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!