Emma my new love

 Found my old love in Emma. Its weird that I needed another girl to make my heart skip a bit every time I see her smile, when she wriggle her tootsies,  when she skips and jumps around. She was the embodiment of youth. My old love make me sweaty and breathless, makes me move my hips with vigour. So much to give, and so much to take in. I spend endless hours with this old love, even my wife eyes me with suspicion.

Too saucy and adulterous sounding? I'm talking about Emma my girl and my old love the game of tennis. Just few hours ago, Emma Raducanu my girl's namesake; won the Women US Open champion 2021. She is just two months shy of her 19th birthday, coincidentally also 2 days later than my Emma's birthday. My Emma is still very young though, but I do hope she can achieve greater things in future (even though everything she does now is great things for us). 

I realise from this episode that my Emma is always near, and I must see her in new light. She always makes us laugh, and at the same time makes us fume. All the same she's very dear to us and we love her a lot. Unfortunately her temperament needs more work, hopefully by the time she's 18, she will be the champion I wish she is. She toilet trained herself early, she is sociable and daring; helps her older sister who is too timid to ask for things from strangers. The other day she just pulled out her first bab
y tooth (in exchange for $10 which I promised her), all small things but nevertheless will shape her championship in the future.

But for now, my old love of tennis will remain with me. For as much as I want to one day play a proper game with my Emma, for now I will have to be contented with watching the namesake Emma on TV and internet, imagining her hitting my balls. Tennis balls!

Kids Bike

I gave up trying to look for a decent bicycle for my little gal turning 4 in a week's time. It has been eye opener and frustrating at the same time. I spent few of my free days doing just that. Cycling from bike shop to bike shop and after that browsing from web page to web page.
Surprising you say? Or is it just me? I cycle a bit for leisure and exercise. Therefore I do know a little bit about bicycle although not on the extreme case. The bicycles that I saw was either, too expensive for the quality that I see; or too heavy (imagine a 4 year old cycling a 25kg bicycle) which I wouldn't even cycle myself; or too extremely expensive (for the quality that I am looking at, ok, the quality should be good for this case); or just plain too shabby for that matter.
Case 1 - a kids bicycle with funky looking design, with speedometer, coaster brakes etc etc. This was a shocker to me because this is the first bike that I was looking at. It shocked me because I didn't expect to pay between the range of $170-250 for a kids bicycle. Before I surveyed around, I had a mindset that bicycles should not cost more than $50-100 range for a kid that might just use it for one year or so. I was so wrong. Anyways, the colour is off beat so we walked out of the shop (and not forgetting the speedometer!)
Case 2 - Cycled around and asked around in local shops. It seems like the neighbourhood shops carries a more reasonably priced bikes. But at the back of my head, I keep having this image of a rusted bicycle at the end of 3 months. Plus, they only have the girl's and the boy's bicycle. Let me give you an example. A girl's bike is pink, with ribbons, a pink basket for the teddy bear and so on. A boy's bicycle would have the police theme on it, to chase the big bad boy or girl in the playground in case they are naughty. What happened to the neutral colours? I am just dumbfounded. I'm not very keen on getting a gender based bicycle simply for practicality. What if my daughter has a little brother later on? Oh, right.. get another bicycle. How come I never thought about it?
Case 3 - Went online and searched for a reputable bike brand and from the dealer. When I saw something I like online I gave them a call. Here's the transcript although I swear to you it was very difficult for the Myanmar lady on the other end to understand what I was saying and vice versa:
Me: Hello, do you carry the kids bicycle xxx model?
She: Hello, you wait ah.
Me : ...
She: We have
Me: How much is it and what colour do you have?
She: $360 and only green colour.
Me: GULP! Ok, thank you!
Case 4 - Potential future scenario if I get bikes from hypermarkets. They only carry a particular brand, which filled the cabinets from wall to wall. So you think, well, this can't go wrong since after browsing the same brand over and over (at the same hypermarket), the brand somehow seems to you to be reputable right? WRONG! I got feedback that these bikes rust as badly as '20 something Indian gal' (no pun intended on this.. it was a joke from one of my friend which talked to an elderly Indian man, which commented that rust is coming out from her unmarried 20ish something daughter) and the quality of the part are just pathetic.

And so therefore the conquest continues... will I pay through my nose for quality or settle for something less?

