tornado thoughts

Facebook

2008-10-02T01:47:00.000-07:00

Don't know what's the fuss about facebook but finally decided to create one on a boring afternoon at work. Not many enquiries coming in that's why.

Lego in Hamburg

2008-09-29T09:50:00.001-07:00

Hamburg SMM 2008

2008-09-29T09:45:00.001-07:00

Finland - Tukur slideshow

2008-09-29T09:19:00.001-07:00

Back from Hamburg

2008-09-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I went to Hamburg the 2nd time within half a year gap for another exhibition. I would not go (or have the opportunity to go) if it was not sponsored by our cable supplier. Overall, out of the 10 halls featured, we felt that it's only 1 hall worth of related products related to our marine supply industry. The rest are either shipbuilding, motors, valves, high technology communications, marine paint, etc.

This time round, we took the initiative to talk to the suppliers and checking out if there is any business opportunities. Overall, the goods ones either have a stable agent in Singapore (which is our competitor) or we're already representing them. I can say it's not that fantastic but still an eye opener to see so many different countries come together to showcase their products.

During the evenings, we ventured round hamburg by foot and I took alot of pictures (can see from the subsequent slideshows). Thank God I survived the 12 hour flight back to Singapore!

Greetings from Tukur, Finland

2008-09-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since i last blogged. I didn't get to post my thoughts on the awesome church camp and great fellowship i had in June. The recent hectic schedule of working from 8-6pm and concurrently being a chairman (for thanksgiving) who has to hold meeting and motivate everyone for the event. I also have to liase with hotel coordinators to see the wedding packages and arrange a time to meet them with my fiance. Having a weekly cell group and fortnightly L-cell group definitely tested my time management. But I feel nothing beats my fiance's schedule in NIE which is inhuman (probably you can cross over to her blog to read it, or did you cross over from her blog to mine. haha). I understand that's why I would avail myself to her needs whenever I can (eg, durian feast, going to toa payoh to buy shampoo, or be at each other place's just to be there).

I think a few post back, i was talking about my trip in Germany and here I am now in Finland. Time difference is 5hours and Singapore is ahead. My purpose here is not to find santa claus (but i have yet to taste reindeer meat) nor buy the latest nokia phone but for business negotiation on the future partnership between our company and our cable supplier. By being in the actual ground, i get to see the manufacturing process of the cables and the amount of effort from raw materials to the final product.

I reached Tukur on Saturday and as it's an European country, life is pretty boring during the weekends. Furthermore Tukur is considered an industrial town, you wouldn't get to see many people or shopping malls. Temperature was hovering between 0degC early in the morning to 10degC in the afternoon. Thank God i was more prepared in this trip. Bought a zero degC coat and leather gloves to fight the cold. After we checked in, we went to a restaurant in a hotel to have dinner. As I wanted something exotic, i choose the rabbit meat (wrong choice, it taste like chicken but is much drier and there a smell which is not nice). I wanted reindeer meat but it wasn't available in that hotel. shucks.

On Sunday which was yesterday, i thought it was going to be a very boring day but it turned out to be very good. Our supplier brought us to this countryside whereby hunters gather to practice their shooting. He managed to arrange one of the hunters to show us and let us practice at the shooting range. It didn't took us long to have the actual hands on after the briefing. The "instructor" lead us through position by position. The shooting range has 2 little houses at the sides. That is where the flying saucers (made of clay) are ejected. Imagine being in a ready position and anticipating where it will fly from (of coz we would know in advance whether the object would be flying from the left or from the right) and getting the target is no easy feat. We were using shotgun which can put 2 big cartridges and every cartridge contain small leads about 2mm in dia. When a shot is made, it covers an area of 1mtr by 1mtr for a range of 70mtr. Out of the 25shots that we made, the instructor got 22, our supplier 3, gary 1 and i got 5!!!!

Next up, we were brought to another country side up to a hill. We were told that we are going to ride on an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) but while we were waiting for the instructor to come, we had a finnish lunch that was specially prepared by the people. (it's more like a resort out in the countryside). Though there was no rice, the bread was very good and the salmon and salad were fresh. We also ate blueberry and red berry that were grown in the forest, they tasted blend because the season is almost over thus the quality is not as good (same principle to durians nowadays in Singapore. Hee).

After a nice meal, we were up and ready for the task. The instructed briefed on how to get the ATV running and we were to follow in one line to go through the route. Initially we were breezing through the grass patch and I was thinking "man, it's so easy. life is a breeze). When the instructor saw that everyone was comfortable and got the hang of the vehicle, he upped a nodge. We began to manover past elavated terrains, rocky terrains and the real task came when we were told to go up an elavated rocky hill one by one. He first demonstrated how he rode up and he stood up there waiting for us with his camera. Richard didn't want to take the challenge as he felt not comfortable. I was thinking "how am i going to go up this hilly terrain!? It's about 50-60deg elavation and with the rocks and one wheel above the air most of the time, I would go tumbling down the hill if i'm not careful." The instructed added that no matter what, stay onto the vehicle even though you may THINK that you're falling. The ATV is more sturdier that you think. With that thought and a prayer, I conquered the hill!

Suddenly, I felt that God spoke to me that just like the hill, many times we face situations that we think are impossible and thus do not want to give it a try, but it takes faith to believe and you will overcome it with God. It takes faith to believe in the ATV and the instructor's word that one can ride up the hill according to the way he did.

After that challenge, we went through the finnish forest and i felt really close to nature. When we reached back to "base camp", the supplier prepared a natural hot sauna for us. (it cost about 200Euro). This natural suana is different from the usual ones because it would take 5hours to prepare beforehand. They would burn the hot stones with wood and let it heated up for 5hours. There isn't a chimney and thus inside was charcoal black. Of coz, the smoke would be let out before one was to go inside and have the sauna. Now out in the countryside, only 4 guys in a small cottage. Our supplier asked anyone of us wants to into the sauna and have a try. But one needs to strip naked to really experience the heat. Gary and Richard didn't want but looking at the supplier's face and the effort he put in to make all these happen (200Euros for the sauna!! that's about 400SGD), I took up the challenge. Yes, we were both naked in the sauna but as i said that it was pitch black, one couldn't see much of each other except the face. (nobody in the right mind would want to look anywhere else of the body). We were in the sauna for about 15minutes. Really made my day. SOmething which i wasn't expecting when i came to Finland.

In 4hours time, I would be setting off for Hamburg Germany to proceed to 2nd part of the trip. To visit the Marinetime fair. The biggest one in the world for this year. =)

Finally, a break from all the busy-ness

2008-05-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

I know that I should upload my pics on the last few days of my Germany trip. In fact, i've done so just that i have problem putting them up in blogger from photobucket. Thus, it shall be postponed. Hee.

Today, i mean yesterday morning was really hectic. My colleague went to Taiwan with his family and thus his customers and end users have been calling me non-stop in the mornings. Imagine from 830am till 1130am I have been either on my office phone or mobile one. Thank God, He brought me through the day although time really flew past. I managed to do quite a lot of work and of coz with the encouragement of my dear dear online. =)

Before I left office, I took about half an hour to delegate whatever work i have to my fellow colleagues so that they can help me out. I can't imagine on Monday and Tuesday whereby both my customer and my colleague's will be calling and sending enquiries (urgent ones) to be quoted and for orders to be delivered. I really pray for favour and unity in the company during those 2 days. Wednesday my colleague would be back in office and I'll be back in office on Friday.

In the evening before I went for cell, Doris ran out of the house when my dad opened the gate for me to drive the car out. I was "sian 1/2" coz it's not easy to catch her since now she is very active and strong. The last time she ran away, I took Doby to lure her back. Somehow dogs can communicate and signal the other dog to come back or something coz that time she ran back to us when she saw us near the dou huay shop. This time I wasn't so lucky. I walked the same route with Doby (the one where I bring them out for walk) for 3 rounds and no sight of Doris! My parents told me to leave Doby in the house and go for my gathering. My parents went for their weekly Tai Ji.

In my mind, i was telling God, it always have to have something happen when I'm going for God encountering camps. Does that mean I have to leave Singapore without knowing Doris's whereabouts? How about I don't go for cell and continue to search for Doris and probably I may find her and can then leave for church camp in peace? However, during that moment my dear dear called me and said that "no matter what I do, if Doris blur blur walk till lost, there's no way I can find her in this huge neighbourhood." I told God that during my last round of walk, if I can't find Doris, I shall honour You and go for cell and not let this situation hinder me from knowing You. I believe that You will even bless me back and I will find Doris when I go back from cell to search for her later on.

Guess what, just when cell ended, my dad called me and said that he found Doris at heartland mall outside. He carried her all the way back home. First thing that came to my mind, I was thanking God that indeed He is good! I believe my dad saw her before he went for his Tai Ji which should be around the time whereby I told God that I would go for cell and honour Him. He is really fast in replying my prayer! ;p After the good news set in, it dawned upon me that it should have been very tiring to carry her from heartland mall back home. My dad didn't bring the leash along and it would make matters worse if she struggled. How great is the fatherly love. My dad knew that I would not leave Singapore and have fun totally if Doris is out. Thus even though it would be really exhausting and definitely he'll get body pain carrying Doris the next day, he made sure he carried Doris all the way back home safely. I'm deeply touched by both my earthly and heavenly father's love. Thank you.

In 3 hours time, I will be leaving for bangkok to have my retreat. 2 days of shopping and eating at bangkok followed by 4 days of camp in Cha-am. I really hope that God will meet me in a special way and rejuvenate my body, my spirit and my passion there! Bangkok, here I come!

Germany Day 9 pics

2008-05-23T02:51:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 8 pics

2008-05-23T02:47:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 7 - part 3 pics

2008-05-23T02:42:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 7 - part 2 pics

2008-05-23T02:40:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 7 - part 1 pics

2008-05-23T02:37:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 7-11

2008-05-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's more than 2 weeks since I last updated where I left off. Haha. A bit lost of the memory already there. Actually I had more fond memories during the first half of the trip. Oops.

On Day 7, we had a city tour at Schwelm. It's a small town (about the size of toa payoh I think) and it has an overhanging rail train. It is more than 100years old and is the one and only structure built in this manner in the world! As you can see from the pictures, it's a very small town and it took us 30min of the ride to 1 round of the circumference of the city. We also went to sit in a "sky chair" that took us up the hill to a "rebuilt castle". The castle was 70% destroyed during WWII and during the past 20-30years it was rebuilt to his former glory. We had some nice spitzel and cakes for lunch. At night, we went to some brewery to have dinner. Sian, it was only cold bread with cheese / ham plus beer. I had plain water and cold bread with cheese/ham for dinner. Yucks, lousy dinner. The koreans had the same sentiments but no choice, when we got back to hotel, there wasn't any eatery in sight to fill our disatisfaction.

Day 8, we went to a coal mining museum. The goverment decided to preserve this fairly new factory (about 30years of mining) because they feel that it's part of the heritage. By the time the tour ended, it was around 3pm and we were told that we have our own R&R. By the way, there are no shopping centres open at all on a sunday, thus we are left with looking around for nice restaurants to eat. The koreans and us decided to team up to visit a chinese restuarant. It was a good choice as it reminded us of home cooked food and to spur us on for another 2 days.

Day 9, we were "tricked" to go to a packaging exhibition as our supplier said that due to overwhelming requests, he decided to bring everyone of us there to take a look. We have to pay our own tickets (55 EURO PER TICKET!!!!) as our supplier do not have a booth and they are too "stingy" to pay for us. That's like S$120 per ticket. What was worse is that the whole exhibition was not our forte. We are mostly doing marine industry and not packaging. Paying S$120 to look at something only about 5% related is totally CMI. We had the time from 10am to 4pm. Gary and I walked around till 1pm to have our lunch. After that we found a cosy corner and slept till 330pm. Haha. At night, we went to another brewery. This time round, the building was refurbished from an indoor swimming pool. If you look at the pictures carefully, the central bar counter is actually where the pool was resided previously. The upper floors were the changing rooms. That was why the whole building is very "swimming pool" themed.

Day 10, we finally got a chance to visit our supplier's office & factory. Most of their items are outsourced from elsewhere and they do the assembly in house. Due to sensitive reasons, we are not allowed to take pictures of factories and machinery. We also had our technical training from morning 10am to 430pm where we also had our own country's sales report presentation. Man, this would be the first and last time I would want to do such presentation. Stress....

Day 11, we were still quite bitter over the 55Euro ticket and still have to find our way to take train from Schwelm to frankfurt airport. Another amazing race thingy. Thank God the supplier has a meeting a frankfurt that morning and offered to fetch us there early in the morning! Though we had to wait for 3hrs+, it was worth it! I would rather wait in the airport then to miss any transit while changing trains again.

That sums up my Germany experience 2008. Enjoy the pics! =)

Germany D6 slideshow

2008-05-07T09:05:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 6 - Lost in Transition

2008-05-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

All good things must come to an end (for part 1) and our fellow Asean counterparts were kind enough to give us a farewell lunch (Thai food) and see us off at the train station. The Thai food was really good (probably it has been quite a while since we had rice and spicy soup) and it gave us the morale booster for another week in Germany!

As Gary and I were carrying our luggages, we didn't take much pictures for the day. No spare hands! However, I still managed to take some pictures of a flower shop, countryside view from from the train.

One incident happened that will leave a mark in our Germany trip. That is the ICE train trip from Hamburg to Schwelm. We had to change train from Hamburg main station to Hannover main station. From there, we need to find out the platform that we are supposed to take. We had only 10minutes to do so. Imagine we were carrying our luggages at that time! It's worst then the amazing race.

When the train reached Hannover main station, you can see swarms of people rushing out to try to go to their respective platforms. For those who do not know (like me), we had to go down to the counter and look at the screen to see which platform our train was located. It's like a mini airport just that you substitute it as a train. Thank God, we managed to get onto the platform and into the train in the nick of time.

From Hannover main station, we need to make another transit to Hagen train station. That is when things went wrong. First, there was a technical fault with the train and the train conductor announced the fault and there would be a replacement train for those who are rushing for time. However, all these were spoken in German which I do not understand at all! After the announcement, I saw many people standing up and leaving. However, I also saw quite a number of people who remained in their seats. I approached a few of the people but none understand English. When I finally managed to speak to an American and understand what was going on, the "replacement" train had left. It's ok, we waited for the fault to be rectified and proceeded with the journey. When we were reaching Hagen main station, Gary and I stood at the door waiting for it to come to a stop. Guess what, when the train stopped, the door didn't open. We thought it may be some technical error or something but when we saw other people exiting from other doors, we realised something is wrong. We read the instructions by the side of the door and realised that we had to press the button and pull the handle to manually open the door! When we tried to do that, it was too late. The train had started on it's next journey! It was heading towards Wuppertal Main Station.

This was something unexpected and we told ourselves to get out of the train at the next stop no matter what. When we reached Wuppertal Main Station, we were deciding between taking a cab from Wuppertal to Schwelm or take a train back there. Taking a cab would cost us around 30Euros for half an hour ride. Take a train would cost us less than 10 Euros in total. I bought 2 train tickets from Wuppertal to Schwelm. You would have guessed that this would be the end of the episode right? NO!!!

Gary and I waited at the platform for the train to arrive. When the train came, Gary wanted to play safe and went to approach a couple to ask whether the train that has stopped is going to Schwelm. At that time, I was already in the train because I was quite sure that it was going there. It took a while for the couple to understand what Gary tried to ask and when they understood and told him that the train is heading to Schwelm, the door closed. Man, now we're seperated.

