有失必有得，有得必有失

In order to gain something in life, you have to lose something...


This will be a major milestone in my life; something which I have never done before... Is it the right thing to do? I'll never know until I do it... Several years down the road, I'll look back at this day and think, "Should I have done it in the first place?" Well, this is something I want to do; regrets are for things that you've not done...

Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

大步走

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who has never learned to walk forward...


Woke up early in the morning at 4am on Sunday, was still feeling tired so reset the alarm to 5 am instead... Woke up and slowly prepared myself, felt my tummy ache at 5.30 when I'm about to leave... "Crap, I'm gonna be late..."

Left home at 5.45 and took LRT then changed to MRT, was only at Kranji at 6.30, our meeting time... Had to alight at Woodlands to take a cab to Bishan as we'll be late if we don't move off soon...

So what's the event so early in the morning? The New Paper Big Walk... Nope, I didn't do the walk but just welcome the participants and the guest of honour at the finish line...


And a short performance on stage...

When I first reached Marina Barrage, I immediately noticed how prominent the Singapore Flyer looked from this angle... This would surely make some picture perfect photos... Took a pretty good picture even when using a lousy camera phone... By the way, this place makes a very good dating spot as well... Oh, and some of the new face girls were pretty cute...


The Singapore Flyer from Marina Barrage...

After which I went home to shower and wanted to get some sleep... While lying on bed, Kailing finally woke up and called me... Asked her to go out but she was supposed to go out with her colleagues, so I asked someone else out instead...

Went for cakes and drinks at Deluxe by Bakerzin which were very good... The best one was definitely Chocolate Amer, just thinking about it is making my mouth water...

After which we went to Rong Guang BBQ Seafood for dinner... Had Sambal Stingray, Sambal Kang Kong, Chili Crayfish and Fried Baby Squids which were quite nice...... When we asked for the bill, the waitress came back in a while and said its already been footed... We stared at each other's blank faces for a moment and told her we haven't paid a single cent yet... She went to check and came back the second time saying that we've already signed for it... This time, we stared at each other for a longer time than previously... I could sense that everyone was wondering should we just walk off or tell her the truth... Finally, the honest one said we definitely haven't paid, and the waitress asked us not to play with her... Haizz... Why would anyone want to pay their bill twice? On the third time, the waitress brought us the bill with a credit card receipt signed for it... This time, I seriously felt like just walking away but Ben went to pay for it...

Went home straight after that and found my brother was still at home when he was supposed to go back camp that day... He said he'll be leaving at 8.30pm and my brother-in-law will be sending him... I asked my brother-in-law if he is intending to go anywhere and I'll send him instead... Haha... First time I'm so nice to volunteer such tasks...

Was still thinking about the scene from the Marina Barrage so I called up Kailing to ask if she is free... Realised she had been at home the whole time thus told her to get ready by 8.30 and we're off... Went to Pasir Lebar Camp to drop my brother first then proceeded to feed the hungry pig...


Guess where is this?

She wanted "點心" so we went around looking for parking lots and finally settled down on the one at Lorong 8... Next we proceeded to the main objective of the night...

This was where the big mistake began... I turned right into PIE when I should had turned left into ECP while leaving Geylang... This caused me a big detour as I only remembered how close Marina Bay is after I was on the PIE for quite some time... Not knowing how far I had travelled, I felt it was safer to just reach Changi then switch over to ECP... This was not the end of it though, I have never drove to Marina Bay before and that caused some extra distance as well...

Finally reached Marina Barrage at 12.10am and was so proud of myself for being able to even reach the place... Happily took my camera and small little tripod and strolled towards it only to be stopped by Cisco personnel... Well, the place closes at 12... WTF!?!

Kailing recommended Woodlands, somewhere beside the causeway where the scene is very nice as well... Oh well, definitely not as good as Marina Barrage but no harm going anyway...


Not much of a scenery...

This place is supposed to be a lot more pretty when the lights are up... Its a Sunday night/Monday morning so I was really out of luck...

And that ended the night where we travelled from the extreme West to the extreme East then South and finally the Northern ends of Singapore... Good thing fuel prices had dropped... -_-"

駁倒

Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong...


Right, the problem of my computer doesn't seem to be the cable I identified yesterday... Will require further testing to pin point the problem...

edited:deleted

恢復

Practice is about increasing your repertoire of ways to recover from your mistakes...


I think I've finally discovered the reason behind the instability of my computer - an unreliable cable... Removed that cable this morning and everything worked fine immediately... Though I can't really confirm that is the exact cause until my computer has been running fine for the next few days... The cable looked perfectly fine but I threw it away anyway...

