The Macro World of Dolphy

Only con of my trip that was not mentioned yet...

2006-08-05T23:49:00.000+08:00

The only thing bad so bad for the recent trip was my loss of money in my checked in baggage. I only discovered the loss of $ when I unpacked my bag after I reached home. It took me a while before I realised my $ was stolen. At first, I was still thinking, where the heck did I put the $ and why did the amount I left is so much less than I expect when I did not spend much for this trip?

Then I realised other than USD, my S$10 was lost. I remember clearly that I reserved it just in case I need to take taxi back home. Shucks, what bad luck. Tried to recall where it could be stolen and when I last saw it. Then I came to the conclusion that I lost it on my way back, should be during my flight back. The last I saw was when I left Inle Lake. How dishonest these workers were! To search my bag and took away my money!

I had bought travel insurance, so I called to ask if I can be compensated. The person asked me to fill up the claim form and wait for the policy to be sent over as it will take a week or so for it to reach my home by normal mail. Then to make a police report and call the airline to report. I did that, however for the airline, the person said the airline is not liable for loss of personal items in checked in baggage, hence I could not report irregularity report. Oh well, just my luck. I sent my claim form and my police report, and hopefully will receive some compensation back. It's a lot of $, almost 200 bucks. ***

Recently, I am really bad luck in monetary issues. The stupid AT collapse just when we should be our returns back. All in all, I really lost a lot of $$ this damn sh** year!

I'm Grateful to be Blessed with Health and Income

2006-07-28T23:28:00.000+08:00

This morning, I was driving towards the medical centre for my annual checkup. Then I thought how blessed I'm to be alive and healthy. There were many in the world who do not have the health and have to worry about their daily life. Although I'm not rich, but I'm glad that I have no worries for my daily life and expenses and have my family, and a place to live in. I'm glad and thank my lucky stars or god or buddha for all this. The hard life I've seen recently in my trip made me appreciate what I have now. The only thing is I still have not found my aim in life. Just some thoughts, maybe I can look into organising trips for people. I'm getting a little bored/sick of my job now....it's a way to finance and definitely stable. But though I like controlling, the other duties can bore me down. So I really do not know how long will I stay in the job. Even if I stay till retirement, I have to think of what's going to happen after the retirement that will be in my early 40s...

Myanmar trip - part 4

2006-07-28T13:14:00.000+08:00

Day 4

This was the day we had to leave Inle. Our flight was at 430pm, so we had to check in around 3.00pm, that meant we had to leave Nyaugshwe around 2.00pm. Today would be a relaxing day for us, we slept as long as we please...but not too long, around 9 plus am. We had our breakfast, and after that, headed for the market to buy some stuff and souvenirs. We figured we would not have much time in Yangon for that. I had a few stuff in mind, the biscuits and lovely mangoes. We went around to search for the biscuits, and it seemed that only a few stalls had it. As for the mangoes, I did not know how to choose them, so we just went to one stall and picked a few. They charged me double for the price a local had to pay(before we came out, we actually asked the four sisters the price of 1 mango, 50kyats). But I figured it still was not too expensive and hence did not bother to argue for the price, it was afterall only a few cents difference that we could afford. I bought 9 mangoes, 3 of which are different types, while Jas bought 3.

As we left the market, one of the brothers of 4 sisters came looking for us in motorbike. He told us that the plane had been scheduled earlier and we had to leave soon. It was only close to noon time. Puzzled but trusting him, we hurried back since we were more or less done with our buying. However, when we came back, it seemed like there was some misunderstanding and so we had our lunch here before leaving. The fried noodles cooked by the assistant(who looked very much like my mum when she was young) was delicious though simple. We had paid the bills, worked out to be about USD15 per night for the 3 of us and for 2 dinner and 1 lunch(breakfast was included in the accomodation cost), it was supposed to be paid as you wish, so we figured it cost about USD6 per pax for the 3 meals, so we round it up a bit and paid USD20. Well, I thought it was still pretty cheap. USD35 per pax for 3 nights?

So after saying goodbyes, we took a taxi that they called for us to the airport. It actually took about 30mins to the airport and thus we were there early. Cost about USD15 this time instead of 20. We hanged around the airport for quite some time and I took the chance to have a little nap. Air Bagan was the last of the domestic flight, and there was not many people onboard.

After flying for 30mins(some turbulence encountered, and I was a little afraid but did not wish to think much), we landed again. All of us thought how strange was it that the journey was shorter than the previous flight to Heho. Not suspecting anything, we walked down the aircraft, only to realise that this was not the airport we were supposed to arrive! It was Bagan airport...then the air stewardess called us back, and we walked back to the aircraft feeling silly about our mistake.

Well, it was an honest one, for when we bought the tickets, it was not explained to us that this was not a direct flight, so obviously when the aircraft landed, we naturally took our stuff and walked out. Hahaha.... Ok, now it woud take another 1hr 15mins to head back to Yangon. We had our dinner onboard ( I could not remember what we ate) but it was not bad I thought. We reached Yangon about 7plus pm in the end. And when we arrived, it took us USD5 for the taxi to the city...there was a case again that I forgot about porter being over-enthu for carrying our luggage...it happened again after my encounter in Nepal. No choice, gotta give the porter some tips.

We proceed to White House by LP. Took about 30mins. It was drizzling along the way, and actually I was a little impressed by the infrastructure so far, there were also trees planted along the roadside to beautify. How nice. We also pass by the Shwe Pagoda, very impressive, but we did not have the chance to visit due time constraint. It was glittering in gold in the evening. But as I got closer to the city, the buildings were old and like our country in the 70s or so. There were night stalls along the streets, and not too clean looking now. There were much to be developed.

The taxi driver would meet us tomorrow morning, since our flight was at 10.30am, that is, we had to reach the airport 8.30am. The white house hotel was 7 storey high. And when we went to inspect the room, it was okay,with aircon but cleanliness could be improved and there were no windows. No complaints, just a night stay, no problem. When we were shown the rooms on 7th sty, I did not really like as it was kind of dark and had to pass through the 6th sty that seemed to have no one staying. Although the 5th sty room was a dorm style and more ex(USD7 per night instead of 6), I found it to be brighter. Besides, we did not have to climb so high. Hence, we decided to stay here.

