28 crept in

First time having to work on this day ever since I have started working.
Seems like the day sneaked past so quickly without me realising its gone again, only to say hi again after 364.
Maybe it is true that this day gets more insignificant as the number gets bigger.

Still remember clearly on this same day 10 years ago, I would cycle to same breakwater at ECP and spend some time there day dreaming, and told myself to repeat that every year.
Well, at least I did, for I think about 7 years? Before working life kicked in that is.

Some times I look forward to the future.
Some times, its scares the shit outta me when I think of it.

Haiz, getting really old and senile...

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Watched this show today with Dear at the 3D Cathay cinema. No longer a mountain tortoise!

Cathay issues a pretty nifty 3D specs to the audience, not your usual cheapo blue/red paper film specs.

Pretty average show, catch it if you have time n cash to spare. And, take the usual version instead of 3D.

Please don't take me for granted...

Quite pissed off today.

Be too nice and people will take you for granted.

I'm guilty of the same thing too.

How many of us realize that we at times, really take things for granted, especially things that your loved ones do for you day in day out, until it becomes "invisible"?

No updates...

So many changes have taken place over the last few months.

Watched "UP" (another great show from Pixar, I absolutely love it)

Poh Choon finally got married on 8 August

I changed jobs, again.

Issac hit 1 year old.

I went for my first biz trip in new colors to KL, and then Bangkok

Visited a real kampong for the first time

What's next?

Hari Raya Puasa (analogy)

Analogy (this has got nothing to do with religion, just quoting an example in our daily lives)

Ramadan (fasting) on the month before Puasa is an important task muslims hold high reverence to.
Though non-muslims may be fully aware that Puasa and ramadan are important to muslims, they might not regard it as highly as muslims do.
After all, they are the ones looking in from outside, but not feeling it from inside.

If one day, a muslim is faced with a once-in-a-lifetime event, and has to give up ramadan or puasa for once to participate in this event.
Non-muslims frens may tell him to drop the ramadan and puasa, since it occurs every year.
Muslims might not see it in the same light.
What should he do?

Flying off soon... current mood

Will be leaving for my self reflection trip in less than 12 hours.

This post may sound angry, incongruent and full of angst, but this is exactly how i feel now.

Many do not understand the purpose of this trip.

Don't tell me you do, cos even I myself don't know the full purpose too.

I have heard many "Oh, you so good life/rich, go holiday 1 month, I hope can do so too". 

Hello! I'm getting retrenched and you most probably still have a job, and most probably is earning more than what i used to draw! You can always talk to your boss if you want this kind of 'good life' !!

I won't say this in people's face but that is seriously how i think.

Pardon me but I do get pissed off by superficial comments, which I have been getting more than needed lately.

I have always maintained the single most powerful driving motto in my life:

"If I want it bad enough, I'll make sure I get it. No excuses"

I have picked up a lot over the past 2.5yrs.

Of which, the most important lesson is:

Don't tell a man what YOU think he needs, without first understanding what HE really want.

As simple as this rule may sound, most people don't understand what this means.

Probably the sales people see it in certain scenarios, but I'm looking through the same visor at everyday life, and I find almost every single person (including myself) making the same mistake every single day.

I do not need people to tell me what I should WANT to do in my life.

But I appreciate people telling me how I to do certain things to achieve what I want.

There is a distinction between the two.

I have been drifting along for the last 3 yrs.

It is time to wake up and find my direction, and paddle hard in my direction.

I don't want someone to tell me where he think I should go.

I don't want to do this again another 3 yrs down the road.

I ain't got many more 3 yrs to play around with.

I couldn't have found a better opportunity to go out and do some self reflection.

I need to find peace with myself in this trip, and to find out what I WANT to do.

If I'm gonna make any more mistakes or regrets, I make sure it will be my own decision this time, and not say "Wah Lau, I should not have listened to so-and-so advice".

Thanks to everyone who is reading this blog.

I appreciate all the concern and help that may come along, but do not give me any advice or offer any help now. I need neither at this point of time.

I'm not sour over anything, nor am I bitter.

I just want to let my emotions flow, and find my innermost self.

What I need now is just quiet.

Don't worry about me.

I'm not one who is too proud to ask for help when needed, and I definitely will raise my hand if i need any assistance or aid from anyone

Monsters vs Aliens + Terminator Salvation

Caught Terminator over the last weekend, and Monsters vs Aliens today.
Nice shows!