Last weekend was not bad; didn't get to use my computer at all so was forced to spend time out of my house... Though I was out most of the time, I didn't spend much money... Perfect way to spend your weekends...

Someone suggested a very cheap and special dating activity - having cup noodles at the top of Mount Faber... I boiled the water from home and brought it to Mount Faber in a thermal flask... By the time we reach, the water wasn't boiling hot any more but still enough to cook the noodles; only problem was the lack of it... The flask wasn't big enough so we didn't have enough water for 2 full cups... We still enjoyed the noodles though, just no hot soup to warm our cold stomachs... Only when we were leaving that I remembered there are petrol kiosks at the foot of Mount Faber; we could had bought the cup noodles there and brought it up just in time for it to be consumable... But that would totally ruin the fun of doing this as it is the effort required that makes it interesting in the first place...

Well, that's the most interesting part of my weekend... Went for band practice on Sunday morning and not much activities after that... Will be going Batam with my mum and cousin this weekend... This would be a weekend that I'll have to spend a lot...

缺眠

Using your time at night is not efficient; you'll need to sleep more than you used to recover...


After sleeping for only 2 hours, I'm back at work again... Amazingly, I don't feel any different from my normal days... I do feel sleepy, but that's what I feel everyday... Haha...

Last night was a total waste of time... Met up at 11pm for ice-cream then went Changi beach to look at aeroplanes... After which, played pool at Queenstown and finally supper at Bukit Timah... By the time I reached home, it was 5am already... I usually wake up at 6am everyday to prepare myself for work but set back an extra hour today to get that precious 60 minutes of extra sleep...

Seems exciting? Nope... It was very boring... Then again, its who you waste such time with that matters...

回顧

You are enslaved only because you allow it...


I just read through my entire blog since day 1 and its pretty nostalgic... Remember my last post talking about me always talking in riddles? Well, quite a few of my past entries were like that and even I couldn't understand a few of them... Haha... Just realised how good I am at making people confused...

The way I write haven't changed and there's no indication that I've matured much since then... This sort of means that I've been pretty matured back then right?

Though things have not changed on the surface level, there is a slight change in my personality from 3 years back... I got hold of some articles and it changed the way I think and react to the world... This change made me very confident about myself; probably too confident at times... I wouldn't say its a bad thing though, it got me out of many unfavourable situations and into many favourable ones... I'm in a very different position than I was back then and it wouldn't be obvious by just reading my blog...

Looking back at those posts, I tried doing some of those quizzes again... Not surprisingly, I'm more evil than before...

Greed:	Very High
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	High
Envy:	High
Lust:	Very High
Pride:	High

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

還原

Ever stop to think and forgot to start again?


Back to work again... The long break was good, it made me want to stay at home lesser now...

The past week of work was boring, its still boring now... Its not that I have nothing to do, but there is no direction and urgency in doing it... We're given 2 days to do something that can be done in an hour... What's more, the 2 days is very elastic - our manager isn't that free of a man so we'll have to try and catch him and the 2 days may become 2 weeks or so...

Though I don't stay at home that much now, I'm looking forward to weekends more than ever before... Made new friends and met up with old ones, opening up a lot more opportunities and activities to do...

Yesterday, someone said she'll have to keep alert whenever she's talking to me because there's always a double meaning to things I say... If she didn't concentrate, she'll miss a lot of things I'm saying... Haha... She's one of the few who catches most of what I'm saying... or rather, what I'm NOT saying...

I just realised I'm always talking in riddles, creating lots of questions and answering them with more questions... Why am I doing that? Hmm... Why not?

產品

It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in doing it...


Right, I said I'm gonna finish up on my recording, so here it is...



This post is long overdue, look at the date... I only posted this on 29^th September!!!

Well, my mum and sister are back and I've just completed my 3 weeks In-Camp Training (reservist for those of you who are still living in stone age)... Today is the 2^nd day of work and things seem to be going back to normal...

I spent most of yesterday configuring my new pc which came during the first few days of my ICT... Its a very powerful workstation that no one in this company would be able utilise its full potential... For me? Well, maybe... Unless we're gonna do 3D, there'll be no use for such a powerful beast... Oh well... I'm not the one paying anyway, might as well get one that's as powerful as possible... Word probably wouldn't lag even if I go into the 1000^th page... Haha...

Its gonna be the holidays soon and I've took leave for Thursday and Friday, so it'll be a super long holiday... :)

PAR--TY!!!

當事情發生時，是否都於己無關？

And it all happened...


