Forces at work and at play



i love watching stuff like this.. reminds me of the amazing Honda Accord commercial that was done entirely without the use of computer animation and made up of all the different parts of a Honda Accord car.. here it is (below) for those who missed it.. and of course for my friends who were there with me back in my London days, you may remember the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in Covent Garden to be one of my all time favourite places... ah...with these amazing toys, i think i'll never see the need to grow up.. :p

krabi getaway



thanks to tigerairways, managed to grab return air tix to krabi for $50 (excluding taxes of $90)! apparently not the lowest it can go but still a steal.. sun sea and lots of snorkling plus lots of bowls of tom yum goong, plates of phad thai and jugs of Singha... ha.. nice..

post more pics in a while.. :)

Sea Angel (found on youtube)



such a lovely creature.. :).. but i must say the guy's voice in the background is rather annoying.. nonetheless, these lovely creatures are why i visit the Singapore Underwater World at least once a year..

painting with ketchup & fries



found this video while searching for material for work.. i know our parents tell us not to play with food but as performance art this is pretty cool..

Stuff i grew up with

someone just sent me this!! wah!!! SBC somemore! hahahhaha... nostalgic sia! I think this show is called "Mystery" or something.. I was still in Primary school then!!



See also: Flying Fish, Five Foot Way, Son of Pulau Tekong, Strange Encounters, Kopi-O...

and who can forget the mid-air somersault attack in Moero! Attack! (or as i read somewhere "the Japanese drama "Moero Attack", 《排球女将》 where volleyball chicks can leap, do a 360-somersault turn, spike, fly to the other end, spike back, go for manicure and tea before the ball hits the ground." ...hahahah... maybe that's why i don't watch TV nowadays.. cos i wanna retain my memories of these 80s shows.. wahahahah...

Saving starfish



If you're not familiar with the tale, it goes like this:

A man was walking on the beach saw that it was littered with thousands of starfish. A little boy was picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them into the ocean. He asked the boy, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I'm throwing starfish back into the water. If I leave them here they'll dry up and die." The man said, "But look how many starfish there are. What you're doing can't possibly make a difference." As the boy picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean he said, "Well, it makes a difference to this one!"

the results for my first mischievous bunch of students, who tortured (:p) me all of the last two years just came out and i'm glad that (some? most?) of the starfish i attempted to save, through the gruelling 4 months of last minute work (Gosh! realised i had slogged all the way from 10 Jul to 15th Nov!!), did make it in the end... :,).... (sense the exhaustion i felt at that time)... it's a feeling that i can't quite explain.. though i won't claim credit for their entire success but i'm glad i was there on their journey to where they want to be..

all the best little starfishes! **waves**

Bak Chor Mee & A Famous Ang Moh Man



saw Anthony Bourdain, famous cook and host of the "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" travel food show on Discovery Travel & Living, together with the Makansutra guy KF Seetoh when i went to eat at the famous Tai Hwa Pork Noodle stall in Crawfod lane today (website: www.taihwa.com.sg --> hahaha.. got website some more!)

.... i want to write more but i'm too sleepy.. i'll carry on this blog entry tomorrow.. haha.. :p...

The Secret



DHL

Life Cycle

Your Expression Number is 8

Driven and ambitious, you have the potential to reach great things. You're both good with money and good at getting things done quickly. You are an excellent leader and a great judge of character. Full of energy and confidence, you undertake projects that seem impossible. Dependable and determined, you are able to understand the bigger picture. Even if you are not in a position of power right now, it will fall to you. At times, you can be very materialistic - and obsessed with status and power. While this isn't always a bad thing, you sometimes take it to the extreme. In order to be truly happy, you must balance the material and spiritual in your life.

What's Your Expression Number?

Slob Evolution



this is kinda cute, though a couple of comments have said that its a tad bit rude for its dig at the so-called "ugly people".. well.. i can see the innocent funny side of it so i don't quite agree..

here's a non sequitur link.. seems like everyone's playing with the Candybar Doll Maker to make their msn avatars.. have u made yours yet??

here's me..



hahaha.. ok.. not very well done but i went mad after being on it for an hour.. what a *&^$#*)?<:+ waste of time!!

and besides, i can't find anything that remotely looks like me which isn't surprising anyway cos... I DON'T LOOK LIKE A BL****Y DOLL IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! grrr.. :p

Dove Ad - "Evolution"



rather fascinating - especially for those of us who aspire to be like those "picture-perfect" people we see in ads.. perhaps it is time for us to appreciate the natural beauty in people and even in ourselves..

Please Adopt These Kittens

These four lovely kittens are looking for a good home..




I don't know when HDB will finally agree to drop their archaic laws against keeping of cats in government flats. According to the President of the Cat Welfare Society, if only 10% of HDB dwellers take 1 cat home, there would be no more strays on Singapore's streets! Think about that! Cat owners all know how wonderfully apartment-friendly cats (which have been sterilised) can be. In fact, cats are usually quieter and can be confined in apartments for long periods without problems than dogs and can keep themselves clean.. This clearly shows our authorities have some mysterious reasons for insisting on continuing this archaic practice (supposedly from the time of the Brits).. maybe they think like this silly person who wrote to ST forum on 25th of last month...."Why HDB should ban cat and dog ownership in flats"

i almost fell off my chair in sheer astonishment the first time i read the letter! this guy clearly knows nothing about cats and dogs and only manages to make himself sound silly and intolerant... i can't quite fathom what made ST publish this letter.. to make a mockery of this guy?? ... ok.. i shan't be mean.. just rather incensed by his letter, that's all..

so.. any kind cat lovers out there? email me.