Time and space and friends!

Been in London few times for work and each time I spend couple day there. The surprising thing was that I haven't really explore the most English city in the world as compared to the other cities we work to.

One simple explanation is that I always seem to be meeting up with a group of friend there. They are by no means any friend. I have this sentimental feelings for the friends I have known since primary school or even kindergarten (coming from small town this is very likely).

This time around there's no exception. It was snowing by the time I reached the hotel and I was honestly quite excited seeing fleeting snow with my own eyes for the very first time. There's the danger of transport system shutting down etc but brave the snow I did. I must say I would rather go out walking in the snow compared to the rain though. You dont get wey and you can always brush off the snow.

Well in all I'm just saying at times like this when I manage to catch a breath in between doing spring cleaning for CNY, I wish I had a friend to sit down and chat over cup of tea. I hope to do that in the following week amidst my pack schedule (for a small town that's pretty packed I think!). Gonna be missing those whose not going back.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone celebrating Lunar new year out there!

Memorial

Surprisingly its almost always that you never visit the attractions near where you stay. In Kuching I've never been to Jong's crocodile farm or climbed Mount Santubong. Or within the state I'd give visiting caves of Niah or Mulu at the outskirt of Miri a miss. Perth I skipped the chance to visit surroundings which are within driving distance such as the wave rock or the friendly dolphins at Monkey Mia or see the giant trees in Albany.

Passing by the war memorial had become a daily routine. Almost felt just like one of the traffic ganty along the road. By chance though today I attempted cycling on the northwestern side of the island. Then there it is, the site on top of the hill, beckoning people to remember, remember the price of peace.

Its visible from the main Woodlands Road, and so I turned in. It was a very clean and simple, almost pure memorial and cemetery. People from all faith are buried there fighting for one cause, for the nation which is not even their homeland. Would we do the same when the time comes for us to uphold this trust.

The memorial may not be as solemn for me or you who were never involved in war. Or whose dad, husband, brother or grandfather who did carry arms and perhaps fallen while protecting the country. It does strike me though that this is a peaceful place to be..

Necessity vs luxury

Having all the time in the world may not be a good thing. It gives you time to think, normally useless thoughts. Only with certain goal in mind and a bit of dateline this time becomes useful.


For me, this time gave birth to thoughts of what the world could do with and without. Lets start with...

1. Razor - we need to shave. Good old shaver is good enough to complete the job. What we do not need is the electronic shaver. It consumes electricity, we can only use it when you have stubs and its heavy to carry when you travel. Solution: Back to basics - very sharp blades on a stick.


2. Bicycle - Look at the future of mankind: China (in terms of population). There will come a time public transport can do so much. But in order for this to work, there's a wider infrastructure revamp as well as superbly strong policital will that is needed for this to be implemented. Moving near where you work has a strong impact on what mode of transport you will take. This brings us to the 3rd necessity:

3. Housing- housing prices should be regulated as such its viable for people to move nearer to where they work. What I don't get is Bukit Timah area. All the 'best' schools are relocated there as such the price of houses there skyrocketed. I agree there should be 'private' segments of houses for people who could afford it, but public housing skyrocketing? That's not very public anymore is it?

4. Ok, topic getting too heavy. I'm getting back to the little things in life. School - I have never and will never comprehend the fact that there's not enough place for kids to study. What the heck? Forget building mega structures, longest bridges, underground tunnels, tallest buildings etc - just build me schools and the supporting infrastructures and develop manpower for it (they're called teachers that actually teach).

5. Abolish NS or make it optional - How about that? I sense some people are unhappy about having to serve NS while the others do not. To me, I think either is fine. Reason being those who served get slightly higher pay in most companies (lets call it hardship allowance) for the rest of their life after serving 2 years of NS. So if he has 30 years of productive life in the workforce and his hardship allowance is $200, he'd be earning extra $72,000. But if you still think its unfair, then just abolish it.. (can someone enlighten me why this is not possible?).

