Goodbye 2007

The last day of the year is here. Guess it is time once again to reflect on the year that was. Work wise there was the major change where I quit my 12 year job with NCS and got a job with the CPF Board in Oct. But the beginning of the year saw me maintaining one of the most complex systems that I have ever had to maintain and with only 2 people to back me up. It was a real challenge and one I felt I did a good job of. The system that I had maintained since I join the company was finally decommissioned as well, well it took this long and after 12 years on it, I have to say I was sad to see it go. It should have been done sooner. The hardest part was to say goodbye to my friends. Made many friends there and some enemies as well. The new job is great, I would have to say my new colleagues and bosses are very understanding and friendly. A really great bunch of people. Personal wise, had one of the best holidays ever on the Cruise to Alaska that was absolutely fantastic. Starting getting into shape again and all the running and gym work felt good, at least I am trying to get fit finally. The house is finally fixed up and we have lived in it for a year now, this will be the 2nd New Year's. The year ended not too happily when my cousin passed away. Looking forward to 2008 now and hopefully to start a family as well. I should hopefully be able to continue with this blog and maybe keep in touch with friends on the social networking sites like facebook, linkln, WAYN and myspace. I think only facebook I use frequently the others I visit once in a while, not much activity in them as I hardly ever go searching for friends too lazy and sometimes no idea if I got the right person or not. All in the year had it's fair share of ups and downs, I would say about equal. I would not call it a great year for me but I think it was a good one. Tomorrow it will be the new year and time for New Year Resolutions ha ha .... Finally I'm off to catch the fireworks and if it was anything like last year I should be able to catch from home from my ...... toilet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Kitty Car and J-Walking

Was at the car wash today, and spotted this 'Hello Kitty Car' (see below) comes with that funky pink rear window wiper as well. Did not see the driver but it's probably a lady driver. As it's a Sunday we were at Church today Risen Christ in Toa Payoh usually as the Church grounds can get crowded I would park away at Toa Payoh central and also we do grocery shopping after mass so it's easier to get the groceries into the car, it's also free parking on Sunday. As we were making our way back to the car today at the junction there were a few police constables, and they were stationed at the side of the road about 2 each corner. They started stopping people who were J-Walking -- not crossing the roads at the traffice junctions -- a few people were stopped and particulars were taken down. So do becareful out there I think it's the festive season and the police are out in force to keep the roads safe. Either that or they need to beef up their J-Walking quota ha ha .. :)

A Death in the Family

"A Death in the Family" that's a Batman and Robin story line in the comics. It was about the death of Robin. This year Christmas wasn't a really happy occasion, besides all the festivities going on word came through that my cousin passed away on Christmas Day. We used to play together me, my sis, her and her brother. Age gap among the 4 of us was only 7 years so it was easy to get along, during school holiday's they would come over or we would go stay with them for a couple of days. Those were the fun days, no worries in the world, kids will be kids. Although she was not the youngest (my sis was youngest) she was still known as Mei Mei to all of us. She's survived by her husband and 2 kids. A short memorial service was held yesterday and the funeral was held today. I happen to be reading a copy of Reader's Digest today and there was a quote in there which said - 'you can't spell funeral without fun' - something to ponder over. Elaine Long Yoke Peng has been called home to the Lord, she was 34, may she rest in everlasting peace.

" For the Lord so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

Christmas Celebrations

Christmas has come and gone another year goes by and soon we'll have to say good bye to 2007 and hello 2008. The party started last Thursday where the Dept had a Tea Time Gathering.

Over the weekend on Sunday had a gathering at my house, the kids loved it with the cake and presents that were given out to them. Lots of games to play which the various uncles cooked up on the spot. Weather played havok again it started out fine and everyone was in the pool but then it started to rain and mad rush out of the pool once everyone had showered and dried themselves, the rain stop !! Ah well back to the food which we had Turkey Breast, Oat Prawns, Fishball, Curry Devil, Otah, Noodles, Chicken, Veggies, Fruits, Cake etc. etc.

Here's one for the album, the missus and me

Monday Christmas Eve was a half day at work and out team decided to have a Christmas Lunch which was made up of KFC and Pizza Hut delivery orders. Here's greedy old me chowing down on some grub. The one of only 3 days that you could actually dress down in the office the others being New Year's Eve and Chinese New Years's Eve.