Ok, finally have the time to sit down and type… I’ll update according to reverse chronological order…

For the past few weeks at work, I’ve been evaluating and learning Microsoft Silverlight… What is Silverlight you’ll ask? It’s essentially a Microsoft version of Adobe Flash (formally Macromedia Flash) except with more coding work to do… The graphics department isn’t as good as Flash, but its ability to integrate with the back end makes it very useful… What’s all this I’m talking about? For those who know, good; for those who don’t, it doesn’t affect you anyway…

My mum, eldest sister and her baby went China last Saturday to visit my elder sis… They’ll be gone for a month and return in mid-August… The good part is I have total freedom, peace and tranquility with no baby to bother me… It’s a very good environment for me to do my recordings, which I should be finishing up on one song soon… The bad part is no clean environment, no good food, and no clean, fresh clothes!!! Haizz… Think I’ll start missing them when I’ve finished my recordings… (Managed to practice my piano again after so many months!!! Wasn’t possible previously because of everyone making so much ruckus around the dining area especially the baby…)

My brother was enlisted 3 weeks back… There’s not even a parent visiting day and he booked out last week, just 2 weeks confinement… Well, now that he won’t be around for very long, I have the whole bed to myself…Though things are getting boring cause I don’t have anyone else to order around…

Moving further back the time line, I’ve been jamming with my colleagues in a jamming studio at Macpherson… It’s really fun and it’s something I really like doing; unlike my percussion band that’s so annoying… I was the drummer when we first started, but things were bad… really, really bad… A good description would be to get 3 stereos playing the same song but starting at a different time, play at a different speed, and a different key here and there…



I’m the drummer, no one follows my timing and I have to follow them!?! How crappy is that?!? I had no choice but to take the reigns and control the situation in a more direct method – I became the lead vocalist…



Things were better, at least the song structure is there, but it’s still not good enough… The music was still very weak for it tends to go off course and there was no climax to the song… One of our colleagues brought her boyfriend to join us and he is very good with the drums kit, this meant that I can be taken permanently off the drums… With that, I took over the role of the lead guitarist as well to push the entire rhythm, eliminating another random element… 3 good elements and we started to sound better…



That sorts of summarises what I have been doing since the last post… There are other random stuff like ghost hunting, ktv, etc., but nothing special happened…

Oh? Only these and it kept be busy for so long? Of course not, there’s still this girl, the most time-consuming of all…

心鬼

The ghost within...


As the outing was planned last minute on 17^th April, only 3 guys turned up - Jack, Brandon and me... Met up at 11.45pm, 19^th April and set off for our first destination: MacRitchie Reservoir Water Tomb...

Quoted from SPI Website:

Tomb Mystery and Shui Gui
(Source: an informant who is said to be related to the family descendents of the deceased of the tomb)

Many years ago, there wasn't any reservoir at where it is now called McRitchie reservoir. It was a very scenic hill. And who can guess the eerie tomb where most people shun away nowadays was once a romantic alcove? It was a protruding lookout point in the middle of a hiking track along the slope of a hill. From there the view was spectacular as it over looked a lush hilly landscape like a flowery meadow over the valley. Birds and wild monkeys over the hills sang in orchestra and the nature sounds filled the air.

The above mentioned romantic alcove was a meeting place for Fann and Lok (both are not real names). The alcove witnessed the most drastic emotions of mankind, put up by this couple, through life and death, joy, romance, betrayal, grief and tragedy.

The story happened near the end of 18th century. Fann was a sole daughter of a rich and famous family who run an import trading business with the British. Fann grew up in Britain and always loved nature. Her grew-up environment shaped her to be a bold and open-minded person. That was somewhat opposite to her father that was very traditional and rigorous - a typical Chinese business man who calculates gain and loss more than anything else. Since Fann was young, her family had arranged a marriage for her, that was common in the old days, with a son of a tycoon called Tai. Obviously building a marriage with a tycoon's son would benefit lifting Fann's family business to a new height.

However, Fann never wanted to submit to her fate. Being a girl of 20 years ago, she was autonomous enough to manage her own life. She left home from time to time and she would like to hang out at the scenic walks in McRitchie reservoir (that wasn't a reservoir in those days). That was a perfect place for some quiet moments, away from troubles. It became Fann's favourite sanctuary whenever she felt depressed.

Fann met her Mr. right at the reservoir one day. That was Lok. We didn't know much about Lok, not even our informant. We were told that Lok was a charismatic communist, a leader of some political group before the war who regularly organized gatherings near McRitchie reservoir area. It is their destiny that they bumped, they clicked and fell in love though they came from quite a different background.

Their dating at McRitchie reservoir lasted for some period of time. This couple always met there, fell in love and they vow to get married there with the witness of heaven and earth (the sky and the valley in McRitchie reservoir). They courted each other more and more often, until one day Fann's family got wind about this. As expected, Fann's father was very angry about this affair because her daughter was disobeying him, let alone the fact that Lok was a communist clan leader that was a natural enemy to a Pro-British business man. Fann's father and Tai's father plotted to do something patching up the situation. The arranged marriage had to proceed in only few months time anyway. They wouldn't allow Lok to interrupt about it.