After putting our stuff, we had a little time to explore Yangon city, so we took a little walk. Besides, CH and Jas still had quite a bit of kyats to spend. So we went to the chinatown on the 18th street, since the famous Bo Aung San market was closed and would not be opened so early tomorrow. The weather here was much warmer and afte some walking, we began to perspire. We walked to the Sule Pagoda, a landmark there, and it too glittered in gold(not as impressive as Shwe Pagoda for sure).

We observed the night stalls, and discovered a lot of Indians around. Roti Prata and Bryani was a common sight. The night stalls were something like our pasar malaam, food and clothings and other things were sold.

In the end, there was nothing much to see and we settled for our dinner at a chinese stall selling pork bee hoon. It was a huge portion and cost only about 1200kyat(USD1). Jas and I could not even finish it. Haha.... The boss of the stall even came and sat with us. He chit chatted about himself and his business. He used to have stalls too in our country but have wound it up. His sister now had a worker employment agency too.

We asked him for what's good to look around, and he directed us to stalls behind the other main street. So we went to take a look and also shopped around their supermarket(not very big). Then the slight drizzle became heavier and it seemed like it would not stop. So after waiting a while, we decided to take a taxi back, since it was nearby and should not cost too much. It turned out to be about 1500kyats. Upon reaching, we washed up and rested for the day.

Day 5 - home coming

This was the last day of our holiday. We had our buffet style breakfast, not bad, quite nice. We also went up to the roof top to see the bird's eye view of Yangon. From a distance we could see the river nearby and Shwe Pagoda. Not bad, but it also showed the unsightliness of the city. Nothing much to miss about Yangon to me, but I missed Inle Lake more. The international airport was not too bad, with a few souvenirs shop for us to buy t shirts and accessories. Had a cuppa before boarding and goodbye Myanmar! I may come back, if so, will be visiting places like Inle Lake or Bagan and Mandalay.

Myanmar trip - part 3

2006-07-26T22:35:00.000+08:00

Day 3

We went trekking for a day to the nearby villages. Our guide is actually the elder brother of 4 sisters. So all of them as you can guess were related, including the boatman who was also a relative, my trekking guide's nephew. Weather was nice and cooling, slight drizzle on and off throughout the trek.

Jas interacted more with the guide while CH and I were behind. We only carried minimal stuff, like water and camera and a raincoat. I soon realised that water is not necessary, as along the way, you would notice jars and that's for everyone to drink. Besides, when we visited the family, they would offer us tea to drink.

Along the way, we saw the fields of different types of plants and crops. There were many shy and cute children and there were once or twice where they offered some flowers to us. How sweet of them. The slopes were gentle, and not hard to walk. Not too muddy, so it was a nice trek. We saw how the locals work in the fields and their houses too. Their houses were made up of bamboo and wood.

The place we had our lunch actually had 2 storeys where they stored their stuff on the ground floor and they cooked, ate and slept on the 2nd floor. I had my toilet break here and was pleasantly surprised to find their toilets clean. I guessed their hygiene levels were not too bad. The lunch break was one of our highest point. I was not sure how high we went, but I did not think we go very high, my guess was 500m to 1000m at most. But we could detect a change in the temperature and it was certainly cooler here....such that it made us so sleepy after our lunch and we even thought of taking a nap here and just go back down. Hehe... afterall, we were here to relax...
For lunch, we had some local biscuits called "char boh weh" and some instant noodles with freshly picked vegetables and eggs our guide carried up in his bag. It was nice or were we hungry?

Well, in the end, we did not take a nap and carried on up the hill. We stopped occasionally to take some photos. And before we know it, we were heading back down towards the lake. From our view, it seemed that we had trekked a long way from Nyaugshwe. We were even further than the canal that led out of Nyaugshwe to the Lake.

We passed by some more villages and about 5 plus pm(we started about 8 plus am), we reached one canal where we took a boat ride back to the town. We were little surprised by the additional cost of this boat ride as we were not told that it was not included...however we still paid, afterall we were quite some distance from the town and it was not too much actually.

As we were still early, we decided to try some pizzas or pastas in a restaurants recommended by LP. It was called Golden Kite. We did some shopping before that...tried to find the biscuits we had during our lunch. Managed to find one packet(500kyats) in a provision store, so tomorrow we would come back and look for more. These are great stuff to bring back for colleagues. Jas and me tried the local "cold noodles" (I called it, for I did not know its name). The lady mixed it with sauces and chilli powder accompanied by pepper soup. It tasted quite nice actually...hmmm....maybe we were getting used to the local food. Cost about 1200kyat or USD1. However, I was still not too adventurous enough to try the meat stuff (afraid my stomach could not take it).

Ok, back to my dinner, the restaurant was pretty huge....We sat outside(got lots of mossies, huge ones, and was bitten quite a fair bit even with mosquito coils. Sigh, they always love me more...) We ordered a banana milk shake, mango juice and a mixed fruit juice. They tasted nice and thick. No ice was added, but it was still a cool drink. Probably they put the fruits in the fridge instead. CH ordered a pasta. Delicious too. And while waiting for our Hawaiian pizza to be served, CH managed to find a guitar in this restaurant. He tuned it for them and started to play some songs....we also had a great time remembering all the old songs or favourite/ nice songs. However, as the sky turned dark, we realised that we had waited 1 hour for the pizza...hmmm...was it that slow? So we asked the waiter and it was then we realised that they had missed out our order for the pizza. No wonder we kept waiting...anyway it only took 15mins for the pizza to be ready in the end. And the pizza is realllly nice. thin crust with fresh ingredients. made my mouth water as I think of it now...
The whole meal cost about USD15. So each of us about USD5. Quite reasonable.

