cycling at pulau ubin

i went to ubin with my uni gang yesterday. gosh. of all days when it didn't rain in ubin, we chose a really lucky day. it rained... for a period of time. still, it didn't spoil the fun.


changi jetty


celine's and nana's best friend - sunblock lotion


cloud and hj


ooo! sexy back of the bum boat uncle


does this cloud look like a dragon head?


aiyo. unglam.


the first quarry that we visited



lol! cloud was leading the pack when she suddenly screamed. nana follow suit even though she didn't know why she is screaming. -.- girls.
anyway, we all stopped to investigate and realised cloud screamed because if this lizard. it's alive, mind you.


don't know whose sexy legs are these. they really attracted alot of mozzies.


nana and celine


uh..i was trying to taste the ' juice' of a flower


look like goddess of mercy?



me and cloud


nehehe... we climbed to the top despite the fence. shh...


hj, cloud, me


me, cloud, nana, celine, hj


ubin quarry where mediacorp used to film their chinese fighting scenes and where heroes could bounce on water.



we are the modern heroes. =x

i was sharing with nana and cloud about how i always buy drinks from this malay auntie and they both said:" are you sure she is an auntie? are you sure she is really there?" -.-
so i proved to them that she is really human when we went there to buy drinks.


haha...this is the malay auntie's time table. cloud said that maybe we should order 11 cans or bottles or a mixture of drinks, and see whether she will get mixed up or not.


cloud stealing the cookie from a weather beaten cookie monster.

To chek jawa


left: at the hut where we parked our bikes, we saw quite a number of rubber trees.
right: no cycling...


the viewing tower


we climbed all the way to the top and almost died. haha...


the view from the tower.


celine, me, cloud, nana, hj


more groupies...

we tried to test how strong the tower is by doing a whole lot of jump shots. heh.



only 4 good ones and millions of bad ones. blame the photographer.



interesting looking fruit eh? you will never believe that your atap chee seed comes from this fruit.


cute mudskipper


fiddler crabs. can see them?

at the boardwalk


the many faces of celine



me likes the clouds









heh... i wonder why she covered there...





capturing the beautiful sky


oops... a dead crab.


cloud trying to act cute...


seashell...


nice waves...



hj, celine, nana, cloud


a very happy celine and hj scolding cloud


emo...
let me die...


haha...we were trying to see how flexible we are.


left: uh... newton's law at work.
right: LOVE


guess whose shoes are these?


nice eh?


haha...this was posted in the bum boat returning to singapore. i totally agree with this. so..conclusion is....DON'T SAY ANYTHING!

now, my legs are still nursing from the mozzie bites. they are really itchy lah! monkeyelephant.

headache

lately, i have been having rather long and terrible bouts of headache.
i really don't know what to do with it.

run and knock my head on the wall.

the last exam

yay! exams are officially over!!! for good! heh. at least, for almost all of us except cindy and ba who still have one more paper next week.

well, we have been looking forward to this day 3 and a half years ago and it is finally here.


=D together for 3 and a half years, and for some, more than 6 years.


left: celine and liyun
right: boohoohoo...no work, no money


piggy celine


our masterpiece


we are officially unemployed.
so stress!!!! nothing to do!!!


hehe... graduating class

last day of school

Last Day of School

last day of school was on wednesday, two weeks ago. my real estate development group project members decided to take group photos so that we can give one to tiffany before she returns to canada to study. unfortunately, we were missing one group member...


the ten men team.
left (sitting): bavani, nana, me and tiffany. Left (standing): bryan, eric, han keong, hj
right (sitting) hj, bryan, eric, han keong. right (kneeling): bavani, me, nana and tiffany


half of jh's group.
sitting: cloud, celine
back: mandy, jh and cindy

two weeks later, on wednesday...


we are counting down to unemployment.
everyday, we study in the same room, everyday we see the number of days decreasing.
so depressing.

i guess the good thing is...not all of us a unemployed. at least cindy and hj have signed and given their life to some company.

lelong lelong...which company want me??




will there be a day where i can see you again?

pain

ever felt like you have been hit by a memory, so hard that it swept you off the ground and you could feel the cold hard floor hitting you, except that now, you feel only pain in the heart, and not anywhere else?

know what?

the pain only got worst over time.




why did you have to go?

final exams

friday was the submission of my case study. gosh. when i handed up more than 100 pages worth of hard work to the admin staff, i could feel the load removed from my hands and my heart. however, me being me, the relief was short lived. right after i left the admin office, i began to worry whether i miss anything out in the report, whether i printed the right stuff, did i forget to label something, or mention something and the list went on. after that, i worried about my coming exams and heh, my heart felt heavier than it was before i submitted the report. zzz.

hmm...i feel like book binding my report and keep it as a souvenir. i mean, come on man, how often do you get to write acknowledgments in your report? ONCE. just ONCE in my six and a half years of writing reports. and then, maybe one more if you continue into masters and many more when you become a phd. so, seeing that i won't be studying anymore for now, i should just print it out right? my hard work, my blood and my baby. it is like i just published my own book. heh. ok. i should stop all these nonsense.

i wonder what life will be when my status changes from 'student' to 'unemployed'.

panic attack

each time i see my facilitator's name in my email, i will get a panic attack.
seriously, i fear the contents of his email.
i can't wait to submit this final report man.

soon...next friday is D-Day.
and two weeks after that, i am no longer a student of NUS.

my goodness.
that is fast.
but now, i cannot afford to look so far ahead.