I called Gary up on his mobile and told him of the next train that is heading to Schwelm and also the platform and we would meet at the entrance of the Schwelm train station. Finally, we met up at the Schwelm train station after 2hours behind our scheduled time. We then proceeded to taking a cab to our hotel which is less than 5min drive. It cost us about 8Euro. Cabs are expensive! After a whole day saga, we met up with our other supplier and the asia delegates (India, Malaysia, Korea) and had dinner at the hotel. That sums up day 6 of Germany trip.

Be Amazed!

2008-05-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

Mini Coal Mining Museum in Germany

2008-05-06T09:39:00.003-07:00

Country side

2008-05-06T09:39:00.001-07:00

Mini Hamburg

2008-05-06T09:36:00.001-07:00

Miniature Wonderland part 3

2008-05-06T09:33:00.001-07:00

Miniature Wonderland part 2

2008-05-06T09:31:00.001-07:00

Miniature wonderland part 1

2008-05-06T09:29:00.001-07:00

Sightseeing Hamburg part 2

2008-05-06T09:26:00.001-07:00

Sightseeing Hamburg part 1

2008-05-06T09:19:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 5 - Sightseeing tour at Hamburg

2008-05-06T09:03:00.002-07:00

Yeah! With all the business related events for the past few days, finally it has come to some R&R. We had been staying in Hamburg for about 3days and it was the 4th day that we managed to get our first sightseeing tour.

First stop was to take the coach from the hotel round the city centre around the Alster Lake (where all the activities revolve around this lake). As you can see from the pictures, it was still really cold early in the morning. Managed to take pictures of some of the fantastic houses, they are really really big!

Next stop was a church in Hamburg. I find that the churches in Germany are very very nice and once you see them, you can feel that the church has been there for really quite a long time. After that, we went for a 1hr boat tour at the port of Hamburg. It's is Europe's 2nd biggest port but compared to PSA is still quite far la. hee. If you are observant, there is 2 pictures whereby you can see that the boat that we were in entered a "gate". We have to wait for the gate to open and the boat will enter into the waiting area. Once the gate that we had entered has closed, it will open the other side of the gate. This is to prevent sand from being washed from the other side of the sea into the port. It was really fun to be able to see all the big ships real close and also entering smaller rivers where you can see the buildings just beside you. If you have a good memory, these buildings will be reflected in one of the pictures from the miniature wonderland that we visited after our lunch.

I feel that one of the highlights of the sightseeing tour besides the boat tour would be the miniature wonderland. It's really really good! You have to be amazed by the architects who designed them. They must really have passion and creativity to do up all these. Heard that every year, more exhibitions are added into the collection. There is miniature of Hamburg, Europe, Las Vegas. What's more interesting is that these exhibits have the ability to transit from day to night and back to day again within a few minutes and you can see the lights coming out at night and the view are different and awesome! I think enough of my explanation. A picture paints a thousand words. Let alone many many pictures and a few clips too! =)

Country Road

2008-05-06T09:03:00.001-07:00

mechanical jellyfish

2008-05-06T09:02:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 4 slideshow

2008-05-06T08:38:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 4 - 2nd day of Hannover

2008-05-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, one day is not enough to finish walking the whole Hannover fair, thus on our 4th Day, we went for a 2nd round. This time round, we went about looking at things that are interesting.

Following this post will have a collection of photos of Day 4 and also a video clip on an robotic underwater jellyfish! Enjoy!

At night, we went to a local brewery where we had pork knuckles (famous in Germany/Europe!) and we had a person who came and performed for us! (view the clip!). It was considered a day of completion of my first batch of supplier's "mission". They brought us to see factory, logistics centre & Hannover fair. The following days would only be sightseeing at Hamburg and they would be heading home. It was part 1 of 2 for my Germany trip complete. That night, the koreans, japanese and ASEAN delegates had a good time knowing each other better. =)

Hannover Fair - The automated beer serving machine

2008-05-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

Day 3 - Hannover Fair

2008-05-04T09:20:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 3 - Hannover Fair

2008-05-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Day 3

I felt that the hotel I stayed in Hamburg was the best among all the hotels i stayed in the trip. And it happened to be the cheapest (probably their room is small but very nice) and do not have other facilities. However, the Hamburg main train station is within working distance. When I look out from window of my room, I could see the small street whereby people goes to work. From the main entrance of the hotel, one can see the Alster lake that is the feature of the Hamburg city.

We had breakfast at the hotel before proceeding to Hannover Fair by ICE (Inter City Express) train. It was really cold walking on the streets but when one goes into any building, the people traffic and the heaters warms up the area. But it is really cool walking in so many layers of clothings and enjoying the air and the weather.

Taking the ICE (fastest train in Europe) to Hannover Fair takes about 1hr 40min and in the train, there is a cabin which serves coffee and some snacks. Cool! I made some real nice people in the trip.

Sutrisno, an Indo-chinese, who is a Christian and serves faithfully in True Jesus Church in Jakarta. He testified that God is good. He was born in a Christian family but he stopped going church during his early teenage years. When he got married and had a child, he woke up one day feeling that he has to go to church. He wants to be a good example for his children and family. However, things wasn't going well when they tried to have their 2nd child. His wife had 6 consecutive miscarriages irregardless of what the doctor prescribed. The doctor said that his wife's blood is too thick to feed to the child. When the wife got pregnant again, he consulted another doctor (this time a Christian one), he told them to pray and seek God. Though it was hard to put the trust onto Him after so many miscarriages, Sutrisno pressed on and told his wife that if God allows, He will give them the miracle. Indeed, with much prayer, he got his 2nd son 6 years after the 1st.

Mudzakir, a customer of Sutrisno, is a Muslim in Indonesia and he's really a nice guy. An engineer with no temper and willingly shares his advice on management and experience with me. As there is no free internet in Germany (unlike Singapore), he purchased 1 month unlimited access of internet connection on the 2nd day in Germany. He was so nice to give me the account and password on the 25th as he knows that i have another 5 more days in Germany. This gesture really saved my boredom on those latter days.

Hannover Fair is really a mega fair. It has about 27 halls which are filled with exhibits. Even though we went there for 2 days, it was not impossible to walk finish and visit all the halls and exhibits. However, we managed to visit the ones that we targetted to visit during these 2 days and I took pictures and videos on some very interesting ones.

At night, we had dinner near the town hall at Hamburg. The building is really very very nice and it's dinner by the riverside. The river is filled with swans and the atmosphere is really romantic. (How I wish my dear dear was there with me).

Germany Day 2 Detmold slideshow

2008-05-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

Germany Day 2 Detmold

2008-05-03T11:14:00.002-07:00

I've came back from Germany and now i can slowly describe the days i spent there.
Before I introduce Day 2, the first few pics that you will see from the slideshow are the dinner that I had at Bielefeld. Asparagus European style! Yes, it's big and long and not green. The taste is a bit plain and I find it ok only. Not that fantastic though. And as usual, ham for almost every meal.

Day 2, we moved out from Bielefeld and onto Detmold. A small town where our supplier's factory and logistics centre were located. I realised that every city start from a small town and every town the basic structure have a town hall, market place and a church. The town hall is where the name list of the people residing in the town are kept and updated. The marketplace (usually in front of the town hall) is where people come together to do business or to have a chat. Church is where people come to pray, get blessings, batpise their children, hold their wedding and funerals there.

We sat a coach from Bielefeld to Detmold. After visiting the factory, we proceeded on to Hamburg where we are going to stay in the hotel for 4 days. There was a break inbetween for us to go and answer the call of nature. If you notice one of the pic i was holding a coupon of 0.50Euro, it's the entry fee to go to their toilet. Yes! it's that expensive. haha. Almost every coach / car in Europe are equipped with the GPS system and it has an voice that direct where you should go and how is the traffic ahead. Cool! If you're thinking petrol in Singapore is getting more and more ridiculous, wait till you see the prices in Germany!

Oh ya, when i reached the 2nd hotel, i realised that every hotel room there is a New Testament bible in German. However, I do not know why it is only half a bible and not the full version. The big wind "mill" kind of thing you see in one of the pic, that is their wind generator. There are over 10,000 of such generators in Europe and they are supposed to be eco-friendly and help save on burning natural resources. =)

Germany Day 1 Bielefeld

2008-05-03T11:14:00.001-07:00

Bielefeld (Germany Day 1)

2008-04-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night, I took SQ26 from Singapore to Frankfurt together with our supplier and business associates. Was really happy that my dear dear, my parents and my sis were there to see me off. Managed to see Yeeling at the airport too as she was coming back from a flight. Appreciate it! Man, this is the longest flight that I have ever taken. 12hrs 40min. Thank God there is a personal screen for everyone, otherwise I'll be bored to death! There were about more than half of the people in the plane are Europeans, thus big size. Was struggling to fall asleep in a unnatural position.

After reaching Frankfurt International airport, we had to transit using a domestic plane. The plane had 3 crew including the pilot. Total occupancy is 50. As it was a short distance, it wasn't so bad (40min). I left Singapore at 2350hrs and I reached Germany (after transit) at 850am (Germany is 6hrs behind Singapore). It's like a mutli-region gathering. There were about 6 Koreans, 6 Japs, 2 Indonesians, 4thais, 1 malaysian and 4 Singaporeans for this trip.

We went to a small town called Bielefeld. It's a very nice place. Cold cold too. 7 Deg C. A very relaxing atmosphere and there is a castle! I have uploaded them into my photobucket and shall slideshow them in my next post.

Going to have my dinner soon liao. Time now is 530pm in Germany and 1130pm in Singapore. I miss my dear dear lots lots! =)

Leaving on a jet plane in less than 24hrs

2008-04-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Less than 24hrs before my flight to Germany.

Currently, haven't pack my luggage.
What i'm going to bring along
- long sleeve shirts and toiletries that will last me 12days
- laptop for checking emails at work and for presentation
- thumbdrive
- medicine
- PSP (borrowed from my fren, thanks Ralphael!)
- Digicam (going to borrow from my dear)
- chargers (for all the respective electronic gadgets)
- "Good morning Holy Spirit"
- Bible

My dear dear is down with severe flu, which caused her to have numbness at the back of her head, aches in her body and cough. How I wish I can postpone my flight and take care of her. Pray the guardian angels will watch over her when i'm not physically around.
Hope the stuff in Germany will not be too expensive!

Gambatte for those having exams now!

2008-04-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Last week there wasn't many people who came for cell but it was a nice time of hearing the testimonies of how God had blessed for the people who came. For me, it was how God spoke to me throughout the week on John 15 which says that God is the vine while we are the branches and as long as we are with the vine, we will bear much fruit.

Bearing fruit doesn't have to just constrain within getting your friends saved. It could mean developing love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, kindness and self-control. Yes, fruits of the spirit.

Last friday, there was a situation whereby i was thrown into doing something out of convenience or I could choose to take the extra step to make things right from the start. Customer ordered 300pcs of type A1 product. However, when the time he placed the order, I would only left with 1/3 of type A1 product. My colleague suggested to thrown in balance of A2 product (very similar and cheaper by abit).

If i were to do the former action, everything would be ok if there is nothing wrong. However, IF something goes wrong and due to convenience i decided not to tell in advance, it will jeopardize the name of the company and also my integrity. I went with the former but while having my lunch, something within me was telling me that it's not worth it. Why risk the convenience (& also gaining an extra profit of 20 bucks) for all these? After lunch, I told the purchaser that what I would be supplying consist of the respective ratio of type A products. If he couldn't make the decision, he can ask his engineer and check if it is acceptable. If not, we will take the unacceptable items back without any questions asked. Thank God that after all these hassle, they accepted the items because the item they're using can fit both type A products.

Through this episode, I had the peace of God, joy of doing what is right and love from God. He never fails! For those who are studying for the exams currently, perservere! As long as you remain in Him, He will remain in you and you will bear fruits! Thus, don't leave God out of your revision during this crucial period. Let this time be a time of honoring Him and He will bless you with fruits that will bring glory to His name!

1st quarter of 08 whizzed past! That's fast!

2008-04-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

By the time i'm blogging this post, i'm not sure how many people are actually visiting this site coz it's been a looooong time since i last blogged.

Many good things and bad things (but God always turn something bad into good for those who love Him ^.^) happened.

Thank God that

- The 3 cable supply projects are going to finish soon! (1 project has been delivered, 1 close to 95% done and the last one about 75% done) It has been 1 year since the start of the cable delivery. Though there has been hiccups (late cable deliveries from factory), God somehow made a way out of the situation such that we do not have to pay for L.D (liquidity damages) and thank Him for the wisdom and peace during that period.

- Company catalogue is currently in production! (after close to 1.5years of planning, taking photographs and changes) Should be out by end of this month!

- I'm blessed with a new car, it's still an altis though (more of it's a shared car between me and my sis).

- My lil sis finished her 2 years in SGH and pray that she will think more maturely and start to think about the ones who care for her alot (my parents) and be responsible in whatever she does from now onwards.

- I'm able to get discount from using my credit card for the golf lessons that i took up. It's a fun game, not easy to pick up, need lots of patience and FOCUS.

This 2nd quarter have to pray for lots of journey mercy from the Lord

- My mum's china trip with my auntie and my grandfather (they're coming back this sat!)
- 19th April, I would be going to Germany for an exhibition trip and a supplier training session until 31st April 08.
- My sis would be going to Vietnam during the period too.
- In May, my parents would be going to Cambodia to tour and during the same period my lil sis would go to Bangkok with her friends.
- I'll be going for my very first church camp in May 31st to 5th June!

Thus, i feel that this 2nd quarter will fly by very fast again and also a period whereby not very often all the family members are in Singapore. I hope that i'll be able to blog more often coz most of the time want to blog but dun have the time. When i have the time, dun have the mood to blog. Haha, i guess many people who don't have a blog have this syndrome most of the time. =p

Blessed Lunar New Year

2008-02-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

I know it's abit late but it's still within the 15days of CNY thus wishing everyone a blessed lunar new year!

Time flies and it seems that as every year passes by, the days pass even faster then before.

My 4th ICT just flew past a few weeks ago and I thank God for it because I managed to catch up with some of my friends and really get to care and connect with them.

As this is the festive period, we get to attend some suppliers' CNY dinners and one of them is lunch at Singapore flyer (looking forward to it)! During our company dinner, we had 3 tables in a private room at a chinese restaurant. One of the tables consists of the bosses and their close business associates.

I happen to talk to one of them (let's call him J) and he told me that few years ago, it was him who fetch my dad back after CNY dinner but now he can "ya ya" tell him that he got his son to fetch him back (so can drink without worries.) During one of the conversations with my dad (while i was still in university), J asked my dad whether I was interested in helping out or he got any intentions of asking me join the company. He told J that I sounded uninterested in "taking over" and wanted to go aerospace company to try out (that was during my attachment) and he didn't want to dictate my future. Now that I'm helping out, J can sense the joy in my dad and the ease of burden within him.

Suddenly, it dawned upon me of this revelation. God loves his children (each and everyone) that He gives us free will. He doesn't force us to love Him or force us to do His work. Unless one realises God's love for him/her, it is very difficult to love Him, let alone do His work. I can imagine my dad's joy (though he doesn't show out) when I'm working in the company (contributing both technically & sales wise). In parallel to this thought, God, our heavenly Father would be very happy when we are doing His work (includes care and connecting with His children, spreading the good news and of coz talking to Him). I know I'm blessed to have both an earthly father whom I can help and do his work and also a heavenly father to do his work too. Some of us may not have this privillege but one thing for sure, everyone of us has the privillege to do His work which is much better than anything else coz it adds up treasures eternally.