Opps...we realised that the sky was really dark now, and some parts had no street lamps and shops were closed....hope we can find our way back. It would take at least a 10 to 15mins walk back. In the end, we managed to find our way back except one turning that we missed and walked a little more.

Myanmar trip - part 2

2006-07-26T18:35:00.000+08:00

Day 2
We went for the boat ride. It's one of the must-do thing here in Inle Lake. The Lake is much bigger than I thought. We took almost whole day to explore it. Weather was cloudy with occasional drizzle turning to slight rain throughout the day. However, we still managed to get sunburnt.

We had our breakfast in Four Sisters. The breakfast was nice, banana pancake, toasts and even fried eggs with tea/coffee. But there was so much and I did not want to waste the food. So we shared some of the food instead.

First we went to Nam Pan market. It's about half an hour of boat ride but it felt very long. On our way, we saw how the locals live by the lake. Most of the houses is built on stilts, and they will have canoes as their transport. We could also see the fishermen fishing and their famous leg rowers. I guess they use their leg instead of hands because it's more practical to do so since the lake is so huge.

The market though it's not the floating market, is interesting. Lots of Pa O people, one of the ethnic group of Myanmar doing their daily marketing and selling what they have got. Though there were also many stalls selling souvenirs for tourists, they were not those hard sell people. They only asked you to take a look and would still smile even if you did not buy in the end. There were many locals having their breakfast in coffeshop like stalls, and some fried stuff like you tiao were being sold too. In the end, I didn't buy anything much except the you tiao.

Next we went to the silk weaving factory. It was just a few houses that had the equipment to make the cloth. I had some difficulty in understanding what the person was trying to explain. However, roughly I could catch the gist of it. The job was definitely labour intensive. Especially the threads that were made of lotus fibres, that was why although the cloth made out of lotus fibres were rougher, but cost more.
Again, I was not too much of a shopping person, so I only bought a silk tissue holder.

Afterwhich we went on to see how the local cigars were made. It was a simple process with few tools. But I did not think I can do it properly unless with lots of practices. However, the ladies there did it leisurely while chit chatting. Seemed like a relaxing job. The lady boss even gave us some tea and roasted soya beans(taste nice) despite we did not buy anything from them. She even helped Jas and me put the traditional Myanmese sunblock that were from a block of tree. Its bark was grounded into fine powder and mixed with water. It certainly was effectively as in the end, CH got the most sunburnt face, whereas I got it on my nose where I did not put the "sunblock".

We had our lunch in one of the restaurants, then visited a monastery nearby. It was one of the more holy shrines. It was there where I met some real friendly myanmese ladies who were still students. Though they spoke very little english, they seemed keen to interact with tourists and perhaps wanted to learn some english. They even wanted to invite me to their village. From my boatman, they were speaking different dialects and came from a village far from here, so I was unable to go with them for a visit. Even he did not really understand what they were saying. I thought they were disappointed when I could not go. They asked for my address and I gave them(no harm), may be they would write to me some day?

We went to see the paper umbrella manufacturing, silver and gold jewellery making
and the ancient stupas. The ancient stupas must have look great and magnificient in the past, but now, much restoration works needed to be done. Here I lost CH and Jas as I stopped to look around and in the end went another direction. I came back to where the boat was and together with the boatman waited for them. Got to know the boatman more, though I could not remember his name. He came from a big family too and worked for the four sisters actually. The motored boat was not his as he could not afford. He studied a little, so could speak some english.

Afterwhich, we went to visit the jumping cat monastery. We did not get to see the act of these jumping cats, maybe because it was getting late. Most of the stalls were closing too. However the scenery of the floating tomatoes fields are beautiful as the water here was calm, and the sky view was reflected on the water surface.

This was the last visit of the day, we proceeded back to Nyaugshwe and stopped over for a while on the lake to view the sunset. The sunset was nice but would be better if it had been redder.

We thanked him for his service and paid a little tip to him. We had our dinner over at Four Sisters Inn. They made curry chicken for us this time and we had mangoes for fruits. The curry chicken taste was great but oily and to me, not spicy enough. Mangoes were very sweet and I enjoyed it.

My Myanmar trip - part 1

2006-07-23T00:37:00.000+08:00

Just came back from my Myanmar trip. It's an interesting experience and generally a pleasant one, except for my stolen money from my baggage. I especially enjoyed my stay over at Nyaugshwe, Inle Lake. 3 of us went for this trip, my cousin, CH, and his gf Jas.

Here's a review of my trip:

Day 1
We took Jetstar Asia and left Sp ard 830am. The time in Myanmar is slower by 1.5 hr. We reached there abt 10 plus 11am. Initially, we wanted to book the internal flight to Heho thru internet, however the airline company did not reply. So looks like we have to stay one night in Yangon before going to Heho. I was surprised the JSA offered meals in this flight, always thought these budget airlines will not include meals. Anyway, I had my breakfast in the airport, MacD, so was too full to eat.

The myanmar airport has basic ammentities. And I was surprised that the toilet actually has automated taps....hmmmm so high tech...but we waited quite some time for the luggage. Anyway, we managed to buy the tickets of air bagan from the airport. There's a booth by Myanmar tourism. They also had free tourist maps that are comprehensive. The ticket costs USD68 for one way to Heho. It's an hour ride. It's the fastest way compared to bus ride that will take 10hrs but much cheaper. We don't really have much choice for a 5d trip, although we did think of going by bus, coming back by plane. The staff, Jacki and Sarah also introduced a money changer to us. The rate is 1USD to 1150Kyats. Although this rate was lower than what we found in internet, should be about 1200 to 1300Kyats, we decided to accept it, and changed USD100...this should be enough to last us for the trip.

The domestic flight departs at 2.30pm, so we will check in 1.30pm. With only 2 hrs break, we decided to have our lunch outside the airport as directed by the staff. They recommended a restaurant outside the domestic airport. We had boiled noodles soup, and fried rice and some tea. At first, we were puzzled why the waiter brought 2 tea and 3 chinese tea(that we did not order). We wondered if there's a way to drink, to drink tea first then chinese tea or what? Until we observed that the locals also had 2 cups of tea, then we realised that this chinese tea was like their plain water, free of charge. Oh.... haha different culture.