*panic attack*

my mother in the news!

ok. let me show off my mother for a little moment.
i mean...how often do you have an article written about you right?
what's more? the article reaches to more than half of the population in Singapore.

this morning, my mother smsed me.
her: do u have 'Today' newspaper? see me in pg 47?
me: i don't have leh. u bring home?

after that, during lunch, i asked my friends if they have the Today newspaper cause i wanted to see why my mother was featured in the newspaper. because none of them have, they started speculating why...

bryan:"in newspaper for what?"
celine: "advertise for london weight management ah?"
bryan:"for breast enhancement is it???"
me:"-.-"

so i decided to msg my mother to ask her instead. and she said that it was "for the company to boost engineering industry". hmmm... whatever that is. at least, it is not whatever my friends said.


source: Todayonline. http://www.todayonline.com/printedition/20091026/am/hotnews

heh... she looks quite cool in this picture.

ok. enough of showing off.
i have alot of work to do,

and one thanksgiving: His grace and His mercy for helping me find my thumbdrive.

Batam Kelong Fishing Reloaded

Day 1

we took the second earliest boat to batam and arrived at about 11 plus Singapore time. we rest awhile before taking our brunch.



lunch.

just three simple dishes. the curry chicken was actually very good. all of us loved it. after lunch, we head out to sea to fish.


champions of the sea.
sam and debs caught alot of fishes. most of the fishes belonged to the trevally family.


while the two of them were busy catching trevallies, i caught puffer fish.


left: snapper
right: trevally and puffer fish


the guy helping her take out the puffer fish which was puffing itself up.

Back at the keong. The yield from the first round...


left: queenfish
right: all the fishes that were caught, including queenfish, trevallies and a snapper


this is moppy, one of the many dogs that live at the kelong. i think he is one of the cutest dogs i have ever seen.

after a short break, we went back to sea again.


this time i caught a really big trevally.


debs and her sea bream

while fishing, we spotted the trawlers which specialise in catching ikan billis. we decided to go nearer to see how they did it.


trawlers which specialise in catching ikan billis


left: the people on the small boat will drop the net in a circle to catch the small fishes.
right: the big boat where they filtered their catch and partially cook the ikan billis for sale.


left: the container where they dumped all their ikan biliis
right: closer view


left: the guys pulling up the net
right: pure sea salt which they used to cook the ikan billis. not bad eh? all their resources are from the sea.


left: fresh ikan billis and a baby tamban
right: a baby halfbeak

Back at the kelong. The yield for the second round...


left: all our catch including trevallies, sea bream and an unidentified fish
right: the unidentified fish


evening view

A series of jumps...


left: me and sam
right: me and debs


left: debs
right: debs and sam


left: me trying to jump with knees bent
right: me with a star jump



Dinner.
the third picture shows some of our catch bbq in aluminium foil.

Day 2

i woke up early to have a walk and ho...unlike the previous trip, the tide was already coming in. so...it wasn't really as fun as i thought it would be. i saw alot more things last time compared to now.


left: crabby
right: a squid. ok...it is not very obvious in this picture, but it is that fish looking thing somewhere near the middle of the picture.

after that, debs and i went for a mini 'trek' on land. sam told us that there were alot of pitcher plants and all, so we began our search for the pitcher plant.


some wild flower...


left: another wild flower
right: mushrooms!!!


left: a pitcher plant!!!
right: a nice star shaped flower


left: geese
right: puppy of moppy (i think, or is it merah's??). it was very playful. i got a scratch from it which i am still nursing.


left: more puppies of moppy's or merah's.
right: chickens and... heh... an uninvited guest polishing up their food.

after breakfast, we went out to sea again.


left: a crab (actually, two, one at the top and the other at the bottom)
right: a jellyfish that was scooped up from the sea. guess what, it was having its meal! can you see the two little fishes near the head of the jellyfish?


left: as usual, this woman had another big catch. this time, 4 fishes in a row. you can see trevallies and queenfish hanging on the line
right: shortly after she drop her line, she caught...what? six SIX fishes at one go. zzz.

we reaped quite alot in the morning, however, we ran out of lines (baits) cause they got stuck somewhere. so we went back to get somemore.

Back at the kelong. The catch for the first round...


left: the guy helping to collect the fishes that we caught
right: all our catch including trevallies, tambans, snappers and a queenfish

we went out again after offloading all the fishes and replenishing our supply of baits and lines. this time, the returns were terrible. we hardly catch any fish. we kept moving from one place to another to search for a good place, but in vain.


i think the guy was so sian until he used his foot to steer the boat.

after a long while, we decided to go back to the kelong.

Back at the kelong...



lunch.

we took a rest after lunch.
dark clouds soon came, threatening to pour.


left: half the sky was bright, the other half, dark
right: hehe...i tried to get as close to the birds birched on the branch but one flew away. zzz


left: moppy!!!
right: merah!!! moppy's best friend, i think. evey time i tried to go near to merah, he runs away. =( merah reminds me of someone very close to my heart.

it poured in the afternoon, but it didn't last long. after that, we went out to try again.


another jellyfish that was scooped up from the sea.

this round's fishing also reaped nothing. so we waited for the ikan billis trawler so that we can buy some ikan billis.


left: can you see the birds flying around the boat??? heh. so smart... however, there's always a limit to greed k. we saw one bird dive in and never got out of the water.


left: some of the fishes that were filtered off.
right: heh... stingray. cool eh?