Our Stats team well most of them anyways, I just managed to run in after setting the auto on the camera, took 3 tries to get it right :)

As usual I went to the Christmas Eve Mass but this year decided to skip the midnight timing and went to the earlier one at Risen Christ, they had a play by the kids a musical actually which was very well done, called Candy Cane Lane. It ended with the message that the Candy Cane (red/white sweet in the shape of a cane) if you invert it it's a 'J' which stands for Jesus.

As with tradition, Christmas I always get to be a kid again and on Christmas Eve once midnight comes, it's time to open the presents, yep I still get them and I'll wait till midnight to open them hee hee .... here's what both me and the wife received from friends and family this year.

Christmas Day was spent at my parents place where the whole family or what you see here is about a third of the family as the rest are either on holiday or have migrated overseas and can only join us with long distance phone calls.

Well with all the festivities and wine and what not have you, had an early night as needed to get back to work on Boxing Day.

Merry Christmas

Ho Ho Ho MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sound in the Car

Recently there has been a little pinging sound in the car and I have traced it to the air-con, turn it on to 1 and the sound comes on, turn to 2 it goes away, turn off no sound as well. I don't think it was the gas or a leak in the air-con pipes not likely as that would have other effects like the coolness of the air. So on saturday decided to visit the car air-con shop near my place (place where I got my tires as well). The mechanics did a check on the system and found that the fan unit has worn out and needs a replacement. Total cost $150 to replace the unit and a 2 hr stay at the shop. Well looks like the car is telling me it's time for it to retire and for me to get a new one :)

New TV

Ah finally decided to go get me a new TV for my spare room so I can play my XBox 360 games and not share with the main TV which the missus uses to watch those TVB Drama Serials. So will be quiet for a while I guess while I set it up and try it out.

Hari Raya Haji

Ah it's the Hari Raya Haji holiday and the start of the 3 short weeks .... I Like .... :)

The weather however was not very cooperative, wanted to have a game of tennis or swim but it kept raining. In the end the family and some relatives decided to head on down to Marina / Suntec. There were not many cars on the roads but wow !! all the malls had their car park FULL signs up !! what gives I thought, the traffice was light, not sure why. In the end after going round once I decided to head to the Esplanade Car Park, at least there was still lots there. When I got to the mall, man was it crowded !! So jam packed with people, wanted to get some bowling done but we had to wait like an hour for a lane so decided to skip that and just browse around the mall.

After shopping at Marina and Suntec, we went back to Esplande and there was this area where you could sign on some balloons and give your wishes for the new year, here's what I wrote, guess you can make out what was under 'Happy New Year 2008' ha ha ...

Here's some more wishes from the wife and the neices and nephews.

Anyways in the end we decided to go to that Makansutra "hawker centre" near the Esplande for dinner before we head back for some Christmas Carolling at the Esplanade. Order awhoel bunch of stuff as you can see below the photo on the left and on the right is the 'aftermath' of the meal.

BEFORE . ..........a........n........d.... . . AFTER

The Christmas Carols were great, it was from a group called Agreppalla pretty decent songs and they cut a CD this year, the music was so good that we decided to support them and bought their CD, played in on the way back, pretty good stuff although a little short on the playing time. There was a song in there, can't remember which as the CD is in the car currently, but it started with little kids giving their wishes to Jesus and there was this little remark from a little kid :-

" I want to give Jesus all my medicine so that he can help to cure all the people in the world .... and I don't like my medicine. "

Christmas Tea Party

Office had a small Christmas Tea Party today at around 3pm. Had a 5.5kg Roasted Turkey, Roast Beef, Chips, Log Cake, Little Cupcakes, Pie and other savouries. Here I am with all the food spread out on the table. In the end it was alot of food to feed around 20 to 25 people. Picture taken by one of my colleagues Yvonne's handphone camera one of those Nokia N95 models woooo.........

I added in a comic effect to the photo.

These are the little cupcakes which came free and yes the words spell XMAS and not like one of my colleagues who shall remain anonymous mentioned "what's S A M X stand for ?"

The christmas Pie we had which I added a Sepia Tone to it to give it that old faded look.

The Log cake with the words taken out before I had a chance to catch it on film. Did a spotlight effect for the cake.

And here I am the official Turkey Carver for the department. Well looking forward to another lunch gathering next Monday again. Wow all this eating really making me put on weight.