The domestic airport had a HUGE weighing machine for the luggages. This was the first time I see such a thing. We also saw other tourists while waiting, mainly Ang Mohs. The Air bagan flt is a twin propeller aircraft, ATR24 or 27 if I did not remember wrongly. We had light meals on it(the fish were very salty, unless you took it together with the pasta. Still it was quite tasty. The desert was something like noya queh). It was quite a small plane and because of the weather, some turbulence was felt along the way. It took about 1hr or so to reach Heho. The weather in Heho was nice and cool. We followed the locals walk out of the airport to take taxi. We tried to bargain when the taxi driver leader wanted to charge us USD20 to Nyaugshwe, which was 30min ride, but because of the monopoly, there was no way to bargain and we really needed the taxi.

At first, we asked the driver to send us to Aquarius Inn, one of the guesthouses recommended by others, but that there was no vacancy. So we went to the next better choice, four sisters inn. The rooms are nice and clean too. This inn was managed by 4 sisters as the name suggested. However, the 3rd and 4th sisters were married to Holland and Germany, so only 2 sisters were around.

After leaving our baggage in our room, we went out to look around this small town. The myanmese are generally very nice and friendly. You will see lots of smiles and hear lots of hello on the streets. We came back to have our dinner at the Inn. There was no menu, interesting. But the meal was not bad, though it was a bit too salty for some dishes. There were lots of vegetables and one dish with pork, pineapples were served as fruits(quite sweet). Myanmar was not a carnivore's place definitely. We played with the little girl and talked to the Big sister. She would help us arrange for the boat ride and the trek. Though it would certainly cost more, we just let her earn the extras, since we quite like here.

Some photos here in this link:
http://dolphymanta.multiply.com/photos/album/28

Older, Wiser?

2006-07-23T00:33:00.000+08:00

Older again by the stroke of midnight. Am I wiser? As of now, I'm still searching for ultimate goal in life...

Strange creatures

2006-07-12T00:04:00.000+08:00

Look at the strange creatures you can find at our shores...Amazing I must say....

http://www.wildsingapore.com.sg/wildfilms/blog/2006/07/what-crab.html

IPPT over for me

2006-07-08T22:48:00.000+08:00

I took my IPPT this morning, and passed it. Yeah, I can relax for a year before training again. It took me about a month or so to prepare. Actually, my preparation is only to try and maintain my stamina for the run. I tried to run at least once or twice a week. And only the last 2 weeks then I took my timing to get an estimation of my time. I didn't train for the static station though.

I realise that it was getting more difficult for me to do my pull up, and was feeling the strain at 10. Looks like next year I have to train for that too. I remember it used to be so easy for me for just do 20 too...Sigh.... However, for today I was very surprised that my running timing was so fast, 11 plus min. I usually obtain around 12 plus. Maybe it was because I had no timing to gauge and no one to pace this time....and everyone was faster in this batch. Well, I do have a watch, in fact the new one I bought recently. But I was trying the heart rate monitor transmitter that was strapped to my chest. Apparently, I did not strapped securely enough and it fell to my stomach. Great! I gotta continue my run without the timing and heart beat. To think I was going to test the system. Seemed like the elastic band was too long for me. However, I did manage to get some readings after the run by putting it close to my chest to measure my heart beat after.

My junior also ran, she started off slower than me, but ran faster and faster until she overtook me last 400m I think. I could not really catch up with her and in the end was probably 100m slower. But it's ok, cos she's 10 years my junior and I thought it was very good for me to be still able to run such timing. Hah! It was one of my fastest records.

Talk about saving...

2006-07-06T18:16:00.001+08:00

Yesterday i just put up my post about trying to save up. Well, today, I can't control myself. I met up with my insurance agent who is my uni friend. I have to pay added premium for my diving. TRied to see if it can be waived off, but apparently not. After meeting her, as usual I will walk around the shopping mall, and happened to pop in to a watch shop to take a look. Been wanting to get a new watch to wear for my exercise. The price of 100 plus is about my budget, and when I start querying about the watch, I get more interested and decided to buy it. Got it for abt 115 after some bargaining for some discount. It's a fitness watch although my initial intention is to get a running watch, but well it's too ex, at least 200 plus. It's Polar Fs2c. Now after buying, I better make full use of the watch and go jogging often to use the HRM function. Although I am happy with my purchase, I just seem to love spending $ on such expensive sutff or gadgets, so got to tighten my control for spending more. Sheesh.

The link to how my new watch looks like.

Btw, i just receieved my traffic offence letter, another $120 gone. Shucks.

One fine day

2006-07-05T21:37:00.000+08:00

Today I received the result of my appeal letter for an traffic offence committed 2 months ago. I had to still pay for the fine and the deduction of demerit points. Sianz. I thought they will take into consideration my first offence in 10 years of my driving, and waived it off. Apparently, they are not so kind afterall. At first, I thought I was lucky as it took quite some time before they reply. Now, all the more I should run harder for the IPPT to earn some $ for the repayment. Plus the money for reg. This few months been spending way too much, got to save up. Sigh....

Got the compensation from seller of reg

2006-07-03T22:17:00.000+08:00

I received the $80 compensation from the seller. I don't know if I should thank him or what, or should I ask if he wants to see the bill. Whatever it is, I hope the isue is closed and nothing goes wrong with the reg.

This is one song he likes.

My first duty with her

2006-07-02T14:45:00.000+08:00

I usually don't blog about my wok, but this is the first duty I had with her. So will wanna pen it down.

It's my 2nd year for this duty and to expose us for different events, we will have chance to follow her individually. This event is for some fund raising and before that we recce once to the place and discuss the details. I arrived early, and met up with another lady going along with us. Also met her family members. He was coughing quite badly, must have caught a cold earlier on. The 40min before the car departs seem long. I looked through the program once, and roughly remember the important time and events. The driver arrived 10mins earlier, and when it was time to leave, I was supposed to invite her out to the car. He was in his casual attire, and looked just like any other person...something I seldom see.