left: a sea cucumber
right: the bucket of ikan billis that we bought for 50,000Rp

Back at the kelong...


the sun's almost setting...

debs and sam went on a scavenger hunt to spot some abnormal things in the pail. by the way, i ate up all the abnormal stuff that they found in the pail.


left: baby squid
right: baby crab


left: more baby squids
right: baby tambans and prawns


heh. greed was the reason why this fish was caught.


left: after eating the ikan billis in the fish's mouth
right: the fish trying to eat the sun


nice skeleton of the fish. hehe. the fish was very very salty. in fact, all the stuff that i ate from the pail were very salty.


left: sunning the ikan billis
right: some kueh fried with ikan billis


beautiful sunset


left: the bbq pit
right: sam loves the sunset

after dinner, debs and i went out for night fishing. gosh. it was terrible. nothing to catch at all. only debs and one of the guys managed to catch a fish each after waiting for donkey years.


a snapper and a sea bream

Day 3

today, we woke up early to see God promise written on the sky.

¹² And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9:12-16



if you can't see the rainbow, you have to click on the picture to see it in a bigger resolution.


yay! merah finally allowed me to pat him. ain't he cute?

we went out to sea after breakfast.
we managed to catch quite alot of fishes, however, our happiness was short lived because the waters soon became choppy and the sky turned dark. not long after, it rained. we headed to a beach to collect some coconuts first before heading back to the kelong.


left: our sampan in the choppy waters at the beach
right: she sells sea shell at the sea shore


left: can you spot two cats in this picture??
right: "whatchoolookingat?"

Back at the kelong...


left: a grouper caught by debs
right: grouper sashimi, anyone?


our total catch which includes one queen fish, plenty of trevallies, a few yellow tails and tambans


left: snapper
right: sam's queen fish



lunch!
our final meal had more dishes. i like the black sauce chicken and the red grouper.

after the lunch, we went out to sea again. ugh. it was terrible for me, i tell you. the water was still choppy even though it stopped raining and the sun was out. it felt like i have my own choppy sea in my stomach. urgh. besides, there wasn't alot of fish. as usual, most of the fishes were caught by debs and sam.


left: debs caught an even bigger queenfish
right: our total catch which includes trevallies and queenfishes.

we left the kelong in the late afternoon when the sun was ready to set and where many people started to check in to have fun over the weekend.


clothes pegs at the back of our room.
me like this picture.

Prime News
Property agents to be regulated
Jessica Cheam
715 words
5 October 2009
Straits Times
STIMES
English
(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Measures to include monitoring body and dispute resolution

THE Government is moving quickly on a plan to regulate real estate agents in the wake of growing calls to improve the standards of the industry.

The Straits Times understands that an independent body will be set up and chaired by a neutral party appointed by the Government. It will also house a dispute resolution centre to mediate between agents and consumers.

Key agency bosses, industry associations and individual agents have already met with Government officials to discuss the reforms.

The proposals, which could be made public in the next month or two,will likely require that agents sit a compulsory exam and that all accredited agents be monitored through a central database run by this independent body.

This will mean that errant agents will no longer be able to switch agencies easily, as they can now. Currently, agents fired from an agency for dodgy activity can just switch to another firm.

There are also suggestions that agents will have to buy indemnity insurance protecting customers for losses resulting from negligent or unethical conduct.

While the Government has in the past maintained that the industry should self-regulate, it has decided to step in due to an increasing number of complaints against rogue agents, which has occurred in tandem with Singapore's property market boom.

In February, for example, a couple successfully sued ERA Realty Network over its agents' conduct. The agents, who have since resigned from ERA, had made a profit from 'flipping' an apartment they were supposed to sell for the couple.

The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) received 1,100 real estate-related complaints last year, 1,113 in 2007 and 991 in 2006. This year, it received 619 complaints from January to August.

Case executive director Seah Seng Choon told The Straits Times this week that the proposed measures were long overdue.

'There is a need to ensure a proper standard of practice so there aren't abuses in the industry,' he said.

Mr Seah is pleased that a central dispute resolution centre will be set up to help consumers and agents settle rows.

Although a clearer picture of the proposed reforms has emerged, two big questions remain: Are agents going to be individually licensed, and who else will be involved in running the independent body?

There are now two industry bodies - the Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies (SAEA) and the Institute of Estate Agents (IEA)- but it is not compulsory for agents to join either. While both associations are involved in the review process, discussions are ongoing as to their specific role in the independent body.

Industry observers note that some of the associations' existing functions may become redundant in light of the new regulatory framework.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak said that ideally, agency bosses, many of whom advise the current industry bodies, should not be involved in this new independent body, as they might resist the reforms or have a conflict of interest.

'The priority now is to put in place a system that can permanently remove errant agents from the industry so they think twice about behaving unethically,' he said.

Agency heads say they fully support the suggested reforms.

'Even if it involves more work for agency bosses like myself, I don't mind so long it makes our industry more professional and disciplined,' said C&H Realty managing director Albert Lu.

Mr Lu is one of many who back the idea of licensing not just agencies but individual agents.

'They are the ones doing the transactions, so they should be made accountable for their actions,' he said.

Knight Frank agent Peter Tan, 40, said it was a good idea to have a compulsory exam 'to give clients confidence that agents know their stuff'.

But it remains to be seen how effective the new accreditation will be, he said.

'It's the right initiative. But there are many agents who resort to unethical conduct because it's quite a tough business. We'll have to see if it is enough to deter such behaviour.'