On one fateful evening, as usual, Fann was expecting to meet Lok at their favorite spot in McRitchie reservoir. Instead of Lok, his fellow came and delivered her a letter. Nobody knows what was the content of the letter and who had actually written it. However, on the next morning, Fann's body was found dead at the bottom of the valley, just right under the lookout point where Fann always hanged out. Again, nobody knows whether she jumped down, pushed down or fell down by accident.

After Fann's death, the wedding arranged between the two families of course had to be cancelled. Hence, Fann's family business, without the help of tycoon Tai, plunged down very soon and eventually got bankrupt.

But still, the tycoon's son, Tai loves Fann very much. That was what the public could have seen about. He spent a lot of money and took Fann to be buried at the lookout point with a splendid tomb. The grand tomb had a very superb facing, overseeing the hills across the valley. Many years later, however, McRitchie reservoir was developed into a water catchments area, and the valley turned into a water reservoir as it is of today. Water filled up the valley, to the level of the tomb, flooding even the lower part of it. This is how the name water tomb came about.

How our informant knows so much about? She claimed that she was a relative to Tai but refused to elaborate more. The concealment led us to speculate that there was something dirty that the Tai family had done but we just cannot verify without any evidence.

Under much persistence, our informant finally admitted that Tai's family had done something to intervene into Fann's relationship with Lok, but not with any intent to have her killed. The informant told us another secret too, relating to the choice of location where Fann was buried.

Most people would think that Tai so loved Fann (although it was one way) that he had been so nice to build her a posh tomb. The truth was otherwise.

We were told that Lok was actually murdered in the same year after Fann died, and Fann's body was found to be pregnant by the doctors in hospital. People know that Lok was killed too in a riot but it was actually a plot arranged in purpose. Here is the most intriguing thing. Lok's body was buried in Bukit Brown cemetery (aka Kopi Hill cemetery). That was the idea by his dialect clan leader who in turn was controlled by Tai's family. And Fann's body was offered to be buried at the lookout point that happened to be on the opposite site of the hill.

In other words, Fann and Lok were buried between and separate by a hill, back-to-back. So they never face each other. All these were arranged by Tai! You can see how jealousy turned into hatred, and into revenge.

Since then, Fann's grave was nicked as water tomb. Even more frightening, people believe that is very haunted. Sightings of a female apparition emerging from water are common at night. Some call it Shui Gui (water ghost).

Our informant continued telling. Nowadays the decedents of Tai's family realized what their grandfather had done is tremendously wrong. They feel guilty about it, especially after they heard that the Shui Gui which is believed to be Fann's spirit was haunting the reservoir. They used to invite monks to perform rituals trying to appease the soul but that doesn't help. Till now, Tai's family has been funding a contractor to come and sweep the tomb regularly. Every year they will bring offerings by themselves to the tomb during festivals like Ching Ming and July Hungry Ghost Month.

This is a fair world, when planting a good deed, you will receive a good reward. Likewise a crime will invite mishap. God knows what they have done. Tai's family seems to be cursed. The grandfather and the father were both drown to death, though not in McRitchie reservoir. It wasn't long ago. The father at his late age had developed some mental problem. He was kept at home all the time. But for some unknown reason, one day he sneaked away alone, and found drown in a sewage drain mysteriously. It was classified as an unnatural death by the police, and was reported on news last year.

One last thing that the informant told us. If we want to know whether Fann's spirit is around, throw a coconut into the water. If it floats, that means no spirit. If it sinks, that shows Fann's spirit is around!

That is all our informant shared with us. She looked quite sad at the end of the interview. She kept murmuring to herself "Wrath, such is wrath, how I wish Fann's spirit will be in peace".

It was 20 past 12 when we reached the last carpark that was closest to the water tomb that we’re searching... Though the lighting was very bright, there were only two cars present, making this quite a good make out spot... I stuck close to the last car as I was trying to make a parallel parking and commented on how good this place is for making out... Then up comes a girl’s head from the adjacent car’s back seat!!! “Oops!” I gasped, more “Oops” coming from my passengers... I couldn’t help but noticed how pretty the girl is as she kept staring at us the entire time... Well, doing that certainly doesn’t help us get away from you!! As much as I want to get away quickly, I flustered and couldn’t do the parking properly... Had to move in and out several times to get away... Her head only disappeared when I’ve parked properly and switched off my headlights...

Now where’s the guy’s head?!? Hmm... (6cough9?)