Actually, after all these encounters, I longer saw them as very special people, my heart don't beat that fast anymore when I was near them. They are actually very nice people, and very much like us. Anyway, during the drive to the destination, I briefed her about the program and when and what will happen. Then there are long moments of silence. I thought it was not very appropriate for me to strike a conversation with her, by asking her questions or telling her about myself. It's like, hi ma'am, how was your day? Or what are you doing just now? I'm so and so, like to do what, etc. Doesn't sound right correct? So I just kept quiet unless she spoke.

The weather was hot and I was in my jacket. Hope the place was not too warm. We reached the place on time. There was welcome drums by the school, and this is followed by photo taking. My job was just to be beside her, so quite easy. Then we had our lunch followed by souvenir giving to people. Talked to Ms G more while eating and found out more about her. She has worked for 9 years and was a year younger than me. Throughout, we looked at her just in case she had any special request. The only thing I failed to notice was that the video person still took some shots of her eating and that was not very nice. Lucky Ms L saw and advise the person not to.

Souvenir was then presented, and I had to go to her seat to inform her that she can leave. The departure was smooth and soon we were back to her place. And that's it, the end of my job. Hmm... not as frigtening as I thought.

Got my reg on sat

2006-07-02T14:33:00.000+08:00

Well, i finally collected my reg yesterday. Indeed with the technician showing me the flaws of the spoilt part, I wondered why that time I did not inspect the reg carefully. The total damage of this servicing: 302.30! Even minus the compensation of 80, I still gotta pay 220.30. That would have been a total of 255+220.30=475.30 for a 3yrs old 2nd reg? Not worthwhile. Wow, could have bought a new one. Kind of regretted not buying the set of bc and reg that time....about 1000. Now, I checked out the price of a new bc, it's 600 plus. sheesh. ok, i gotta hold on for a while and get the bc next time. Really can't spend so much... Guess I got to make use of it for at least a year or more to make it worthwhile.

Watched superman returns

2006-06-30T23:48:00.000+08:00

I took the afternoon to watch the movie superman returns with YL. The trailer looked great and exciting, so I hoped it would be a good show. I loved the old superman. The casting now was great too. The new superman looked handsome and tall, Lois was pretty, and Max Luther was well acted. Overall, it's quite an enjoyable one, though they did not get the bad guy. The story/action at some point was also too exaggerated and lame. Lois was too mild mannered. I still prefered the previous one, with her hot temperness that was protrayed really well in the last few movies.

Regulator - never buy 2nd hand unless you know the person

2006-06-30T23:32:00.000+08:00

Got a good lesson learnt from buying of reg. It's better to buy a 1st hand one. Reason: never know what's the problem until you bring it to service. And by then, it's difficult to argue with the seller. That's the problem I had for this reg that I bought.

I had to pay much more than the initial price paid, and got to negotiate with the seller. Now that I'm stuck with this reg, I had no choice but to use it. I paid about 450 to 500 compared to the initial price of abt 250. That's so much more. How would you feel about it? Damn angry of course! With the amount I paid, I can almost buy a new reg and save the trouble and servicing fee etc. Worse, the seller refused to pay even 1/2 the amount I'm paying to replace these parts. He also said he's unaware of his reg problem, however even after I told him what the technician said, he still felt he should only pay 50 to 60. And if I had gotten a 2nd hand gauge, it would not have cost that much, therefore he should not pay so much. In the first place, he said he had another gauge to replace, but he could not find it, so it's not that I do not want, and I also do not have the chance of choosing a cheaper gauge. But I believe the technician would not take this chance and quote me the most expensive one.

It's supposed to be good working condition by the way as described when selling. Lucky I brought it to service, who knows may have died using it while diving. But the buyer at least got some heart and after a lot of to and fro messages, he unwillingly decided to fork out 40% of the replacement cost.

So...never buy 2nd hand reg. Just don't know what you will get. Now I'm contemplating if I do get a bc, it should be a new bc and not a 2nd one after this experience. Scared already.

Regulator got problem

2006-06-28T22:44:00.000+08:00

Remember I sent my reg to service few weeks ago? WEll, they called me up and told me that the hoses had to be changed, the gauge has water seeped in or flooded before. What! I gotta spend more money to change it. After considering, I decided that there's no saving in these and so had to bear the cost to change.

Called up the seller and told him about it, he was sorry for the bad condition, how true I don't know, but I believe him again. He said he has a spare gauge and would give that to me, as for the hoses, he would pay for it. Ok, I hope he's keeping his words. Else with this amount, I can almost get a brand new reg. Hopefully, this sat I can meet up with him to do the changes.

Coral relocation

2006-06-13T20:20:00.000+08:00

For those who want to help in Labrador coral relocation, click on this website. If not for me needing to clear some work stuff, I will volunteer for it. Too bad...

http://www.wildsingapore.com.sg/wildfilms/blog/2006/06/labrador-relocation.html

Dangerous sia!

2006-06-13T20:04:00.000+08:00

Today as I was driving home, I nearly had an accident. The situation was like this:

I was driving along the highway my normal route home...but I saw the signboard that indicated that an accident had ocurred ahead and there would be a traffic jam. So I decided to deviate from my normal route to the secondary route I would take. However, maybe today I feeling more tired than usual and my concentration level had reduced. For some reason, I did not notice the traffic light nearest to me, but I was looking at the other traffic light that is located less than 100m away. I was on the right most lane. Then suddenly from the corner of my eyes, I saw a person crossing the road, and I was thinking to myself why he was jay walking like that. Then shucks, I saw the traffic light by bending forward and looking up. Tried to jam brake but it was a bit too late, and no choice I had to go through the red light.

The person must be very shocked to see me just drive through, as he was raising his hand, that indicated to me like :" what the heck was this crazy driver doing!" I too was shocked, as it was an oversight on my part.