6. Make Singapore attractive for foreigners but don't ruin it by drawing so much line between the citizens and non-PRs. I personally think Singapore is wonderful place to stay. However I can't say the same in future. People are pushing so that citizens get more privilages. And I totally agree they should. But things like depriving the PRs from high quality of education just doesn't make sense. The recent enrolment restrictions into primary 1 is just the beginning. What happens to the 2nd generation PRs? They will be deprived of choice of school and then still have to serve NS. The inequality between the citizens and PRs was never such a big issue until recently. Few years ago, the influx of foreign workers increased due to bullish economy. At the same time, housing prices went up. This was attributed to the influx of PRs. I doubt that PRs which reportedly are less than 10% of HDB buyers could push the HDB price up by so much?! Come to think of it, if 10% could control the market price, then something must be wrong with the price monitoring system. Using this as one of the factors, ministers start putting in place measures to differenciate citizens and PRs which in my opinion is totally unrelated (school fee hikes, medical fee hikes, and next up housing restrictions?). My general opinion is this - Singapore wants to increase its population and thus the measures mentioned above. Those measures hopefully would encourage PRs to convert to citizenship. What about free will? I think some might convert but what would be the repercussions? Would outsider still consider Singapore as a wonderful place or would it create a new dissent generation of foreign talent?


It started off with a shaving exercise in the morning. I guess I still enjoy the basic things in life.

Timeline

On special request by my missus, I'll try to write my mind here as often possible. Consider this a theraphy or memo for myself in future (if I ever go senile), information portal or pure entertainment for the rest of the world; take it anyway you want it since everyone is unique in their own thinking.

Everyone have their milestone in life. But I'm not sure if dates are remembered as vividly as mine. My path ahead and behind me are always marked by dates more so now than ever. I can't even remember the date I finish my secondary school, when I entered Uni, date of my 1st job etc. It wasn't that significant back then. But this job, this is one different job altogether. I can't remember for life of me how it all happened but the dates are always somehow indicated somewhere to mark my progression in this profession (wow.. it rhymes!). This is just pure work so bear with me! To make things fun, what were you doing during those dates? Do you remember?

Joined the company 19 Jan 2007
ATPL date 24 July 2007 (imagine SPM or O-levels crash course in 3 months)
Left for Jandakot 17 Aug 2007
Left for Maroochydore 17 Nov 2008
Ground school 4-29 May 2009 and repeat 10-26 Mar 2010 (mind you, doing the exam twice doesn't mean you're twice as clever)
1st Wide body Take off and Landing 28 Aug 2010 a.k.a. SO appointment
1st Flight (to Johannesburg) 23rd Sept 2010
Completion of training 10th June 2011.

Feels just like yesterday

This is home, surely

HDB prices going up or going down? Harder to buy and sell new apartment? Noisy roadside traffic and constructions? Noisy maid banging on the pastel and mortar? Who cares? This is my lair, my den and I'm proud of it! Gonna start missing this view when I'm away flying..

Election is Coming!

Dear Folks of Kingdom Of Sarawak!

Hear 'ye hear 'ye. The election is coming 'ere soon. All over the internet, ye hear folks rambling their thoughts of the tyrant government and unjust treatment of the native caretakers of the land of Hornbill. Hear ye then if ye want a change for the better. Ye decide!

Ye go to this website and ye see if ye is registered as a voter. If ye 're, then go forth and vote when the time comes. But if ye is outside Malaysia then how?

This website says ye try to REGISTER at the Malaysian embassy or High Commission. I say try 'cause this service is not always available overseas. Heck, even in Malaysia ye would have trouble registering what more to say overseas. I was just reading some comments on website about some people trying to register but they were told that they ran out of form in Malaysia!! What the hell, just photocopy more of the form idiot! For that matter, they need 'special' forms printed from KL to be used!!? ('special' means the forms are printed using normal printers but since the job is contracted to some cronies of the government, they charge extra $ for that little piece of paper, which then the information is transferred into computer and then the paper will be left to decompose, forgotten and filled with cobwebs)

If ye 're overseas as I mentioned just now, its only to register as a voter OK? Under the overseas voter category if ye 're a civilian then ye have to go back to vote during the actual day. Not very fair and productive ye think? Only government servants get to do postal votes. Queer (as Enid Blyton always puts it) don't ya think?

Good luck folks! I'm registered and I'll see what changes I'll make! How about you? Time to stand up and be heard!

Time and theory of relativity

I remembered when I was young, I read about this theory of relativity presented in simplified form. If a guy has an identical twin brother, and you send this guy up into space to a distant planet few light years away. And if he completes the journey and come back, he may felt that he had just been away for 2 years for this guy. But in reality, on earth, 50 years may have passed and his twin brother may already be an old man on earth

Or something along that line.