Are you doing your Father's work?

1st week of ICT 2008

2008-01-20T04:48:00.000-08:00

In less than 2 hrs, I'll be booking in and getting ready for the 3day 2night tekong "tour" tomorrow morning. But before that happens, shall just summarize what was done during the 1st week of my ICT (In Camp Training).

1st Day - "checking in" and collecting all the stores needed for this ICT. Was briefed on the objective of this in camp and there'll be a $200 marksmanship up for grabs in a SAR21 live firing on Thursday. Had a "welcome PT" and basically sums up the things done for the day. Had a good time catching up with friends and knowing how they are doing. About 200 people came back for ICT and there are about 100 different cars parked in the parade square. This shows how well young singaporeans are doing and contributing to the society.

2nd Day - refresher course. Those who are weapon specialist would go for weapon refresher course (3hr), demolition specialist (moi) would go for demo refresher, etc. In the afternoon we attended a briefing on the Thursday live firing and a training safety regulations test.

3rd Day - loading up stores for thursday live firing and basically do nothing.

4th Day - Thanks for all the peeps who remembered my birthday and smsed me. Though have to spend in camp and in live firing, was blessed to know so many friends still remembered and took the effort to sms me. Thank you! The live firing was held in the jungle opposite (Hall 14) and it was really hot in the afternoon. During the day shoot, secured a 19/20 score. The 1 shot was not that I missed but I was too late to fire out that shot and the target went down at that same time. Night shoot was 20/20 and the marksmanship bonus belong to God.

5th Day - Bn planning exercise, only commanders and the people involved in the planning team were more stressed and busy doing stuff. The rest of us just either did body maintanence (sleep) or were playing bridge.

6th Day - Went for my IPPT test as my window was opened. Got an incentive pass. $100! Yeah!

Could say that this 1st week of ICT was quite a breeze because we spent more than 80% of our time doing nothing (or waiting). But it was during these waiting or doing nothing I get to really rest my mind, body, reflect upon God's words and also get to know how my friends are getting along.

Last week's sermon is aligning our priorities in God and Pastor Dennis used the rifle as an example. During my ICT, we were briefed that SAR21 is almost aligned correctly (means do not need to zero your weapon) and what you need to do is to have the correct briefing posture and aim at the CORRECT target. One of my friends during the day shoot, he shot 18 shots out. 1 missed. The other 2 that were not shot was because he didn't have time to fire them. However, when the results were out, he had a score of 21! Someone beside him must have mistaken his target as his own. Thus, it's important that we align our priorities correctly by focusing on the big picture (Jesus) and not losing sight of Him.

During the 1 week, I also got a lot of time to read. I just finished the book called "the Samson Syndrome" and it tells us why strong men fail using Samson as an example from His Word. One of the important chapters was "strong men tend to lose sight of the big picture". It tells of the 4 blinders that Satan uses to distract us from focusing of the big picture.

Blinder 1: Pleasure - Satan definitely know what gives us pleasure (it may be golf, shopping, worldly temptations, etc) This doesn't mean God doesn't want us to have pleasure but just don't indulge in them and don't loose focus.

Blinder 2: Pain - If you are a goody two shoes who is faithful to God and good to people around you but when Satan hammers you with setbacks, financial difficulties, health issues, you began to miss church and gets irritable easily. You will go back church when the things improve. Knowing this, do you not think Satan will hammer you once in a while to make you stay off track?

Blinder 3 & 4: Prosperity & Power - These 2 if not handled properly, you may fall into the trap and feel that all the prosperity and power is because of what you have done and nothing to do with God. Satan will be more than happy to give you all these as long as you worship Satan and put God far away from you. Thus, in everything we do, always give thanks to God and know that He is in control of everything. God loves the humble but despises the proud.

We need to know that our old self-centered spirit is gone and we are a new creation. We shall live a life that is humble and obedient to God to fulfill the destiny that God has for each and everyone of us.

Gotta change and prepare to book in liao. Will miss my dear dear again. 3days!!!!!

Listening to the master's voice

2008-01-14T05:14:00.000-08:00

Today is my first day of ICT. Finally got a chance to take a break from work and re-unite with old friends and network with them. Coincidentally, quite a number were my secondary school friends, a few JC frens, business associates and my dear dear's lil aunt's husband! Such a small world. After hearing the overview of what's coming up for these 2 weeks, it shouldn't be too shiong. This week there would be live firing for the whole of Thursday (which happen to be my birthday :<) and I hope I can get marksman ($200) as Army's birthday prezzie for me! Hee. Friday and Saturday would be planning for ops order the whole day. (saturday burn)

Next Monday to Wednesday would be 3day 2nite at Tekong for mission and after that would quite sum up the main events for this ICT. Thursday return store and Friday out-process for those who have cleared IPPT. Hope I can clear my IPPT this coming Saturday! =)

Just want to mention something i wanted to blog about but didn't have the time. Few nights ago, Doris sneaked out when the gate was accidentally left open. When my dad noticed that Doris was no where to be found, he called me and i quickly went out and shouted for her name. Luckily, Doris was hiding behind some car sniffing some stuff and when she heard me call for her, she appeared and ran to me into the house. To reward her for listening, I leashed her and brought her out for a walk. =)

At that moment, it dawned upon me that Doris regards me as her master and she recognizes my voice when I called for her. How often are we able to recognize our Heavenly Father's voice? It's only through spending lots of time will one be able to recognize His voice. Have you spent time with your Heavenly Father today?

2008 - year of new beginnings

2008-01-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

2008 = year of new beginnings
Isaiah 43:19
"Behold, for I am about to do a New thing! Do you not perceive it?"
This year is going to be one where we will experience God's fruitfulness, authority & dominion and vibrant life in workplace/ministry and relationship.
In order for us to apprehend this new thing, we need to let go of our past successes/failures, casting away our fears (fear of unknown, fear of new beginnings) and let God do a brand new thing in us!

Talking about new beginnings, today I just did something I had never done before.
1. I managed to install a brand new network card into my desktop CPU! (though it's easy but it's still my first time attempting ma)
2. I changed tyre after service when my dear dear realised my car had a flat tyre. Yup, it's my first attempt in my whole life and it's none other than my dear dear who assisted me in changing. She gave the instructions (because she saw her dad change a flat tyre before) while I executed it. Thank God that all along while we were changing the tyre, God withheld the rain from pouring and it was when we had finished changing (about half an hour), gotten into the car and starting driving that the rain poured down almost instantly.

Yeah! This is the year of many new beginnings!

1month after settling down

2008-01-04T17:41:00.001-08:00

It's been 1 month since Doris settled into our family. Has she grown?
Enjoy the pics. =)

Wedding gift items

2008-01-04T17:21:00.001-08:00

2007 was the year that I collected a lot of wedding dinner gifts. In this slideshow, you can see all the different interesting variety of gifts that the wedding couple has prepared (or should i say the hotel management) for the guests. It is no longer the cake or chopsticks.

2008 will be another year of attending wedding dinners. This month i have already 2 coming! Read the news that if you are attending a wedding dinner in 2008, be prepared that the "market rate" has risen to 100bucks and more. Thanks to rising material costs, oil prices, GST, whatever you can name it. Ahhhh.....

2007 round up

2007-12-31T00:08:00.001-08:00

As 2007 comes to a close (in less than 8hours time), Just want to thank God for things that had happened in 2007 as follows:
- Good health (I didn't choke up a single cent in medical fees in 2007 compared to 2006 which hit over 150 bucks for the year)
- Additional husky (that made me want to walk both dogs every night around the neighbourhood. Good for both dogs and me, keep fit. haha)
- Wisdom (played host for suppliers from Germany & Finland and thanked God for the wisdom He gave in talking to them; managing the P** projects)
- Favor (with friends/customers/suppliers/colleagues such that things can progress smoothly)
- Strength (to last each and every day)
- Peace (because the world is fully confusion/temptations/setbacks/unforeseen circumstances)
- Friends (attending weddings is a fun thing when you can catch up with them)
- Family (Father And Mother I Love You)
- Dear dear (without her, no one to share my joys, sorrows, frustrations. Always there to lend a listening ear, gives me support, encouragement and affirmation. Thank you for being part of my life! I love you dear!)

Thank God for 2007 and I believe a greater 2008 awaits me! Amen!

Blessed Christmas

2007-12-26T23:08:00.000-08:00

I know that Christmas already over but just want to wish those that I didn't wish a Blessed Christmas!

Anyway, this christmas whizzed past very fast. I was busy with work, rehearsals, attending wedding dinners, christmas lunches/dinners. Everyday was so "fulfilling" that I didn't have time for Him. However it was through every rehearsal and actual production of the Father's love that God spoke to me with regards to many things.

Remember the previous post whereby I was really tired and wanted to find the joy? Guess what, Doris no longer has to be given away coz she somehow tamed a little. The problems that I've been facing at P** seem to be resolved (at least for this month). Praise God!

Christmas is so overly commercialised that it becomes a time whereby orchard road is the forbidden ground to go during the weekends UNLESS you don't mind the long queues, congestions and traffic jams (I hate those). People are just buying presents for the sake of buying presents because it would be "bad" if you didn't get them one and in many places you can find slogans that say "it's the season of giving; blessed to give than to receive; etc". Because of the numerous sales (& savings you can saved up to) and year end bonus that many wouldn't feel the pinch or it's a one a year kind of thing. Imagine the amount of money chalked into presents, christmas lunches/dinners, turkeys & logcakes (somemore prices of most items have increased during these few months), this definitely help give a final boost to the economy.

This isn't what Christmas is all about right? Christmas is all about God, about Jesus that over 2000years ago, an angel appeared to virgin Mary and said that God has chosen her and she would have a virgin birth and shall name him Jesus. Christmas was the day when baby Jesus was born in a manger. Jesus lived as a man for 33years before he was crucified for our sins. In the bible, John 3: 16 says "For God so loved the world (you and me), that He gave (sacrificially)His one and only beloved son that whoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Think about it.

Lord, teach me how to find joy

2007-12-17T02:02:00.000-08:00

Even though this week is the coming week for Christmas, things at work doesn't seem to slow down at all. In fact, everyone (customers at shipyards) seems to be making last minute burst to clear as much outstanding requisitions as possible.

Knowing that many of our distributors are having stock take and festive season break (many are having a break from this thursday till after 26th Dec) didn't help in feeling joyful at work. I know that God gives us the joy because the fact that we can start a brand new day alive and healthy is a blessing from God. However, every brand new day, I'll start to worry of the P** project;
- whether would they call for delivery of cables today
- whether the cable that they call are the ones that we have
- what will happen when i go for reservist for 2weeks during middle Jan 08.
- whether they have paid up the outstanding invoices (up to date is over 3mil)
Why P** didn't pay up? Because
- their accounts say that the PO is not updated (the qty doesn't tally with our invoice)
Why PO not updated? Because
- according to their purchaser, it's very troublesome to keep on editing their quantity because alot of work has to be done for every edition. Thus, she say that she will only update when all the quantity are CONFIRMED.
Why our side cannot confirm PO quantity? Because
- imagine there are 10 different type of cables of different lengths that they purchase and each cable needs time for factory to produce and factory has a tolerance of +/- 10% of the length ordered.
Thus imagine I order 100mtr because purchase order is 100mtr but factory gave me 105mtr.
--> I cannot tell factory to just give me 100mtr and keep the 5mtr.
--> I also cannot send 105mtr but delivery order put 100mtr. It would mean a deficit of 5mtr worth of cable from our side.
--> Thus, we need to inform them of the change and as agreed in the contract that they would allow a tolerance of +/-5%.
So, up to this point, we understand that not all cables comes in correct lengths. Factory will ship out once container is full (normally only 20 drums of cables) and wants us to pay in advance.
Bringing back to current situation, every project has at least 200 drums and at least 10 different delivery shipments over a span of 1 year.
Thus, every time they update us with a shipment, we will know of the absolute length and the change required. Thus, when the project start running, we would only have about 50% of the cables so that our money would not be totally stuck in the cables that are in the warehouse.
How would I know what length to expect and who in the correct frame of mind would store 3mil worth of cables just to wait for the coordinator to call for cables that they require.

Mind you, it's according to their schedule and not to according to our shipment come then everything throw to them. And I'm handling 3 projects running concurrently and I'm also dealing with my own account customers' requistions. I know i have to let the coordinator/purchaser know about this situation but she just doesn't seem to get it and just demand that when the project start running we should have all the cables ready to be called. If people work that way, unless the company got a lot of money and earn alot through the project, the company would have crashed and burned.

These cost of these 3 projects overall should be just break even (minimal or no profit) because the price agreed was before the increase in copper prices. Thus, the minor profit has gone into the bank interest, transport charges, petrol cost of me going up and down from our office to warehouse in jurong, and the increase in copper rates.

Lord, teach me how to find joy even in handling this P** project!

Doris have to be given away because my dad don't like her. She's been poo-ing n wee-ing around the house and my dad slipped and fall once. Deep in my heart, I'm really sad because it's like giving something close to me away. (It'll be the end of the world for me, if someone does that to my dear dear). I also thought of Doby, he'll go crazy that someone take his companion away.
I engaged Mocca services and amazingly within 3days, I have 2 interested parties who came and looked at Doris. The latter party seemed interested and able to take good care of her. Thinking of my dad's welfare, I think I have to make the heartbreaking decision and give her away by this week.

I'm also sorry for making my dear dear sad due to my insensitivity (but guys are naturally insensitive in nature) and I hope she can forgive me soon....

Talking about Christmas, I believe that this coming Christmas production from TCC is going to be a very different, creative and impactful production. My heart was lifted up when i went to see the rehearsal and the number of volunteers and work put it really touches your heart of how God is moving in these people's lives. It is through God's love that would spur them to work through late night just to make the event possible. But I do not want to feel lifted up when i enter a church setting and being strike back to square one when i'm not. That's not what God wants us to live. In His Word, He says that He comes to give us life, life in abundance, not just sufficient nor lack.

Skydining at Mount Faber 12/12/07

2007-12-13T04:49:00.001-08:00

Thank God for a good weather.
Skydining was really a very unforgettable and wonderful experience!
Thank you dear for being there!
Let the pictures say it all! Hee

New addition to the family

2007-11-26T21:35:00.001-08:00

Surprise! After 2months of hiatus, decided to post with a slideshow.
There is a new addition in the family and it's a female husky!
We adopted her because the previous owner got complained by HDB people.
We brought her back on Sunday and she's adopting pretty well.
Finally a friend to accompany Doby. We decided to name her Doris.
Let the pictures do the talking. =)

Termites!

2007-09-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

Another week has past. This coming week is also the beginning of the one week break for NTU folks. Ever since I started working, I've lost track of exam seasons, school holidays unless i personally ask my NTU friends. To many of those who have started work, they missed school days. For me, even though i missed the school days(more flexibility in time management) I would still prefer work anytime. I do not like studying for subjects which doesn't apply in my working world, not to mention having exams!

Anyway, early this week as I was pulling out some cable drums for delivery for the rig project in Tuas, there was a termites invasion at the bottom of 3 of the cable drums. Immediately, Hassim (the guy manning the forklift who is very helpful too) came to the rescue. He took a pail of water mixed with kerosene (or diesel) and a broom to the infected area. He dipped the broom into the mixture and applied it on the termite nest and the infected wooden planks. Immediately, you can see that the termites are fleeing for their lives. There was a huge pile of sand and wooden grains consolidated after the after that. He said that these are both brought up from the ground below (due to the crack on the cement) and churning on the wooden planks on the cable drums.