Public consultation on the proposed reforms is due to begin this month with the findings due by December.

jcheam@sph.com.sg

***

yay. finally! what took the government so long to decide on this?!!!
come to think of it, more than 4 years! aiyo.
and i vote to have agents to be individually licensed, that will make sure that they behave themselves.

anyway, urgh. i really hate being sick.
especially when you have to puke yourself dry so that you will feel less sick. =(
i even puked water. =( terrible.
hope i will never ever ever puke in my life ever again.
even when i have undergone GA or when i am pregnant or whatever.
SAY NO TO PUKING.
urgh.

ooo... hantus in your block?

News
Mystery of the falling marbles
Chua Kong Ho
1187 words
12 June 2005
Straits Times
STIMES
English
(c) 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Structural engineers say noise comes from plumbing or concrete floors while others give different explanations

HEAR that? Someone in the flat above is playing with marbles. But it's 1.30am. No child would be up at this witching hour.

The mystery deepens for bank executive Joseph Wong, 47, because his upstairs neighbours are an elderly couple. No youngster live in their five-room HDB flat.

When The Sunday Times interviewed the families living up to three floors above him, all denied dropping marbles or any other objects on the floor so late at night.

Also, the sound seemed to have followed Mr Wong from Lorong Ah Soo to his new home in Edgefield Plains in Punggol.

Wags, of course, would say he has lost his marbles.

But his letter to The Straits Times Forum Page last week, asking the HDB for answers, has stirred out of the shadows many who have been similarly vexed, if not puzzled.

It has also plunged Singaporeans into a frenzy of fuzzy theories. The Straits Times received more than a dozen letters, including one from Madam Sharini Shamsuddin, who playfully suggested that spirits are at work.

Internet forums are swelling with explanations that make you want to throw up your hands in disbelief. One that probably coaxed many laughs, both nervous and mocking, is the suggestion that the HDB had placed marbles between floors so that playful spirits would be so distracted playing with them, residents will be left in peace.

If so, private developers have been equally diabolical. Expatriate Julian Cohen, 42, has been haunted by the same sounds at each of the three private condominiums he moved into in the past 10 years. He also heard them when he was working in Hong Kong.

He said wryly: 'I guess Joseph can take consolation that the marble-dropper doesn't just live above his HDB flat but drives round to his second apartment above mine to continue his marble-dropping activities after he has woken Joseph up.'

Mr Wong's wife Geralda and six-year-old daughter Amanda, however, are sound sleepers, deaf to the disturbing noise. 'Always, the noise happens between 1.30am and 4am. It spooked me initially but as the years go by, you get used to it,' he said.

Postgraduate student Lim Leng Hiong, 28, who lives in Holland Drive, suspects golf enthusiasts are practising their putting at home.

In an experiment, he found that glass marbles, ping pong balls and golf balls, when dropped, produce different sounds. 'But it's hard to tell the difference when heard on their own,' he noted.

The only problem with his explanation, of course, is that HDB dwellers have been hearing the sounds of marbles way before the recent golf craze.

HDB would have you believe that every sound has a reason. It said in a letter to The Straits Times: 'To date, we have not received any feedback on the sound of dropping marbles where there has not been any attributable cause.'

What could be some of the attributable causes? HDB spokesman Tay Boon Sun is not telling. But he gave the assurance that the acoustic properties of flats do not differ from other residential buildings.

More forthcoming are structural engineers and the co-founder of Singapore Paranormal Investigators, Mr Charles Goh. Their answers, however, indicate that when things go bump in the night, the reasons are rarely beyond the mundane.

Mr Goh, 36, said the marble sounds can be traced to air-con pipes or old refrigerators, while the sounds of furniture being dragged across the ceiling, another common occurrence, could be due to lift doors opening and closing.

Structural engineers point to two probable causes: the plumbing and the concrete walls and floors.

Mr Wong subscribes to the last because that's where he hears the marble sounds in his flat.

Mr Crispin Casimir, owner of CC Building Surveyors, and Dr Tan Guan, a director at TY Lin SEA, will have you focus on the concrete.

Concrete floors may contract at night, giving off creaking sounds, Dr Tan said.

Mr Casimir added: 'Sounds travel and are distorted as they pass through concrete walls and floors.'

Mr Shek Kam Chew, 68, a structural engineer since 1966, is convinced it's in the plumbing.

'It's definitely not supernatural but what is called 'water hammer',' he said.

Water hammer occurs when water flow is shut off suddenly like when the toilet is flushed. This change in pressure rattles the piping and create 'clanging'sounds, which may sound like marbles dropping after distortion through concrete walls, he said.

Still sceptical? Why not stick with the obvious? Surveys have shown that Singaporeans sleep late. So really, it's just children playing with marbles.

Three explanations:
1 When water flow is shut off suddenly, the change in pressure rattles the pipes, which may sound like marbles dropping after distortion through walls.

2 Some pre-fabricated floors used in HDB flats have an embedded high-strength steel cable which can give off creaking sounds when they contract.

3 It is really children playing with marbles

What the HDB says

'HDB flats are designed based on prevailing building codes. Hence, the acoustic properties for flats are no different from other residential buildings. To date, we have not received any feedback on the sound of dropping marbles where there has not been any attributable cause. HDB Sengkang Branch Office, which manages the flats at Punggol Town, has not received any feedback about the sound of dropping marbles in the area.

