Its been a long and eventful year.
Since my last post in Sept, I got married and gained a wonderful wife. After which, we witnessed the first Singaporean (Ms Lo Hwei Yen) who died due to an act of terrorism in Mumbai in Nov 08. There have been also new Prime Ministers in Japan and Thailand, where we also saw the Bangkok International Airport closed down for about a week due to protests.
Looking back at my resolutions earlier this year, I did not accomplish a lot. Only managed to get a PSP, PDA phone and DSLR. The rest of the items that require more determination and time have been neglected. I guess I will need to put in greater effort this year.
What's up for 2009? I guess I will want to do the following:
1) Run a half marathon under 2 hours
2) Engage in more shooting and post more photos
3) Join a vertical marathon, either NVM or SVM
4) Work on my business plan
5) Work on the renovation plan for my new house
6) Dive 2 more times this year at least
7) Regain my IPPT gold
Same as last year, we will see how it goes.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Landed in Daejeon
In the midst of my wedding preparation, i made an official trip to Daejeon, Republic of Korea to learn more about disability. The trip was fully covered by the Korean National Statistical Office (KNSO), thus I don't get any money from my Department.
For cost saving purpose, the KNSO people organised us in groups to ferry us from Incheon Airport to Daejeon. Before we left, the driver asked us for 10,000 won to buy food for us. He said that the burger is very nice. I suspect that is MacDonald's but paid anyway to see what he is up to. For your information, 10,000 won is approximately $13-$14 in our local currency.
After receiving the food, the representatives from Thailand and Laos were calculating how much the food is worth. It is definitely less than 6,000 korean won, meaning that the driver made a handsome profit of 40,000-50,000 won easily from the 10 of us. I suspect he even had some vouchers that gave us free drinks or something.
I initially wanted to get back our money but decided not to create trouble. I thought only the 3 of us knew about it. Oh boy, I was wrong.
(For infor, the dinner I took at a nearby university cost me 3,100, serving us Korean food)
Today, we went out for a welcome dinner. This is typically for overseas event to welcome people into their country to show their hospitality. As we were getting off the bus at the dinner venue, the Indonesian representative was saying that "see, got lunch promotion, price slashes from 15,000 won to 10,700 won, this should be better than MacDonald's."
Lesson: Don't try to trick tourist, they are not stupid. Not even when they are from the less developed countries. Its a disgrace to your country.
For cost saving purpose, the KNSO people organised us in groups to ferry us from Incheon Airport to Daejeon. Before we left, the driver asked us for 10,000 won to buy food for us. He said that the burger is very nice. I suspect that is MacDonald's but paid anyway to see what he is up to. For your information, 10,000 won is approximately $13-$14 in our local currency.
After receiving the food, the representatives from Thailand and Laos were calculating how much the food is worth. It is definitely less than 6,000 korean won, meaning that the driver made a handsome profit of 40,000-50,000 won easily from the 10 of us. I suspect he even had some vouchers that gave us free drinks or something.
I initially wanted to get back our money but decided not to create trouble. I thought only the 3 of us knew about it. Oh boy, I was wrong.
(For infor, the dinner I took at a nearby university cost me 3,100, serving us Korean food)
Today, we went out for a welcome dinner. This is typically for overseas event to welcome people into their country to show their hospitality. As we were getting off the bus at the dinner venue, the Indonesian representative was saying that "see, got lunch promotion, price slashes from 15,000 won to 10,700 won, this should be better than MacDonald's."
Lesson: Don't try to trick tourist, they are not stupid. Not even when they are from the less developed countries. Its a disgrace to your country.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Shouxin's Wedding Dinner at Sheraton Tower on 31st Aug 2008
Today is the first day after the "Hungry Ghost Festival". Typically, couples will avoid getting married during the 7th lunar month as well. This is statistically proven.
It gives me great joy to attend a secondary school classmates wedding dinner tonight. It also marks the start of many wedding dinner to come for the class, with mine coming up in less than 2 months time as well.
I met up with an old classmate who is currently teaching at Xinmin Secondary School. He thanked me helping him to improve his mathematics during secondary school days, so that he is able to fulfill the requirement of his job now, teaching mathematics and physical education, although the latter is his preferred subject. I can't remember exactly how I helped during in the past. All I can remember was that he was made to sit beside me at the front of the class so that he can concentrate better and behave better (this is normal for a boy in a boy school).
It made me really happy that I have made a difference in other people's life. Later in the evening, 2 other classmates also shared that they still remember "copying" my homework during the schooldays. No doubt"copying" was not good but its important that they understand what they are copying and enable to keep up with class.
This really make my day today. :)
It gives me great joy to attend a secondary school classmates wedding dinner tonight. It also marks the start of many wedding dinner to come for the class, with mine coming up in less than 2 months time as well.