At that time, i was asking God, how come He didn't protect the drums and causing so much inconvenience.

I proceeded on to delivering the rest of the requested cables that were not infected and asked the termite control team to come and exterminate the pest. They came the next day and replied that we are lucky to spot the termites early because it seems that they just inhabited 1-2weeks recently. If we were to spot them one or 2 weeks later, the results will be worse because termites eat up wood very fast.

It was then that I felt God telling me that He let this happen because He wants me to know that He is in control and He is always there. Most of the time, we do things with succession and feel that it's due to OUR own strength and capabilities. Termites came and invade without anyone's notice. If He didn't intervene (using my customer to request for that particular drum), we would still be ignorant about it. Thus, it brings us back to reality that He is in control and always wants to partner with us in whatever we do. So that we will always give the glory to God and not onto ourselves. Thank God for one week that has past and it further makes me say that God is good!

Finally a chance to take a breather

2007-09-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

After 2 consecutive weeks of hosting the reps from various countries (Germany and Finland respectively), my workload was still very packed coz one of our colleagues was hospitalised (intestine ulcer) and MC-ed for 2 weeks! Another colleague reservist for 2weeks during this period too.

Thus, most of the time i would be handling their customer accounts and enquiries. Concurrently i have my personal customers' enquiries, oil rig cable project delivery schedules and miscellaneous enquiries. Drained and tired. Need to take time off and destress!!!! However, taking time off would be out of the question coz it would mean my workload will still pile up and my dear dear has started school. Would be nuaing at home if i take time off so nahhh...

What do you do to destress? Retail therapy? work out? Sleep? etc?
For me, though retail therapy and watching movies do take a away certain stress levels but personally I destress by doing customs on my toys (be it repainted my zoids or transformers).
People may say that it means doing more work! But I find great satisfaction and happiness when i complete a custom and call it my own. Same mold but unique (paint scheme) and it's only one in this world. Normally i'll take a week or two to do one repaint and basically i've thought of the color scheme before attempting on it. It takes a bit of reverse engineering coz you need to disassemble every part and allocate which parts are for wat colors and REMEMBER how to fix them back into 1 piece! haha.

Okok, signing off. Remember not to put too much stress onto oneself. Cast it to God as He cares for you.

My zoids

2007-09-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

In the 80s, if you were a kid or teenager, you probably would have seen toy ads and departmental stores selling mechanized figures (zoids). These figures are built to play and it either runs by wind-ups or batteries. I have lost touch from them ever since I went to secondary schools but this passion was reignited when an uncle of mine gave me the most previous gem in zoids history (though he himself does not know) to build coz his son prefers lego than zoids and he doesn't know how to fix it up. And from that figure on, I went to purchase other zoids figures (very selectively) and repainted them to be unique of its own. I have just finished my backlog and hereby presenting all of them.

Playing Host

2007-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Summer holidays. Not Singapore of coz but in European countries where the temperatures can reach at a peak of 30+ degrees. This would be a period for them to take the opportunity to get out of the country and go abroad.

I had the honour of hosting 2 representatives from Germany. They are our overseas suppliers. One is the regional sales manager and the other is the sales and marketing director. They are on a asia tour whereby Singapore is their final destination before heading back home.

On the night where they arrived, my dad and I were at T2 waiting for them. Now I can understand those people taking cards and stand at the arrival counters waiting. I stood there waiting for more than half an hour not knowing how they look like! When they finally came out and acknowledged who they are after looking at the card i'm holding, it was almost 90% of the ppl from that flight had already came out and left. As my dad don't talk much, i had to do most of the talking from the airport to Orchard Parade Hotel and it doesn't help when there is a massive jam at the marina to orchard area. So much for the first night.

Second day, my colleague and I went to fetch them from the hotel to our office. Thank God my colleague is good in talking and he talked to them 70% of the time. Hee. The whole morning was spent introducing them to the bosses and colleagues and discussing on new product range they they have launched and also marketing strategies. They also proposed on other possible market industries that we can look into with their wide range of safety products.

In the afternoon brought them to eat Boon Tong Kee chicken rice as we want to let them taste some local delights. After that we brought them to visit one of our customers (SPH) and it was my first time visiting their production plant. It's really an awesome experience! At night, we brought them to Turf city to eat seafood. I can only say that they love seafood! Both eating and looking at them live! So much for the whole day. After fetching them back to hotel, I reached home around 11+pm and just KO after my bathe.

The 3rd and final day, we wanted to let them have some R&R thus we told them to go to Mustafa to buy what they wanted (sony thumbdrive, video cam, etc). The actual reason was we need to clear our outstanding enquiries that were untouched the previous day. In the afternoon, we picked them up from Mustafa and went to a "fear factor" lunch (for them). We treated them to the famous Hill street ba chor mee, ba kut teh & rojak. Can see that they love the ba chor mee but not the later 2 items by the amount of portion that they had taken. Visiting the Energizer production plant was the next and final destination before they head to the airport.

Overall, it was really an experience for me to host foreign suppliers and it is definitely not easy to play host. You have to be always taking the initiative of thinking where to go, what to do. Before they left, they told me that we have to let them know if we are going to Germany and they will play host the next time round. =) Thus, this week really flew very fast.

Come next week, we will play host for our supplier from Finland. But this time round, it's not my turn to play host. Hee.

我的家就在这里 youtube video

2007-08-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

Some friendly anonymous person left a comment on my previous post with regards to the other version of there's no place i rather be. Here is the link for everyone to see in case people missed out on the comment.

Oh ya, the goody bag for this year's NDP is really a great treat. Many interesting gadgets (the fan, designer bag, snacks, CD, led mask, star stick, etc)

Update of the cable burglary issue

2007-08-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

If anyone got buy yesterday's TNP, on 2nd page, it writes about the syndicate that steals cables from cable companies (like us). One of them was caught by the police recently. I know the attached report below is very small. Please click on it and read it at your leisure.
Oh ya, I know which cable company kena burglared as per reported. One of our fellow fren fren company but they got buy insurance so no worries. They kena broke into for more than 4 times till that's why after first time they buy insurance liao.

Happy National Day in advance to everyone!

Farewell...

2007-08-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was really a very terrible day. Terrible is an understatement.

First, a Malaysian colleague of mine just confirmed her resignation. Due to several factors (including office politics), she decided to call it a day after working for 8 years. She came from Malaysia at age of 22. Having a teachable spirit and loyalty, my dad patiently taught her the ropes and raised her to from company clerk to sales coordinator after 4 years. A capable lady as she do things fast and accurate. She has good PR with the customers and is a mother of 2 too. Now that she's leaving, can feel my dad's lost of a capable worker. Never in his 30 years as a boss did he try to persuade a worker to stay and he made the exception this time round. However, no matter what we say, she has promised her cousin that she's going over to help out and she cannot back out from her word (a totally non related field - a great loss for a fine talent).
Now that she's leaving, i'll definitely be at a loss with the big project i'm handling. She does the administration, paperwork and orders while I'm in charge of liasing with the customer, cutting cables and meeting the customer if there's any problems with the cables. But things have to go on now, I have to be more detailed, work faster, multi task better and DELEGATE easy jobs to the admin ppl. God, give me wisdom and patience.

Secondly, I made a mistake in purchasing some boxes for my customer. I ordered an additional box which cannot be returned nor sold (very difficult because they are of some unique specifications). That mistake cost me 800 bucks and there goes the profits I made from the order. It's like selling cost to cost. Boss told me to be more careful the next time but I couldn't forgive myself the whole afternoon and didn't have the mood to continue with my work. I asked God why and He told me that," so that I will be more careful when bigger orders come in the future." God, give me alertness and less carelessness.

Last but not least, I dropped my phone at my dear dear's poolside table when I went to see her on her condition because she is still sick. When I realised my phone was not in my pocket and went back to search it, it's no longer there. When my dear called my phone, it was switched off. Then I know that there is almost no glimpse of hope of getting it back. When I went back home, I called my operator and terminated my line to prevent anyone from using my line to make any prank calls or whatever stuff. Was really down the whole night. Reactivated my line this afternoon and thank God that I still have my old nokia phone with me and it's filled with most of my contacts. Well, this loss wasn't as much as the previous 2 cases because the new phone has been giving me problems. It gets heated up for no reason and drains away the battery life, my calls will be cut halfway sometimes (& it happened several times) and there are times that my sms doesn't get sent through and I didn't realise it until I looked at my phone (I seldom look at my phone unless it rings or receive an sms). God, give me awareness of surroundings.

After reflecting these 3 incidents, I realised that money and kinds cannot match to the loss of a person. Probably or should I say God made us to have feelings and relationships is what matters most. Coincidentally, all these 3 incidents fall under the title of today. Sigh, farewell and we have to move on. The latter shall be greater!

Ending with a light note, here is one of the last pics i took with my lost phone. I painted and panel lined my bumblebee if you realised. Hee.

My dear's convocation!

2007-07-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

I think the title says it all.

4 years, the good times and bad times in NTU. Finally it's the end of 1 chapter and the beginning of another. Last Thursday was EEE convocation for graduation class 2007.
Really brings back memories when 1 year ago it was me who was wearing the graduation gown.
Shall keep this post short and sweet and let the 2 picture says it all.
For more pics, I think my dear dear will upload them in her blog in due time. Hee.

There's no place I'd rather be

2007-07-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

NDP is just round the corner and I pretty like this song which Kit Chan sang. Youtube video as per above. Today heard from 93.3fm that Zhongqing and Jiahui they remix this song and swopped chinese lyrics! Too bad no mp3 version, well you can juz try to sing along when you hear and repeat the words according to the rhythm. English words are the original lyrics while the chinese words (line below) are the ones that was substituted.

There's no place I'd rather be
我的家就在这里

改编词:周崇庆/萧嘉蕙

原词/曲: 叶良俊 (Jimmy Ye)

I've walked the streets of Cairo and Bomby
你说要去PARIS 我听成PASIR RIS

I've seen the neon lights on ole Broadway
长城有魅力也很吃力

I've climbed the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall in one hour
要爬上铁塔非常EXPENSIVE

Experienced sweet and sour but that's okay
其实SENTOSA 会更便宜

There's no place I'd rather be, you'll always be a part of me
这是美丽的天地我的家就在这里

And even though, I've roamed the world
去到外地我才发现

It's still my home I long to see
原来这里最干净

This is where my family, and my friends grew up with me
这里也有PULAU UBIN 要骑脚车也可以

So I'll cross the skies and sail the seas
你要很小心别像周崇庆

To be where I wanna be
不然少了四颗TEETH

There's no place I'd rather be, you'll always be a part of me
这是美丽的天地我的家就在这里

And even though, I've roamed the world
从JURONG EAST 到 PASIR RIS

It's still my home I long to see
TAXI BUS 和 MRT

This is where my family, and my friends grew up with me
这是美食的天地有很多好吃东西

So I'll cross the skies and sail the seas
LAKSA CHAR KWAY TEOW 和那 LOR MEE

To be where I wanna be
不满意有WANTON MEE

Coz there's no place I 'd rather be!
还有SATAY 和HOKKIEN MEE…

Hunt for the Camaro Concept 08 bumblebee

2007-07-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Transformers Era is back again and it's hitting both guys and gals, old (like me) and young.

Anyone who has watched the movie will never forget 1 name. BUMBLEBEE. A member of the heroic autobot and of coz the guardian for Sam Wikidy (or spelt something like that).

Remember the scene when the Megan Fox (forgot her movie name) commented that how come a futuristic and powerful bot morph into such a junk? He "kicked" both Sam and her out of the car and came back with a new look! From a 1974 camaro to a 2008 concept camaro. Very cool!

Same goes to the toy, the 08 version is definitely way better than the 74 version (though both of them are extinct from the shelves of departmental stores). It's more articulated and nicer in design. Everywhere I went, I saw little kids rushing to the tf section but disappointed when they couldn't see their idol on site. Practically both ADULTS and kids are hunting down for it. For adults, some buy them for a "purpose". They want to make a quick buck in E-bay or local yahoo auctions. Go try searching in these 2 sites and see how much they are fetching.

I managed to get hold of 1 piece and display it on my office desk. Yesterday, a customer came to collect an item which he ordered and saw the bumblebee and asked where i bought. He wanted to buy 2 for his 2 kids (1 pri 1 and the other K1) but couldn't find in any departmental stores. I told him the reason behind it (paragraph above) and sighed. I told him that come August or September, I may be able to source for him the Japanese version. He left with a hope pinned on me that I could help fulfill his kids little wishes. Such is the love of a father. He knows what his kids like and makes the effort to try to know them and get for them (if it's within his budget).

I was thinking in parallel with God's love. He knows the desires of our heart. If we walk with Him closely in obedience, He will reveal to you and grant you the desires of your heart. Everyday, I thank God for the favour and the doors He open for me whenever I meet up with challenges at work. When I thought that there would be no way, he gave me the wisdom to make a way. Whenever I'm down, God puts people to encourage me. An example is this morning, my JC friend Cara, she msn-ed me and thank me for bringing her back to Christ. Now she's serving faithfully in her church and is seeing someone from her church. She has seen God's faithfulness and goodness in all the areas of her life. See what I meant by God will grant His children the desires of their heart? (hee).

Let us be the willing vessels for God whereby people will see us as more than who we are. Just like Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Bought my very first laptop!

2007-07-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

I have been procrastinating from buying a laptop since early last year. I kept telling myself that it is not necessary and it's a spending with no returns. The temptation came and gone until I saw 2 brouchers A### and D###. Both offer very competitive pricing and specifications. I made the decision to purchase a laptop finally because
1. I would be able to use it as presentations when I visit customers locally,
2. I would be able to update the projects that I'm handling anytime and anywhere.
3. I would be able to access email when I go overseas
4. More importantly, I can chat online with my dear dear whenever I'm overseas (though the frequency is like once a year?)

Yesterday, I went down to Sim Lim with my dear thinking that they would offer competitive pricing for laptops. However, after going to several shops and enquired on the price, they gave me exactly the same price found on the published brouchers. A fellow friend told me that don't buy a laptop just by looking at the specifications, you need to physically look at the item, feel it, type on the keypad, weigh it and after all these you must like it. It's the same concept as buying cars, flats or even diamond rings. We also went looking for 2.5" external hard disks but realised that though the pricing was competitive, the cover looked very filmsy which deterred us from buying.

Deep inside, I wanted to buy A### after walking around as it met my budget (less than 2k). However, another side of me just wanted to at least give D### a chance coz the cover looked very nice on the broucher. We searched the whole Sim Lim but found no retailer was selling it thus we went to Suntec to look at their only shop front. When we reached there, the covers were indeed very appealing HOWEVER the keypad was not nice to type (the feel was just different). Another drawback was it takes 2-3weeks to build! I told myself that today is the day that I'm going to buy my laptop coz it's a critical time where it will come in handy at work. I remembered that Carrefour also sells A### thus we went there to take a look.

After negotiating a while with the salesman, he offered to upgrade the ram from 1GB to 2GB (equivalent to what D### offers) and a free 4GB thumbdrive thrown in. In my mind I was struggling with which to buy. Suddenly, God spoke to me saying that do not judge a book by its cover. What do I really need? Functionality or appeal? At that instant, I wasn't confused anymore. I made up my mind to take up the A### package. I"m not saying that A### laptop doesn't look nice. It has a sleek black cover and a very nice keypad feel to type on, just that it doesn't has funky colors like D###. Since the laptop is used for biz, A### would portray a professional and confident look. In the next 2 paragraphs, I'm gonna describe how amazing that I followed God's instructions.

