal indication that this is actually the exact date that I’m going in. But in any case, I am pretty sure that this is the date that I will be enlisted. My auntie called them as few days ago and found out that my enlistment date is on the 10th of April. So much for being enlisted in March, yet alone coming here to Singapore early hoping to get enlisted in January. Nevertheless, it’s all in God’s hands, and since I’m going in later than expected, I’m looking at this as positively as I can.

Firstly, I will have a bit more time as a civilian. Amoz tells me stories of how it sucks to be in the military and how your entire civilian life is basically at the mercy of the officials. This is where the cruise, the sleeping in and the spontaneous desire to eat come in. For every day when I finish working, I will cherish my freedom by doing what I see fit. This might mean me going back to my relaxing lifestyle before I started working which included me watching movies and comedy sit coms on peekvid dot com. Surely I can do that for a month or so. Easy.
Secondly, I will prepare myself for the army by training again. This probably means afternoon runs in the sun because Amoz told me that I should start training by running in the sun to get used to it for long runs in the army. I don’t think I’ve ever ran more than 4km, so doing long runs will certainly be new to me. A ‘long’ run in the army is around 7-15km, roughly. On top of which, you’ll be carrying your army backpack and rifle.
At the moment, I’m still swimming every Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 6:30am before work. I’m still doing 20 laps but I really have to push myself to do them as quickly as possible because I have to get to work! Once work is over, I think I will be able to take it a lot easier and perhaps get a few more laps in the overall 20. It’ll be nice to relax in the pool and swim underwater like a little fish again. Oh well, just a few more weeks till I can do that! XD


Chinese New Year is coming up. This means that my revenue for being unmarried will increase as the aunties all start pouring in beautiful ‘ang pow’ packets. The other beautiful thing is that I am staying with my grandma on my dad’s side, so all the aunties and uncles will come and visit her. And when they do, I will be there as they start handing out ang pow to all the unmarried nieces and nephews. I think that’s how it works. All I know is that I will be getting them. XP
It’s gotta be terrible for all the aunties and uncles though. Each year they will lose, who knows how many hundreds of dollars, just because of tradition. Some really sneaky aunties will actually leave the country just so they could escape the tradition for that period. But then, how many times can they do that in a decade?

I haven’t been back for Chinese New Year since I left Singapore at the age of 6. So after 11 years, I am back for my first Chinese New Year in over a decade. I can vaguely remember what we do in Chinese New Year. The only thing my eyes were on was the red-packets so every thing else was pretty much a blur. Terrible, I know.

Unaccompanied Minors

The Bible is undoubtedly the 'richest' text that I have ever read.

It's like taking a tiny piece of caramel block, coating it with a layer of cheese cake and then dipping it in a chocolate based fudge, covering it with truffle shavings and since we're at it, we might as well put saffron in it too. We'll deep fry it in a pan of extra virgin olive oil, after which, we'll top it with a gentle blob of double whipped cream with vanilla pods and honey. Then, for presentation, we'll place it upon a caramelised based sauce patterned with evaporated condensed milk, sprinkled with a white chocolate shavings and good spoonful of Russian Salmon Caviar, imported by mafias.

Apologies for people on diets, but that's how I see the Bible. Well, not really, but you get the point.

I was reading my Bible this morning, and this verse really jumped right out at me and I thought I should share with all my few faithful readers who on occasion try to see what mischief this strange little boy is getting up to.

Proverbs 17:14. "Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out."

I'm unsure why I should post that, but I reckon it's a really beautiful verse. As the few of you know, I don't usually quote on my blog all that much from the Bible, so for me to quote something from the Bible now, you should know that it means a lot to me. =)

If that verse helped you in some way, great. If not, just remember that I quoted that verse. Maybe one day it will come in handy! ^^

Ok! Onto something different.

I've been trying very hard to not talk about work on my blog and I reckon I'm doing good. However, I have to mention this little bit about what happened during one of the work 'excursions' that happened today. I was going to this LG model presentation as they wished to present their new models soon to launch, but that's not important.

What's important was what happened during the trip there. My boss and myself were sitting in the taxi, and we were talking about 'stuff'. Then, we happen to stumble upon how I seem to be 'used' to Singapore now.

The exacts words were, "You don't seem homesick."

I replied, "Wow, I must be doing a good job."