Another way to explain theory of relativity: A person in love would feel time passes so slowly when he's away from his sweetheart but when he's around her, an hour passes at the twink of an eye.

For me, time just passes by so fast everyday. I should be studying and doing things that's important. But all I'm doing is Facebooking most of the time, read online news and suddenly its evening!! Books are left untouched, outdoor activities are non-existent, house is in a mess and I've yet to clean my lunch plates but I'll do it later..... You get what I mean.

The wierd thing is that there's should be so much time and yet, discipline and morale is low. I know I wanted to do all this things before nightfall because I want to spend quality nights with my babies (one big baby and one small baby.. gotcha.. you'd think I had another baby didn't you?!?)

I know I gotta make the change. This bad procastinating habit has to go. Time isn't slowing down and yet things need to be done. Its time for change! For all I know, time is accelerating because your body and mind slows down as you get older (theory of inner relativity?).

From today onwards; study, housework and exercises has to be accomplished before nightfall. Few more hours to go and by sundown, its time for family and friends. How I wish Einstein's theory does not apply to me. I'd like time to slow down all the time!

The bosses have spoken!

Not so wise anymore

My right and left wisdoms

Right wisdom came out in multiple pieces. This was extracted one year ago.

Right wisdom in 2 pieces for my yesterday's operation. Different tooth extraction technique? I guess different dental schools do produce different quality of dentist.

Of all the wisdom in the world, there is one that pains you most. The dental knowledge. Better not scare the kids around the world. Dentist is a fun, nice and funny person. Actually I like going to the dentist cause everytime I'm done, I know I'd go home a cleaner person.

Here I would like to diverge a bit on the statement of being a cleaner person. The exception for this statement is the one time that I went to a run down Sarikei dental clinic near the wharf - paid a hefty sum for a 10mins job not well done at all! Never have I seen a dentist who works with such a primitive tools and no proper lighting at all! The dentist had to strap on a headlamp (like the ones you use when you go caving; or when we go night flying in small aircraft). I swear on my wisdom tooth that never again will I sink my teeth in that clinic again!

Back to the whole point of this entry.. This blog is dedicated to the one thing I had, which I don't need but when you lost it.. its blardy painful ok!? Not to scare the kids, again... its not that painful at the moment because I'm still feeling numb in my cheek and my tongue. Its kindda funny that when you numb your tongue, you can't really speek properly. Opps.. I guess it affects the fingers too!

Anyways, this is my second time and my last time extracting my tooth (and I swear on my tooth that I'll never do it again!). Its a pity they had to go cause my mouth is too crammed to fit all the teeth in place. My recently adopted motto is: 'Don't fix what's not broken' seems very appropriate here. I wouldn't want to do any artificial or surgical procedures to my body unless situation warrants it (hell ya.. I'm happy with the rest of my body parts man.. hint hint).

Both my lower wisdom tooth was growing sideways due to space constrain. Its wierd considering most people I know would say I have very big mouth and still this happens. Useless crying over spilled milk now. This year I thought I'd do the operation in a family clinic, away from the city, nearer to my place. The dentist was chatty and claimed that he is very good at what he does, he offers the cheapest teeth whitening programme in the whole of Singapore and so forth.

Must say he was fairly quicker, slightly less discomfort (but hey, its tooth extraction.. don't expect it to be as painless as hair cut or manicure). He also said I'd feel the difference in post-operation which would be less painful than my last operation. That is yet to be seen since its less than 4 hours since I lost part of me....

What surprises me is the whooping bill! Wow.. I didn't know it cost almost a grand just to go through a one hour of tooth extraction (careful what you write and say... a tooth extraction is different from operation!). I didn't know about this cause last time everything was done paperlessly. This time around... I had to pay upfront for the CPF medisave portion. Wow.. that's a lot of money for an hour of your time doc!

Well, I guess it pays to be a doctor.. but even more to be a dentist!

So long my tooth, farewell.. you have not done much for me except bring me pain. I hope that you won't cause any more misery to the world. I kept wondering now as I keep typing to ease my discomfort, why do people call you wisdom. Is it even possible to lose the thing I have yet to gain. Farewell, I'll visit you every now and then in a jar for inspiration.

p.s. Will take photo of the wisdom in jar and post it here. Provided the fairy didn't get to it 1st.