After this heart thumping ordeal, we went on foot for our real objective of the night... The path is unlit, uneven, and wet... Clever me told everyone not to bring torches just so that it’ll be more exciting... I was fine, but Jack and Brandon had night blindness... The moonlight helps, but only when the tree cover allows it to... Brandon took out his lighter which has an LED light behind it... It’s pathetic, but it’s the best thing we had...

The path wasn’t eerie, it was quite wide and the only thing disturbing us were the webs that tried its best to hold us back... The thought of making it all the way in then having to find our way back when the light dies isn’t exactly a walk in the park (pun intended)... 20 minutes of trekking took its toll on our little torch... As its light starts to dim, fear starts to arise... It would be scarier finding our way out of this endless path in the dark than seeing some ghost, worse still if both happens together... We had no choice but turn around and made a quick march for the exit...

While on our way out, we checked the map (which we couldn’t when we’re going in because some couple was having a good time in front of it) and realized that we missed the trail that will bring us to the tomb even though we passed it twice while going in and coming out!!!

Oh well, we’ll have to do it again when we’re more prepared...


Next stop was Old Changi Hospital... It was 1am and there were groups of people waiting outside the entrance... “For what?” I thought, “too afraid to go in?”

Yes... I’m too afraid to go in as well...

There were 2 police patrol cars and a minibus parked at the hospital’s carpark, ghost hunting session for them as well? Several blaring motorcyclists thinking that they are so much braver than us cowards stopped right in front of the entrance of the hospital and quietly made a U-turn... We were waiting to see some entertainment in case someone did not see the police and go straight in... To our disappointment, none were as stupid as we thought...

The 10 odd policemen left the premise at around 2am, quite a big group for ghost hunting eh?

After several minutes of pep talk, I managed to coax Jack into going in himself... Haha... What a simple-minded person... I didn’t expect him to stay there for long and true enough, he came back out after 5 minutes...

He said it was too dark and he couldn’t see anything... He then asked for the torch and wanted to go in again... The place is quite dilapidated and letting him explore the entire building alone was too dangerous (previously he had no light so I knew he couldn’t go far), thus I decided to go in together...

I’ve walked through those corridors for so many times it doesn’t scare me anymore... I believe fear is contagious, and my confidence seems to make them braver as well... Somehow I must learn to instill fear in them...

消失

The more you want me to disappear, the more I stick out...


If only I had completed what I had left undone, I will be a very happy guy right now... Every aspect of my life is perfect (as in perfectly fine, but I can always use a million dollars or two...), except for that thing that haunts me...

Well, 5 more days... Its do or die... Either way, it'll end within this 5 days... Results doesn't matter to me anymore, I just want to end it...

我的錢?!?

Show me the money...


Today is the first time in my life that I see the reply on the ATM: "Withdrawal amount exceeds balance"... WTF!?!

Citibank's electronic transfer really takes their own sweet time... There was once it took a week to transfer the money!! I couldn't get it from POSB, neither Citibank... Sianzz... Can't even use the money that I have...

It has been very long since my last post – 3 months... My computer was down for the previous 2 months, so I couldn't really blog.. Well, it's not really a good excuse as I'm typing this on Word in my office... Haha...

A lot has happened ever since my last post 3 months back; things that are interesting to me only so not juicy enough to broadcast here... Then again, anything that's worth hiding is juicy stuff... Heh heh...

Erm... I think I need to get back to work...

錯誤

Mistakes...


I didn’t realize I have the same title for 2 entries until someone commented on both of them... I knew the title sounded some what familiar, but didn’t try to verify it...

Oh well, this week is quite a sad week actually... I’ve been taken off the internet in my office; no more surfing and MSN...


Well, have to start on some serious work now...

復活

Resurrected...


I wanted a holiday and I got a good long one... Had repeated this story to the doctors many times so let me just repeat this one last time...

On the very first hours of 21^st of November, I was suddenly down with fever... Went to the doctor at around 9am and he gave me 2 days MC... “Wah, shiok...” I thought... These 2 days was anything but “shiok”... The only thing I could do was sleep; I couldn’t even get off the bed for long... I’ve only eaten a few spoonfuls of plain porridge and that was just so that I could take my medicine...

Felt comparatively “very much” better on Friday and decided to go to work... I didn’t wear my vest because I expected myself to feel very cold, so I wore my sweater instead... Good thing I did that, as I was freezing in the office... Couldn’t take it anymore and decided to take half day leave... My Project Manager cancelled my leave and made me go to the doctor...

Went to the doctor and he suspected that it might be dengue, so he drew my blood and sent me home... Not without MC until Tuesday that is... “Wah, shiok...” I thought again... Got a call from the clinic in the evening and the only instruction was to pick up my report and go to A&E immediately... Sianzz...