The truth is, I miss Australia to death. I miss the climate, I miss the relaxing atmosphere, I miss the friendliness. But out of all the things I miss, I miss all my friends back in Australia. I never knew how much I took many of you for granted till I came here. Being all by myself, it's hard to not reflect on the wonderful memories we had in the past. There wouldn't be a second when I wished I was not back there. If it was not for my National Duty, I would be resistive coming back here. I feel so much more at home back in Australia.

I say this now, I wonder if it will be the same in 2009. But that's for another day in time.

For now, I want to sincerely thank everyone who has helped me through my transition from Australia to Singapore because without your encouragement and friendliness, I don't think I would have taken this move any better than I did. As a matter of fact, I think I would still be crying in the toilet, wondering why in the world am I here. It was hard. Really. Moving away from home, away from friends, it's the hardest thing I've done by myself.

I don't want to point out any body's name because I'm pretty sure you all know who you are. ha, everyone says that. So I'll say something different. I don't want to point out any body's name because I think everyone played a part in my transition. ^^

So thank you all. Thank you everyone for being my friend in creating great memories to enjoy in this run-down world.

This is to the new friends and new experiences to come! There are always new people to meet and new friendships to enjoy! Ones that could last a life-time. Perhaps my future-wife will come knocking on my door one day. hehehehehe, come on in! =P

Rush Hour

Oh dear. I have such a small amount of time to blog this entry, I hope I can do it! Let’s go!

I was meaning to blog about Sunday night’s dinner for my grandma’s birthday but I was unable to find the time to blog about it. So I’m four days late, but better late than never I guess!

Last Sunday, we had a ‘mini-family reunion’ on my dad’s side for my grandma’s birthday. Nowadays, our family is so spread out with their own lives; we hardly see each other anymore. So in a way, these gatherings will pull everyone together again. It’s good in a way because we were able to meet up with our French-Singaporean cousin, Stephanie, and her French husband, along with their adorable 6 month old baby girl. Of course there were other older relatives whom I didn’t know existed, but they aren’t important. What’s important is how cute and adorable the little baby is. Awww, the tiny winy wittle fingers, and the chubby cheeks and the puss-and-boots eyes. You just wanna squeeze the wittle toddler into a million piec--

Wait, I’ve lost track. What in the world was I talking about? I seriously can’t remember.
Oh right, gatherings. So anyway, we, my other cousin Earl and I, were entertaining our French cousin-in-law. What made it even more special was his infatuation with soccer. As a matter of fact, he wanted to become a professional soccer player for France, but was called to serve the Lord first. So he decided that God would come first, then soccer second. haha, I think we best described him as the brother of Frank Ribery (but a little bit more 'defined' lol). Just without the scar (for soccer fans who have seen the scar), so you can imagine him.
Anyway, we talked heaps about soccer and briefly talked about his history with Stephanie and how his ministry became to be. Besides that, everything else was a blur to me. Maybe because everyone else was so quiet, and everytime we talked to him, everyone tuned in.
I hate it when that happens because I hate being the ‘entertainer’ of a casual dinner like this. Everyone tunes in and everything you say is heard by everyone times 2 ears. I had to contain my questions because I didn’t want to sound like a complete idiot; although I think, mission accomplished.

The problem was that everyone was so so very quiet at the table! The ‘main’ conversation happening was the one I was having! It was terrible! “So do you …” and I could feel everybody times 2 eyes tuning into your convo. What made it worse was how some people were looking/staring at me as I talked. ><” ahh!! I didn’t feel comfortable at all. What made me even more embarrassed was how I think everybody thinks I am an extrovert for talking so much! In all honesty, for those who don’t know, I am actually an introvert. Believe it or not, I'll happily sit quietly throughout the duration of the night because it’s who I am. However, experience has taught me that you have to open your mouth otherwise you will make the conversation a whole lot worse. I musn't allow the awkward 'moments' to happen too much, especially if you can do something about it. So that’s why I try to talk more. Oh dear, why am I sharing this? On a public blog as well!? I better stop this here. hehe

Anyway, more whacky stories to tell about Singapore!
This one happened yesterday while I was on the phone at work with a client. We were discussing about envelopes and she happened to say the word “sheet”. Except she didn’t say “sheet”, she said “shit”. Not once, but twice. Good thing the conversation was short, so after I placed the phone down, I couldn’t contain the laughter in my mind but I managed to convert the need to scream aloud in laughter into this massive grin.
Sadly, Singaporeans and most Malaysians as well, have a lot of words pronounced wrongly. 'Sheet' is one of them, another very prominent one is this.
'Three' – They will pronounce this as ‘tree’. I believe I have mentioned this before but I will say it again. Basically, they are quite incapable of enunciating the letters ‘th’ together. Most of the time, it will be pronounced as ‘t’ instead of ‘th’, thus ‘tree’ instead of ‘three’. So with words like three, thief, thought, thanks, math, booth, etc. I think you get the point.

