Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Yay! I've been with my beloved tatty for 3 years and next year we are getting married! WOOHOOO! YATA! Hehe, this time I played the lazy bum while she planned everything! I had a little concern about her overplanning, I even had concerns that I might collapse due to exhaustion! Well, I WAS quite sick okay, but thank God that day I was feeling alright! Must be the company, hee... Okie, off we go to a fun filled day at Sentosa! I haven't been there since I last played a corpse in FOC, hehe, what memories! First up is the luge, something like go kart, we took the skyride up...



Buay tahan, who is that hum ji banana... Anyway, we bought 2 luge runs, following the advise printed on the helmet "Once is never enough!" Well said, the first run I was rolling downslope in a very controlled manner while Tatty speed ahead like a bunny in a dog race. She commented, "The way you control the luge, is like your dad is beside you, "Kai Ming, man yi dian..." Yeah, my dad always makes me drive slowly and safely,REAL SAFE, REAL SLOW. *angry honks from behind!*

Hmmphtaro de... Come 2nd luge run, I was determined to relive my glory days of a fearless skinhead! HIAK TAKE THAT! Only to be held back by two uncle aunties in front of us on the track. Alamak... Another couple in front of use drive so slowly that at the finishing line, the camera took their photo twice instead of taking the last shot for us. Sianzzz.... Next up is the dolphin show! As we had lots of free time, we took a pretty long walk along Palawan and Tanjung beach. Hee.. Check out our matching Casio G-Shock :)

Along the way we got came across a water fountain, similar to the one at Bugis Junction where so many little kids like to run amok getting wet and dirty. I would NEVER do that.

Lunch was okie la, I didn't have much appetite, so we just had dumplings and fried octopus. Burp... Yay! We saw the pink dolphins perform, brings back memories of drinking pink dolphin water, erm... peach flavoured sweetened water, hmm... feels very much like a ginak drink now :P
The dolphins were quite entertaining and as usual, the volunteers to participate are all ang mohs, if I were not sick, I would be waving my hands frantically to jump in with the dolphins! Next up is fish reflexology, an interesting new concept, erm... gimmick. What's that? Fish reflexlogy?

A movie tells a million words, here goes There were two pools of fishes, the mild versions from Turkey and the bloodthirsty ones from Africa. Greedy me wanted more bang for buck! My initial 2 minutes was really unbearable, but after awhile, I got used to the idea of feeding myself to fishes, apparently I tasted quite nice from the response from the fishes, no complains about stinky feet too! Easily satisfied fishes. The back, shoulder and feet massage felt quite erm... limp to me. Seems to me that the fishes are the real deal! The rest is more like, erm... for show. I really had to convince the uncle to use more force, "Yes I can take pain! I eat it for breakfast!" After that squeamish but interesting episode, Mr. Suakoo went to tour the underwater world! Never been there since they opened, FWAH! Look at that beautiful fish! Testimonial to God's creation, hmmm... aptly describe by Tatty. We saw ancient shellfish, jellyfish pretending to be plastic bags, manta rays, sharks, big fat fishes and Santa did a cameo!


Last but not least, we visited the compulsory tourist trap. We ain't tourist so we didn't fall into any traps! We did have a fun time using their baits as our props though. Pose pose pose... I am a hungry shark! I eat cute little children for brunch.



After Underwater World, we wanted to go see the sights from Carlsberg Skytower, but it's so expensive! To sit in that revolving giant coaster we have to pay nearly 20 SGD pax! It was rather fortunate we did not! While we wandering around waiting for 7.40 pm (Songs of the Sea!) we chanced upon the dragon trail! We recollected our memories of freshmen orientation camp. How scary it was, I was acting as the corpse, along with my best friend who was draped with black cloth. The CD player was playing an eerie Chinese oldies and it eerily malfunctioned after awhile! Talk about spooky...

Okie, time for me to rest, more on the bombastic Songs of the Sea tomorrow!

ALAMAK! N4S1 L3M4K !!