(: - Mass Effect - :)

I got this XBox 360 game Mass Effect about 2 weekends ago, it was if you know recently banned in Singapore. The authorities decided after some publicity and outcry from the gaming community to release the game but with an M18 tag all because they had a scene in there where 2 females were kissing. I got it on the weekend of the release but did not have the time to look at it till recently since I was sick and all that. (on a side note, almost recovered thanks to all the well wishes out there) Anyways, as you can see below the left pic is the original game with the shrink wrap the problem is once you take off the shrink wrap, there is no M18 tag any more !! (right pic) So no one is going to be the wiser in the secondary market for this game.

now you see it ? now you don't ?

Over the weekend I was at Safra Tampines where they had this sale for Timberland stuff. Now I'm a sucker for Timberland shoes ever since I got my first pair about 15 years ago, since then I have not worn any casual shoes except for a Timberland. So it was timely to stock up on my shoes as I recently threw away 2 pairs as they were worn out. They are really good shoes and I think lets see over the pass 15 years I have 6 pairs and have only need to throw out 3 pairs. All in now with the 2 new additions, I have 5 pairs of Timberlands. When the price is right I'll probably get a pair of slippers as well. They are expensive but they are comfortable. So I do look out for the odd Timberland sale to 'replenish' stock you can say.

Santa's Little Helper

With all the Christmas shopping for gifts that I have bought, someone had to wrap them, the queues at those shopping centres are really long, when you want to get stuff gift wrapped, looks like everyone was doing early Christmas Shopping. So as in every year, come this time, I wear my underwear on the outside, throw on a towel and wear my Jedi beanie hat to turn into that Superhero - “ General Wrapper “ armed with Scotch Tape, Scissors, Double-Sided Tape, Pen Knife, Gift Tags, Ribbons and Wrapping Paper. The call goes out - Look Look over at the Dinner Table, faster than those part time gift wrappers, able to curl ribbons in a blink of an eye. (a very very slow blink) It’s It’s It’s a Hamper .. No! It’s a Present .. No! It’s GENERAL WRAPPER !! When you need your gifts wrapped who do you call {add in Ghostbusters’ theme music} …. GW !!

Me in my 'GW' outfit :)

Well, guess what, Santa does not take a Sled Ride these days. In good old sunny Singapore he goes around in a Citroen and a very fitting Red Citroen at that. I spotted this Santa along the roads today. A very friendly Santa, waving to everyone he met at the traffic lights. He was in full costume, beard, hat, coat and all. I really pity the guy in the suit as it's got to be sizzling in that suit with the tropical Singapore weather, but kudos to the guy who really played the part well and waving to everyone he met when he had the chance. Last I say him he was heading North, probably finally going home to the North Pole for a break :)

Ok I'm off to prepare for the big EPL matches tonight, it's the big 4 going head to head in one evening. Liverpool take on Man U and Arsenal host Chelsea. The ideal outcome would be a Liverpool win and a Draw in the other match.

Genting in Singapore

It's been wet and cold these last few days I think today was one of the driest in many days finally no rain during lunch time and I can go over to the singapore pools outlet to get my winnings from Liverpool's massive european championship win woo hoo go reds !! I took the pic on the left on my way to work recently, clouds were really low over the central business district. It was raining on that morning as well. Feels like you are in Genting Highlands. I think the weather is causing some bug to go round everyone's a little sick. As usual our weatherman predicted rain this afternoon and we had clear skies. I've always notice the weather seems to always be the opposite of what the weatherman says. When they mention sunny days, you better be prepared for rain, if they predict rain you can leave your 'A' 'A' 'A' umbrella's at home. Talking about that Rihana's 'A' 'A' 'A' song I think it's going to cause all those young ones spelling problems in school one of these days. Can you imagine the teacher giving a spelling test and ask for the word umbrella and the class spells out A A A :) I'm feeling much much better now the throat's not as sore as before. I still have a little cough but hopefully it'll go away with some medication. Thank goodness I have finished my anti-biotics and the taste buds have kicked back in.

