United Kingdom (30April - 6May)

Tomorrow, I shall be heading for the United Kingdom for a pre-examination tour. Haha...What nonsense...Anyway, I am overjoyed because I am going to visit SW19, commonly known as Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club! But before that, I will be visiting Lund in Sweden for a class...How cool is that! All expenses paid for (riding in my prof's car) plus lunch (hopefully it is catered)...

Amsterdam (17th April - 21st April)

rows & rows of flowers

i tot i saw a bunny! I did! I did! I did see a bunny...

Most beautiful shot amongst all...in my humble photographic opinion

some tulips...they are orange in color!!!...duhz

Kendrick and I in a windmill @ Keukenkof...

Jessica, YanLi,Jordan,Amelia,Kendrick,Me,Baolai and Huiyian

Funfare @ Amsterdam City...

Huge yellow clog...

Proof that I have been to Rotterdam...

Dim Sum...

Tina Tuner...

Some random shot with Amelia in Rotterdam...

Creative house...but waste space and materials...the designer is definitely not an engineer!

Amsterdam...

Baolai, Kendrick, Yanli and JiaLiang visited Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Along the way, they met up with Jessica, Jordan, Amelia and Huiyian. JiaLiang finds Rotterdam boring which by the way...he has informed his readers in his blog previously.

Yanli and Kendrick bought some very very nice stuff. Both are for their loved ones. All of them bought windmills and except for Kendrick, the rest bought cheese. JiaLiang bought some garlic with herbs cheese while Baolai and Yanli bought more traditional smoked cheese.

They met Jessica, Jordan, Amelia and Huiyian in Rotterdam. Jordan is Jessica's and Amelia's friend but Amelia do not know Jessica beforehand. So, what a small world. They are very thankful to Jordan who showed them around in Rotterdam and before they headed back for Amsterdam, they ate Dim Sums.

In the last day, Kendrick and JiaLiang searched through all the Albert Heijns (4 of them) there are in Amsterdam for their Euros 0.65 stroopwafels. Was unsuccessful because somehow they can't find more. Had to settle for 70% of what all of them wanted to buy.

SMS

WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS SMS (Safety Management System)?

I only know what is short messenger service. But I suspect that I am going to forget how to do it since I cannot use by hp. coz of the unusable SIM card.

Warmer

The weather in Denmark is getting warmer and I have observed more people going out in the field to get a tan or just simply bask in the sun. Classes are quite okie but I am not. ha! There were times when I feel ashamed of myself just walking out of the class after lectures and not staying for tutorials. I hope that I can pass my exams.

Done booking the confusing hostels and correspondance with the hostel people concerning change of rooms etc etc. To the moeny collecting part, I have to be extra careful now that I have been bitten once. Have to take extra triplex or infiniplex precaution in the event that if there were any mistakes, I have documentation to fall back on and not get 'gorged to death'. Logistical roles are such headaches and it does not get any better when there are miscommunications.

Irony and Amsterdam

Irony

Definitions of,
1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
2. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected
3. the incongruity of this

Life has been likened to many things; box of chocolates, windmill, yardar yardar yardar. Well, in my opinion, life is one of irony too. Look through what has happened in our lives and you will realize there are many instances where life is such an irony.. exasperation, exhaustion and madness are often associated with lives' ironies...

Amsterdam
Just came back from Amsterdam. Lived in the red light district area. It was amazing how the solicitors do their business. Some were really drop-dead gorgeous while others were better off at home baking cookies for their grands. AMS is more of a tourist centre with little more than a few residents who bring in their keeps from tourist dollars.

Highlight of the trip was my purchase of a glass tulip from Keukenkoff. That little piece of glass cost me 16Euros! But it was money well-spent. Did not like it in Rotterdam because, except for nothing and nothing, there was still nothing. Transport was ridiculously priced but that's how things are in Europe.

Pictures will come soon and hopefully, I will survive the projects and the boring life in Denmark.

Kiasu

Kiasu-ism is a national behavorial phenomenon in my country. You can associate it with just about everyone in Singapore. Well, being a conformist like most of the rest, I cannot deny that I am Kiasu. Queuing up for Hello Kitty, buses, trains, food, Toto and what have you.

It transcends everyday people. (hint hint). Kiasuism is not a bad attitude to adopt, in fact, I strongly encourage it. It should be introduced in CME classes and pastorial care. It is an attitude to have to survive in this rat race. No one owes no one a living. He who seeks victory,wins. At this point, I am not making sense.

However, overdoing it might get you in places where you wished you like to keep it only on reel life. Creativity might be a better survival 'kit'. Instead of organizing vehicular racing, holding congregation for important people in the radius of 2000km(approx.) discussing important things or holding sports meet for young kids from elsewhere, we can be creative. Move on mate, what works for other people may not work for us.

We can for example, build a launching pad for commercial space flight, deliberately building an office on soft sand so that it tilts, a 700m skyscraper, declare a weeklong 'pot' day and the likes. These may draw attention too albeit in an unconventional manner. I must clarify these are but my humble, scientifically inaccurate somewhat (admittedly, brainless) suggestions.

Happy Birthday (to my blog) - The Beatles

I am so glad my blog survived 1 year. Amidst my busy schedule, I managed to find time to update. Useful and useless information regardless, it's been fun expressing my take on things. Looking forward to many posts ahead.

Alien Vs Predator Requiem

Alien versus Predator (AVP) is a BFZ (big fat zero) plot movie. The whole movie can be dissected in a couple of sentences. Predator hunts rapidly reproducing aliens and where he does that? On earth, where else? Poor humans caught in the crossfight and had to sacrifice a townful worth of innocent people. Human retaliate by using some powerful town-wiping arsenal. Story ends.