Aiyo! I'm such a bum! Been sitting on it and not updating my blog for so long! Sigh... What happened to updating the ASCII art on how fabulous the house I saw at block 248 is. Sigh...

So much seems to have happened in the one month that has passed. Let's see, there was a little frustration with getting the OTP re-signed. Somehow I think, all the trouble and worries had been for nothing. After speaking to a few of my friends, I realised that many people have managed to delay the submission of ROM cert for HDB purchase because our gah-ment is so understanding, yay! (That childish Sri gave me a fright while i was typing this. HMMPH!)

Okie, HDB paperwork out of the way, marriage counselling in progress, year end planning going on in school, can't wait for "teachers' school holiday" to start! Yesterday, I just bought my Nintendo WII! I had been eyeing it ever since it was launched in US last year! But somehow, my happy purchase was marred by a bungling nincompoop (ah beng salesperson).

It has to do with all the warranty technicalities. Rant rant rant... Here goes, That ignoramus did not even know that the local EXCLUSIVE distributor does not cover warranty for import sets. Although the distributor imports their sets from US all the same, as long as they don't get a cut of the profits, they will not endorse the Nintendo warranty. Mr Ignoramus Beng kept insisting that Nintendo Singapore will do the repairs. I kept telling him there is NO Nintendo Singapore and that Maxsoft is the one doing repairs, he look at me as if I'm speaking Japanese.

Bah! After some considerations and consultation with my personal advisor - tatty, I decided not to kick up a big fuss and ask for refunds. Nintendo products are so far quite reliable, tested through dropping my old Nintendo DS a couple of times, not intentional though! I shall just play like mad within the first 7 days to do a stress test on it! Woohoo! Tennis elbow here I come!

Check this out! www.wiihaveaproblem.com/

That Fateful Morning...

That morning, my dad had something on. I think he had some church stuff to attend to, or was it his appointment at the hospital? I can't remember exactly, but after making a few calls to arrange for viewings in the morning, he handed over the Bingo Book to me. I was tasked to view the houses he had shortlisted with my mother.

With the luck of a a cursed bounty hunter, I set out with weary feet. Armed with a Pasir Ris map, the Bingo Book of bounty, my dads trusty old phone and last but not least, my trusty red pen (for awarding marks to my viewings!) I took it more as a walking exercise with my mum, taking the time to discuss our financial situation as well.

The first flat I saw had a balcony. Now, that is going to be the only positive aspect of my viewing. The homeowner was apparently unaware of the condition of his glorious abode and the work necessary to transform it into a worthy love nest of a newly wed young couple. Another astute observation by my mother - a single pillow and bolster on the bed of the master bedroom. Hmm... perhaps that explains the state of the unit I was viewing. 520K would mean 170K COV! Next!

The next viewing was similarly priced, at a premium of 480K, but this house is different. Beyond the inconspicous HDB door frame lay the most posh and tastefully decorated apartment I have ever set sight on with my own two eyes. The walkway into the flat was lined with black shiny pebbles gleaming like stars out of the pitch black night. Pieces of artwork surrounding the small cozy dining area raised on a wooden platform. The walls were not painted but decorated using wallpaper and floor tiles! Completing the living room was a equally luxurious sofa set and wall mounted TV. The kitchen look almost brand new, it was built more for entertaining than for cooking! I've saved the best for the last - the master bedroom. They had major reconstruction done on the master bedroom and the adjacent bedroom. The result was a masterpiece:

(stay tuned for ASCII artwork)

You have seaview from the elevated bed platform. Seaview from the study area. Seaview from the toilet if you so choose to brush your teeth with the blinds raised! Oh, I had forgotten to mention, the whole house uses roman blinds! Truly an eye opener. If not for my conscious efforts to keep my mouth closed, I would have appeared as a slack-jaw imbecile!

Okay! Enough of my blabbering, got to end this now. Once I start, I can't stop! Perhaps my childhood aspiration to write is resurfacing!

Resignation...