MIA & BBQ

Well folks it’s been a while since I have been on, have been on MC for the last week, some viral infection which has caused by tonsils in my throat to expand to tennis ball size, got a stuffy little nose as well and all that sneezing has caused my nose to look like Rudolph’s, the coughing just made it worst. Had a slight fever on Friday and the doctor gave me another day’s MC for that. Anyway’s I had a little get together over the weekend, with some friends who came over for a BBQ at my place. The weather was threatening to spoil the whole thing, the sky was overcast most of the day and it looked like it was going to rain and then the sun came out, but after a while, the sun went behind the clouds again and dark clouds formed, then it was sunny again. Aiya, don’t know what the weather trying to pull, playing hide and seek, it did drizzle a bit but by evening when the food and guest arrived there was not a hint of rain and the skies were clearing. As usual I got my BBQ stuff online from this company called ‘EZB’ they provide everything from the food and drinks, cups and plates, charcoal and firestarter, skewers and thongs, wire mesh etc. everything, all you really need was a pit. (and even if you don’t you can rent these too) After the initial comments from practically everyone that the food was too much I managed to scale down the amount and it was just nice everything was finished all that was left behind was a pack of chicken wings and 2 cans of coke plus some fried rice. I posted the pictures up on flickr and now hopefully I can get it to link to this blog. (if it is not up yet by the time you are reading this then akan datang ..... check back soon) In the end the kids got their little party packs, and the adults retired to my unit and we had our gift exchange. Which in the end was a kids exchange ha ha …. The missus and I had a good laugh with all the kids running around and the parents trying to control the children. No wonder a few of them had told me that they did not want to bring their kids along ha ha ..... Hopefully will be able to get back online soon. Still a little unwell but I think I am about 75% there. I think the link below will work ? http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajlong

Sick :(

No updates for the pass few days as I seem to be coming down with something it started with the cough and then slight fever, but it seems to be getting better. Visited the doctor twice to get medicine and MC. All day rest at home and felt better.

Christmas Tree

Well it's that time of year again where it's time to go into the store room and pull out the ole Christmas Tree and Decorations. I finally found mine hidden way way way at the back of the store room. Got out the decorations as well and together with the missus we started putting up the Christmas Tree and decorating it. Quite a messy affair as the decorations had little sparkles and the tree branches were dropping off and had falling figs all over the place. We got this tree last year it's a relatively new one. The missus wasn't too pleased with the mess I made so out came the vaccum cleaner and vvrrrooooooomm ..... all the little bits were sucked up. Had to vaccum our feet as well as the little sparkles were sticking to our feet. Once the decorations were up, I got out the lights knowing that they probably might not work as christmas lights are notorious for failling, I plugged them in and lo and behold they worked with nice flicker and music as well. woo hooo ... so up goes the lights, plug in the plug, switch in on and .... NO LIGHTS !!! after many fruitless attempts to get it started, they just would not work, so down come the lights once again. Probably will have to get a new set.

My wife bought a new set of lights today and up it goes, switched it on and BAM, it works we have lights !! finally !! Yeah !! So here's a look at our Christmas Tree not much to it but it's a nice small little tree.

Well if you look really closely you would be able to see the following little figures, which I secretly added to the tree. They'll probably have to be taken down once the missus finds them all. Hopefully it'll be after Christmas by then :)

We had a Fire Drill today, a total surprise one. So down we went, all 32 floors, yes that's right walk down 32 flights of stairs. It wasn't that tough but I was getting giddy from going round and round 32 times !! or was that 64 times ? Here we are the photo on the right is where our department had to gather.

And over on the left is our Fire Warden - Glen holding his red Fire Warden armband. I guess they do take their fire evacuation seriously considering the CBD area seems to be prone to experience tremors and what have you. I've never been invovled in a Fire Drill excercise for a very very very long time. Most often you try to have an external meeting during that period hee hee ...

Weekend Shopping

Over the weekend, me and the missus decided to do some Christmas Shopping. Actually we started about 2 weeks ago. Finally this year I was able to start earlier. You know Christmas is coming once the radio stations start playing Christmas songs and that happen on Thursday when I heard the first Christmas song played on radio for the year. I think it was 'live aid' or 'band aid' one of those. I think my Christmas shopping this year really started early so early that in fact one department store did not have their Christmas wrappers out yet !! Anyways got most of the presents done, pratically completed all the gifts for relatives and friends. I think just a little bit more and I'm done for the year. The only hard one to get is for the missus, still debating on what to get her. The problem with presents is that normally before Christmas, we'll know what we got each other. Some how you'll figure it out. Too difficult to keep the presents a secret :) ha ha .... This weekend we went to Orchard Road and boy was it crowded. I finally got to catch some carolling, I think it was been like 9 or 10 years ago that I actually had time to watch carollers in action. Year end has always been a busy time for me but this year it's different. I guess it's a lot more relax this time round. I really enjoyed hearing the carols at Wisma. I was able to stroll down Orchard Road and catch a glimpse of the buskers in action some of them were pretty good. It's crowded as you would expect for Orchard Road. The Christmas street lights were very nice. Did not take any photos as it was hard to take a nice shot with people walking by and all that. Over at Taka they had the Seasame Street roadshow, some of the little ones were really enthusiastice about the whole thing, a little bit over the top and had to be restraint by parents and security personnel. Isetan had some M&M's workshop or something going on there. I think Tangs and Borders have nice wrapping papers if you want to get your gifts wrapped at the same time, I like their paper best. So that's the weekend, spent Shopping for gifts. Up next is the Christmas Tree and the final wrapping of presents.