Taiwan Holiday

Confirmed my holiday to start from 2 June till 29 June...
Planning the details now

狂风暴雨之后的尘埃落定

After so much whirlwind over the past 1 month, finally the dust has settled and the path is starting to clear up.

I'll need some peace and quiet to clear my mind before picking up the pieces and moving on.

Handsome Suit!

Very funny and nice show!

Lifts up your mood immediately!

Let's Be Handsome!

hahahaha

Shinjuku Incident

Movie

Caught this show on Saturday with dear.

Was quite taken aback by the story and presentation of this show, which is soooooooo un-Jackie Chan style.

Though the show is not too bad, seeing a different side of Jackie Chan rather than the usual side-splitting bumbling joker, it has pretty dark under-tones and is more of a documentary on Japanese Yakuza than anything else.

More realistic stuff with minimal Jackie Chan stunts.

Overall worth watching.



Holiday
Just went for a 4D3N cruise trip with dear and her mum, with the ship docking at Penang and Phuket for a few hours apiece.

Conclusion of the trip: NEVER EVER travel with a bunch of Aunties (no I'm not referring to her mum). Horrible experience for the land trip...

The stay on the ship is still quite ok. Been there done that so nothing new for me.
At least dear got to experience it for once to know why I say that there is nothing to do on the ship other than gamble (which I abhor) or sleep apart from eating.


Work
Morale hasn't been high in office ever since the financial crisis started, with most of us out of the office most of the time.

The impending deathnote doesn't help, but it seems like everyone is just silently waiting for the
annoucement.

Perhaps we will have a clearer picture 1 week later...

Short break coming up

Been hearing some news of late from various sources .
With different sources pointing in the same direction with the same timeline, it seems like something is imminent.
Let's see what happens then.


In the meantime, I'll going for a short holiday with Dear to Penang + Phuket this coming weekend.
Good time to rest now after the last 3 crazy months, and my major projects coming to a conclusion soon.

Holiday Planning?

Let's plan a beach holiday to Philippines this summer.
Any takers?

Farm Day

I have finally made good my word and had a weekend well spent!

Brought along Dear, Derek & hx along for self drive half day farm visit!

Started the day with Breakfast at Jalan Kayu (somehow the prata sucks big time on sunday morning...), and then drove off to the first farm by following my GPS, driving through Neo Tiew Road, catching lots of countryside views along the way that we don't see in our everyday life.

Passed by the Kranji Dam along the way, but I think the Seletar Dam looks better even though I see it day in day out.

0930 - Reached our first stop of the day, Hay Dairies.

Though I visited this farm on many occasions, this is the first time that I managed to catch the milking session live.

Guess this is the first time that derek and hx is visiting this farm. Bought the fresh goat milk from the counter and wooo, hx was amazed by the taste of goat milk. Ha ha.

As the barns were closed for NEA inspection, we moved on to our next destination, but a missed turn has ended us up at the LCK Jetty. First time here though. Looks really rustic and feels so "Pulau Ubin"

LCK Jetty

After a few attempts, then we found out that the cow farm that we are trying to locate has closed down, so we moved on to the next farm that is nearest to us then.

Jurong BullFrog Farm (my first time here too!)

Its pretty noisy from the moment we stepped out from the car.
This farm has its interesting moments too. If you look closely enough at the below picture, you should be able to see a pair of mating frogs. (which was VERY obvious in the other ponds)

I thought this farm might smell a bit, but surprisingly, no odours at all.

Frogs don't stink...

We caught a few glimpse of a nice and big orchid along the way, so we turned back and went into the orchid, and asked the boss if we could just tour around the area, and the boss was nice enough to let us walk around freely. (it was pretty evident that this orchid was not designed for retail sales or educational tours, but more as wholesale orchid supplier to major florists and hotels, especially since there wasn't any other visitors and this orchid was not on any visitors brochure)

This place is huge!

Lots of different species of orchids!

Found some interesting and educational sights.

(Left)These are pre-planted trees, usually used for new built-up areas where there is no time for the trees to grow from small seedlings into big tall trees.

(Right)We suspect we will see these pre-planted palm trees at the IR next year...

We then went off to the Qian Hu Fish Farm for some fish therapy.

Its my second time here, but I still couldn't get used to the nimbling feeling when the spa fish bites on my feet, and kept fidgeting around... (no pictures taken, too ticklish for me to settle down...)

Dropped Derek off at the MRT after this as he had to go off for another appointment, then we went off to the FarmMart, which was rather disappointing for us. It was basically just a miniaturized version of all the farms which we had just visited, plus a lot of touristy stuff.