If you are thinking that I'm considering resigning from my job, your guess is way off. I guess this is a long overdue update on my flat hunt.

With the assistance of a shrewd ex-property agent, my dad, I went house shopping in Pasir Ris. In our initial foray into the 4-room property market, we were sorely disappointed. Property owners were seriously unrealistic, another main gripe was that majority of 4 room flats are corridor units. There are quite a number of "door to door" units, but the design of the 'balcony' induces one to infer that the HDB designers were high on cough syrup at the drawing board.

We had to take our plans back to the operations room and pore over the extensive newspaper cuttings and research. My trusty dad had been doing additional groundwork behind my back while I was out in work intimidating minors with my booming voice and small slitty eyes (like an evil sidekick of some badass mobster).

His jump in to the 5 room property market revealed that although valuation prices are higher, the COV demanded by owners are of a lesser percentage as compared to the 4 room flat sellers. My conclusion: Seller of bigger houses are more sane. We even went to consider executive apartments which I had earlier ruled out. I was of the opinion that a young couple didn't really need much space.

With that, we started our new incursion into the fracas - the resale market of Pasir Ris. A location less favoured by many due to the sheer number of MRT stops you have to endure if you are going anywhere in Singapore. Yet it is a quiet little town that has it's rustic charms. Other than Marine Parade, it is the rare few housing estates that you can jog from your home to the beach! Eat that you Bishan lovers! AMK snobs! Toa payoh tao kias! You can have the city, I choose the beach!

Moving House

On 29 Sept 07, I was activated by my beloved girlfriend. It was like country going to war, in times of need, NSmen are called upon to defend their nation. My "slave" mode was activated, the greater cause - house moving.

I had only moved house twice before, from Bedok to Pasir Ris and from hostel to home. Both were very different experiences. When I moved from Bedok to Pasir Ris, I was of age 13. I didn't really have a lot of responsibilities. All I was tasked to do was to keep my clothes, my stationary and help out with carry some small items, after all, I was a weak scrawny boy.

Hostel moving was a whole lot different though. I was amazed by the amount of junk I collected! Alot of supposedly useful stuff was piled up in my good friend's room (all the stuff we used to cook). On that day, I made nearly 10 trips up and down 5 stories, from my room to the carpark. My legs were jellified by the end of the trip. My dad's car was literally filled to the brim and he could not use his rear view mirror. It was a horrible experience, that was just a single hostel room.

Yesterday, I had my first hand experience of house moving as an adult - no more kiddy privileges of carrying all the small items. I think I burned as much calories equivalent to 2 Mac EVMs. From 930 am, we moved boxes, furnitures, applicance from Kembangan to Punggol. 3 round trips later, my arms were jellified, my entire body coatedwith sweat, oil and grime. Even reservist wasn't so tough, this really reminds me of the outfield days in OCS.

Strangely, the greater reward seemed to come when I lay down to rest that night. It's been long time since I slept so heavily. Hehe... I woke up early and played my computer game while Tatty was still sleeping. She was sleeping so soundly, so soundly I could hear her breath out loud! Hah! Now she can't say I snore loudly, coz she breaths loudly when she sleeps!

It

www.auctionuniversal.com

Hmm... Yet another interesting business idea from my primary schoolmate.
This time round, it's a form of reverse auction model. You bid as low as you want for the item that you want to buy, but the catch is, the lowest unique bid wins! So if you have superb maths and are really lucky, you can actually win the item for a very low price!

The only catch is, you got to bid and each bid attempt costs a dollar or two. It depends on the item really. There is no time limit on the auction item but rather a bid limit. Let's say Nintendo WII has a bid limit of 300, that means a total of 300 bids will be accepted before the lowest unique bid wins! Well, I think it is a good business model.

Man... will more people please bid on his Nintendo WII? the bidometer is stuck at 1.5% i think.
Me wants a Nintendo WII!

My 3 weeks "holiday"

Yay! Serve the nation! Honestly, when I first received my SAF100, I wasn't exactly elated. It was a call of duty, a passage of ritual every able bodied male Singaporean has to endure. At least I can give thanks for being able bodied. Hallelujah!