In Mr Wong's case, we have contacted him and offered HDB's help. We will be checking with his neighbours over the next few days to see if we can locate the source of the sounds Mr Wong mentioned. Madam Shamsuddin mentioned that her eldest son described hearing similar sounds as Mr Wong. If she would like us to look into the matter too, she can contact our Toll-free Branch Office Service Line: 1800-2255-432 to provide us with her address.

In a high-rise, high-density living environment, a certain degree of noise is inevitable. It would also be in the interest of neighbourliness for residents to ensure that the activities carried out within the flat do not generate excessive noise and to exercise some degree of tolerance towards their neighbours.'

What the readers say

'The pipes of some air-con units make popping sounds. These sounds resemble marbles dropping when they travel through the pipe embedded in walls. Another possibility is that in some old fridges, the compressor makes this noise which can be heard clearly only at wee hours when it's quiet.' -- MR KENNY GOH, co-founder of the Singapore Paranormal Investigators

'I'm quite sure that this 'urban legend' is due to a real social phenomenon: the Singaporeans' love of mahjong.' -- MR CHRISTOPHER YEO JER SIONG, Chuan Terrace

'Could the sound be attributed to the expansion of a certain type of tiled floor in the much cooler early hours of the morning?' -- MR RALPH LESSLAR, Marsiling Drive

***

i was doing my research when i stumbled onto this article.
coincidentally, my case study supervisor asked me the very same question when i had a meeting with him just a couple of weeks ago. he is one of those who subscribed to the hypothesis that there are kids playing with marbles and people moving furniture at night. hahaha!

im pretty sure there are quite alot of people who have experience just a thing. when i stayed in my old hdb flat last time, i also heard the same thing and my parents told me its the kids upstairs. funny thing was, the flat upstairs has no kids. hmm...

anyhoo, poly education taught me that it is the pipes at work. as explained in the article, the sound is cause by the pressure changes when the valves in the pipes open and close. when the sound goes through the concrete, it sounds like marbles dropping on the floor. expanding and contracting reinforcement bars within the concrete can cause the moving furniture sound.

heh. i feel that the author wrote the article in a very interesting and funny manner. seriously. kids playing with marbles and people moving furniture at 1.30am? ahaha! but then again, as the article mentioned, singaporeans sleep late right? so there's still a possibility. haha.

realistic pessimist

Pessimist, optimist or realist? Pessimist You always expect the worst. This way, at least when things really do go wrong, you won't be too let down, because you were expecting them to happen.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

"Merely looking at the dangers ahead and resigning oneself to it inevitability is cynicism. Looking at the dangers ahead and preparing accordingly is pessimism."

source: http://cominganarchy.com/2009/04/24/the-economist-on-pessimistic-realism/

i was just wasting time away searching for articles to answer my question on what it means to be a realistic pessimist but, seriously, i guess, there is a nagging behind my head telling me that i am wasting time and google search isn't churning up any good websites to answer my question, and since i am at the 4th page of the search, i am never going to find my answer.
there, that is the realistic pessimist me talking.

heh.

my pcm and i have been talking about this topic on and off because well, i shared that i couldn't really tell the difference between a realist and a pessimist. more often than not, i believe that i am realistic in my views despite people telling me that i am pessimistic. nonetheless, i must admit that i am pessimist, or rather, a realistic pessimist.

yesterday, we tried to define what an optimist, pessimist and realistic pessimist would say when they see a half a cup of water.

optimist: the cup is half full.
pessimist: the cup is half empty.
realistic pessimist: the cup empty. why? because even though it is half empty now, it will eventually be empty one day.

i guess that is my definition of what a realistic pessimist is. heh.
maybe a psychologist can give me a more educated definition.

anyway, page 1 to page 4 of the google search mostly reveals the truths about what it means to be optimistic and pessimistic. i have read quite a few articles which say that optimist tends to suffer depression because they hope too much, pessimist, on the other hand, wouldn't because they expect the worst. however, obviously, people don't like to hang around with pessimists. everybody likes an ego booster right, not an ego damper, ya?

whatever the case might be, i suppose an optimist would still be searching through page 100 of the google search because he/she believes that something useful might turn up in the search while an pessimist would give up after the first few pages.

oh well.
life taught me many things and one thing i learn, since the day i started to recognize things, is that even when you are struck down, stones and rocks will still be thrown at you and it hurts when you try to get up, hoping that someone will be there to help you, but there is no one. it doesn't pay to be optimistic. the higher your hopes, the more painful it will be when you fall. so... hope less, expect less and pain less. not painless. just pain less.

i also know that if you don't hope, there is no joy.
there is the realist in me telling me that there is still hope. there must be hope or life will be meaningless.
sigh.
i am still learning to hope.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelations 21:3-4

In Your promises, that is where i put my hope.

alien jane

i was standing in front of two little boys in the train just now. the boys were sitting down next to the mother.
i was just enjoying my music when i just so happened to look down at the boys and my music just so happened to end.

younger bro: *points to older bro* you be alien!
older bro: *dejected* no, i don't want!
younger bro: *suddenly points to me just as i looked down* ALIEN!
me: *death stare* *mother quickly talked to the boys just when the next song played*

hmph. if i were an alien, i would wrap them up with my fantastic powerful tentacles and throw them out of the train.
hmph.
but i am no alien, i can only death ray them.

okok. i absolutely have low threshold towards babies, toddlers, kids. cute is one thing, irritating is another.
hmm... got to do something before baby asher comes.

argh!
on another note, i have alot of reports to do!!
ahhh! im drowning!

taylor swift has made way to S.E.N.S as my new project companion.