I met up with an old classmate who is currently teaching at Xinmin Secondary School. He thanked me helping him to improve his mathematics during secondary school days, so that he is able to fulfill the requirement of his job now, teaching mathematics and physical education, although the latter is his preferred subject. I can't remember exactly how I helped during in the past. All I can remember was that he was made to sit beside me at the front of the class so that he can concentrate better and behave better (this is normal for a boy in a boy school).
It made me really happy that I have made a difference in other people's life. Later in the evening, 2 other classmates also shared that they still remember "copying" my homework during the schooldays. No doubt"copying" was not good but its important that they understand what they are copying and enable to keep up with class.
This really make my day today. :)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Active Day
This year's event was held at Hort Park. I wld have to say that the new team of Stats Club members are more innovative and passionate about the activities. I believe that the energy is infectious and seems to spread among the different members of the team.
As usual, I gave in my best for the team games and twisted my ankle as a result. It seems to be an old injury, making me wonder if I should partake in the 21.1km at Stan Chart Marathon this year.
Let me rest for a few days before deciding to register. :)
As usual, I gave in my best for the team games and twisted my ankle as a result. It seems to be an old injury, making me wonder if I should partake in the 21.1km at Stan Chart Marathon this year.
Let me rest for a few days before deciding to register. :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
A new start
My director left the Department with effect from 1 Aug. It was sudden. As she was telling us in batches, its rather hard to suppress the information and yet making staff work harder in order to clear all the stuff before she left.
A fresh beginning while I continue my search for my motivation and passion for work. Its not easy and so I better find it quick or I will be in deep trouble soon. :P
A fresh beginning while I continue my search for my motivation and passion for work. Its not easy and so I better find it quick or I will be in deep trouble soon. :P
Monday, July 14, 2008
Ivy's birthday celebration
AX asked Ivy what am I giving her as birthday gift. Is it going to be another gadget? Well, we seem to be on a gadget exchange programme after I gave her an Ipod Touch as a christmas present and she reciprocated with a PSP for my birthday this year.
I did not let the game continue as our wedding date is drawing closer and all luxury items can probably wait for a while more. As usual, we packed the day's activity around what errands we need to run for the day. For a start, there is a routine medical check-up at Alexandra Hospital in the morning and we decided to mix it up with a luncheon at IKEA and shop at Queensway for a pair of track shoes (for my IPPT gold) and white shoes for wedding. Got my track shoes but not the white shoes as it seems to be a waste buying for just one occasion.
Above is the spread for our luncheon. Some simple swedish fare from IKEA and its sufficient to satisfy us as we have bigger plans in mind for dinner, i.e. One Rochester!!!!Its pretty exciting to dine at One Rochester as it was one of our intended venue for our wedding bash for our friends but we were eventually priced out. Therefore, we decided to indulge at a time that we should both be monitoring our weight in order to look our best in Oct this year.
Below are some of the items we had for dinner, costing us approximately $100 pax.
1. Crispy Pork Belly
2. Australian Beef Steak 
3. Lamb Rack
4. Mudpie with Caramel
5. Mousse Cake
It was a fulfilling meal, no doubt about that. The joke about the trip was that we took a cab from MOE to Rochester Park, not knowing that Rochester Park was just a stone throw away. The fare meter did not even jump and the cabby happily collected the fare (with peak hr surcharge somemore) from us for such an easy task. I thought he should have at least informed us how close it was. However, can't really blame him to make the extra buck with all the inflation and increasing cost of living.
Ivy & her family with the Birthday cake
Later at home, there was another cake waiting for us. The cake was nice but with all the food still in our stomach, we did not really enjoy the cake but the idea was great. Hope she had a great day!
Mid Term Review
Well, half the year has gone and I thought it would be a good time to review my "wish-list" that I put up at the start of the year.
Somehow got distracted along the way. I have completed 1.5 task so far, namely getting a PSP (thanks Ivy) and 1/2 a task for taking my CFA level I. I will only know the results later this month.
Marriage is certainly no joking matter and lots of effort and time have been put into it to ensure the success of the event. I guess I will register for the Standard Chartered Marathon (21Km) later this year. I will continue to take my basic Jap lessons but I doubt it would be sufficient to tackle JLPT4. The remaining items can take a back seat as I have more important things to do at the moment such as planning for marriage in Oct and re-orientating my career. :)
Somehow got distracted along the way. I have completed 1.5 task so far, namely getting a PSP (thanks Ivy) and 1/2 a task for taking my CFA level I. I will only know the results later this month.
Marriage is certainly no joking matter and lots of effort and time have been put into it to ensure the success of the event. I guess I will register for the Standard Chartered Marathon (21Km) later this year. I will continue to take my basic Jap lessons but I doubt it would be sufficient to tackle JLPT4. The remaining items can take a back seat as I have more important things to do at the moment such as planning for marriage in Oct and re-orientating my career. :)
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