(it just pales in comparison as our earlier visits to the bigger farms really overshadows this place, but some of the stuff here could definitely be better...)

Ended our farm visiting day at FarmMart, as we proceeded to visit JurongPoint for lunch. We have not really been back to JP for a long time, especially after the place was upgraded. It was a pleasant surprise to see that JP has really been spruced up with all the new shops and stuffs.

Shokutsu 10 Japanese Food street

This is the infamous Jap food street of JP, but it was a bit short of the number of resident Jap restaurants. Nonetheless, good attempt by the JP management to give a theme to the place.

Spent some time walking around JP1 and JP2 (new extension), and we were flabbergasted by the sheer enormity of the place and shops. Too tired by that time to visit the shops one by one, so we just ended the day shortly after and went home.

Conclusion: A day well spent, visiting the places I like and seeing new stuff, and of course, the great company helps too. Made it feel like a Saturday to me and I thought so too, until the rest reminded me that it was a Sunday...

Must make it a point to make my weekends more memorable with stuff like this. At least the years won't pass us by so quickly this way. Life is not only about work work work (anyway, I'll touch more on this some time later)

I'm tired

Feels a lot better after confiding in a few that I can trust totally.
My mind is set.
Waiting for 天变...

Marley & Me!

Finally caught marley & me on saturday together with dear, after such a long wait.

The storyline in the show is almost a complete reproduction of the book, minus a few minor points which may be a bit excessive to put to film.

The dogs (puppy, adolscence, adult, old) are super adorable! And the scene depicted on this poster is really outstandingly cute!

Great show for fans of the book. Nice show for those have yet to read the book (the book gives a better depiction and explanation for some of the actions, which help you to appreciate better why they love Marley so much even though he is the "world's worst dog")

Go catch it anyway if you love dogs :)

====

Issac just went for his first ever baby competition at the Community Centre this morning. First time for me, seeing so many babies and parents, grandparents, relatives, all crowding together in the CC's hall for baby competition.

Can tell that Sis and Bro-in-law enjoyed the event. But I guess mom was the most happy person of the day, being able to show off his grandson and take part in the competition as well (there was a grandparent+baby segment)

====

Was facing serious work overloading this week, and there were many issues that I simply don't have the time to deal with. Confided in a select few on my thoughts, and I was already boiling mad by Friday at the amount of work I had to cover (and had to cover others as well), and the limited resources that I have at my disposal.

Boss caught me at a bad time when I was rushing some urgent stuff, and told me some stuff that I couldn't quite agree on.

After some short discussions and a few jibs, I snapped and felt that it was time to unlease all my pented up frustrations and thoughts. Dropped all my work at the moment, pulled boss into a meeting room for a closed door talk. It was quite a heated response from me, and caught boss offguard with my reaction and all the straight talking.

I emerged from the room feeling a lot more relieved after shooting off all the problems and issues that I see at the workplace. I had previously feedback some stuff to him, but did not quite get the response that I wanted, but this time, it seems like he has finally taken what I am telling him.

I believe that he should be mature enough to see where and why I pulled the skeletons out from.

Anyway, if I get chopped in the upcoming months, this may actually turn out to be the final nail in my coffin.

Buddies, help me keep a lookout for some good job lobangs ok...

What if 孔明借箭 failed?

I guess those who watched 赤壁 or know ROTK story, will know about the story of 孔明借箭.
This story is a very typical 知己知彼，百战百胜 strategy, which Kong Ming employed a very unconventional way of warfare.

Let's discuss on a hypothetical scenario:
If for some reason, that Cao Cao (or rather, his minions) did not strike or shot off the arrows at Kong Ming's boats. How will the story have turned out?
What will have happened to Kong Ming and Cao Cao?

Slumdog Millionaire

Just caught Slumdog Millionaire with dear this afternoon.

Great show, definitely worth your $7.50 to watch it in the cinema (or $8.50, or $9.50, or Whatever..)



Never thought I would like Bollywood movies...


One thing I have learnt from this show: If I wear to visit India, I will bring along my own bottled water... or at least puritabs..

Still waiting for Marley to be out at the end of this month!

6th Anniversary!

Took leave today to celebrate our 6th Anniversary.

Just a quiet day at Vivocity, eating our favourite food, a bit of shopping (the National Geographic shop was super interesting!), and caught a show as well... well, the day was not too quiet actually... sorry for picking up so many work calls dear!