BTC High rise litters

Got very sick today. Sick to my stomach these people never learn. Still continue to throw rubbish down the kitchen window. Damn pissed. This afternoon, it suddenly rained very heavily. Then as I was rushing to close the windows, there it is. A bundle of hair wrapped in tissue paper, hanging on our window!

I got so pissed I shouted upwards (not to God), but to the low-life-btc-killer litter who stayed above our unit. Desperate measure needs to be taken. This is not the 1st time. We had endless tissue papers, food in tissue papers, corroded blades (yes! blades=knifes), toys and I just saw a nail cutter which landed at the ledge of the unit below mine! Bloody hell.. where does these people come from!?

Anyways, like I said, this calls for 'shock' treatment. I just sent the rubbish they threw down up! But how to make sure the correct people get the message?

Happy Wesak and Happy Gawai!

Happy Wesak to everyone celebrating it! There was an exhibition at Orchard Road themed passport to happiness. Quite catchy theme and nice setup as well. I keep trying to take photo of the Buddha being blessed by believers.

I have no photos of any people celebrating Gawai here.. so.. this is the closes photo I took with regards to the celebration- A pure Iban warrior! WOoooooHaaaa!

I am Ironman!

Haven't found a proper time to catch Ironman 2 in cinemas but I'm sure its a blast! One of the weekends I saw this man in the suit inside Taka's kids department (Hey! I'm still one big kid!) - mommy, can I get the suit? Would be super fun! Now.. where's the villain?

Nahhh.. this is not the villain... this is a baby with a bear patch over the forehead... though she's trying her best to look nasty!

No time to study but got time for blog :)

I always have this funny habit. If I'm free, I won't get anything done. But if I'm starting to get busy, then I'll start to be productive and everything will start to fall in place.

I was suppose to study for tomorrow (1st official day in Sim!), but now its lunch time, I started cooking 'nugget de la bruchetta' (nugget with bruchetta?). Anyways, not only did I cook it.. I manage to write it down on my long abandoned blog!! I've been 'free' all this while but no updates here at all ya..

My newly improved study corner.. brightly lit! (3M light you see...). Somehow there's a higher level of organization on this chaotic table

Enjoy the lunch! For your eyes only! Notice the two capsule on the side? That's the fish oil that I left overnight.. now its soggy

Oh Isabelle oh Isabelle

Can a person's life change overnight? I certainly believe so now. My heart is split in two. I felt like I'm cheating my wife, but at the same time, it the mutual feeling shared by Felicia.

I think I should come clean here.. I am no longer just married. Now I have to share my time and love between Felicia and Isabelle. Both names sound so sweet. But now just looking at Isabelle makes my heart melt. Yes, its a dirty job but somebody just gotta do it. Its not a simple thing to do, but it doesn't take much effort and motivation to do it.

You'd think she's angel and at times she's the devil as well. I know there will come a time when she'll break your heart and also make you so proud you want to burst from within. But for now.. lets savour her baby smell. The touch, the crying, the sleepless nights, the smelly diapers, the first time she smiles, flips over, says 'mama' and 'dada', her first solid food will all come to pass in the blink of an eye.

I'm just happy to be here at the present.

With Granma

Hurray! Confinement's over! I'm off to see the world!

Patriotism on Wheels

Looking down from my house, I felt very patriotic. Felt a 'BIG' connection to the government; or as Mr Brown would call it, Gah-men. I suddenly felt I contributed to this country that I now call home. I felt I've done a big favour to my fellow MRTians now that they have more place to sit, more room to stand. I think the SMRTians and SBSes are happy the bus queue is two and half person shorter.

I would like to contribute the same amount of money to Malaysian Gah-men, but I think it might just end up as somebody's pocket money. But at same time I wish that Singapore Gah-men is not so clever at sucking money out of working class citizens. Maybe more free parking at some places? Lower parking fees? Insurance (ok, this is not caused by gah-men but maybe can be regulated). I don't think that we wanted to 'contribute' so much money out of choice.. but rather this was done out of necessity. Time, comfort, health - its all necessity.