My mind went blank after receiving that call and couldn’t think of anything while waiting for my brother to drive me to the clinic... I asked the receptionist what was the problem and she said, “Your report is bad, so you need to go to the hospital.” Felt very demoralized and confused while on the way to the hospital... Having reached the hospital, the doctor told me I had made a wasted trip; there was neither need for me to take another blood test nor the need to be hospitalized as I was dengue negative and my platelet count, 86, was above the danger level of 80... I was both angry and relieved, cursing the clinic while on my way home...

Went to the polyclinic to take another blood test on Saturday and found that my condition has improved... My GP had requested that I call him after I got my results and he said that I am on my recovery phase, all I need to do now is to rest and go for another blood test on Tuesday for a confirmation... The next 2 days was spent sleeping again, but I managed to get out of my bed for slightly longer than before...

On Tuesday, 27^th November, the last day of my MC, I went back to the doctor for what I thought was my final checkup (that’s what the doctor expected as well)... The doctor just drew my blood and sent me home; my fever was gone but the sore throat was very bad...

In the evening, I got a call from the clinic again, this time I was told to get the report from the branch at my condominium... I went down and the receptionist passed me the report as well as the phone... Over the phone, the doctor told me my platelet count was dangerously low and would definitely need to be hospitalized... “Again...” I thought, but this time I knew it was really serious... A normal person’s platelet count is around 150-400, while mine was 65, way below normal and the danger level...

Went to the A&E again prepared to be admitted... Spent 2 nights in the hospital doing nothing... The doctors only came to ask questions and draw my blood... My blood was drawn everyday and was tested dengue positive... On Thursday, 29^th November, my platelet count was 111 and I was discharged... I was given 10 days hospitalization leave, all the way to Friday, 7^th December... “Wah, shiok...” as again, but this time it was really great...

Since I had fully recovered, the 10 days were really enjoyable... I was already going out on Saturday, 2 days after being discharged... Went out again on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday... Haha... Feels great to be strolling around on the streets during office hours... Went for another blood test on Friday for another “confirmation”... The previous bad experience made me a bit worried even though it is quite impossible that my platelet count is still low... Got a call from the clinic on Saturday morning and was told my platelet count was 400+...

It will be very difficult to get such holidays again; kinds of make the first week of suffering worth it... Someone always get upset when I say this, “You could had died you know?” That’s what they’ll always say...

So all this explains why I haven’t updated this blog for so long, other than the fact that I’m lazy... Until next time then...

復原

When life reverts to normal, is it really normal?


Life may be boring in the office, but it definitely beats living in the outdoors... Air-conditioning, no mosquitoes, comfortable chair, internet, etc... How can the wild beat these?

I had hoped that the wild would reset my artistic abilities, but the camp as a whole had only made me more vulgar... Now I’ll have to make some effort to reset my language...

Well, there are some good stuff about the In-Camp Training though, (no, its not losing weight... I’ve gained weight in fact... -_-") and that is saving money... Not only is the food free, I even have someone to ferry me to and from camp everyday... I’ve basically spent very little money these 2 weeks, and that helped me saved a considerable amount of money...

Went shopping yesterday and spent $55 for a black vest; didn’t really feel the pinch cause of all the money saved... The only thing I’m unhappy about is that there aren’t any better designs... The one that I found and like wasn’t quite fitting, thus I decided to settle on the one that fits nicely... Why would I buy something that I like second best then? Because if I don’t buy it now, I probably can’t even find something I vaguely like in the future... Do you know how difficult it is to find guys’ stuff? Much less vests which aren’t very popular in Singapore... The vests available are more like the waiter kind of style, but I don’t feel like serving anyone...

The skin for my phone is finally ready!!! It sure took long enough... Will be getting it done this weekend and I seriously hope I don’t get to witness those horror stories you read about in the internet first-hand...

Right... Will try to show off the phone and the vest in the next post...

熊の物語

Bear with me for this story...


One day a bear was chasing a rabbit through the forest when they tripped over a genie's lamp. The genie comes out and says, "Hold it, hold it, hold it. If you two would just quit chasing each other for three minutes I'll give you both three wishes." So they say okay that sounds fair.

The genie says, "Okay who'll go first?" The bear pushes the rabbit out of the way and says, "I'll go first", so the genie says okay.

The bear goes, "I wish all the bears in the forest except for me were girls." The genie snaps his fingers and says, "Done."

The rabbit says "I wish I had a crash helmet." The bear goes, "Well that's a dumb wish." But the rabbit says, "That's my wish." The genie snaps his fingers and says, "Done."