When making the payment, the salesman proceeded with upgrading the ram for me. When he made the invoicing, I think he accidentally deducted an additional hundred bucks (by right should just deduct the cost of the free ram) which I didn't take notice too. It was when after I sent my dear home and realised that where is my free 4GB thumbdrive. I called up Suntec Carrefour and the person was trying to contact me at the same time. He said he made a mistake in invoicing and would appreciate if I can go down and re-do the transaction. He also said that the free thumbdrive is given when I go to funan IT mall to redeem my S$300 bucks rebate. Deep inside I had 2 choices.
1. I can just say that I'm not going back suntec anymore and forget about the matter.
2. I go back and re-do the transaction, who knows the salesman may get blackmarked or bonus cut if I didn't go back. (Being a honest person and want to stand righteous in front of God, I definitely would choose the later option)
As I was going back home to have dinner with my parents, I asked them whether they would like to go suntec to eat and coincidentally they said that my lil sis want to go Marina Square to shop for clothes. That was when I know what I should do.

I fetched my parents and my lil sis to marina square and ate at the food loth and while they were shopping, i went to Suntec Carrefour. When I reached there, I was in for a surprise. The salesman spoke to the management and they felt that they should honour their mistake and they decided not to pursue the S$100 bucks. Yeah! That would make my laptop cost S$1.9k. I honored God by going back to Suntec (means forgoing 100 bucks) even though it's troublesome and He honored back by giving the S$100 back. The salesman asked me to recommend my frens to A### and of coz not to mention about this mistake. (hee) When I told Jingxian that I purchased A### instead of D###, she said I made the better choice because D### purchases their components from various different suppliers (depending on stock and price). That would mean 1 D### laptop with the same spec may have different component (maker) to another D### laptop! Thank God I heed His voice and didn't went to buy D###. I pray and I believe that this laptop will last me at least 4 years! Thank God for His goodness. =)

Congrats my dear fren!

2007-07-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 months! I wonder are there any more readers who visit my humble blog.
I know I'm like switching roles with my dear dear. She's blogging more often then I do now and more functions and gadgets on her blog.

Ok, let me recap on what were exciting events that happened the past 2 months.
Hmmm.... shucks... I think I got short term memory... I only can recall what happened last month. oops...

Last month was Life Conference and it was really a "life-injecting", "recharging of passion" and "feeling the heartbeat of God." The guest speakers, one is full of Faith, the other is full of the Spirit, are really Man of God. Wherever they go, God is with them and it brought revival and physical healings that even modern science or medicine could not phantom. Listening to their real life testimonies really amazed me of how God uses people whom we think are "no hope, useless junk" into powerful warriors, God's soldier. It is not the first time I hear of senior pastors of churches who were once secret society members, or drug addicts, or those super pai kias. God is really God of wonders. Even though all of us are re-charged, it is easy for this energy to be drained away by life's pressures, burdens and lies spoken by the devil. Thus, we have to not depend on ourselves but partner with God in whatever little things that we do and you will see how God works wonders.

Next spectacular event was the movie event of the year! TRANSFORMERS - The movie. Though I didn't manage to get tickets for the gala premier, my dear and I went to watch the opening day (Thursday). I took half a day so that we can catch a 645pm show without an empty stomach. I can say that the 2hr plus movie was full of excitment, actions and humour. As I was procrastinating from buying this movie line of toys, my perseverance crumpled when I decided to buy prime and bumblebee (thanks Jeff for helping me to get BB! yeah!). Even kids and ladies want a piece of bumblebee coz he's loyal, friendly and cool. I was at a departmental store to "hunt" for bumblebee coz I didn't have one at that time and I hear a small boy say "ahhhh.. no more bumblebee. Mummy, I want bumblebee!". I was thinking "wow, finally transformers have a continuation generation. It will no longer stop at the 80s kids who are now adults (me) or even daddies. Even though it may mean more 'competition', but it's a good sign. I would prefer my kids to like transformers than some teletubbies which i find makes no sense." It's really a revival of transformers. All around the world, most will know who is bumblebee, optimus prime, megatron and starscream. Suddenly a thought came to my mind. "what will it take for such a similar revival to happen in the spiritual realm?" When will we see people reading the bible in every corners of the earth, talking about Jesus, or Isaiah, Peter, Joseph, etc; people approaching the sick and praying for them and immediately they get healed miraculously?

Last but not least, the last event I wanna share is the one related to my title. Congratulations Desmond and Fanny on your wedding! It was 07/07/07. Early morning I woke up at 6+ to wash my car coz my car supposed to be one of the "brother" car. But it rained heavily after i finished my car wash. Shucks, how can it rain on this blissful day?!! But thank God that when I reached Desmond's place at 815am, it was down to only a slight drizzle and before we went out to fetch the bride, the rain has stopped. It was my first time being a best man and I didn't know what was installed for us. What type of sabos there'll be. Get a preview of what's going to come in 2-3year's time. hiak hiak. Everything went on time and really thank God for the cooling weather, not much hiccups and the blessed evening I had catching up with my primary school frens at the dinner and also the great company with my dear dear. The only regret was I didn't take a picture with Cat on that night. She looked gorgeous!! Wait till I get the dinner photo together with the wedding couple and upload online.

Oh ya, during the dinner when they showed the montage made by Desmond and Fanny, it showed both Desmond's & Fanny's life transitions, from the beginning to kindergarten, primary school, secondary, poly, army (for desmond), couplehood and finally their union. It was really heartwarming and there was a deep sense of happiness within me that one of my best friends in life has settled down. Even Desmond's dad who is a very strict and stern person but on that day, he was full of smiles and can really see that he's real proud and happy for his son.

To end the post, I shall share the song that was played on Desmond's wedding montage. A chinese song sang by TANK. Fei ni mo shu. Very nice. (oh ya, and it's the FIRST time i direct link a youtube clip to blogspot. hee. Sorry, take so long to learn when it is just so easy.)

Another version by a lady Ariel

Update

2007-05-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

It has been 1 and half months since my last post. Think I'm switching position with my dear dear. She blogs more regularly than me and has more interesting pictures and features. (Go visit her blog if you have not done so. (^.^)

For the past few weeks, I was busy with a big project. Thank God for His wisdom and strength, I was able to plan systematically and accurately (without careless mistakes in figures) the allocation of cables and marking of them. It is for the supply of a building of 3 new oil rigs in the western side of Singapore. Finally the supplying of cables got going, and by supplying means we are able to bill the customer. That would ease our company's financial burdens.

Thank God that my dear dear's final year examinations are over, and so is her FYP. Bye bye to NTU and hello to NIE though she still don't know whether her application will go through but I strongly believe that it is a blessing if NIE brings her into the teaching world where she will make an positive impact to the future generation and bringing hope! She's going to HongKong tomorrow morning 6am and it would be 5 days with her NTU gal frens. Though I'll miss her, I would want her to enjoy and relax for this first overseas trip without her parents tagging along or forbidding her to go.

I was procrastinating from updating the blog because I was physically, mentally tired after a day's work and blogger seems to take very long to load (not to mention pictures) but yesterday's incident was too much for me to keep it to myself. Decided to blog it and realised that blogger system has improved! It takes less than 5min for my 5pictures to be uploaded! Cool! Oh ya, the following pictures are real and taken from my new K800i sony ericsson cybershot cameraphone. Bye bye Nokia, hello S.E. Ok, back to the incident.
Yesterday morning at 750am, when one of our colleagues reach office (she's served more 25years in the company), she realised that the main gate was half opened. The gate's holder was cut open with a metal cutter. So was the warehouse door. Something was amiss, she decided to call boss and say most probably kena broken into. My dad told her to call the police while we are making our way there. When we reached, decided to leave everything as it is until the police came. One by one, our fellow colleagues came to report for work as usual and realised that the office has been broken into. Everything was halted, not to touch anything, not to enter until the police come. It took the police more than half an hour to reach the place. Wa lau, such efficiency. The main police headquarters is just less than 5min drive away. If there was a real burglar in the scene, i think they could have run off far far and the police would not be at the crime scene yet.

The cutter that was supposed used to cut both the metal gate and the warehouse door. Stupid of the burglars (coz we believe not just 1) to leave the cutter behind.

The gate that was being cut. The stainless steel lock was still left at the side undamaged.

The little things you see on the ground are not crystals or diamonds. They seems like broken glass that was being smashed onto the side or back of a pickup or van that they stole. (our neighbour's pickup was reported loss that very morning too.) There was similar shattered glass at the front of our neighbour's gate.

This empty space with black plastic wrap that you see here are the 2 big drums of cables that were stolen. Apparently it seems that this is done by a syndicate or someone who knows the market well. As copper has increased 3-4times its usual price, the demand is very high. These burlgars strike at those cables that they are able to carry AND those that contain alot of copper. So where are the drums now?

Tada! Here they are! The burglars pushed the drums into the logistics area so that no one can see. coz at night our areas are very brightly lid (we supply lightings too). Imagine you one person walk into the place and realised the place has been burglared, i think you would be real paranoid. See the 2 empty drums, those big drums were what the burglars aimed. Big cables with alot of copper. Those small cables they left it aside, they didn't take. Who is the person inspecting the cables? He is from the forensic department to check for fingerprints coz this cable was cut but it's too tedious to cut all of them. They took 2 meter and gave up. What's frustrating was that they are like mice, they cut on some cable's jacket to see if inside got thick copper or not and by doing so, the cables would be damaged and unsellable.

Total damage and loss accumulated to about 30k. It hasn't add in the opportunity cost of the whole morning's operation of the company. The worst is that we bought fire insurance but not theft. This would mean that if we were to buy now, they would charge at a premium coz our area was broken into. Never before in 30years history of the company that there happened such an incident. Apparently, there was 2 similar theft cases that happened in the vicinity for the last month but it wasn't reported to the public nor the neighbourhood. Ours only police report, never ask ST or TNP or Wanbao to come.

I can think of the following reasons.
- don't want unnecessary publicity, it would lead other burglars to come into the place because it has been broken into once.
- don't want to lose any reputation

However, if nothing is done, the syndicate will just grow bigger and bolder. There are 2 to 3 foreign workers hostel just nearby the vicinity and with Singapore welcoming more foreign workers, these social issues will not decrease. The police that came are all well fed by looking at their size and the walking posture. If they were to chase a burglar, 103% definitely run lose.

What good things I can see from the incident that happened.
- We can see our colleagues all felt for the company. A few stayed back after office hours to ensure that the gates are repaired and everything is locked and secured(for those cables that are outside) before leaving the office. Some of them even specially turned into our office yesterday night and this morning just to see if everything was ok.
- Another thing was that losing money is nothing compared to losing a life. It would be worse if it was daylight robbery.
- Our security would be upped. There will be an auto gate (which means no need lock and by manual force one would unable to force the heavy sturdy gate open). There would be motion sensors on all entrances of the gate. Once opened, alarm will sound off.
- CCTV connected to the internet so that one can even see what's happening at night at the parking area and inside the store.
- buying theft insurance of coz.

As the company progress into the 31st year of operation and beyond, more improvements has to be made to keep up with the technology of the world.

God of Hope

2007-04-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

Credits from TCC

God of Hope

When hope seemed nearly gone
When the road seem just too long
And my heart just can't find, strength inside to journey on
Lost without a light
I'm raining on the inside
A silent cry that none could hear
A thousand wounds in every tear

God of Hope, my hope for tomorrow, I prayed, I cried to you
God of Hope, can you feel my sorrow, my pain, will you hear me call again?

When hope seemed nearly gone
When the road seem just too long
And my heart just can't find, strength inside to journey on
That's when I'll lift my eyes
To behold the Lord of the skies
My lord of miracles
I'll find my way and strength for another day

God of Hope, My Hope for tomorrow, I place my trust in You
God of Hope, Joy in my sorrow I'm safe
In the warmth of Your embrace

Timeless

2007-04-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Timeless - A reality musical drama

Trinity@Adam
21 Adam Road
Fri & Sat•Apr 6 & 7
4pm & 7.30pm

Timeless

A banker who meets with failure.
An artiste who meets a dead end.
An accountant who finds true love.

Discover how an extraordinary story from ages past unfolds in three contemporary lives.

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Yeah! I believe today is the starting of a long weekend for many people (I'm off from work on sat. hee) and they must be running out of ideas to where to go. I recommend going to 'timeless'. It's a reality musical drama production by TCC and it's free! You don't need to pay big bucks to watch a musical like "phantom" though I would wish to catch it if I have spare cash and my dear dear is free.

So..... wait no more! Jio your friends or bring your loved ones and make your way down to TCC@adam today 4pm or 730pm. There'll be another 2 presentations tomorrow. I promise that it's nothing like the previous Easter presentations that TCC had held. This time there will be real testimony accounts with music, dance & drama (both contemporary and during Jesus' time). To cut it short, you will be "wah" after watching it.

See you there!

[Sorry Raymond, you couldn't get to watch this. Ask your sis to re-enact the whole scene or describe to you when you get back. :) ]

Busy to the max!!!

2007-04-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

For those people who has been clicking weekly for the past 6 weeks in fact and keep on viewing the same thing, really sorry. I'm really very very busy with my work, church stuff and my other stuff. By the time I reach home, I just want to relax both my brain and my eye. Though I have many thoughts to blog, but I just procrastinated on making the time to start on one.

Ever since my last post, let me recall any significant moments....

Hmmm..

- I celebrated my 1000th day anniversary with my dear dear in 26th Feb. \^o^/
- Watched my first movie with my dear dear (just the two of us) for the year 2007. Music and Lyrics. A very very nice show. All couples should catch it. haha
- Celebrated my mum's and my dear dear's birthday in March. For my mum's birthday, it was a time where the whole family including my lil sis came together and had dinner together and shopping after that. It's been quite some time we last have that. For my dear dear's birthday, we tried something new. We ate at soup restaurant. Though it was famous for its chicken, it was the vege, claypot toufu and slice fish that really made us want to go back again. Hee.
- Time flies, it is exactly one year that my lil sis is in SGH. One more year and she'll be free. Glad that she's more mature and able to think. Though she still has her rebellious nature, she is much much much better that she was 1 year ago.
- Work seems to be piling up for me. Thought that the more that you are experienced with your work, you would be able to do things faster and have more time. Not true. It means you can handle more stuff and new stuff! Everyday office time is like a breeze to me. It just whizzes past for lunch and not long after it's time to go back home for dinner. But I thank God for the favor that He has poured into my life. Though there are times that may have hiccups in the work, it will be somehow resolved miraculously. Hee.
- My dad just went for a trip to China to play golf. I'm left to go work and also handle his customers' enquiries for 4 days!! Really need God to multiply my time and grant me efficiency in my work. and lots of wisdom too!!

Before the golden pig kicks in for this lunar new year

2007-02-15T22:18:00.000-08:00

Some updates since my ICT ended a week ago.
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- 2nd week of ICT zoomed past very fast. We were the 2nd company to use the newly built field camp site at Tekong. It is built on reclaimed land and it was very hot in the day and very cold at night. I think there is a difference of 2deg compared to mainland.

Qn: Where in Singapore can one get to watch firefly and shooting stars?
Ans: Tekong. Sigh, it always has to be at the wrong place and wrong time to be able to view such romantic stuff isn't it?