Dept Dinner and SITEX

My Department's Year End Dinner Celebrations

We had our year end department dinner on Tuesday, it was buffet at Sakura. Food’s not too bad, love the soup dishes (sharks fin, herbal prawn, herbal chicken) and the sushi, they had baked mussels and scallops as well. Satay was served together with steaks and even fried salmon head. The usual cooked dishes were served. Only thing I did not really like was the dessert, probably could have been better. SITEX Just got back from SITEX as well, for the first day it was not that crowded except getting off the train and getting through the door once you are through, it was a relatively easy walk, met up with some friends there and a former warden from St. Anthony’s church as well who was there buying up xbox 360 games for his son, but it's probably for himself as well :) I got me some 360 games as well and in the lucky draw got a spare xbox headphones and mic. There were some good deals I think but the sales tactics of screaming their heads off into the loud speakers really did not go down well with me. Some cyber car was on display but did not really get to view what that was all about. I was really looking only at the games and the TV section as I was looking for a small set for the room (something to hook up the 360 to as well). An interesting item was one of those robo-vacum cleaners, just press the start and off you go to work, after about an hour or hour and a half, once the batteries are low, it will find it's way back to the docking station to get recharged. Pretty interesting stuff that one.

New Car ??

I was getting my car insurance renewed today, I called the company asking if the recent Windscreen claim would affect my No Claims Bonus and they said no. So I get my 50% off and covered my car for another year. Soon have to renew road tax and all that again. I got me a parking slot for Dec at my office so I guess I will be driving to work for that month and will be $170 poorer sob sob ..... :( The funny thing is that after I renewed my Insurance, the Honda Agent (from about 3/4 years ago) SMS me and told me that he has made a check and that my car can be sold already as the sale of the car would exceed my loan amount and asked me if I am interested in getting a new car. hhhmmm ... that is really tempting but not sure which brand/model should I get as I have not really been hunting for a car. Any help folks ? Probably a simple family car would be what I would be looking for, but I have always liked the Lexus model, but that's way way over my budget.

New T

Finally my T-Shirt I ordered from the states has arrived. woo hooo ... love it :)

On my way back today there was quite a major accident at the Selegie complex area where they were doing some demolition works if I am correct, the whole front section of the scaffolding gave way and landed on the road blocking 3 lanes, 1 lane was only passable, there was a car trapped under the metal, hopefully no one was injured. Probably will get to hear about it in the evening news or tomorrows paper.

MOCCA.com

Well, I finally got round to taking some pics of the XBox set that I am going to put up for sale, had to dig out all those games and what not's but still could not find where I put the video remote. Surprisingly more than half of the current games are still playable on the 360 but I've just kept 5 of them and the rest will be bundled in. Probably will get an ad placed on MOCCA and see how it goes from there I hear it's currently free to place ads. Hopefully I can just place my ad there and no need to do some video of me selling the product like those you see on TV. Maybe if need to will have to write my contact number on my butt or something like that. Then again the ad will probably be taken down after that ha ha .... Well here's the base set with 3 remotes, the black and transparent green one and the third is a wireless Star Wars Yoda remote. I thought I could use the wireless on the 360 but it's a whole new setup for that.