The bear says, "I wish every bear in the world except me were girls." The genie goes, "That's a big wish, it'll count as two wishes." The bear goes, "O-okay, I'll do it."

The rabbit has two wishes left so the rabbit says, "I wish for a motor scooter." Then he gets on the scooter puts on his crash helmet and as he's driving away he yells, "I wish the bear was gay!"


Everyone I've asked likes the bear more (not the gay one of course), so why didn't it win?!? Those judges were probably too old to understand the beauty of cute stuff... That bear is the first and only thing I've drawn with my tablet alone... I would usually draw everything on paper and scan it in, but this piece uses no paper at all (except the one that it was printed on)... And I was so proud of myself for my environmental-friendly design...

OK, fine... If I really pick on it, I'll say the background sucks... What's with the disgusting combination of colors? Blue and brown? Well, they are complimentary colors, but couldn't it be in a nicer shade? With the bear being brown, the background shouldn't have any hints of brown at all... Haha... Getting a bit high from flaming myself here...

Great, so what's been happening lately? Went KTV on Sunday and it was great!! Didn't go for band practice in the morning and just stayed at home to laze around and do some vocal warm ups... Was in very good condition that day; finally got to sing 《背叛》 in the KTV... Though I went flat a couple of times, the good part is I sang at original key!! Not that I wanted to though, I just forgot to minus key and only realised it a few songs later...

Next week would be my In-Camp Training; its supposed to be a holiday from my mundane work life... It is, except the part where I’m supposed to go Tekong... Sianzz... Oh well, guess it’s good to be close to nature every once in a while... Gives time to think about stuff and change perspectives on certain things... It also helps reset my brain's and eyes’ artistic ability... Let’s hope there isn’t any more of those designing disasters after this...

復活

Alive and Kicking...


Its been a month since the last entry... Well, sorry to disappoint but I'm still alive... Things have gotten monotonous lately, there hasn’t been much changes from yesterday to today; from last week to this... There are 2 things worth mentioning though...

First up is the "Workplace Safety and Health Poster Design Competition" held by my company... I submitted 4 entries and only won the 3^rd price... All entries were submitted under different names thinking that they wouldn’t allow the same person to win multiple times... Of course, my best work was submitted under my name... However, I had not expected that my best work didn’t win a shit!?! Guess which the winning piece is then...


Two Tigers


Teddy Stitches

Next would be my bags, they have finally arrived, photographed, priced and posted on eBay. Weida came to my house in the early afternoon of a Saturday and we started taking photographs of the bags... It wasn’t until 9 in the evening that we finally finished taking the pictures... From a time when the sun is damn bright to a time where there isn’t enough ambient light, you’ll notice the differences in the photos... Took another 2 weeks to edit the photos, take the bags’ measurements and finally posting them... Never expected it to be that time consuming and tiring... So here is the link again, thanks for the support...

好想說聲謝謝你(這夜心情(國語版))

I just want to say, Thank you...


作詞：小美 作曲：陳國華

有緣和你相遇 有緣和你認識
快樂地不知道時間飛逝
你像我的知己 了解我的心事
從一開始就是我守護天使
# 我好想說聲謝謝你 用我身體的言語
愛在掌聲中交纏 感覺好甜蜜
* 沉醉在動人絃樂裏 和你心靈相繫 如此窩心的支持
能叫我有力量去繼續

人生難得知己 人生難得相遇
我開心地差一點胡言亂語
你像個魔術師 觸動我的心露
我真的好感激你 無法言語
# 我好想說聲謝謝你 用我身體的言語
愛在掌聲中交纏 感覺好甜蜜
* 沉醉在動人絃樂裏 和你心靈相繫 如此窩心的支持
能叫我有力量去繼續

我的心莫名的透露 回味掌聲的旋律
整夜在空中飛揚 像一雙金曲
人世總有聚散悲喜 這才教人珍惜
縱然今天要分離 我的歌 你的心 在一起

終於

Yes, I'm still alive...


Lots of stuff to update since my last entry... Will not go into details, just the pictures with some little comments in chronological order...


High Element Challenges


Exciting from the bottom; much more from the top...


Can that thing support his weight?


Climbing to the top...


Making a jump for it...


Mind Café


Relaxing after a tough day...


All these loot from a day's hard work...


Best dinner...


Can you guess what expression this is?


Day 2 - Amazing Race


We're gonna win this... Let's do it!!!


Oh my... Where is this place?


Sorting out red beans and green beans...


Solving puzzles...


Still at it?!?


The end point - finally can rest...


2^nd...


My team...


3^rd...


Well... I helped them win... ;)


New Guitar


My new guitar in my favourite color - WHITE!!!


Marriot Hotel Performance


Adjusting my costume...


Looking good yar?


The band...