We will have a better planned program in 2 weeks time!

~~~

Caught "The Wedding Game" as planned.

The show is actually better than I expected, with some of the jokes really original and damned funny. Good thing that the best joke of the show was not shown in the trailer.

I'll recommend this show to everyone for some light-hearted 1.5hr laughter :)

Next show: Marley & Me!

CNY

CNY hasn't really been a big bang for me for the last few years, this year being no different.
Though it still feels good that the family can spend some time together, otherwise everyone will be too busy and occupied with their own stuff.

Visited both grandma on the first day.
It is sad to see that grandma (paternal) is starting to have problems trying to differentiate people. At least she is still relatively healthy and not suffering from any illness.

Grandma (maternal) looks to be in good health this time, which is a good thing!

The main difference in this year's visit is the inclusion of Isaac in the family. Babies are always the centre of attention wherever they go. He surely did lift up grandmas' mood.

2nd day was largely passing.
Was gaming my way through the morning, and visited Dan's place in the afternoon for a steamboat potluck. Nothing much to catch up with the rest of the folks, since they are mostly gambling all the time, which I personally abhor and abstain (less the occasional Toto).

Took leave today for the extra rest, and spent the afternoon at ECP rollerblading with dear. This really gave my mind the much needed peace from work, especially since the task on hand is to move and avoid falling down - which at the end of the day, i had gladly fell more than a dozen times to improve my technique.
A bit of light bruising here and there, but at least something different from what I usually do! - inline with my new year goals!

Red Cliff 2

Catched Red Cliff 2 this afternoon with dear.


As expected, major changes in the storyline are implemented as per usual requirements for big screen reworks, but I was still pretty disappointed at the outright injustice done to some of the legendary characters, especially those on Cao Cao's side (including our favourite villian himself)

Oh well, its just a show, not intended to illustrate the actual story anyway.
No point getting too judgemental over this.


As JS said, some of the fight sequences are soooooooo typical old school John Woo style... (looks real cool if it is still in the 90's, but I must point out that its a bit outdated in year 2009)



My verdict of this show as I told dear:
This show is great for those who are not familiar with SGYY, but not true fans of this epic story.

Next Show: 大喜事 or Ong Bak 2

Next Next Show: Marley & Me

Fast forward 2009

Have not been posting for quite some time, kept procrastinating that I have too much work to be done.

Time to lay down some groundrules for 2009 before the Bull starts racing away:

• Start living a healthier life by sleeping earlier - before 12 <-- so far so good!
• Consistent savings plan - SGD$ X / mth (obvious reasons why it is X)
• Start my investment portfolio - to hit SGD$ Y value by end 2009 <--time to pick up some tips from you guys reading this space, please help hor!
• Write up personal Biz plans - target to have at least 1 per quarter
• Reduce waistline - target 30"
• ABC - personal stuff
• DEF - personal stuff

Looking back...Year 2008 hasn't been a good year for me.

The Good:

• Got what I wanted from D Day
• Managed to maintain sub 5 for SCSM 42195
• HTC THD
• MU won the double
• Another healthy year
• I'm officially an UNCLE now
  

The Bad:

• Losing Ah Di
• Crappy timing for Sundown
• PS3 - it wasn't really a great buy, considering that I don't really use it much after the first 2 months
• Missing out the UCL Finals...

The Notable:

• 2nd HK Trip - enjoyed it much more than the 1st
• Vietnam Trip - overall pretty much enjoyable
• Finally bought a new PC for Dad to use - I thought I might use it too but turned out otherwise

I found myself too embedded into my work, until the point that there is NO LIFE outside work. I always worry about completing my work when I am supposed to relax during the weekend, and can't really get stuff out of my head when I should be playing. Only realised this when I started to write the above list, and could not recall much that I can put in other than work (which I try not to as far as possible).

It's really easy to say "I have been too engrossed with work, let's go out and have a break", but to simply sink into the same whirlpool after the break, which renders the break meaningless.

Time to start living, and remembering every great moment as it comes along, and to make year 2009 worth remembering. At least make my job easier when I write this list again in 2010.

Perhaps Time to learn and try some new stuff to inject some badly needed freshness in my life! I guess I ain't so busy (or should not be so busy) during the weekends.

Hello 2009!

Watched "7 Pounds" today with dear.

Not too bad, though its a bit heavy not not really my favourite type of show.
Well, at least its Will Smith, and the storyline is not too bad.

Next show to catch: Chi Bi 2
Up on next update: Summary for 2008