"...served by the cute handsome american boy like me!"
*pukes*

BORING!

my gosh. i have never been to such a boring tutorial in my life!

i couldn't even here what the lecturer was saying!
and the darn tutorial class was so huge lah! it is almost as big as the class during lecture.
but oh well, at least, i know that it won't be as big the next time we have tutorials. today's tutorial was huge because the lecturer was pretty slow in his lecture and he couldn't cover enough ground for tutorial.

the tutorial was after lecture lah. this meant that i have to sit on the same seat for a good 3 hours odd. my butt ached like mad during lecture. it didn't really help that most of us could follow what the lecturer was saying. so i kinda lost my attention and lalalala...continued my battle with A. Myskina in my third match of the World Tournament. my gosh. she is tough. i have yet to beat her. hmph. the rest of my friends? heh...


nab couldn't make head or tail of her notes. so stress until she read it upside down.


this is the wonderful masterpiece of hj.
he claimed that he was too stress, hence the artistic pictures.

ok. this sem is my last leg. i really don't know how im going to float through the whole 3 months. >.<

time to study

friday marked the last day of my 3 weeks stint in The Centris.

during this short period, i have seen owners do all kinds of things to their unit:

1. roll oranges and pineapples on the floor of their unit before they stepped in
2. throw rice and tea leaves at every single nook and cranny of their unit
3. spray holy water
4. hang their private things in the planter box/private enclosed space for all yee who are at the swimming pool to see
   

hmm... and when i asked them what's the purpose of doing so, they could not tell me. maybe the act of rolling the oranges and pineapples will bring them prosperity and all, but as for the rice and tea leaves, nobody could give me a definite answer. i didn't ask the owner who sprayed holy water what's her purpose of doing so.

i have also seen the time-quality-money triangular relationship first hand in this development. it is really interesting to see all the things that i have studied for 6 years displayed before my eyes. this is way better than my poly industrial attachment.

anyway, my last day of work ended pretty late and i must say, my last appointment of the day with a owner left me rather irritated. honestly, people should learn how to listen before they open their mouth. tsk tsk.

gosh... i don't understand how work can be so tiring. i mean, every day after i reach home, i will fall asleep right after i bathed. and yup. with my hair wet too. but oh well. i enjoyed myself at work.

time to concentrate on my last sem. *gasp!*

some photos taken on the last day:


liang xiang and do. our "little brothers" who helped us with the handover and defects until it is time to serve the country.


zi qiang and the defects list.


janice, muthu and celine.
heh. muthu is the foreman in charge of defects.


the view from the function room (where our temp office is)
i quite like the pool. it is really really HUGE. looks like a mini lake to me.

black beauty

i saw several "black beauties" going for $3.50 each in sheng siong on sunday. very cheap, aren't they?



anyway, i started work at the centris this monday. my job is to handover the completed units to the owners. sounds simple enough eh?

NOT!

but i am pretty ok with my job, in fact, i quite like it as long as i don't get posted to sit at the office and answer telephone calls.

oh well.
it is really hard to deal with people.
HUMAN BEINGS! tsk!
needless to say, i am a human being too.
sigh.
so long as there are more than one human being on earth, life will always be difficult.

people just love to demand for their wants, make sure their demands are heard before they listen. and even if they listen, they are just hearing, none of the information is registered in their head. tsk.

why do man always want, and not give?
all i ask is for someone, just someone, to lend me his ears.
just lend, not give.
is that very difficult?
sigh.

anyway, i was talking to one of the foreman yesterday. he said they no parents will ask their children to study real estate or building. NO PARENTS. he even advised me to tell my future kids not to study real estate because real estate is one industry that is very vulnerable. it will fluctuate along with the economy.

i do agree with him but hmm... i quite like what i am doing now.
i understand what he is going through.
when you work for the main contractor, your life will be FULL of deadlines and stress is your best friend and the developer is your voodoo doll.

oh well.
life is like a bed of roses.
it is full of thorns.

i love you lappy!

i finally got back my darling laptop from the repair centre today after a 2 months stay there. *hugs laptop* oh i miss YOU!!!!

actually, i was half hoping that they can't repair it so that i can get a brand new laptop for free but NAH, as if it is so easy. anyway, i still love my laptop. my lappy now has a new lcd screen even though i can't really tell (hmm) and they tweaked my motherboard a little to solve the shut down issue. i hope it is really solved, though. maybe i should leave my laptop on the entire night to see if it is ok. hmm...

well, it is bidding for modules once again, except this time, i will be filing for graduation (aww...) and it will be my last time bidding for modules (it better be!).

mundane

i see dust collecting in this blog.

a month of inactivity in the blog is pretty much a good reflection of what my life is like now.

other than the sudden fever i developed (no, not H1N1) which was only accompanied by a body ache and nothing else (in fact, i went to the doctor perfectly fine, no fever even, and paid 28 bucks just to have a peace of mind), the leadership training camp and umm...hmm...the slight flu now (no, i doubt it is H1N1) which is accompanied by a nasal voice and an occasional coughing fit, my life is pretty much _________________________________________________________________
yeah. as straight and as dead as this line. meeting meeting, research research, reading reading. what else?

the deadline to submit my case study topic is coming up pretty soon. school is also starting in another 2 weeks time (after national day, yay!) and i just realised i have a big presentation due one week after national day. boo.