Last whacky story because I gotta go. This one happened twice already! The first time was several days back, and another just 3 days ago.
Whenever I’m walking on the road, or train station, or anywhere public, there’s always a danger of ‘swinging arms’. At first, I thought only girls did it, but the second close encounter was from a guy!

This is what happens. Usually when people walk, they swing their arms to provide balance. That’s perfectly normal. What’s not perfectly normal, is how people swing their arms so hard that they rise up to an abnormal height. On top of which, my first experience was a girl who is considerably shorter than me, so she was swinging her arms at a very dangerous level, they were roaming around hazardous territory ‘down under’; and I’m not talking about Australia mate. Up and down, up and down, I couldn’t help but wonder if she had actually ‘smacked’ someone before, if you know what I mean. Fortunately for me, I was alert enough to divert my direction away from her dangerous swinging arms. Just in the nick of time I reckon.

I was so shocked when it happened the second time with a guy. He was swinging his arms so hard, I could say that any guy could black-out from the impact. Far out, have some courtesy! Control your free-willed arms and have them no higher than your hips please! Some people’s goods are at stake!

Rugrats

This is another interesting attraction about Singapore.

And it's how there are quite a number of mobile ice-cream 'vehicles' that roam the streets. What I mean is that old men/sometimes women, ride motorcycles or bicycles travelling along side an ice-cream fridge. It's something like an ice-cream truck, except they don't have the tune of a jack-in-the-box 'timebomb' as they go around and they don't stop at the sight of a hungry customer. They'd usually move around and deploy at a site. One day they could be here, the next day they could be at another. Sometimes they'll enjoy the location and return every now and then.

What's interesting about these mobile ice-cream vehicles is that they sell reasonably cheap ice-cream at $1 for a block of ice-cream. I'd roughly estimate the size of a block of ice-cream at 5cm x 10cm x 15cm. I'm not entirely sure whether that measurement is accurate or not, but it's around there. I didn't even use a ruler to estimate that. LoL!

Anyway, every now and then, I'll get myself a piece. I actually had my first block since coming back when Joan was here. And ever since then, I've been having 'em.

The flavours they offer are not your ordinary flavours. I mean they have chocolate and chocolate chip cookies, but they also serve other flavours like Yam, Sweet Corn, Raspberry Risp (I think that's what it's called), Durian, Coffee, Red Bean, Chocolate Mint, and several others which I don't remember cause I don't order them. Usually I'd order Yam, Sweet Corn or Red Bean.

Then, after cutting up your block, they'll either serve it in between a 'ping kan', which means, 'crackers' or you can ask for bread. Both are equally good. As a matter of fact, you can do the bread one at home.

When I was a little kid, I'd usually take several servings of the bread-icecream combo. What I'd do is take a piece of bread and scoop heaps of sweet corn or whatever ice-cream flavours we had and eat it for snack. Generally, the ice-cream would tower the bread itself and would be difficult to 'close'. XD

It really is quite nice. If you haven't tried it, you should. Normally, I wouldn't eat bread with stuff in between (with a few exceptions), but with ice-cream, I really don't mind. Suffice to say, it's delicious.

The next blog entry will be considerably long. So I think I'll end this one here. The next post should be up in a few days time.

The Amazing Race

Unbelievable.

I'm sitting here, in front of an empty blog entry, wondering what to blog about. I never thought I'd live to see the day when this would happen. Usually, there's always something for me to blog about. But now, after telling myself that complaining about work on my blog is unacceptable, I've found myself stumped as to what I could blog about.

So this blog entry is gonna take a lot of effort. This blog entry will not consist of what I do at work and also, this blog entry will not consist of what I do to get to work, ie. what I do on the bus or train.

[One Night Later...]

haha, yeah. I had to sleep on it. Sad.

But now, I have something to blog about!

We all have something to learn about ourselves every now and then. If any of my 'faithful' readers have noticed, I usually point out a lot of things which I discover about myself each time. Mostly the general ones which I can post of course.