The whole array of games sad to say I have only completed the first 2 games Lord of the Rings (with a little help from the guide) and Hello Kitty (damn the song is still stuck in my head till now), ya I super slow one and last time hardly have time to play, the rest most of them half way or just started or get stuck somewhere in between hee hee ... :-

• Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King) + Prima's Guide
• Hello Kitty - Mission Rescue
• Halo - Combat Evolved
• X-Men Legends II - Rise of Apocalypse
• Hulk
• Crimson Skies - High Road to Revenge
• Star Wars Clone Wars
• Tetris
• Techmo Classic Arcade
• Rainbow Six 3 - Black Arrow
• Project Gotham Racing 2
• Crash - Twin Insanity
• Dead or Alive Ultimate 1 & 2
• Chessmaster
• Magic the Gathering - Battlegrounds
• Fantastic Four
• Peter Jackson's King Kong

Also have included an XBox Cheat Guide as well in case get stuck in any of the games or just want to get an unfair advantage :)

Public Profiles

Ever since I tried my hand at Facebook, I've always wondered what's the percentage of people out there who do not put up their profiles or put up a missing profile or partial profile image. Are males or females more likely to put up their pictures? Ok lah I'm one of those who still puts up his little Star Wars Mr. Potato Head Photo but soon soon, will change that once I get the right image up :) Anyways I did a little survey and after collating some data over the last few weeks, I have come up with some surprising stats. This part is a little technical but you will need to understand it first. Tried not to get duplicates but there maybe a small magin of error for duplicate counts. Also Gender is basically decided from the name (John's a Male) or photo in the event I can't tell based on the name (Leslie can go both ways) also I have to based on the photo and the person may have used a different photo which may have again a small percentage of error, but I figured it's probably negligible. I decided to split up the groups into 4 main categories. (A) - Good Images (can see the person photo, some maybe small but still can see) (B) - Missing (those that have not put up any image yet) (C) - Hidden (those with image but cannot see face, eg use a photo or cartoon, showing back, bend head etc.) (D) - Partial (those with images but face partially hidden, eg by hand, scarf, hat, some object etc.) So here are the results ....... Total number of subjects - 2967 (Males = 1438, Females = 1529) Total Percentage of GOOD Cases (Type A) - 69.87% (Males = 68.57%, Females = 71.09%) It's a very close figure, almost 70% of subjects put up a good image. Of the other Types the total percentage is (B) - 7.38% (Males = 6.19%, Females = 8.50%) (C) - 13.41% (Males = 15.02%, Females = 11.90%) (D) - 9.34% (Males = 10.22%, Females = 8.50%) Not much difference I can see except maybe Males are slightly more likey to partially hide or totally use a different picture as their profile while Females may have a tendency to just leave their profiles blank. So I wonder if you are on any of those social networking sites are your list of friends that have Good Profile Images about 70%?

Running Gear

Well it seems that after I have been hitting the jogging circuit and gym recently I’ve realized that as you get older there are more and more things you need to take with you :) It isn’t just about getting a pair of shorts and t-shirt or buying a pair of good running shoes anymore. Before the Run/Exercise Besides the longer warm up time needed, there is the ever popular deep heat rub to get those muscles warmed up properly so that you don’t feel the soreness at the end and not to injure yourself as well. During the Run/Exercise When I hit the gym, the list of items just gets longer and longer, running outside usually means less items to carry. A typical day at the gym sees me lugging the following items down. a) Towel – essentially a must in the gym as you will need to clean the equipment after use, it’s just common courtesy to the next person using the equipment. b) Water – bring along a drinking bottle in case you need a sip. c) MP3 Player – copy in your favorite songs so that you can exercise to the music. d) Portable Speakers – for the music player since I don’t like running with earphones stuck in my ear. Something I think if you want to do it in the gym is fine but on the road, I think that is really dangerous. Anyways if there are people in the gym I always ask them if they mind me playing the music. Most people are grateful for that ‘noise’ as it breaks the silence. e) Spare Battery – for the music player in case it runs out half way, learn that the hard way once. f) Patella Band – usually used when I run just to give the patella some support. It’s the bone at your knee cap. I’ve had an x-ray done on my left knee before in 2000 or 2001 as it was really giving me some problems previously and basically there’s a slight wear and tear on the knee and doctors’ advice short of surgery, which unless you are some world class athlete, was not recommended. Rest up and give it support. g) Knee Brace – used in place of the band but ultimately now that the knee is getting a little better I hardly ever use any of it. h) Gloves – guess the new age man needs to protect his hands as well. Comes in handy when you need to mop the floor as well :) i) Pedometer – used when I run out of the gym just to have a feel of the distance I’m covering j) Sports Bag – with all that ‘junk’ you’ll need something to hold them all and carry it down to the gym, that’s where the sports or in this case it’s a shoe bag comes in handy. Just throw everything in. So there you are after having done the necessary warm ups and runs and exercise, you’ll think that’s over, but no there is still ….. After the Run/Exercise Here’s where the muscle aches start to set in, and the cold spray really helps with the recovery. And all this just in an attempt to stay healthy ….. :)

One Month

ONE MONTH

I made it through my first month of blogging

Error Message

I got this error message sometime back as I was doing a search on Facebook. Couldn’t help smiling at the way the message was phrased. I kept the screen shot of it. I’m still wondering if they changed the message or it’s still the same. Ha ha … In case you can't see it the error message reads :

Search is currently unavailable.