Kelong Fishing in Batam

i went kelong fishing in batam at Shalom Kelong with debs, zenata and sam from the 8th to the 10th of June, shortly after my vietnam trip. heh.
quite glad that i went for the fishing trip after much hesitation and comtemplation. =)

Day 1


zaneta and sam at the ferry terminal

In Batam


our room + a very unglam sam!


left: our toilet
right: our balcony


the bridge to the platform and that's our sampan!


the swimming pool!

At the mini farm...


left: geese
right: my best friend - chicken


left: doggy which looked very very familiar
right: the beach


left: mango that looks like a butt
right: dunno what fruit

red monkey


sam, me and debs


raising the huge net to see if there are any fishes


the hole to see the net



sam and debs proudly showing their catch


fish: poor me


left: debs and (i forgot his name) fixing the line
right: sam


left: sam and debs
right: some of their catch


nice scenery


going out to sea


yay...me and my catch.


sunset


sunset after10mins.


zaneta with her catch and a cheeky debs behind


see...sam and debs playing with the hammock again


some of the fishes we caught at sea

Dinner!




these were the fishes that we caught


debs and sam


the huge net managed to capture only 2 sotongs, not enough to use as baits


night sky

Day 2

i woke up early in the morning to catch the sunrise but boo... i wasn't early enough. so i took a slow walk around the kelong to absorb and enjoy the sight and sound of the place.


low tide


the swimming pool that has no water.


the kelong felt quite empty without the water


a purple crab


left: a mob of dunno what at the bottom
right: turns out to be junior catfishes


coral reefs


mud crabs


ok...this is quite disgusting.
from a far, they really look like red ants, but they are actually baby crabs. everytime i saw them on the sand, i would get goosebumps.


this is the kelong's special drink - coconut juice with old honey. pretty good. initially, i thought it was coconut juice with alcohol because of its unique taste. i still prefer the it with normal honey.


debs and her catch. same colour code somemore.


debs and sam hard at work


pastor (i forgot his name)


the fishes that we caught


left: more fishes
right: shells that we collected from our morning scallop hunt


sam and her fish on the sampan

after coming back from the sea, we were treated with nice coconut juice!


manly man cutting the coconut

and DURIANS!!!

it was such a treat lah! the durians were not bad. cooling coconut with heaty durian. nice pairing too.


the sun was almost setting. i loveeeeeeeeee the clouds


our catch of the day! slipper to gauge.


me, debs, zaneta, sam


my beautiful sunset


a sampan

we tried sotong fishing that night, but it was a total failure mainly because it was full moon. sotongs are attracted to light and since it was full moon that night, it was quite hard to attract sotongs to our bait.

debs and i decided to stay up overnight to fish. we shifted one mattress to the platform, laid down for a while and lo and behold, we saw this:


Full moon plus a full circle around it!!! WOW!
the amazing thing was that the full circle was like a rainbow. we saw red, orange, green, blue and a tinge of purple. not very obvious though. but WOW! how often do we get to see such a phenomenon? magnificent! 8D

SCIENCE

The heavenly glow of light seen around the moon[full moon] is refered to as “halo” or “moondogs”. [Greek name paraselene]The physical principle involved is the called corona. The corona dispersion is caused by diffraction. On an ordinary day [clear sky] the light coming from the moon is coming directly from the moon. but if a thin layer of cloud comes in the way of the light, the uniform sized water drops [particles] in the cloud whose dimensions are less than the wavelength of the light itself diffract the light in such a way that we see such a splendor [a 22 degree bright circle of light] The diffraction could even cause splitting of colours of the light if the particles are of uniform size.
source:http://scientificparadigm.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/the-heavenly-circle/

Day 3


the first catch of the day was an eel. apparently, it got entangled by the fishing line.


our bed

the sunrise was really gorgeous.

it was low tide in the morning.

morning at the farm. the dog was so cute. reminded me of someone i really loved.

left: the ikan billis that were caught in the giant net. we used it to feed the fishes in the keep net (? i think that is what it is called) where they keep their catch and wait for them to grow bigger.


On the way to the car to go to the ferry terminal...

beautiful sight

Ho Chi Minh City

Day 1

At the airport...


left: my project group - nana, cloud, me, celine, lynn
right: my group with the profs - nana, celine, prof sim, prof tan, cloud, me and lynn


hehe...our soft toys


left: cloud with pinga and pingu
right: pingu in the loving arms of nana


left: lunch on the plane. the food in Vietnam airlines is actually quite good. i love the smoked salmon the most.
right: touch down at HCMC airport.

after checking in at the hotel, prof sim offered to show us around.
the first thing we realised was the multitude of motorcyclists. the number of motorcyclists in vietnam is almost like the number of cyclists in china - plentiful!


the fastfood in Vietnam. see! they even have motorbikes in the restaurant!


this is a very common sight in HCMC. they don't go underground like singapore. at least, not yet.

Dinner

our first dinner in HCMC was introduced to us by prof sim and paid for by prof sim and prof tan. how cool is that. the food was quite nice and it was through this meal that i realised that Vietnamese were very generous in giving out offensive green stuff, as it was free. zzz.