As it is, it is extremely difficult to distinguish which is which in darkness because both the aliens and the predator are black! To add on to the difficulty, half the movie is in darkness and the other half filled with irritating background sound. Conveniently, they fought each other at a power station and blacked out the town. Conveniently, it was sundown when the predator decided to hunt for the aliens. More conveniently, it had to rain just to make things a little messier.

Visually challenged audiences like myself had to squint to differentiate them. They should have put colored armbands on each of the species, and preferably luminous ones!

Extremely lousy movie with a lot of senseless burgeoning! Take away the huge spending on the actors and effects, the movie is nothing but just a predator with lots of 'ctrl c', 'ctrl v' aliens. Haiz...what rubbish...

Mozart's Alla Turca by Stanislav Bunin

I have always wanted to learn some musical instruments. At first, I thought I could be Mozart, or Chopin. However, after grade 5 of organ class, I don't think that I will ever understand what they have written. The bean sprouts score confuse me more than anything else. But not being an accomplished musician does not restrict one from appreciating it. By it, it excludes heavy metal, songs with repetitive lyrics and anything that sounds like the singers are asphyxiating. Enjoy...

Effective Critiques

Sometimes, it is better to leave things or people the way they are, and probably that's what makes a person unique. What one thinks is good for others may not actually be good to that person or may not even be helpful or good to begin with. Also, is one's perception of correctness flawed too? We have different opinions and there are many things where there are no right or wrong. Where one thinks a person has flawed may be just a prejudiced perception.

It is very very tiring and draining to have to explain over trivial things. Sometimes, life is easier and happier when you leave things as they are. While critics are good, but over-doing them for very wrong reasons are certainly very very very... annoying. One have to be aware of one's capacity and perception of correctness before brandishing the change-the-world wand and embark on a crusade of changing anyone who does not do things the way one wants them to be done. Again, it brings me back to the point of one's perception of correctness.

When 2 people or more than 2 people think that they are correct simultaneously, of course, the best way (my opinion may be flawed and even totally wrong for some reasons I can't comprehend, as usual) out of such a situation is TOLERANCE...

People react to critics differently, if the reaction to a critique is very bad, then maybe just leave it, or maybe you can re-look at the critique. Is it constructive? Is it called for? Of course, when one critiques, one may think it is constructive....otherwise, given one's perception of correctness, one won't have uttered nonconstructive things to begin with. Of course, you may feel that the other party is obstinate to constructive critiques.

One may be wrong from time to time, and critiques are always welcomed. But the person at the receiving end of the critiques have something called FEELINGS. You can't just say what you want, when you want. Ration the critiques. Respect yourself and accord it to other people.

While the critiques were meant in good way, when put across wrongly becomes very offensive and hence, survival instinct kicks in on the other party. The effectiveness of a constructive critique does not solely depend on the receptivity of the receiver, it is just as important how it is delivered. When unknowingly too much trivialized and uncalled for critiques together with useful ones are delivered, no one knows for sure which ones are important, the limit might be crossed.

Lead your life the way you want to. If however, for some reasons, you wish to enter people's life to tweak somethings, you have to choose the right, or issit wrong things to tweak. Don't just anyhow tweak. While pride and self-esteem stand in the way of change, effective criticism does not involve bulldozing the two down. Mutual respect is instrumental to any effective critiques.

Sometimes you need to give people time to see the goodness in them. Wait long enough. If however, you still don't see any goodness, accept things as they are and life will be much happier and carefree. You can't force a horse to drink the water if it doesn't want to. Find other horses. Do not waste your time on stubborn horses. They are not worth the effort.

All Clear

Captain, we are clear to take off.

Response

In response to Baolai´s post on my undying support for Mr Low, I would like to clarify some things. First and foremost, I did NOT blast the incumbent party, let alone blast them like no one´s business. In fact, if my memory did not fail me, I APPLAUDED (literally) them for their effort in putting us on the world map.

In 2006 GE, Goh Chok Tong was asked by the incumbent party to win back the opposition wards.(fact) However, it was not successful as Hougang and Potong Pasir were retained by their respective opposition parties. In fact, the WP won by a greater margin compared with the 2001 GE. (fact)

I do give the incumbent their due credits. It cannot be overempathsized that I do not see Mr Low as a potential candidate for lobbying FTAs with the big boys around the world but that would be the job of our esteemed cabinet. However, certain things can be done differently.

My purpose was not to make anyone concur that Mr Low is good or that I am right. If that was being put through, then regrettably, it was not my intention. I was providing insights as a resident of his town how I feel. You are free to disagree but I am not too concerned. Results will show and they had, thusfar.

At the back of my mind, I do not know for sure what I am thinking sometimes. So it was quite impressive that people know what I am thinking at the back of my mind. What I know for sure is that it would be ill-advised to debate in politics and religion if we do not have the hard facts and figures. Even so, the time spent in engaging in such debates as minnows is quite meaningless.

I am pleasantly honoured and my ego is gently massaged that some have derived entertainment by making fun of me and my support for Mr Low. However, as long as it is not defamatory, you are most welcomed to do so. Heck, make an appointment, I´ll see what I can do to entertain.

PS: BL, your post might have kicked up another round of debate but I wish to end it asap because politics is sensitive.

April Humour

Funny? Maybe not...Never mind...

Sometimes we don't just know one, we may even be surrounded by a batch of them and we may even be one of them! But it's okie to behave like one once in a while to inject some humor and laughter. Life is not exactly that short contrary to popular belief, but do not hesitate to make someone smile while you can.