Please try again at a later time or right now.

Which day to ask for a Pay Rise

I read an article in a magazine recently and they had this column on which days of the week are best for doing certain things as it turns out : Monday * Best day to get organised, set goals, follow your boss and don't invite conflict. Tuesday * Peak day for productivity but also the best time that people go online to job hunt. Wednesday * Best day for creative thinking. ie Hold your meetings and brainstorming sessions today. Thursday * Best day to ask for a pay rise. Friday * Thread carefully, people tend to take more risk and have more accidents. Weekend * If you are one of those stress out over the week and then get sick over the weekend, it is suggested you try some excercising on Friday night to help you adjust to the weekend. WHEN YOU SNEEZE DON'T DRIVE With the upcoming holiday season just round the corner a word of caution !! An interesting bit of research that was done has shown that if you are driving at 110 km/h and you sneeze, you could be covering 90m with your eyes closed !! Wonder if it will become unlawful to sneeze in your car ? Proably the speed camera's will be fitted with sneeze-cams soon. But seriously, it's advisable you slow down when you feel a sneeze coming on.

Kindergarden Days

For me the past 3 weeks, I was not a happy camper, things happen that just make you feel down and you start to go on a roller coaster ride of emotions. You look into yourself and your self beliefs and you question your abilities and worth. It's a time when you have to step back and take a look at the wider picture. But this week was much better, things have passed, decisions will be made and like I have always believed, there are always two sides to a coin and it's up to you to choose which side you want. A new week brings new possibilities ;-) STORM Today Sunday -- wow wasn't it a huge storm in the evening ? At the Balestier / Toa Payoh area as I was driving back from my grandpareant's house (more on that later) there were 2 fallen tress on the expressway and at least another 3 more at the main road of my place. Guess the NParks would have their hands full removing all the fallen branches. Hopefully no one got hurt. GRANDPARENT'S I spent my Sunday at my Grandparent's (bless their souls) home, since they have passed on it was time after almost 8 years to dispose of the flat, getting a buyer wasn't the difficult part, clearing the 'junk' if one can call it that was exhausting. Anyways being the eldest grandchild I volunteer to help, anyways my mum and dad would be there as well. Left the wife at home since she isn't the type that's too crazy about roaches and dirt and stuff like that. You watch the Cable TV program - Dirtiest Job - well it's something like that. The place was really in need of a good renovation, it's over 30+ years old already and nothing was changed since I first stayed there during my Kindergarden years. I lived with my grandparents when I was young, both my parents worked and I only saw them over the weekends. Kindergarden was in the nearby Good Sherpard Kindergarden if I remember correctly at the East Coast area. I dreaded going to school, I would cry and all that, did all the tricks in the book to try to get out of school and this was only in Kindergarden. After Kindergarden when I got back I would grab my Ribena bottle and my Danny or Beano comic, go lie on the bed and I would read it for hours on end. Guess that's where my interest in comics and reading develope. Children should love to read and comics I feel is a great start. My other favourite was Tarzan -- which incidentally I still have a couple currently now, all yellow and the stapes all rusted but they are still with me. All these were given to me by a family friend who would without fail get me every issue of the comic. Some gems were uncovered in the 'rubble' the standard family photos, some of me (damn I look like a stick insect back then) and my sis at our birthdays, holiday trip photo's, my aunt's and uncle's weddings and family outings, most were in black and white. But some rare finds of interest anyone remember this old Yaohan plastic bag and it's made of the more durable (but more environmentally damaging) plastic. On it's back it's got weights conversions. if you can't see if properly the first line reads : 1 tahil = 37.8 g (advises you to ask for 50 g as the nearest) the last row reads 3 katis = 1.8 kg (advises you to ask for 2 kg as the nearest)

My grandfather's what you would call a 'hoarder' he keeps everything and I mean everything !! What's really good is that he also labels everything, you want to know when the TV or Fridge was bought, just look around the back and sure enough there would be some sticker with the date of purchase neatly hand written on it. He used to have this mini which he drives around and the boot of the mini is always full, you can't put stuff in there, he has everything you need in that boot, probably the only thing missing is the kitchen sink. One of the rare find was his collection of match boxes and here's a sampling of a few.