Seriously, what my mum said then came to my mind. She mentioned before that some traffic lights were so closely located that some times, we drivers did not see the traffic light nearest to us, and it was very dangerous. I didn't know that this would happen to me too. Now I knew that it could happen and I thanked my or the pedestrain's lucky star that I missed him. He was at the 2nd lane while I was 3rd lane. If not, there ws no way I could argue my way through should anything really happen.

So all drivers, pleas be careful when driving to such areas where traffic lights were at close proximity. Maybe I should write to complain...

Diving in Hantu today - vis not good but yet can see juvenile sweetlip

2006-06-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

Today I volunteered my service to Hantubloggers. It was almost full board, 11 of us, 4 guides and 7 guests. We even had a guest from US that just arrived in Singapore. He's a MSDI, wow! I brought along the bicycle hook that I bought from beach road and it certainly proved useful. Now one person can handle the trolley without toppling, idea huh!

Wyatt was with us for the 2nd time, after his wonderful first experience in May. He brought along another friend, Xiangyi, and I would be guiding them this time. Gina with Billy, Wai Meng - Joseph and Andrea, and Debby - Keong Ni(hope I get his name right) and Chay Hoon(she's been with us a few trips, so much so that I think she too can be part of our guides).

For a start, the weather was not that good, cloudy but clearing up, hopefully it would hold on. We were with Uncle Chua and after my last conversation with him (as I'm stuck on the boat), he now I knows me. :) From my past experience diving here, I knew that the visibility is not good around Jun to Aug period, so I sort of expect it.

When we arrived, there were 2 other dive boats, one of them was dolphin explorer, the one Ivy used to charter. The first dive was conducted on the western fringing reef. When we hit the water, my initial intention was to go at the depth of about 9m or so. However, the vis today was really not that good. So after 10mins around that depth, I decided we should ascend to a shallower depth. I felt that it's not so much of the light not being able to reach the bottom, but rather there's quite a fair bit of silt or sediments due season perhaps. At one point, I could not even see my own hand when I stretched out. So I had to pull them close to me, so that we would not lose one another. We didn't manage to see anything much till we had the 5m depth or so.

We saw some flatworms, bubblecorals, gonipora corals. Tried to spot things by going slowly, but still didn't spot anything nice. My newly bought mask that kept fogging and water seeping into my mask did not help. Stress ah! Copperbanded butterflyfish were there, luckily, and gobies, whiptails I thought, but they were too fast for me to point out to them. Then we got lost on the way, and after looking around for signs of bubbles or them for a minute, I ascended to wait for them. It's not too long that we meet up again, but the place we descended was a little too shallow, 2m or so only, so I signalled a for ascent and go further out before descending. We managed to see 8 banded butterflyfish and feather duster worms, some more of the flatworm, pseudoceros sp. Also spotted an acorpora coral that housed some shrimps that can hardly be seen, only saw their eyes actually. And clams, and the tiny 8 banded butterflyfishes. On and off we lost sight of one another, but managed to find back again. I was trying to see if I can spot any seahorse with the green sponges, but no luck.

The last part of dive was the best part. After losing them again(and they saw 4 razorfish, no luck for me, so near yet so far), we reunite with the finding of juvenile sweetlips around 2m depth! Finally, I managed to see it. It's really quite a cute creature, and it was trying to avoid us and kept swimming in between the corals. I couldn't help it but to take a few shots. It's certainly a difficult subject as it kept wriggling and could not stay still for a minute. What's more, my camera has quite a long lag as it need to focus before taking the shot, so one had to try to anticipate.

In the end, we spent 3minutes more than the 1hr planned dive just to see this lovely creature. However, that's also the last for the day. After our surface interval, just as we wanted to begin our 2nd dive, the weather turned for the worst and started raining heavily and gusting strong winds. Lightning was observed too, when we attempted to go down after waiting for 1/2 hr. As a result, we had to abort the dive and head back. The sea was pretty rough on our journey back and most of us nearly got seasick and that included me.

I bought a regulator finally

2006-06-09T22:23:00.000+08:00

Was surfing around the yahoo auction as well as fins forum. And found something priced about my budget. So I got so tempted that I bought the regulator! At first I was kind of happy. It's quite old actually, about 3 years old, Scubapro MK2, R190 and US diver octupus. I outbid the other person by 5 bucks, although initially I tried to bargain for a lower price, but failed.

However, after the transaction, I only realised that the inflator hose is not included! Felt a bit cheated, as he did not tell me about it. Now I got to spend more $ to buy, on top of that I gotta bring it for servicing. Now looks like I did not get it at a bargain price afterall. Total I gotta spend 370 plus. On top of that, he did not tell me or I didn't ask him that the octupus has to be service elsewhere cos the scubapro agent will not have its spare parts.

Oh well, have to live with it....maybe will sell it next year after I use it for a while.

Enriched nitrox course

2006-06-09T22:09:00.000+08:00

I just went for the nitrox course yesterday night. It's a course that I won during the clubsnap underwater forum bash last year. It's sponsored by Penetration Divers and this is the first course as of this year. However, the course was conducted by Scubapeople. Hey, it is located very near my house, and of course I don't mind.

The shop that the lesson was held was kind of small and that's the first impression of the shop. Eric and Davey conducted the lesson. It's only theory plus an exam at the end of the lesson. TDI was the agency for this certification. Davey is a very experienced instructor, and know all his stuff by heart, whereas Eric is a little rusty (from what I observed). There were 5 of us in the class, and one lady looked very familiar. It was only that she mentioned about her being on one of the clubsnap trip, that I know: that's why I find her so familiar. She went with Nelson....can't remember him actually...

Anyway, they all had many dives, and most of them started since 1996 or so, but stopped for a while and had 200 plus dives. Ok, my 80 plus dives aren't that great...

The lessons are pretty simple, based on the pressure, volume and depth. With enriched air, we are able to dive longer and have shorter intervals, as well as less fatigue after the dives. Sounds great. The only thing to watch out for is the oxygen toxicity. In general, it's good to take this course and have another option of diving with EAN. Maybe I can try out in Cebu trip?

