End of the Year

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.

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.

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. :)

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. :)

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

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. :)

A Good Samaritan

The weekend flew by quickly and its the start of the week once again. Before I start my work., its good to reflect what have gone by and what to do next.

Last weekend, we went shopping in Orchard. Q (Ivy's sister) guided us the wrong way. We followed as we have not been to town for a long time. As we made a detour to "salvage" the situation, we saw a lady grasping for air by the side of the staircase. We asked if they needed help and they declined initially.

Later, we assisted them to carry the lady out of the underpass to look for a cab to get her to the hospital. Apparently, she had an asthma attack and did not have her medication with her. I ran 2 streets to Far East Shopping Centre to get a cab over. If you are wondering why we did not call an ambulance, we are not sure why too. In any case, some passerby called the ambulance while I was away but my cab arrived faster than the ambulance.

The other good samaritan also tried to stop vehicles on the road by putting her body in the line but no cars stopped. Next time if you are driving and someone asked for help, you should at least slow down and see what happen and offer help if need be.

I hope the lady was sent to the hospital on time to get her treatment. Wishing her all the best.

Birthday Treat

Its been quite an eventful birthday this year.

I had 3 birthday cakes, one huge birthday present from Ivy (thanks :]) and a "blasting" weekend.

We started with 3 rounds of mahjong (the typical no $$ type). Riding on my birthday luck, I literally blasted T, Q and Ivy off with my scintillating display of mahjong skills, winning when it mattered most and more importantly, the winnings are more significant (more "fans"). The luck seems to follow me throughout the weekend.

I think the 3 of them would have started considering playing without me next time if they can find a more consistent and readily available "leg". Until then, I think they would still need to bear with me for a while more until T leaves for UQ for his further studies next month.

Public Transportation

SMRT recently announced the proposed increase in the number of trains in service during peak hours. It could go up by 700 trains per week.

I am skeptical behind this idea as the trains are moving along a single rail and there is a limit on the number of trains on the rail between stations. My recent experience seems to confirm that this could lead to a deterioration of riding experience by commuters.

There has been an increase in the number of trains stopping in between 2 stations and abrupt braking. Some of this breaking is continuous (start-stop kind) and could easily make commuters fall.

I reckon that a more feasible solution is to have alternate paths and transportation choices to solve the current crunch in public transportation. The government is not helping by encouraging more people to use public transport, directly and indirectly. With the increase in ERP gantry charges, number of gantries as well as the ever increasing oil price, more people are going to switch to public transport to cut cost.

Is there any way we can do this more effectively?

Coincidence

Its been a while since my last blog entry.

Yesterday, we have a corporate planning exercise at the Legends, Fort Canning Hill. Coincidentally, there is a press briefing (i think) by mediacorp where artistes like Zoe Tay, Tay Ping Hui, Cynthia Koh were present.

Zoe and I looked at each other for a split second when I walked past her. Its been 10 years since I last "met" Zoe when I took a photo with her at Takashimaya during one of my JC class outing. This time though, I did not approach her for a photo, partly because I don't see the need to and also that I am rushing for time to prepare for my presentation.

I wonder if I will see her again 10 years later. =)

Carelessness

Before I can blog on my latest toy, i.e. my phantom 200, I met with a minor accident.

It was a normal Saturday afternoon. Ivy and I were supposed to go for our Japanese lessons. Unfortunately, this was a make-up lesson for the one we missed on Wed as I was totally held up at work.

As I was approaching SLE from Lentor Road, I realised that my speed was above the limit as I approach the bend. It did not help with the pool of sand at the side of the road which further affected my braking ability.

Damages to me and Ivy as follows:

My injuries

Ivy's hand

Its all my judgemental error that resulted in this accident. Over-confidence might have been another factor. If you look from another angle, it might have been good to have this "minor" accident to remind me the fragility of life and risk involved. It also gives us enough time to heal completely before our wedding shots later this year.

Next thing to do is to find a way to dispose of this latest toy and get a second hand car probably.

Thank goodness that I am still alive to blog this after standing/lying along SLE for a while. Also kudos to the people who stopped by to help. Thanks once again.

Looking forward in 2008

I have wanted to start a new blog for 2008 but havent got time to get it done. Jan has been crazy to start with work and other commitments.

Need to put all those procrastination out of my life. A glimpse of what I hope to achieve by end 2008:

1) Take Japanese Lesson & JLPT4
2) Take and pass CFA Level I
3) Run a half marathon under 2 hours
4) Workout at the gym twice a week at least
5) Get a PDA phone
6) Get a PSP
7) Practice my photography skills and migrate to a DSLR
8) Take my advance open water diving certification
9) Achieve 10% ROI for all kinds of investments

Let's visit this list in 1 years' time and see how I fare.