- made some new friends and also network around. Realised that quite a number of people are working in oil and gas related industries. As our batch are the JC batch, there are engineers, traders, auditors, programmers and businessmen and thus it is a good time of getting to know who is doing what and how one can help the other in the business world. Put in a way, Army helped us have a mass gathering once every year and we only have 3 more opportunities left! After that, we will have to do the coordination ourselves already.
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- Thank God for helpful colleagues whom helped to handle my POs, enquiries and updating me what was going on during my reservist. It's a blessing that our company has such dedicated and helpful colleagues. =)
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- One of my friends msn me say that at some angle, I resemble Haifeng (Adam) in the 7pm show. Hmmmm.... is it the case? coz a handful of friends and relatives have said so in the past.
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- Still recovering from flu after ICT. Quite a number of my friends fall sick after ICT too. Probably cannot get used to the clean and fresh air. haha.
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- This year's V-day was spent with my dear dear at the flower shop. Helped to spy on the new competitors at square 2 and believe next year's valentine there will be stiff competition.
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- Thank God that ever since I started working, He has helped me overcome problems either through miraculous ways or using people to help me. Example, one customer ordered 2 stainless steel boxes which we got from our principal. The next day, he requested a change of size. Normally, there will be a surcharge for exchanging of items with our principal but I got the favour to be able to exchange FOC for this time. The items will be returned after CNY. However during lunchtime, I got a call from the customer saying that he will keep the current boxes and will still take the other 2 boxes. This means that i get twice the sales and also save the trouble of the administration of returning the boxes. Praise God!
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- I am given the task of overseeing a big project that will run till 2008. Basically, I have to monitor the movement of stock from our principal (US and Spain to Singapore) and also to advise the boss of our profit margin through each transaction due to the different currency rates. If I'm able to handle this well, subsequent 4 more projects will be handled to me to oversee too. Need the wisdom and alertness from God to see me through!
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- Come the year of the golden pig. The latter shall be greater! =)

1st week of my 3rd ICT

2007-02-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

Finally, a week of ICT has passed. Previously I was thinking whether would I be able to gel with the team members or being thrown around as a spare man as I missed my previous ICT due to schoolwork. All these thoughts were unnecessary as I was allocated back into my old team. *yeah*

On the very first day, we were briefed of the changes in structure of the Army and also in Cdo. The treatment has definitely improved when they view us as taxpayers rather than NSF 6years ago. Definitely, we still need to show our respect to the officers as we are still soldiers serving the nation during the ICT. As the Army now is transiting into 3G, our unit is also making changes in the structure. Our unit has "multiplied" from 1 battalion to 2. However, the total strength difference between the later and the former has decreased. How is it so? A good example is our company which comprises of 3 platoons has been divided into 2 companies with 6 detachments each. You do your maths and you will understand why I said the unit has multiplied but total strength has decreased. Is this the "in" trend nowadays? Hmmm....

Anyway, the past week has been a breeze with the usual "rush to wait, wait to rush" mentality. A task which has been passed down to be done say at 830am, it was completed at 930 or 10am max. The rest of the time is sleeping in the bunk waiting for lunch. The same thing will repeat after lunch and a few light PT sessions in the evening. That sums up for the week.

Next week will be 4 day 3 nights at Tekong. Heard that the field camp site now has safari beds, individual cupboards and fans! This is definitely something different compared to my time when all it has are 4 walls with probably a few windows for ventilation. True or myth, I'll be finding out tomorrow.

Tonight need to book in at 2200, sigh... got Superstar finals at 730pm and thailand vs Singapore finals at 8pm... and I'm down with cold and flu due to the "powerful fan" that is blowing in our bunk. Think the fan is dehydrating our body at a very fast rate as many people I "interviewed" also down with the same syndrome when they sleep on the upperdeck. Just hope that this coming week whiz past fast fast and I can be back in the civilian world and able to spend time with my dear dear! *yeah*

Wireless Love

2007-02-03T17:14:00.000-08:00

A laptop.

Two roses.
A recipe for romance?

Discover the surprising twists and turns of true love at this Valentine’s Day special.

Reservist

2007-01-28T00:42:00.000-08:00

Going for a 2 weeks In-Camp training tomorrow morning 730am.
So sian... when it's so near CNY, so near V-day.
I'll miss my dear dear...

A thought drop down from Heaven

2007-01-11T08:15:00.000-08:00

FYI, it's my 120th post since I started blogging 2 years ago.

Today, we had dinner at Ah Yee restaurant at Turf City. One of the business associate treated the whole company (from logistics to admin to sales) and we had a private room to ourselves with a Karaoke function. Had Alaska crabs, Australian lobsters, clam shoots, fishes, Jumbo crabs and fried hor fun. It was like a feast with super duper high cholesterol stuff after I mentioned the above items. There was also free flow of red wine and beer. Thank God I am allergic to alcohol and thus I do not have to face situations of drinking.

Everyone seems to have a merry time eating & drinking, including my dad. Because it's only once a year my dad gets to eat so much seafood and drink so much red wine at one shot. My mum forbids my dad from eating all these. The only seafood we cook at home is fish. No crab, no prawn. Half a glass of red wine per nite for him at home.

Just when everyone was enjoying themselves with all the drinking and going around challenging people to drink up, I began to feel out of place. I was asking myself why did I come? It's around 10pm and I could have went back home after work and practiced my guitar for worship for tomorrow's cell! I believe that God wants me to learn something out of it and it was indeed the case.

In one scenario, one of my colleague was so drunk (after going around drinking up red wine with the fellow colleagues) that he "merlion"-ed not once but 4 times on the sofa. His face turned very pale and he weighs over 100kg. You can imagine all the crab meat, lobster meat and noodles came out of his mouth and stained the sofa and the carpet of the room. Ewuuu... Though my dad didn't "merlion", he drank alot of red wine and was already tipsy by his behaviour. I was there for a purpose. To look after him and fetch him home safely. During the car journey back, my dad just dozed off within 5mins out of turf city when I drove past adam road. I began to reflect that when I was young, I was at the passenger seat dozing off after attending uncle/auntie's wedding dinners or after shopping and my dad just drove and made sure all of us are home safely. We somehow swapped roles for that moment and I feel that God is just preparing me for the future. To be one who will not be at the passenger seat in life but at the steering wheel with God being the GPS to lead and show the way and also to protect my loved ones.

In another scenario, there is this little girl, Bev, who is 19 years old working as an admin staff in the company. After knowing her for some time, she is somehow related to my little sis. They had a common friend in friendster. They also share some very similar traits. They have a nose stud, several earrings and are one of the rising and common trend of teenage smokers. She is of legal age to smoke while my lil sis is not. But what God just placed upon my heart is that He is letting me to "see" and "understand" how my lil sis would have behaved outside. For the past few years, I didn't get to really fulfill my role as an elder brother to take care and look out for my lil sis. By talking to her and looking at her actions, it's like how I should be talking to my lil sis. In a less authoritative but a more friendly cum caring approach. Though she smokes, we shouldn't look down on her but treat her like everybody else. God tells us to hate the sin but love the sinner. Thus, I shouldn't look at my lil sis in the way I used to see her. Of coz the girl is not my actual lil sis and there will be differences between the two but at least I began to see a glimmer of hope in the restoration of the relationship between my lil sis and I. If I can talk to Bev like she's my lil sis, I believe I can do the same for my actual lil sis.

Actually this thought just inspired me to pen it down in words even though it's late at night. Not bad, 2 thoughts from Heaven in a night. Thank you! =)

Bronze

2007-01-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

Came back from company retreat.
Glad that I got to know most of the people better. Also their spouses.
Nothing to buy because most are very ex but ate alot alot.
Gained 1kg and now i weigh 63kg!!!! Oh no.... little tummy evolving. Need to ask the bulldozer to flatten it. Pictures should be up on the gallery soon. Not much of me inside but took pictures that interest me.

It was really a challenge after eating so much and 2 days later going for my IPPT test.
I went to Maju camp for the test and was amazed and abit intimidated by the high tech gadgets. Gone are the days of human counting but all are computerized and done by computer sensor.
I managed to get all 5 points except standing broad jump. A mere 3 points for a jump of 221cm.

Then came the rain whereby the 2.4km run was delayed for 1hr. Started at 645. Managed to run my personal best of 11min 14s ever since I ORDed. At the end of the day, I got bronze (S$100)! yeah! yeah!

Happy New Year 2007!!

2006-12-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

Nope, my watch is not wrong nor is yours. Just that I'm going for my company retreat to KL for 4 days 3 nights in half an hours time and posting this in advance.

2006 is coming to an end. A lot of wonderful memories. Leave the bad ones behind and bring along the good ones in your mind.
Let's look forward to 2007 for many more breakthroughs to come in all areas of your life!

I'll be missing my dear dear alot. First time not celebrating New Year in Singapore.
First time not celebrating New Year with my dear dear ever since we got together.
I know she'll be feeling lonely. So am I. Even though there are my colleagues there.
FYI, this company retreat comprises of all the company staff except the bosses. It'll be a good time to build up rapport with the people since most of the time we are busy with our own areas of work. Getting to know the drivers, admin staff and even the sales team. What makes an organisation work I believe is not totally about how well the product is BUT how well the working relationship is within the organisation. If there is no love, there will be no motivation or "wanting" to go to work at all. So here I am, on a "mission". Put it on a light note, to know the people better and also let them know me better.

Gotta go. Have a blessed New Year everyone!
Miss ya lots! Especially my dearest Maomi!! I love you!!

Blessed Christmas

2006-12-26T03:44:00.000-08:00

This Christmas period was a really busy but fulfilling one.
Juggling with work, preparation for Christmas party and spending time with loved ones are not easy.

Besides exchanging Christmas gifts in church, feasting with my dear and her family, farewell lunch for Raymond (see ya in half a year's time Rayzor!!), watching "night in the museum" with my dear and my church friends, playing arcade at Toa Payoh entertainment centre, I had a better understanding and remember what Christmas is all about.

Our Christmas party was held in 22nd December, theme was Christmas Actually. Thank God everything went off smoothly though there wasn't much preparation and many last minute changes due to unforeseen circumstances. There were about 50+ people with more than half are invited guests. As I was the co-Emcee, it was really not my comfort zone to ra-ra the people but God just enabled me to flow through the games and facilitating to my other Emcee to share the Hoyt video clip. Everytime I view the clip again, it just touched my heart and really amazed by the love of a father can do for his son. The background of this video clip is about this father (Dick Hoyt) who loved his son so much that he "carried" him through the marathon. Rick, who is disabled at birth due to brain damage at birth wanted to compete and complete in a marathon just like anybody else. His dad saw his son's HEART, decides to fulfill his wish because of his LOVE for him.

This brings to a story that many people (irregardless they are Christians or not) have come across but many do not really understand the true meaning.

Many times we blame God when we are at our lowest pits. We blame on why He allowed it to happen, we blame on where He is at those moments. But we failed to realise that God is actually carrying us through and even testing us and teaching us to be less dependent on self (or Man) but more dependent on God. For He loved us so much that He already sent his One and Only Son, to die on the Cross for us so that whoever believe in Him shall not parish but have eternal life.

Wish everyone who read this post to have a blessed Christmas and really understand what Christmas Actually is all about. =)

6 more months to the most anticipated movie!!

2006-12-20T02:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe I was abit too exaggerating.
I am talking about something that is "more than meets the eye".
A toyline that has been almost every boy who are born in the 80's who are gaga about.
Yes, the time has come (or should I say going to come).

Transformers, the full movie trailer is online now.

Christmas lightup

2006-12-19T05:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas is just round the corner. Last Saturday I accompanied my parents to orchard. My mum wanted to take pictures of the Christmas lightup and the mobile decorations. All the photos were taken by my mum with the new digi cam that she bought.
A few things I noted while walking along that stretch
- It was very crowded
- There was the story of Jesus being told alive by displays, choirs and performances from different churches I believe. There was several photo booths which the proceeds will go to charity or some church umbrella organisations.
- There was a series of events being put up by a group of churches outside Paragon. They have been doing the such events for the past few years.

However, among the busy shopping and events, I wonder how many people really understand the true meaning of Christmas....

Sarawak trip

2006-12-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

Came back from my first overseas business trip. Thank God that it was a blessed trip.
FYI, it has been 6 years since I last traveled on a plane. The last time was to Thailand with my army unit. For this 5 day trip, I sat on the plane 6 times, 3 of them are internal transit flights.
Here is the breakdown of my 5days:

12th - I went with my other boss and Gary (my fellow colleague cum the other boss's son) for this trip. We took Silkair's transit flight from Singapore to Kuching and to Sibu through an internal domestic flight by MAS. Please dont' be confuse by Sibu and Sebu island. Sebu island is a tourist beach resort while Sibu is a developing town I should say. Sibu has about 30-50 shipbuilding companies which is the most in the state of Sarawak. Upon touching down, my boss called his usual trustworthy taxi driver and we went straight to visit several shipbuilders. It was really an eye-opener where I get to see our navigation lights, searchlights and cables on the 33-38mtrs ships/boats. What I learnt was that the bosses are very friendly and humble. They had no air nor arrogance in them and they appreciate truthfulness and friendship.

Upon our journey back to the hotel, I saw several big churches in such a small populated area (20k). There was a Christian cemetry beside the Hosanna Bible School. Other churches that I saw was Logos Methodist church, St Joseph Church, etc. Hmmm, think East Malaysia many people are Christians compared to other religions because I didn't see any temple or mosque in sight. Probably there are more Chinese compared to Muslims in this area. We proceed to check in to Premier hotel and it was considered one of the better hotels in Sibu. We were treated to a sumptuous 8 course dinner that night by 1 of the shipbuilder and it cost only RM300+ for 12 persons. If the same type of dishes were served in Singapore, it would cost S$300+ at least.

13th - Checked out of hotel to take a transit flight to Kuching then to Miri. Took a picture of the airasia banner at Sibu airport before checking in. This particular transit flight 's waiting time was very long. Spent 3 hours waiting for our flight to Miri at Kuching airport. Though the area was very new, they lack of a eatery (they only had coffee bean). Other stuff like duty-free items are quite expensive. When we finally touched down in Miri airport, as usual the boss called another trustworthy taxi driver and took us to our hotel. This hotel was newly opened on 26th October 06 and is build by Shin Yang, one of our customers. This shows how big an organisation can be. From shipbuilding to building of roads, bridges and buildings!!

14th - Spent the whole day visiting our customers in Miri area. We got to walk around our hotel area in the evening while the boss left us on a trip to Beijing that night. It was considered R&R from that time onwards to 16th. We only had 1 more task in mind. The wedding dinner on 15th night.

15th - We bought the chinese newspapers and saw there were 10full pages on the congratulations for the wedding couple. This shows how grand the wedding was going to be. Gary and I went out to venture further from our hotel. A 20min walk to the next shopping mall and finally I found an internet kiosk. Spent 30min talking online to my dear dear and it cost me RM3. Hee. Gary was down with flu and thus we went back to hotel for him to get some rest. At 6pm, we went to the hotel and we were shocked that it was a very big ball room with 75 tables!!! How many weddings in Singapore can beat that number? There were a lot big shots but we were like 2 tiny shrimps out there don't know many people there. However, I took up the courage to introduce myself and Gary within our table and gave out our name cards. Got to know a shipbuilder/owner and a few other suppliers in Singapore whom can help each other out mutually. Everything went off fairly well. Mission accomplished!

16th - Home sweet home journey back to Singapore. As usual, taking a transit flight to Kuching back to Singapore. For more pictures of this business trip, please visit my fotopic album.