The course ended around 11 plus in the night, and did I pass? I sure did. :)

Mr Brown is hot...

2006-05-11T22:39:00.000+08:00

Haha...was listening to Mr Brown's podcast. Very funny. The bar chor mee one and the recent one about school exams really funny. Very creative of him to think of that. It's a good way ot relieve stress as they say laughter's the best medicine. his website is www.mrbrown.com, if anyone is interested.

Saw 2 Oriental Pied Hornbills in Changi

2006-05-07T19:26:00.000+08:00

After my work today, I was lucky enough to see 2 Oriental Pied Hornbills. This was actually my 2nd time I saw it. They are very nice and they looked relatively small as I what have thought it will be. Maybe they are juveniles? According to the security guards, they saw these birds everytime, so it's nothing of a surprise to them. Hmm...that means these birds are nesting around here. That's interesting. Hope to see them again. I didn't bring camera, so no photo shots.

Managed to create a group for the reef xplore dive guides. Yesterday was discussing with Jacki and Tan Chung how we could kick start this program. First, marketing. We need some form of promoting. Suggestion about going to dive agency and seek their help to promote to other divers. As this is a non profit group, I guess this is feasible. We can use posters, pamphlets, and e-newsletters. So we have to design something out as well as going around to persuade dive agencies. Our target was about 30-40 participants for the Jun trip. And we try to dive in other sites rather than Hantu as interest may clash with the HanB.

Dive logistics will be covered by Jacki since he was the most experienced. I volunteered to organise the dive guides required for each trip... that was what the yahoo group was for. With some inspiration, I came out with some simple design for poster as well as logo for the group. Hmm... not bad, at least it was getting somewhere. Hopefully the first few dives will proceed smoothly.

Exercise finally over

2006-05-04T21:33:00.000+08:00

Yeah! My exercise that I'm supposed to coordinate is finally over. What a relief! I've been busy this past month or so because of this. Now I can really take a break or a short while, at least till the next exercise in the coming week. But I'm glad to be a participant and not a coordinator. I just hope they will appoint another person to be the next exercise coordinator, as it can be very time consuming and tiring for the preparation. Today my boss said, " So next exercise you should mention your feel and what you learnt, then followed by thanking everyone..." Next exercise? I hope not.... I can only put up a forced smile and nod my head as I answered my boss. Sometimes, it's not too good to handle something too well, you may get to do it again and they also expect that certain level of standard.

I certainly got other stuff to catch up for my job. My other appointments I have been putting it on hold and got to do something now. Well, next week I will be off on certain days to get my well earned rest. Past few days, I'm one of the first to go to work, last to leave. I long for a holiday break, but no khakis...shucks.

There's this immersion programme to Greece that sounded interesting. It's not a leisure trip for sure, but I think it will be an interesting experience. The only problem, I do not know if I can take leave and I don't really know how to cook...if they want me to cook for the rest (something they state in their programme).

My dive guiding thing is going full swing perhaps in Jun once they start to promote to people. I volunteered to help in the committee...hmmm seems like I have been volunteering a lot these days? Well, trying to help out if possible, cos next year will reduce my amt of diving.

Tomorrow going to organise a relak session in my home ( I volunteered again?). Invited my colleagues as I'm glad the ex was over. Will be a pizza, kfc session plus chit chat. Hope will be fun.

More songs by guang liang...

2006-05-02T11:25:00.000+08:00

Think I'm going to buy his cd, his songs are nice...

A poem about diver

2006-05-02T11:13:00.000+08:00

Adapted from a diving forum for a lost diver... nice but sad

Originally Posted by Carson Ray... 1989

If I should die beneath the sea --
What e'er the circumstance may be --
I only ask that you not cry
For such a lucky one as I.

But, rather, weep for those alive
Who know not what it is to dive
Into the planet's liquid heart
And of God's ocean be a part.

For even Christ must envy all
Who dive along the ocean's wall;
Though wind and sea His will obeys,
He only walked upon the waves.

And may I ask for one thing more?
A simple cross beside the shore.
Below my name inscribe for me:
Lost to the earth, but found at sea.

korean drama full house songs

2006-05-01T23:44:00.000+08:00

Updates and Found another great site

2006-05-01T22:00:00.000+08:00

This morning, got some hiccups along my job. Yes, I'm working on a public holiday, not by choice. There's this email which i sent to my colleague earlier when I'm really bogged down by questions from external agencies. So i wrote in a not too friendly manner to my colleagues and ask them to reply these people. But this email i meant it only for our own consumption. But i guess my colleague, without thinking twice, reply these people with my mail by forwarding. Sh*T! My not so nice comments all there. I called him and explained that he should not be doing so, but he said the person is his friend, nothing to worry. He will not mind.
But somehow, it just got to the ears of his boss, I know not why... Now I'm screwed. And now even my boss knew about it, and i think the other agencies boss knew too, otherwise why would my boss know. It's so embarassing. Well, my boss is holding both if us responsible. Lesson learnt, do not anyhow write email, cos it will somehow by murphy's law get forwarded just when you think it will not.

My dream opportunity...the person has replied and sent me further info on the resort. Looks like a great plan, but still not sure if i should just dump my money in, afterall, it's my life savings, and the risks are high. If i consult my parents, i very much doubt they will let me, in fact very much disapproved, as the resort is so far away as well. It will most likely seem to many as giving the money away. Sheesh..how??

Was surfing around and manage to find this site. great flash and songs. Enjoy.

Animated MTV

Also, say yes and part of your world, one of favourites in the past, still is....

Wanted to go on holidays during the next 2 months, but can't find any khakis... sigh. that's the trouble sometimes, just can't find anyone with the same schedule to go... maybe in the end I will end up not going. Very likely.

A dream opportunity??

2006-04-24T22:25:00.000+08:00

I used to dream I can open a resort of my own along the white sandy beach....now it seems that there may be a chance for this to be fulfilled...by being one of the investors for a resort in Raja Ampat. A dream place to dive too, cos it's so far and so ex to go there. Almost to PNG. A trip for a week will cost a bomb, 2000 at least?