Anyway, I've been talking to quite a few people on MSN, and they've said that I tend to shower pretty quickly. haha, yeah, I'll elaborate more a little later. What I'm trying to lead up to is, I'm gonna just randomly blog on things which I tend to do quickly and things which I tend to do slowly. On purpose or not, it doesn't matter. It's just what I do naturally.

Things I do quickly:

1) Shower - My standard showers are 4-5 minutes in a tropical climate. I think if I'm in a cooler climate, my warm showers can go for a few minutes longer. Perhaps 7-8 minutes, but not more than 10 minutes. I don't see the point of staying in there wasting water (unless it's nice and warm and it's mean and cold outside. but that hardly happens ;p ) when I'm already finished showering. Plus, there's more that I can do outside the shower than if I'm in there, standing like a featherless chicken.

My current record for the fastest shower is 1 minute. I was 12 or 13 and we were in Myanmar. The water heater there sucks, so I decided I was gonna just shower quickly with the cold water. Obviously, I was quick to complete all the standard 'showering-tasks' in under a short period of one minute. Even though it was a shower, the Myanmar water was just as dirty as when I went in, so I could have came out of the shower worse off. Still, a shower nonetheless.

2) Eat - People have told me that I eat like someone trying to catch the train. In some cases, it was true, especially here in Singapore. It's not like I do it on purpose, but I do it naturally. I'll gobble everything down without a care for the world. The only downside to eating so quickly, is that I have to control myself when I'm starving and we've just entered an-all-you-can-eat buffet. Usually, when I eat too quickly, I'll fill up very quickly, seeing that the stomach has no chance to 'organise' the food coming in. =P

I picture my stomach sorting the food that enters like a game of Tetris. If the food-blocks come in too fast, the player-stomach will die without scoring digestion-points for placing all the food-blocks in nice horizontal lines.

3) Type - It took lots of practice. I first started really typing on the computer when I was in Sec 1, or Year 8. My history teacher made us underline chunks of text from different parts of our history book, and also, they were not in chronological order. What he told us to underline was basically the answers to the history exam. But that's not cool man. He'd usually give us at least 10, if not more, different history 'essays' (from all the underlining), and told us that we only had to write 3 of 5 given essays in the exam. So I went home each time, retyping up all the answers to the questions. Normally, one question would be 3-4 pages long. So imagine someone like me, in Sec1/Year 8, trying to memorise lots of words. ><" I hated history.

Anyway, that was how I learnt to touch type. The speed typing part came later after lots of MSN. lol Being able to speed type really is a good way to blog because everything that comes to your head will quite easily be typed down in a short amount of time; before you start forgetting what you wanted to say. =P But I usually forget anyway, so it really makes no difference.

4) Sleep - Boy, am I glad I sleep fast. I know what is it like to have to toss and turn on my bed for an hour. Man does it suck. I know many people take a while to sleep, and I really have a lot of sympathy for them. But for me, I think on average, it takes me around a minute to gonk out. And I'm really grateful that I do turn off like a light so quickly.

My main 'skill', if you can call it a skill, is to refrain from thinking as I try to sleep. Thinking is the worse thing to do as you try to sleep. I think what I usually do as I try to sleep, is to find a comfortable sleeping position quickly (most often it's on my back), then concentrate on the tiredness of my back, and dwell on the thought of 'sleeping on it'. Oh baby, is it good! And of course, you can't think about the girl who winked at you on the train that day. Or, at least try not to.

Things I do slowly:

1) Read - Whether you know it or not, I read slowly. Not because I have to, but because if I don't, I won't understand what's happening. I can simply 'read' all the words, but whether it makes sense to me or not, that's a different thing. That's why I have to read things slowly, and make sure it makes sense. I'm one to understand the concept of things. I don't really like 'memorising' things. So I tend to make sure I understand everything that has been said so I could use it for my own 'translation'.

Same with reading. I enjoy reading. But it will take time. If someone pressures me to read something, it will take even longer. ><" Don't pressure me to blog already! I have to re-read! lol

2) Brushteeth - I usually take a long time to brush. I'd say around 3-4 minutes. I take a long time because I have to make sure I get all my teeth. I won't feel very happy if I didn't touch them all. I reckon I would brush again if I didn't get them all. It just doesn't settle with me.

Then comes flossing.. but we won't go into that.

I can't think of another thing that I do slowly. Maybe because I do things pretty quickly on the whole. Kat told me (hehehe, there you go kat! ^^) that, "I'm a pretty hasty guy."