Girls...


Ladies... Mmmm...

一起走過的日子

Its not the time spent together that brings us closer; its the distance covered together...


Last Friday and Saturday was my department's Team Building... It was the most fun organised event that I've ever went to... Well, probably cause the budget is so much higher than those previous events... After some introduction, ice breakers, stress management lectures and lunch, we finally went on to the highlight of the day, the high element challenges...

Due to the rain, we couldn't start as early as we wanted to; so more boring games were played... Then finally we couldn't stand to wait anymore and went on in spite of the rain... My team's first station was some simple obstacles, walking across logs, etc., racing against other teams for the shortest time possible... This kinds of warms us up for the following challenges...

Our leader was out from this point on as he was busy making calls, and I'm not gonna let that spoil my fun... We discussed amongst ourselves and decided on our next challenge... This next challenge were two ropes suspended one and a half storeys high in the air - one rope is for you to traverse on, and the other is for you to hold on to... Seems easy, from the ground at least... Before this, I've always thought that I was afraid of heights; seeing the challenge in front of me, I didn't want to chicken out in front of the people that I'm gonna work with for a long time... Of course, that doesn't mean I have to be the first to conquer it as well... I stepped back and allowed others to take on it first... The first person who succeed showed quite an amount of fear when up there... Then I coaxed the fittest looking guy in our team to go next, saying that he would be the fastest in our team to conquer it... This way, I would be ok for me to perform worse than him... Heh heh... Well, I guess that guy is really afraid of heights, he really hesitated a lot when he was on the ropes... Rather than saying he was the fastest, he might well be the slowest in our team... Seeing his performance gave me confidence, shouldn't be too difficult to do better than him... Climbing the pole, traversing the rope, and descending took around 1 minute; not enough time for me to even think about the fear... But my legs were trembling when I got down though...

The next challenge is the most difficult of all - 1 solitary pole, 4 storeys high, with a bar at the top that requires you to jump a short distance to grab on to... The task? Climb the pole and grab the bar... The simplest but the most challenging task...


The Leap of Confidence

With only 20cm diameter at the top of a solitary pole without any support, there's already not enough space to stand on and the shaking pole doesn't help either... The scoring for this challenge is 10 points for an attempt to jump, and another 10 points for grabbing the bar... As only the first 2 person's attempt would be taken into account, I didn't want to be responsible for dragging the team down... Then again, I was afraid the others can't really complete the task after seeing their performance in the previous challenge... Oh well, its team building after all, gotta trust them right? The first person took a very long time to ascend the pole and even longer to stand on it... He did managed to grab the bar though; the second person succeeded as well and managed to do one chin up... Then, the empires told us that we do not have enough time for another person to go up!!! What the hell?!? I'll cry if I didn't managed to do this one!!! All the others I don't care, this is the ultimate test of my own fear... After pleading and promising that I'll be fast, he finally agreed to let me go... I managed to climb up effortlessly in less than 30 seconds, doing it fast was all I could think of... until I reached the top... Seeing the small little space I'm supposed to stand on, I can't seem to think of a way to do it... My brain wasn't really working and all I could do was to keep trying different ways... First my right leg, then right knee, then left knee, then both, then ... ... Finally, I decided to do the most unstable way of all, to try with my left foot which was lower than my right... Doing so would raise my center of gravity the most, thus making it the most difficult to balance way... I managed to stand up and make the jump; being the one that forced the previous person to do the chin up, I had to do one myself (I could had done more, but let's not be TOO cocky yar?)...

After these challenges, I realised that my fear of heights was not the height itself, its the insecurity that I fear... I knew I wouldn't die even if I fall, and that gave me the courage necessary to conquer all those challenges... At least that's my mental state; up there where everything else was shaking, I couldn't really tell how much my legs were trembling until I touched ground...

After this was to check in to our wonderful hotel... It is a very nice hotel, very clean, comfortable and all... Except my name wasn't on the list... -_-" Had to wait until everyone else got their rooms then they managed to find one for me...

After shower was dinner and more games at The Mind Cafe... The game was so-so, but the food was great!!! At the end of it, our scores were tallied which would determine the starting line up for the Amazing Race the next day... There were 9 teams and our team was in the 5^th place with 4100 points... The first team had 7000+ points which was seemingly impossible to catch up to...

After dinner and games, we were free for the night... Since we couldn't think of anything fun to do, we decided to stay in our rooms and share ghost stories... My ghost stories would have been scary if not for someone who kept interrupting; it turned out more hilarious than scary... But the highlight of the night wasn't my ghost stories at all, it was my colleague's performance of "The Zz monster is coming"...

Will upload the videos and pictures as soon as I get them... Day 2 shall be continued on another post...