On Mooching...

This following letter by a writer to the ST Forum says it EXACTLY the way i've always argued it.. so i'll let it speak for me.. haha... :p

IN THE article, 'Moochers, stop trespassing on my property' (ST, Jan 13), Dr Andy Ho could come to his conclusion only by intellectualising from the wrong analogy.

This is not about your neighbour coming into your home because you left your door unlocked or his meddling with the signals between your router and your computer in your house. Instead, we should think about:
- Your lawn sprinkler spraying water into your neighbour's garden.
- Your huge fruit tree dropping leaves, branches and ripe fruit into your neighbour's garden.
- The wind blowing the seeds of your patented GM crop into your neighbour's farm.

In these cases, case law is clear: your neighbour is entitled to do as he likes. The 'moocher' does not come into your house to use your network. It's your network that has extended beyond your house because you failed to secure it with a password. There is no trespass of your property. On the contrary, it's your network that has trespassed your neighbour's property.

My laptop logs onto any unsecured network within reach automatically and it took me a while to realise that.

This intellectualising should not result in a wrongdoer being charged with the wrong crime (of mooching rather than communicating a bomb hoax).

Anyone who fails to secure his network should expect to suffer the inconvenience of being the prime suspect if some criminal activity was carried out on his network. He and his service provider owe society a duty to ensure that password control is effective.

Imagine if the network was indeed used by terrorists. Or imagine that your neighbour's teenage daughter used your unsecured network to access porno sites, or some chatroom, and was seduced as a result.

Well said!

Why I Visit The Underwater World Every Year


amazing creatures from the freezing waters of the North Pole..

Birthday Celebrations (this is one of those rare personal posts..)

the sms greetings rolled in, not fast nor furious, but gradually, trickling in over the course of the day (and of course others still rolling in the following day, i.e. today).. with the first one by none other than my wonderfully faithful friend of 13 years Lynn (yes, you're the first :)) at 00:27 and the last one of the day at 19:08 from BKK (hello mingli!! long time no hear!!) .. I had messages from long time friends from a surprising four or five countries and it leaves me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside knowing all these friends remember this day... and knowing that i have friends who will forever remain close to my heart!

Thank you everyone for making me feel so loved!! :)

and of course a special lovely thanks to my bestest friends (of some 19 years!!) who bought me lunch at Marmalade Pantry (wow, the food is really good.. and not to mention the service.. haha) and that perfectly appropriate (you know me so well) "Food Play" (check out the brocooli poodle below!) book on Sunday; and to ____ (some things are truly private) for that special Belgian mussels dinner yesterday and the very thoughtful gift that i so appreciate.... :) and of course to my dear parents for the token ang pow (with a big "OU" on it!!) and definitely to Kapo for the effort at blowing up the balloons.. haha.. and to anyone else who might have been missed out...



happy birthday too to elvis, stephen hawking, machiavelli (haha), david bowie... and all the others infinitely more famous than me!! :p

The Singapore Garden Festival 2006



my photos do the flowers no justice! they were really much nicer (and of course much bigger!). I spent a good three to four hours at the show and still feel i didn't get enough of them.

miss the pretty flowers of england..

Singapore River - from mouth to source



(photos by sis & me)

this is one walk i've always wanted to do since I didn't get to do my weeklong London River Thames walk some 10 years ago.. of course it's not quite the same but what to do.. haha.. at the very least i can claim to be patriotic.. hahaha... besides, taking long walks around singapore has always been one of my so-called "senseless quests".. :p.. i'll much rather do that than watch TV... ok, call me mad.. at least i save money..

we started from Bugis MRT, walking towards Victoria Street (next to Lavender MRT station), heading southwards towards the mouth of the river before following the meandering canals through Boon Keng, Potong Pasir, Toa Payoh, Bishan Park and finally to Upper Thomson Rd..

a rough estimate of the distance of yesterday's walk? Not very long, just approximately 14km, mainly along park connectors, but took us some 4 hours because of the bad weather, crossing numerous bridges, an expressway, a couple of underpasses, housing estates, passing schools and factories, exploring a mysterious chinese temple, and saying hellos to the terrapins, egrets, kingfishers and little herons along the way...

waiting for the marina barrage to be completed supposedly by next year (!) and then probably will try to do a Singapore Perimeter walk! :)

When Accountants Get All "Funky"



hahhahhaha... apologies to all my accountant friends... :p plus for those considering this career option, please don't let the conventional opinion of accountants discourage you...

nonetheless, this reminds me of this little piece i read several years ago.. "Why Accountancy Is Not Boring"

South Korea 2006


from top left (L-R): Tumuli at Gyeongju, Mountains at Seoraksan NP, Street Guardians in Seoul, Biwon Gardens at Changdeokgung in Seoul, Streets of Sokcho, DMZ tour, Paldalmun in Suwon, Church steeples

better than i thought :)

The Others


(found in kitchen - magnified approximately 250x)

for those of ye faithful ones who have been following my blog, you know my family lives alongside some mysterious creatures...

can someone please tell me what creature lays the above type eggs????