I think that is pretty true. Overall, I know I do things pretty quickly. Well, I can't blame myself for being so quick at things. Even my name means 'swiftness'.

That's me! ^^

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Hmmm, my lady boss is not here again, and I’m wondering what I should do. Should I pretend to look busy with all the pending paper work, or should I just blog?
If you’re reading this, it means I have chose blogging. XD

I think I’m getting used to this working life. Even though I hate every moment of it, I get to bludge on the internet as I try to look busy at the same time. Fortunately, most of the sites that I visit consist mainly of words (eg. blogs, English Premier League) with very few pictures. Somehow, they ‘censor’ most of the banners and personal photographs here so I guess it makes me look like I’m not doing anything dodgy at work. To my advantage!
Sadly, my ‘work’ actually needs me to actually ‘do’ something on the computer or telephone. So my sitting there, reading huge chunks of words doesn’t really make it look like I’m working. hehehe I hope no one notices. Otherwise someone might report me! ah! lol


On the contrary, my work place is a really nice place. Everyone is pretty kind, and my lady boss is really nice. Her desk is directly behind mine, with her seating positioning in such a way that she can see everything I do. At first, I was a bit cautious about what I did on the net, but now, I think she’s really flexible. The other ladies in the department said that she’s really quite ‘ok’ with it. Just so long as I do my work, she won’t mind. This is the kind of boss that really makes life at work so much easier. So far, she hasn’t told me off for doing random things, so I guess I’m still in the ‘clear’. However, I will usually try to work a bit more than I do slacking off. I’ve determined that if I worked non-stop from 9:00am to 6:25pm, with the exception of the one-hour lunchtime, I will die. If I remember correctly, I didn’t even work non-stop on the first day. I believe I did wonder off for a few minutes into my own little internet world. The time for my ‘wondering’ period during work increased each day. XP
Also, I knew that people used MSN at work, but I was quite surprised that the people here were looking out for me. One lady asked me during lunch, “You were using MSN right?” I was a little bit shocked at first because I had been caught! Then she concluded with, “Don’t worry. I use it too. As a matter of fact, everyone uses it. Well, everyone except [your boss], [this other lady] and [our head of department].” We had a great laugh. Then we started mocking people who seem to be so ‘innocent’ at the workplace, can be so rebellious at the same time. haha … it’s funny. Oh wait; I’m actually one of those people. … …

Damn.


Another good thing, which I quite enjoy in this work environment, is how the ladies ask me questions about my family, and how many older single cousins, I have. Why, just a few minutes ago, they asked me if I had an older cousin who is from Australia within the age range 28-32. They had a whole list of ‘requirements’ for my cousins. Unfortunately, none of them matched up. lol I believe they were trying to match-make this lady in the department who happens to be one of the two only single girls left in the department. Funny if you ask me. In my opinion, the lady seems quite nice. I enjoy her sense of humour. =)

On a totally different topic, I have a confession to make. I’ve been in Singapore for about two months now, and after examining my life again, I realized that I am so much more independent now. The things I do now, going off on my own, handling my own finances, rejecting girls on the street as they ask me, “Can you spare me a minute of your time to fulfill my every desire (also known as a survey)?” It’s all very different to my mum rejecting them for me. Now, I’ve become independent to a stage where I don’t even realize that I am independent now. Taking the bus and train every day for an hour back and forth, I don’t realize that I’m doing this because everytime I do go on the bus or train, I’m thinking to myself, “How many more hours till I finish work?”
It was only a few days ago that I realized that I am very much alone now. There isn’t anyone around my age during the course of my day. Personally, I’m quite ok with that. I enjoy being on my own, reflecting.
But then I started to reflect upon the wonderful friendships I have back in Australia and how much I miss everyone there. I believe I had taken my friendships for granted. I miss everyone so dearly, having company would do me wonders.

So what I’m trying to say is, if you were in my situation, when I had wonderful friends around me (despite their irritations), don’t take them for granted. Seriously. I know I’ve said this in some of my previous posts, but I mean it now more than ever. Imagine your life without them.
Cherish every moment with them because who knows, maybe one day you’ll realize that you are all alone without friends, waiting for National Service, sucking a lolly-pop with Kenny G on the radio looking out the window watching the cars pass by as you look up to the heavens, wondering where you had placed your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo action figure because Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello and master Splinter are waiting to conquer Gotham City.