Time - busy schedules for her, high housing cost forces us to move further from her working place. Of course the gah-men can say that you can move to a smaller house, but from where we come from, space is a necessity but here, its a luxury! Due to that, 45 mins to 1 hour of idling in the bus and MRT does not justify the value of missing the time with your kids!

Comfort - especially to a pregnant lady with a cantilever stomach in front. 2.6kg and counting...

Health - everytime we had to wait for a bus, the exhaust from the bus waiting to pick up passengers are pretty damn potent to cause you carbon monoxide poisoning. The yellow Malaysian bus from over the causeway and SBS 170 also contributes to this. They'd wait for passengers (although I don't see any) while the other passengers had to inhale the smelly by-product (disclaimer: that doesn't mean that I'd like to inhale it if bus exhaust smoke smells good like perfume or KFC). Maybe one solution is to move the passenger waiting area away from the bus waiting area or even better, airconditioned terminal like in AMK and Boon Lay.

Well, all I can say now is this: I think Merlion government could do a lot with my 'contribution' but can't you give more discounts?

Baby Bump

No, that's not fat... people on the train, learn to recognize a baby bump so you can offer to give them your seat. That's about 4 months worth of baby inside.

This month I'm 122mm tall. See my tiny hand as well? Beginning next month, I'm going to be measured by weight! Yippie!

Aunty ah.....

There's a lot of worries when you buy a house. Firstly you pay lotsa money for it so you expect everything to be working well. Recently one good friend got harrased by loan sharks or 'Along' as you call them here and in Malaysia. His front door got a free paint artwork from strangers although the real culprit does not live there anymore.

My story is nothing as serious as that. Its just that we got our current place from an aunty and her daughter. So what's the issue? Look at the photo below. I had a tough time removing them from every conner and nook of my house. I've never seen anybody so obsessed with having wall mounted hooks all over their place. Its like there's hooks to hang your stuffs EVERYWHERE in the house. Imagine a housewife (or househusband like me) cleaning their house.. then when she (he) takes a breather from wiping the window... "Oh, thank God there's a hanger, now I can hang my cleaning cloth while I rest for a while!??@!!"

We manage to get most of it from the house walls. But there's still some evidence the 'AUNTY' was here. Just open my kitchen wardrobe and you'll see what I mean. Please tell me when Ikea has a sale on kitchen cabinate door systems! Meanwhile.. here's a fun quiz for you guys.. try to count how many hooks in the photo. The prize for this game? What else? Lifetime supply of wall mounted hooks!!

Chingay Parade

Ok. I'm super duper dead bored although I should be studying for my ground school! But I did and I think a break would be good. So here goes a recap of the dark and lonely time during last CNY... (this is where I rub my chin and the screen starts to ripple and fade away - try watching David Letterman's flashbacks and you'll know what I mean)

Kitty on the prowl

The gals started posing as soon as I aimed my camera....

Well, after coming back from Maroochydore on the 4th day of CNY, I stayed in Singapore instead of going back to Sarikei due to some constrains. To get into the mood of CNY, I joined the crowd to watch the Chingay parade! I was pleasantly surprised that for the first time in ages, Singapore actually had fireworks! That's more like it 'gahmen!'. The irony is this: the Chingay is originally celebrated in Penang at different time of the year and Singapore introduced the parade to distract people after banning fireworks. Interesting facts right? I hope that Malaysia would not get so serious about fireworks although there's already regulations on fireworks. Its like banning cars from the road when some people got knocked down by irresponsible drivers if you ask me....

There were real fire action by China's dragon dance troup and multicultural extravaganza. Plenty of colourful floats, bands, people dressed up as bees, spaceman and cultural themes consisting of Korean, Japanese, Philiphines, Indians, Brazilians and many more. Its a nice parade to watch with all the musics. I enjoyed especially the drums and beats that resounds 'Stomp!'. Perhaps just one comment on the local scene though.. it would be nice to see more cultural stuffs which represents the composition of Singapore instead of the usual futuristic (ie NUS team which is about Dream in the City, or some metalic robot float bellowing steam into the air) or developements (ie HDB floats are just squarish buildings!). Kudos to NTU which had a nice floating palace and supercharged Chinese theme. Gotta get the balance in development and maintaining Singapore's culture! Ok, now that I got the cultural part out of the way.. its back to work!

Nice big grub....