Day 2

Breakfast in the hotel was a bad idea. the food wasn't exactly good, but it's edible lah.




i went with my uni clique on our own educational tour.


there were alot of motorcyclists everywhere!


the bus stop.


right: look at how complicated their network is.


the bus.

the first stop was the Independent Palace.


the palace.


they were so hot that they had to stand infront of the fan to cool down. haha


emo pose atthe steps of independent palace.


this was a very disturbing sight. just the day before, we were told by prof sim that vietnamese eat dogs and here, we saw people selling cute little puppies. =( i wonder these people sell these puppies for what purpose. they were really adorable. like REALLY REALLY ADORABLE. if i had the money, i would buy them all. but as bryan said, i can't possibly buy all the dogs in vietnam. =(

Lunch


it took us really really long to find a decent place to eat. Pho means glass noodles in Vietnamese. Pho 24 can be found everywhere in HCMC. their noodles were good except for their really generous offensive green stuff.

Dinner

we decided to try the fastfood in HCMC - Lotteria.

the food was quite ok. typical fastfood.

we went to the guy's toilet to wash our hand and we saw this:


ice in the urinal!!!
WHY?!?!?!?!

back in the hotel..


fruit feast!!! lychees!!

Day 3


left: pingu and pinga enjoying the view.
right: the room


left: Bien Thanh Market, famous market where you can get anything cheap. just need to bargain.
right: opera house. very nice architectural design.

Lunch at Parkson Mall





this is worthy of mention because this coffee brand is like the starbucks in singapore. if anything, vietnam is very famous for its coffee, and i must say, highlands beats startbucks and coffebean handsdown.

Dinner




this was my first time trying saigon beer, and it is definitely much better than tiger beer.

Day 4


i woke up in the morning, looked outside the hotel window and saw this - water pouring out of the water tank. o.O


left: me, celine, cloud, nana and simon. waiting for the host to receive us.
right: clarence, jieying, ziqiang, bryan and hj. waiting for the host to start the presentation.

Lunch at Parkson Mall.

This, i have got to say, was my BEST BEST BESTEST meal ever in my 10 days in Vietnam.





18th Real Estate Night

our prof was invited to give a talk in this rather big event where people have to pay for the tickets. initially, we were suppose to have the night off however, he managed to get tickets for all of us and so...yup. we all went...


left: the ticket.
right: live band.


left: me and cloud
right: my project group.


my prof being interviewed on national tv.

back in the hotel...


left: hj showing off the famous highlands coffee that we bought to try.
right: fruit feast in my room.

Day 5 - Ku Chi Tunnel

we took a 3 hour odd ride from the hotel to Ku Chi Tunnel, where the Vietnamese fought the Vietnam war. goodness me, the ride was so long that i think the size of my butt doubled by the we reached there.

along the way...


i saw this. hmm...never knew Singapore have its own international school in other countries.

we stopped by a handicap handicraft factory for a short break.


left: production process board where it shows how those nicely decorated handicrafts are made.
right: behind the scenes.


left: the egg shells that were used for the handicrafts
right: painting


one example of the final product. i really wanted to buy this, but bringing it back was a serious problem, so i gave up in the end. but it is really really nice.

At Ku Chi Tunnel...

we got a chance to enter the firing range. of course, we have to pay for the bullets, which weren't cheap.


left: i tried out the AK-47. hehe...i was half deaf for the rest of the day.
right: me posing with the machine gun.

the guide brought us to this spot where the green guy in the picture showed us a miraculous thing - he lifted the cover of a very small hole, went in and disappeared by covering the hole. see how nana did it:




amazing right?!?!?!?!?! goodness me. that was how they hid themselves from the enemies. i think for a big size person like me, i will probably get stuck somewhere....


one of the many traps laid by the army.


left: this was one of the many entrances to their underground tunnels. janice surrendering herself.
right: hehe. the green commanders!



the red soldiers.


green commanders!


left: that is how small the tunnel is. it is so small that i kept scrapping my head on the ceiling while duck running in the tunnel. i think i lost quite alot of hair that day. the silly green man was so fast. the tunnel was pitch black except for the occasional dancing light from the guy's torch. i was right behind him but i couldn't catch up with him. there were some bends along the way and i kept knocking myself onto the wall. -.- silly guy kept saying:"KEEP GOING KEEP GOING!!!" -.-
right: nana, before entering the tunnel.


that's were we finally got out...


left: ryan
right: lynn


good break of tea and tapioca.


some of them making fun of the mannequins.

Lunch

we went back to the hotel after that and had the rest of the day free. so..first thing we did was to fill our stomachs. we decided to try this place near our hotel.






after lunch, we walked around and saw this...


FRUITS!!! we bought durian and lychee for our fruit feast.


typical market.


i saw this everywhere: humongous baos. but i didn't dare to try cause they seemed to be on display since forever.


left: kiddos playing soccer.
right: a cathedral

i psycho-ed the rest to go and have a look at the cathedral.. and since is was sunday, a mass was going on.


left: i saw alot of women like her offering incense at this altar.
right: the place was full, so many people stood outside to sing and listen to the sermon.


left: external facade of the cathedral
right: this was at a separate place from main building, within the church compound.


from the outside...


one of the many shops that sells motorbike helmet.


left: auntie cloud too tired already.
right: hur hur, us trying to be funny in the shop.


goodness me, along the way, we saw this Smart car parked outside a shop. looks cool eh? don't know why singapore doesn't sell the Smart car.


hmmm...look familiar?

Dinner


yay...vietnam instant noodles for dinner!


fruit feast!!!
the durian wasn't really very good. i still prefer the hong xia in Singapore.

Day 6 - Leaving for Hanoi


left: pinga and pingu, all ready to go to Hanoi.



left: the airport of Hanoi.
right: pinga and pingu taking a peep out of the coach window.