Greetings from Miri Sarawak

2006-12-14T18:47:00.000-08:00

The 4th day of my business trip. Just a short post since my fellow colleague is waiting for me. Really enjoyed the trip in a way that I get to appreciate the things around us better and also learn alot of things from it. Took some pictures of it and will upload them when I get back to Singapore and describe my experience. The internet is not something that's so easily accessible though they have wireless connection in all the hotels i been to. There are no internet Kiosk!!! The one i'm in now is after 30min of walk from my hotel in a shopping mall. Thank God!!! haha... though they are still using windows 2000, at least better then nothing.

Just want to say that I miss my dear dear alot. My dearest Maomi, I love you!

Door gifts

2006-12-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, I went for a dealers' nite and a wedding dinner. Basically I was like hopping from one place to the other. Coincidentally, I received door gifts that will complement each other.

Looking at the pic, I received a personalized wine glass (though I do not drink coz I'm allergic to alcohol) and it looks real cool right? Thanks to Legrand for holding the dealers and distributors nite though I didn't get to eat the Tung Lok buffet. sigh.

Went to my primary school friend's wedding and had a great time catching up with my friends whom i know for 19 years and counting. 2 of them I know them for 21 years because we were in the same kindergarten!! Received the "bling bling" couple thing that is suppose to be a decorative item for wine glasses! Shall keep this a short post as I need to get some rest soon! Nonetheless, a great week! and I look forward to this coming week whereby I'll be going overseas for the first time since year 2 in Uni. Not far la, going to Miri Sarawak. Hope it's not a God abandoned place. Hee

Yeah!!!

2006-12-03T06:04:00.000-08:00

Remember on Friday I had a short post on the demoralizing purchase order which I didn't know and immediately went to make an order with our Germany principal? Yesterday morning when I reached office, I saw the confirmation and realised that item would be ready the 3rd week of 2007! Man, I can't wait so long for that. I was asking God why and how..... I was praying that there will be stock in Germany and it can be flown in asap but now how.....

God knew my thoughts. My fellow colleague saw the confirmation email and walked up to me and said that the items are actually with her! 1 month ago she asked who ordered the item but no one "owned" up and she just left it at one corner hoping to be able to sell off one day. Though the question of where did the purchase order gone to in the first place is still a mystery, I can say that God is a faithful God and through this short episode, I can even put my trust in Him in my work more and more. Praise God!

Had thanksgiving for North district today. It suddenly dawn upon me that I'm gonna miss the people from the other cell. Though we would be still be attending the same service, I feel that there's surely going to be a difference. How? I don't know. But I know He has a plan for each and everyone of us and it is GOOD!!

Stress....

2006-12-01T02:39:00.000-08:00

Skipped my lunch today. Had egg tarts inbetween any few minutes of breather I can get.
Busy busy busy....
Realised I missed out an order 3.5mths ago and the item need to be indent from Germany. It is overdue by 3-4weeks. Sigh... don't how to answer to my customer. Just praying that Germany happen to have stock for it and can come together with our next shipment asap.

Busy December

2006-11-30T04:29:00.000-08:00

On your mark, Get set, ....... Go Go December!!!

After my last post, must be thinking my busy december would be doing manuscript and preparing for the poster session for my ex-prof? No........... haahaa.... With regards to the manuscript, told my prof that it is ok to let a masters students to continue what I had left. All the graphs have to be redo if want to change anything because the soft copy already died together when my com crashed half a year ago. I also got no time to rush anything out. JX said that our prof still thought that I am still his student studying in NTU.

Think God knows my heart and I also didn't have the heart to tell a lie that make me not to go for the poster session. Thus, out of the blue, my boss told me that I would be going for a business trip from 12th to 16th at Sarawak Miri. Of all the places, why such an ulu place. Well, I feel that this trip will let me learn something out from it. What exactly I do not know but I believe God will use every situation to mould me.

Ok, time to line up my list of events.
1st-5th december => my colleague will be going to Korea for holiday with his family, thus all his work will be thrown to me because I help in doing some of the quotations for the major clients. This means double the work load with the same amount of time. God, grant me the efficiency and the favour whereby purchasers wouldn't be mean to me.

2nd Dec => 30months and counting dear!! \^o^/

3rd december => thanksgiving for North district. This is when we give thanks for the good things God has done for us for the past 11 months. And also saying bye bye to some folks and say hi hi to new peeps!

9th Dec => Dealer's night where dealers for LEGRAND come together for a nite of fun, food and laughter. However, I just going to eat then go attend my pri sch fren's wedding. =)

11th-16th => Overseas Business trip

22nd => Christmas, Actually!

25th => Christmas!

30th-2nd Jan => Company Retreat (Still pending)

I would definitely take some of the free time to spend time with my gf, doing Christmas shopping and maybe even shop for clothes for the CNY.

Things I would wanna do this December
- visit Vivocity (never been there before)
- go Tangs buy Evian bottle Christmas version
- hope there'll be an interesting movie to catch with my gf

What should I do.....

2006-11-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

Not sure if many of you knew that I got A+ for my FYP during my final year in NTU. Though it was a great personal achievement, it wasn't reflected in the honours as I only got a certificate of merit. This was because I "bao" another semester. Many people would have increased a class if they had A+ for their FYP project. Eg, a 3rd class honours will get 2nd class lower if they had this grade. Don't know whether it's a blessing or not, due to this my ex-prof wanted to submit my project to a conference and requested me to write a draft manuscript for it. If my hands wasn't itchy to check my ntu email, I wouldn't even know of this. I asked my friends (who also had A grade for their FYP) who were under this ex-prof of mine whether they had such "invitation". Both said no. Hmmm.... Lucky me... below are the emails that my prof send. One can feel that he is a friendly and detailed person but maybe not sensitive enough to feel for the people who had graduated, their priorities and stuff. Read if you have the time.... haha

From my Ex-FYP Prof dated August, but I didn't check my NTU email till September. Logically who would check their NTU email when they had graduated. One of my friends (JX) even said that she forgot the password already.

Haven't talked to you for a while. There will be a conference on thin films in Dec in Singapore. I have submitted an abstract co-authored by Prof Chan, you and me based on your FYP report. The following tasks for us are to prepare powerpoint slides for the oral presentation at the conference and a manuscript for inclusion in the conference proceedings. We will need to submit a manuscript before Nov 06. I would like to request you to help prepare the manuscript based on the results of your FYP report and then we can discuss it and implement it till it can meet the standard set for the proceedings.
The abstract submitted is attached for your reference. The contents of the manuscript can be related to the abstract.
Thanks for your attention and assistance.

Dated September, after I saw the backdated email and replied.

Yes, we will present the paper at Thin Films 2006. As part of the conference papers (about 50%) will be published in two referred international journals, we should try to publish the paper in one of them for which we need to prepare a full manuscript. According to the conference schedules, the deadline for submission of full manuscript is November of this year. Since our abstract submitted was
based on your FYP report, would you help draft a manuscript from your FYP report with about 8 figures/diagrams/graphs together with discussion and analyses for each figure? The manuscript will follow a standard format with several standard sections, such as (1) Abstract, (2) Introduction, (3) Experimental Details, (4) Results & Discussion, (5) Conclusions, and (6) References. I will then make necessary implementations to the draft manuscript.
We can discuss the matter if convenient. Thanks for your kind help.

Dated October, after I procrastinated and said that I had been busy.

I understand that your schedules are tight and am sorry for adding additional
burden to you. As the research work has taken a lot of effort of ours, it would
be a waste if its good results are not published. The attached Author-Guide for
the journal “Thin Solid Films” is for your reference. Eventually, 5 or 6 journal pages should be good enough.
A sample copy of a previous paper of ours published in Thin Solid Films is also attached for your reference. Thanks for your kind help

Dated one week ago, after I read it I "pia" my weekend to come out a manuscript for my ex-prof.

Haven’t heard you for a while. Would you update me the status of the paper?
As the deadline is 30 Nov 06 and we may need to implement the paper, I would
have your first version at your early convenience.
Thanks for your great effort and good to have it this week. I would say that
it is a good chance to get your hard work published and recognized. Otherwise,
it would be waste of the efforts on it.

Dated on Monday, after my ex-prof received my draft. Hmmm... I know my prof was very nice to me during my ntu days but I also put in my hard work to earn my A+ (of coz with God's strength and favor). But asking a NTU graduate whom is in the working world and not doing anything related to the field is abit "duh" right? Now still want me to present poster to the public on a working weekday?!!

Thanks for the draft and your great effort. I will read it and get back to
you shortly.

Our poster is scheduled on 13 Dec. in the Lyrebird Room, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, 392 Havelock Road, with the following detail:

Wed. 13 Dec. 15.55-17.30 Poster Sessions

Would you present our poster during the poster session?

Dated Yesterday, lagi best.... after reading I think i'm going to faint already. What do you think? What should I do? The graphs' origin I also don't know where I put them already after my com crashed. All the graphs are all "screen shots" thus uneditable. The amount of things to be changed seems like mountain high although faith like a mustard seed can move them easily. haha.. okok, enough of being cranky. Appreciate my ex-prof for being so detailed and giving the steps on what to do... BUT.... easy to say but not easy to do.... deadline 30th Nov..... Hmmm....

I went through the paper and it looks most stuff has been there which I greatly appreciate. The following comments on the paper are for your consideration:

1) Introduction: It has talked some too much about the substrate materials which are actually not the focus of the paper. Background info relevant to lubricant materials and preparation/applications of lube layers for HDD would be more helpful.
2) Remove Fig 21 (1st one), Fig 1, Fig 5.
3) Re-plot Figs. 3 & 4:
(i) use symbol+line for all plots;
(ii) use same font types & sizes for labels, legends, ticks numbers for both graphs; (the font sizes and types in Figure 4 look better)
(iii) remove the filled colors of graphs;
(iv) use either white/black or gray-scale for whole graphs;
(v) remove graph titles;
(vi) remove graph frames;
(vii) move legends into graphs;
(viii) delete “/HFE7100” in legends;
(ix) label of x-axis for Fig. 3 “concentration” is changed to “Lube concentration
(wt%)”;
(x) for Fig. 4, change 1st letters of the labels of both x- and y-axes to capital
letters;
(xi) If possible, change “angstrom” of the labels of y-axes to “Å” for both
graphs.
4) Figs. 6 & 7: change scalings to form:
5) Is the micrograph in Fig. 7c elongated along y-axis? If so, restore the aspect ratio to the original one.
6) Re-plot Figs. 8 & 9:
(xii) use same font types & sizes for labels, legends, ticks numbers for both
graphs; (the font sizes and types in Figure 4 look better)
(xiii) remove the filled colors of graphs;
(xiv) use either white/black or gray-scale for whole graphs;
(xv) remove graph titles;
(xvi) remove graph frames;
(xvii) move legends into graphs;
(xviii) insert “(µm)” after “Distance” for the labels of x-axes for both graphs;
(xix) change “hr” to ‘h” in legends and leave a space between a number and “min” or
“h” for both graphs;
(xx) If possible, change “angstrom” of the labels of y-axes to “Å” for both
graphs.
7) Renumber Fig 2 to Fig 1; Fig 3 to Fig 2; Fig 4 to Fig 3; Fig 7b) to Fig 4a); Fig 6 to Fig 4b); Fig 7c) to Fig 5a); Fig 7a) to Fig 5b).
8) If possible, add a few more references from recent journal papers as info from internet websites are not counted reliable references and they may have to be removed from the paper eventually. The attached articles are for your reference and see whether they are useful as additional references.

You may work out a new version at your early convenience and see whether we can catch the deadline for submission this time.
Thanks for your effort and precious time.

Coffee talk

2006-11-27T01:40:00.000-08:00

Should I go? or should I not?

Faith Redefined

2006-11-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

You are invited!

Sat 730pm

21 Adam Road

4th Floor Auditorium

Exam Time

2006-11-16T04:18:00.000-08:00

Today marks the start of the exams for the NTU folks. It was like not long ago that I was also one of the many people mugging and getting real stressed up over each and every paper because I couldn't finish studying. Yes, right from my first semester to the final semester in NTU. Gone were the days whereby "dabao" rate was rocket high for engineering students after the change in the grading system was implemented. Even those friends who said that "jialet, sure die" they also managed to pass.

I could still remember I had 2 good groups in NTU in my final year. 1 group was my study kaki which comprises of Clement, Raymond, me and my gf. One of us would reach school at 7+ just to "chop" a tutorial room for ourselves and any of our friends that are coming later. The other group is Ming, Clement and me- the dabao group aka the E group (Extend 1 semester group). I believe God had a plan for us and we had projects together and sometimes share and encourage one another. Ming decided to go back to his church after a halt of 5 years and I believe it was God who used me and clement to reach out to him.

For those who are studying for the exams. Gambatte! 3 weeks and you'll be through! I'll end this post with these 2 verses.
In the bible, God said," Cast your anxieties onto me for I care for you".
The 10 finger prayer " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"

In His timing

2006-11-13T04:04:00.000-08:00

After last saturday, I understood why I was recalled to report to camp and stayed till dawn the next day. I was supposed to bring a friend to church that very saturday and I was asking God how come this happened. What if my friend changed her mind not to go the following week?

But God's ways is indeed higher then our ways. My friend came last saturday and witnessed many people's Water Baptism and also heard their testimonies. Through those testimonies and also the skit brought out by the preacher, I believe God had used those to speak to my friend. Even though I wasn't around to accompany her because I was serving the sound booth, my girlfriend and my fellow cell members made her feel welcomed. She told me she was feeling down and needed the peace. After the service, she joined us for supper and even thanked us for bringing her for service. She said that she felt calm and better after that and she may want to come for this coming Saturday's service too!

Seems like end of year is full of weddings. Attended a JC friend's wedding in October. Attended another one last saturday afternoon. Going to attend a primary school friend's wedding this december. The couple even has a blog to pin down all the preparations and thoughts.

NSpay

2006-11-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, I received a SMS from mindef. It says: "Your NSpay will be paid on 111106. To know the amt reply to ....... "

I followed the instructions and this was what was sent back "Your NS payment is $20.53". So much for burning my weekend and many many other people's weekend and this is the amount we are paid. I think those working shift work from saturday 3pm to sunday morning 6am is paid at least 3-4 times the amount. Well... should have expected this amount of payment since it's the "rush to wait, wait to rush" organisation, but anyone who had their weekend burnt in such a way would complain.

To think on the bright side, another friend of mine who is in the same platoon as me, his NSpayment is $15. I also don't understand why I got $5 more. haha.

Is God a Liverpool fan?

2006-11-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hebrews 13:5b - God has said,"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you".

Don't leave it on the desk!

2006-11-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

There was a certain Professor of Religion named Dr. Christianson, a studious man who taught at a small college in the western United States.

Dr. Christianson taught the required survey course in Christianity at this particular institution. Every student was required to take this course his or her freshman year, regardless of his or her major. Although Dr. Christianson tried hard to communicate the essence of the gospel in his class, he found that most of his students looked upon the course as nothing but required drudgery. Despite his best efforts, most students refused to take Christianity seriously.

This year, Dr. Christianson had a special student named Steve. Steve was only a freshman but was studying with the intent of going into the seminary for the ministry. Steve was popular, he was well-liked and he was an imposing physical specimen. He was now the starting center on the school football team, and was the best student in the Professor's class.