This above is the Singapore Zoo collection, one side features animals the other side features the really really old zoo logo. How about this collection of SEAP game match boxes, comes even with it's own box to contain them all,16 in total.

and this is the very neatly packed in groups of 8 of various different match boxes. I think you can pick out the Mandarin Hotel (bottom row 2nd from right), there is the American Club (top row, 2nd from right) and even The Pink Pussycat (top row, right) have no idea where that is, the others are nightclubs, restaurants, tea houses and hotels if I am correct.

As I was shifting through the load, I came acoss one of those old journal like books, I flipped it open and it was a brand new one, but probably 20+ years old. Nothing was written in it. Anyways no one uses these nowadays with all the latest electronic gadgets around. As I causally flipped through the pages I came across a US $1 bill !!! You can see from the picture below where the bill has been lying in that book all these years. It's probably my grandparents first US note. (oh ya I figured I better put the word SPECIMEN on the picture just in case) What a strange place to find that note.

Well we finally cleared up all the broken and useless items and it was all brought down to the allocated HDB area for bulk waste disposal. As we made the many trips down to throw the stuff away, there were a few karung guni men around and they probably had a field day with the items. I even say a young couple shifting through the boxes and they came away with some coasters. Guess they wanted some retro feel to their home. Tomorrow the final sale will be concluded and the new owners will take over the flat and their renovations will begin.

New Toy

Well actually not a really new toy, but something the missus won at her D&D, one of the top 10 prizes, 8th spot was the XBox 360. It would have been just a slightly teeny weenie bit better if it came in just 1 spot better at 7th spot as it would have been a Wii !! Something I was kind of eyeing recently. But I guess you can't really complain getting the 360. Now the only problem is I already have an XBox (older version) and now with the 360, probably will have to get rid of the other one. So anyone interested in getting your kids or yourself an XBox, for sale a full set plus extra controller, video remote (just got to find out where I put it) and at least 12+ games (there are a few that I can keep as they are suppose to be compatible with the 360 just need to sort out and keep a couple).

Pantry and Toilets

The office pantry and toilets are really peculiar, having been here for almost a month and a half, I still get a kick out of the design. On my floor the pantry only has hot water, all well and good when there is a need to make coffee or tea but there is no cold water. For that I would have to go down 1 flight of stairs to the floor below which has both cold and hot water. So when I want to get something cold to drink, I’ll need to walk down 1 flight of stairs. The toilets are even better, to get to the gents it’s HALF a floor down. (the ladies are half a floor up) But when there is the daily toilet maintenance when the cleaners tidy up and replenish the toilet paper, the toilet is effectively out of use and if you need to use it then it’s another 2.5 floors down to the next gents toilet (you could walk up but that’s another 1.5 flight of stairs up) and that’s not a situation you would want to be in when you happen to be in urgent need to relief yourself. I guess with all this stair climbing, it makes a healthier you and in a year’s time I’ll probably be ready to tackle the Singapore Vertical Marathon :) I’ve also updated the Simpsons Puzzle Solution.

Prizes

Well, I'm back, not much really done to the site, was looking for some animation letters but I could not find which CD I had them stored in. Too long ago since I had a website, all those graphics are now missing in action. Oh well if I find them I'll do the changes then, been fiddling around a bit and I don't think any chnages I make later will affect the site too much.

My company had a conference recently and they gave out really interesting door gifts. The little men are paper clips and I love that marker it's got all the colours in 1 nice circle so you don't have to have 5 different pens lying around. One thing I have to say is that these conferences it seems it's a norm for all the management team to act in some skit. Well I'm used to seeing a CEO do stuff but all management is something new and anyways I hardly ever was able to attend conferences previously in my former company. Just too busy to attend.

The company usually runs some small little contest and I entered one recently and lo and behold I actually was picked as one of the 5 winners. Ok that's great have to go and collect my gift, figured it's some coporate mug or postit pad or tea coaster or name card holder etc. In the end ya there was the postit pad but there was also a $5 NTUC voucher which was a pleasant surprise.