Initially, I was rather disgruntled about how shabbily my workplace handled my replacement. I was also concerned about picking up loose ends after I return. As the day goes by and I perform my duty of protecting the nation in more subtle and sublime ways - read contributing to economy by going for numerous tea breaks. The 10 of us boosted the following economies briefly: coffee, sugar, condense milk import, bread and kaya making. I soon realise that caffeine and sugar high induces happiness when taken twice a day at mid morning and mid afternoon.

How time flies in good company! I enjoyed learning new stuff, knowing new friends and learning from their very diverse characters and experiences. It did induce some jealous pangs as well, temporary of course, but I decided to keep my mind focused on the treasures in heaven instead.

Well, holiday is ending soon, I wake up later than usual, reach home early than normal. I'm gonna miss reservist!

To teach or not to teach, that is the question...

3 months into my teaching, just dipping my toes into the lava pit.
A lot of thoughts come to my mind, spiral career change, coming out to do some business on my own after the bond. I've been thinking quite a bit on my future, where will I be in 10 years time, checking out opportunites, planning ahead yadah yadah blah blah...

Then it dawned upon me, am I actually running away from teaching? A calling which I chose to pursue as it held more meaning and meant more to others than myself? How are all those career options supposed to be more meaningful than being an engineer, which is what I was supposed to do.

Am I running away? For the first time I felt suffocated by the school adminstration. It's only 2 months into the job and I'm beginning to understand what many of my predecessors claimed,

"I love the teaching, but hate the 'whole package'"

For those who don't know, 'whole package' includes the following:

Last minute changes in workplan. (reasonable i think)
Extra curricular stuff. (Just a little from every subject = heaps load of work)
Endless meetings. (erm.. can i go mark now? do my admin?)
Colleagues who love whispering in hushed tones. (Stop the bitching!)
"Stretching you to the max potential" (Thinly veiled disguise for a volley of arrows...)

No wonder the attrition rate for educators is so high, go figure. Yeah, I'm whining, but hey, you don't know how "pang" cat poo is until you step in it, wanna try? *squish squish...*

The Vicious Cycle... Breaking Free...

As I sat in the MRT on the way to church for a retreat, I started flipping through the Bible.
I have never ever read through it systematically. Even when I was reading His Word more regularly in the past, I read randomly, relying on His Guidance to point me in the right direction. Doesn't sounds like a good way to read, but it works, strangely...

The book I read this time round was Judges. Judges in ancient Israels rule and guide the Israelites, like a king of some sort. Okay, I better get to the point soon. The book of Judges relates how the Israelites betray their covenant with God time and time again. God's wrath was brought onto them, they were conquered by their neighbours. They led terrible lifes under the yoke of foreigh rulers and when they could not take the suffering, they repented and asked for forgiveness. Each time their prayers were answered and were rescued by God.

It seems that painful memories never lasted long. Years after their rescue from tyrannical rulers, they forget their punishment and repeat their old mistakes. Somehow, I feel that I am in the same shoes as they are. Sigh. Many times I have done wrong, asked for forgiveness and repeated the same vicious cycle as the Israelites. God has been lenient to me though, I didn't get conquered by evil school mates or bullied by my neighbours.

Friday, 7 September 07, 7.15 p.m., my only thought is, I want to break free from this shitty vicious cycle.

My First Post

My inaugaral first post pre-teacher's day.
Yes, I'm a teacher, much to surprise of all who know me.

Okie, what am i going to post about?
Today I say the MSN nicks of my students, I was so sad. Why? Take a look at their personal message.

1. We can choose the way we want to live, but we can't choose the way we die.

2. Never explain yourself to others; those who trust you don't need it, those who dislike you won't believe it.

3. All I need is a chance, is it so hard to get it from you?

4. When you want to meet the ends, they move the ends.

The above have been paraphrased, when I read them, it just breaks my heart.
Just what is the education system in the little red dot doing to them?