One day, Dr. Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. "How many push-ups can you do?" Steve said, "I do about 200 every night." "200? That's pretty good Steve," Dr. Christianson said, "Do you think you could do 300?" Steve replied, "I don't know. I've never done 300 at a time." "Do you think you could?" again asked Dr. Christianson

"Well, I can try," said Steve. "Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project in mind and I need you to do about 300 push-ups in sets of 10 for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it!" said the Professor. Steve said, "Well, I think I can. Yeah, I can do it."

Dr. Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday. Let me explain what I have in mind." Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, the Professor pulled out a big box of doughnuts. No, these weren't the normal kinds of doughnuts; they were the extra fancy BIG kind with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone was pretty excited it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in Dr. Christianson's class.

Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want to have one of these doughnuts?" Cynthia said, "Yes." Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a doughnut." "Sure." Steve jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in the desk. Dr. Christianson then put a doughnut on Cynthia's desk.

Dr. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, "Joe, do you want a doughnut?" Joe said, "Yes." Dr. Christianson asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a doughnut." Steve did ten push-ups; Joe got a doughnut. And so it went, down the first aisle. Steve did ten push-ups for every person before they got their doughnut.

Walking down the second aisle, Dr. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team, and in as good condition as Steve. He was very popular and never lacked for female companionship. When the Professor asked, "Scott, do you want a doughnut?" Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own push-ups?" Dr. Christianson said, "No. Steve has to do them" Then Scott replied, "No, I don't want one then." Dr. Christianson shrugged and then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a doughnut he doesn't want." With perfect obedience, Steve started to do ten push-ups. Scott said, "Hey! I said I didn't want one!"

Dr. Christianson said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desk and these are my doughnuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And he put a doughnut on Scott's desk. Now, by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow. Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Now, the students were beginning to get a little angry. Dr. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a doughnut?" Sternly, Jenny said, "NO!" Then Dr. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve would you do ten more push-ups so that Jenny can have a doughnut she doesn't want." Steve did ten; Jenny got the doughnut.

By now, a growing sense of uneasiness filled the room. The students were beginning to say "No" and there were all these uneaten doughnuts on the desks. Steve also had to really put forth a lot of extra effort to get these push-ups done for each doughnut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.

Dr. Christianson asked Robert, who was the most vocal unbeliever in the class, to watch Steve do each push-up to make sure he did the full ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all those uneaten doughnuts. He sent Robert over to where Steve was so Robert could count the set and watch Steve closely. Dr. Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students from other classes had wandered in and sat down on the steps along the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. When the Professor realized this, he did a quick count and saw that now there were 34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it.

Dr. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next. Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set. Steve asked Dr. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?" Dr. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your push-ups. You're in charge now. You can do them any way you want." And Dr. Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled in one voice, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!" Jason didn't know what was going on. Steve picked up his head and said, "No. Let him come in." Professor Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in, you will have to do ten push-ups for him." Steve said, "Yes, let him come in. Give him a doughnut." Dr. Christianson said, "Okay Steve, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a doughnut?" Jason, new to the room, hardly knew what was going on. "Yes," he said, "Give me a doughnut." "Steve, will you do ten push-ups so that Jason can have a doughnut?" Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a doughnut and sat down.

Dr. Christianson finished the fourth row and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time, sweat was profusely dropping off of his face, there was no sound except his heavy breathing; there was not a dry eye in the room.

The very last two students in the room were two young women, both cheerleaders, and very popular. Dr. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?" Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you." Professor Christianson quietly asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Linda can have a doughnut that she doesn't want." Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda.

Then, Dr. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a doughnut?" Susan, with tears flowing down her face, began to cry. "Dr. Christianson, why can't I help him?" Dr. Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, Steve has to do it alone. I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a doughnut whether they want it or not. When I decided to have a party this last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Steve here is the only student with a perfect grade. Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push-ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push-ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes."

"Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a doughnut." As Steve very slowly finished his last push-up, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 push-ups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

Dr. Christianson turned to the room and said, "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross, plead to the Father, 'into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' with the understanding that he had done everything that was required of Him, He yielded up his life. And, like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk uneaten." Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted, but wearing a thin smile. "Well done, good and faithful servant," said the Professor, adding, "Not all sermons are preached in words."

Turning to his class, the Professor said, "My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not only His Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, for the whole Church, now and forever. Whether or not we choose to accept his gift to us, the price has been paid.

"Wouldn't you be foolish and ungrateful to leave it lying on the desk?"

--Author Unknown

Rush to wait, wait to rush....

2006-11-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

Reading the title, I believe many guys would know which organisation i'm referring to. This post is a summary of what had happened to my primetime weekend.

Yesterday afternoon, I was recalled to report to camp at 2pm and this is the first open mobilization that I've encountered. Guess we were the "lucky" lot to be chosen by Mindef to "audit" our unit's readiness with regards to NSmen because there was another company who reported but they just scanned and were allowed to go back home. Our unit is also quite kiasu, they had personnel to personally call each of us that very high chance we would be recalled back and reporting time is 2hours instead of the usual 4. This was to ensure no "hiccups" in the attendance. One of our fellow platoonmate was MIA and could be charged for not reporting back camp for no valid reason and was uncontactable throughout the whole period.

We were told that it would be a full day event and all activities that we had planned can forget about it. One of my friends agreed to come for our YAS service but due to this unforeseen circumstances, it had to be postponed. Sigh...

People said that when one gets recalled back just need to sign and can leave already. We had to draw arms, draw store (eg, life jackets and etc) and even live ammunition. We already know that once these stuff are drawn out, it'll be very very very draggy due to the sensitivity of ammunition and safety. To make things worse, nobody seems to know what the commanders are thinking of and all of us are reacting to instant orders. When one order is given, all of us would follow and complete the order asap. Many times, we are so efficient that we are just waiting for the next order to be passed down.

Time flies really fast on a prime time saturday and we were just practically waiting our time away. Rushing to draw equipment and wait for next order, rushing to go cookhouse have our dinner and wait for next order, rushing to layout our items for inspection and wait for inspection and next order, rushing to keep everything and wait for next order. We all know that once the live ammunition is ready to be returned it would mean the end of exercise. We rushed to load up all the ammunition onto the 5-tonner and we were waiting for the order to tell the ammo party to return the ammunition to the ammo dump elsewhere outside of camp. Imagine the order was passed down at 930 and was ready at 10pm. The actual time that the ammo party left camp was 0100hr. By the time all the ammo are returned and back to camp, it was daylight 0610hrs.

Before we were allowed to go back with our barang barang, we were told that there will be new standards for the army uniform. We were issued 3 sets of badges to be sewn and the name have to be reprinted because of the different background previously. This meant that extra work have to be done. I have to go to beach road twice (once to send to sewn and once to collect) before my next ICT to do up the uniform. I guess it will take about S$30 bucks for 3 sets ba. Everyone was very disappointed and angry because firstly, their weekend are spent just like that. Sunday most probably will be sleeping at home to have the energy to last another working week. Secondly, it is not because we had alot of things to do but most of the time (70%) are spent waiting. Thirdly, we wonder will we get paid for the time spent in camp and how much would it justify for social costs involved. Fourthly, it again proved that the organisation has not improved in the management, their forte is still "rush to wait, wait to rush".

are you FIT for the times?

2006-10-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

SAF Fantasy

2006-10-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

A fellow friend of mine forwarded this link to me.
Though I wasn't from Signals but the lingo really bring memories. LOL.
It may take some time to load for a while but it is worth it coz you'll definitely have a good laugh.

Update

2006-10-17T00:38:00.000-07:00

Realised that the last time I blogged was exactly 1 month ago. Many times I wanted to blog but either i'm really very tired or no time to blog. Thus, guess where i'm blogging from right now? From my office desk! Not that i'm skiving but I've done my work and writing this in the span of the free time I can come out with.

Thus a little update of myself.

At work
- As we are currently making a catalogue for the company, i'm priviliged to be somehow involved in this "project". Also blessed to have friends in the related field of work (printing & photography) to give me good prices.
- thank God for the wisdom and favour to handle difficult situations with difficult customers
- Really need patience with customers who calls without identifying who they are AND not really knowing what they are requesting for AND die die want us to give them a quote.
- It's really a complicated world out there whereby you know competitor A is getting some items from you to supply to customer 1. Due to certain restrictions, customer 1 do not want to open the possibility of us as one of their vendor list and if they want to purchase something from us, they will go through competitor A. The problem comes in when competitor A IF they know where to get cheaper alternatives will supply to customer A themselves and keep the balance themselves as profit. That makes us do all the groundwork for nothing. I know that's the battlezone in the marketplace but I just wish for favour to just provide the competitive edge out there. sigh.

At home
- thank God for good health even though the haze is so bad these days
- my parents able to express love to my little sis better through the workshops that they have attended and that makes my little sis appreciate them a bit better. But, she still smokes and my dad as somehow resented to it because while walking back to office after lunch, we saw 1 lady walking by the road having a cigarette by one hand and he commented that nowadays seems like it's a common thing that ladies smoke too.

With friends
- Caught up with a few of my JC friends and after taking photos, realised that we really grow old already. Gone were the days whereby girls dress to try to look mature (now is the other way round. oops) and while taking pictures can see the tired faces that one have. Funny feeling that many of our friends are getting married or even pregnant mummies or daddies to be.
- Have 1 wedding to attend this friday and another one end of year.
- Heard of a few friends in church having wedding bells next year.

Relationship
- Thank God for the wisdom and peace for me to handle in times of testing period. It's definitely not easy when one is working while my gf is studying for her final year. The amount of projects, assignments, quizzes, presentations will practically kill anyone off their life. But i believe this is a season that God is moulding us to be more like Him, that is to love and give then to receive.

Clay Treasures

2006-09-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

For the past 2 weeks, church held a bazaar and one of my church leader decided to set up a stall to sell her masterpieces. They are made of clay thus the name clay treasures. All the nett proceeds would go to the church building fund. That's not the point I'm trying to bring up today but just wanna showcase her masterpieces. More can be found in my photo album.

Update on my lil sis: This is the 3rd home leave that she had taken. If want to compare to her previous ways (rebellious and disrespectful), it is much better now but I don't think it is near good at all. She know her curfew is 10pm on sat nite and she can wait till the "house mother" call her to check on her and go out after that. After she went back to SGH, we also found cigarette stub at the toilet bowl. My dad's opinion of her smoking: it is ok UNTIL she knows how to earn her own money coz cigarettes are expensive. Hmmm.... I thought the reason should be smoking is harmful to the body.

Catch up with my ex-hall neighbours Vic & Al

2006-09-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

Today caught up with my ex-neighbours in hall.

Vic is in his midst of being a SIA pilot. End of next year he should be the 2nd officer on the plane. He seem satisfied and happy in what he's doing. Matured in his thinking too. No more anyhow spend money. haha. Imagine the 3 of us took public transport to meet up at PS! He's flying back to Perth for training 2 weeks from now.

Al just came back from his US work and play scheme. Skipped his convocation to gain experience in working overseas and having to play there as well. Currently taking up tuition jobs while sending his resumes to work as an engineer. His gf got voted as one of the top 10 hottest female teacher in STOMP. Partly was his effort and "clicking" in the votes. haha. He is also very thrifty now as he understand how hard to earn money and work towards saving up for his future.

It's really great meeting up with them. Feeling of the old times where we stayed up late at night and gathered at either one of our rooms and chat. Those were the days.....

"Oops I did it again"

2006-08-26T04:28:00.000-07:00

I didn't want it to happen though it happened again.
Disappointed but not as disappointed during the very first time it happened.
Crushed but not defeated this time round.
I believe in miracles and one day I will come out victorious though Victory belongs to the Lord.

I'll be back stronger, better and wiser.
God, grant me time and perseverance.

A break from my usual post- featuring our star at home

2006-08-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

Presenting the star of our home, also my little sis's favourite pet. He's Doby, our Seiberian Husky.

He is very kaypo. Likes to hang around in whatever we are doing outside, eg, watering the plants, feeding the fishes, washing the car.
He is very greedy, likes to eat whatever that can be eaten. When I feed the fishes, he always demands to have some of them!

He is very kiasee. Such a big dog though likes to chase cats but when the cat stop moving, he also stop moving-maybe he don't know what to do next. When there is thunder, he will come into the house and hide in some corner where he will think he is safe from lightning strike. "faint"

He is very lovable by our neighbours. He is welcomed by many of our neighbours when he is out for his morning walk. Yes, he goes out alone when the gate is open and comes back when he had enough. We will know it when he find that the gate is locked and will bark from outside hinting that he wants to come into the house. Smart dog. For more pictures of Doby, you can view it at my fotopic collection.

Alone to work again

2006-08-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Just came back after sending my dad to the airport. He's on a business trip (fully paid by the principal) to meet the principal for 10 days. Praying for journey mercy throughout these 10 days. Before he checked in, we (me and my sis) went to the first class lounge to sit and enjoy the classy ambience only enjoyed by frequent flyers and first class flyers. I was wondering when will I get the privilige to have such treatment too (if don't have I also don't mind). While walking back to the carpark, a sign held at the pacific coffee caught my eye. It says" thought of the day - What a child seldom receive he can seldom later give - P.D. James". How true.

Tomorrow I'll be alone to work again. No direct mentor except seeking advice from my other colleagues. I'll also be driving my dad's car to work. I'll be going to a customer to sign off a million dollar contract and possibly another million if things go well. However, these are not my credit but my dad's of coz. As I'm only 5months old in the business, I do not want to bare the responsibility though there wouldn't be any hiccups. I still asked my uncle to accompany me there and let him have the honour to do the signing. For now, I'll be handling the technical aspect of the contract.

One thing that struck me to ponder. My dad asked me how I have been learning in the company so far. Quite alot but still far from even 20% knowledge of all the things that the company has. I said my other colleague, who is the other boss's son should have learned more things than I because he has been in the company for 3 years and has been handling alot of "ja-ba-lang" stuff. Well, to each of his own and I still feel that as long as everyone is working for the company, it doesn't matter who got the contract or who earned more. It's a matter of giving our best and helping one another. My dad told me to teach only when people ask BUT not to teach everything. Must keep some for own to have the edge. Machiam those martial arts teacher who teach the student 90% of the skills but 10% he will keep for himself in case the student overthrow and he still got 10% more and handle him. Hmmm... will not think that much but focus on my own learning and try to absorb as much as I can. Everything that I have is blessed by God.

1st home leave

2006-08-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 1st home leave for my lil sis. One which my lil sis was waiting for the day to come and one which my parents were looking forward to. Her 2 good friends also went to SGH to wait for her to come out. I could see that my mum was very happy when she brought her home. The first thing she did was to have her haircut because girls are naturally conscious of their hair.

She seemed less hot tempered and more matured after 3 months at SGH. She came back home with her friends (good ones I think coz none smoke) and they somehow gathered to celebrate her first home leave. The whole scene reminded me of my teenage years having fun and laughter.

She "booked in" at 545pm today and somehow this will carry on for at least another year. Currently, it's 1 home leave per fortnight. Depending on her performance, she may get rewarderd to 3 weeks per month with the balance being parent visit to SGH on the weekend.

Today I watched Singapore all-stars vs Melbourne Tigers in the Philips Cup on Ch24. I was really suprised when Singapore managed to lose 68-86. This is a close margin compared to the Malaysian all-stars lose to the Tigers by more than 50+ points yesterday. Was it because Singapore was good? Erm.... Yes, they are. They got people that can slam somemore. And guess what, their starting line-up, all are foreign imports. I'm not sure whether their bench, got 50% are local talents or not. Hmmm.... if Singapore soccer were to make it to the WC, it should be like this similar case. Sigh, sad but true..... for now. I rest my case....