Now, it seemed like for an affordable amount invested in this resort, I will expect profit after 5 years later....quite long actually and anything can happen. The profit is not a lot, definitely not enough to keep me from not getting a job. I still have to work, but the great thing is, there's this min 14d free usage for me for the resort, and the resort is partly mine, if I did not misintrepret what they say. Of course, I still have to pay for the airfare to go there.

How, how? Should I grab this nan de chance? I want to find out more about it...hmmm suddenly remember about what master says about me spending my money on diving....I don't mind, if it's going to be a profitable business, not throwing money into a deep hole. I need some wise advice, but after my upcoming exercise...

The fair I have been waiting for ...

2006-04-22T23:58:00.000+08:00

He came to pick me up to go to the fair together. Actually, he's nice, but other than diving and his past related works with the force, we seemed not to have any other things in common. I also felt that he's kind of too matured for me at times, such that I felt like a girl next to him. But I can't doubt that I'm a little attracted to him. If you ask me why, I don't really know, perhaps his looks, and his an quan gan? Hmm...I don't know what I should do, but my concentration today is the fair. Hope there's some good bargains.

Reached there about 1230H, first friends I met are lovells and lanxx. Part time job promoting. Should let me know if got such lobangs. Then, saw goondoo and photosmart selling the strobes and casing. Also saw bwv people and zee is giving a talk. There are many brochures to take, but actually only some deals are good. Too bad, there isn't one for malapuscua, but for moalbay and other places. Actually, some of the places are exotic and not cheap, but interesting. There are also equipment for sale, but not many catches my eye. I realise that he asks a lot of questions and tries to bargain for deals. Is it a good trait? Anyway, caught up with alice and the 3 of us tour together. Alice has a few things in mind to buy.

We listened to the talk by SUF, sounded like an empty shell, as in, seemed to be nothing exciting in their development. Boring. Then I met Jaws. Wow, it's like I haven't see him in ages. He's fairer, but with his tatoos. He's recognisable. Said he's helping to manage Manado NDC resort. So good. Well, if I can take 3 months leave, I can go there and train as a DM. Sounds good, many things to see there.

Also saw other friends like Rumiko, Melani( she brought us to buy a few stuff...now thinking about it, I actually don't really need the mask strap, though useful...oh well, shopping mood). Bought a mask too, it's quite comfortable and clear type(my one now is black and only see straight ahead), and quite cheap, 30 bucks. So decided to get it and Alice helped to bargain for a free slateboard.

Ok, that's the end of my shopping. I left only 4 bucks. Went around walking before stopping over at BWV booth to see if help required. Saw Gina and CY too. Jo is around too, nice to see her back in Spore. She's back for her work for a few days before going back HK. Then next week she will join them in LOB to MANADO! *Sob* can't join them cos work.

I stayed to listen to Jeff's talk just to give some support. Also saw PT. She came to see, see, look, look too with her friends. I hanged around till about 7pm before departing to join my other friends for a steamboat buffet at TG Katong. Heard it's quite good. So looking forward....btw, did not have lunch cos walking around the fair. That's just me. haha...

Chinese song, Tong Hua

2006-04-22T23:24:00.000+08:00

I like this song, and it's only recently through the radio that I listened carefully to the lyrics of the chorus. It was beautifully written, and I hope to find someone described in the song too. But I never knew it was such a sad MTV until I did a search and viewed it a while ago.

Enjoy this....

Gathering with my schoolmates

2006-04-22T00:58:00.000+08:00

I'm glad I can make it for tonight's dinner with my school mates. 2 of them whom I had not seen for a loooong time, 14 years? They actually didn't change much in terms of appearance and characters. It's good to chat about our childhood and teenage days. Also updates on how's our life now. Gosh, I got interrogated by one of them who is interested about my job. I guess that's because not many ladies or friends will choose my job. She also tested me on my memories for names of our classmates. Stress out ah....but I did recall quite a few names...not too bad. Hehe...

But it's really a nice feeling to see them again and hope to see them again for the next gathering.

I miss Hantu...

2006-04-16T21:18:00.000+08:00

Haiz....I misss Hantu...want to go but dont know which dive agency good to follow, so end up staying home most of the time. However,I'm not particularly fond of going M'sia like Aur and nearby these days. Hmm... maybe will plan a trip during Vesak day holiday, or should I take my rescue diver course during those days?

Well, will be busy for me for the next 3 weeks at least. Got to rush for a presentation tomorrow. Sheesh....

Marine Life in Hantu

2006-04-13T22:34:00.000+08:00

I was looking around the Cebu, Malapascua dive site and their marine life list...there are lots of stuff that are listed. (Cebu should be my next dive destination for this year) So I thought, why not write a list of what can be seen here? So here it goes...

Mainly hard corals, bubble corals, sea fans, sea whips
Sharks: Bamboo sharks
Rays: Blue spotted stingray
Seahorse and pipefish: Tiger tail seahorse, Schultz's pipefish and other types
Cephalopods : Octopus, Broadclub cuttlefish
Shrimps: commensal shrimps, gorgonian shrimps, crinoid shrimps
Enchinoderms: Icon seastar, cushion star, brittlestar, featherstar, sea urchins
Crabs: Spider crabs, reef crabs, swimmer crabs, acoporal crabs
Fish: Copperbanded butterflyfish, angelfish, toadfish, damselfish, juvenile yellow tailed barracudas, scorpionfish, false scorpionfish, goatfish, filefish, sweetlips, rabbitfish, batfish, groupers, cardinalfish, clownfish, frogfish, razorfish, etc
Gobies: Whip gobies, gobies and shrimps, giant goby
Eels
Gastropods: Nudibranch: Blue dragons, phyllidias, chromodoris, hypselodoris, flabellina, glossodoris, ceratosama, bornella, tambja, gymnodoris, thorunna, jorunna, flatworms, sap suckers, etc
Allied cowries
Sea snake
Turtle...hmm just realised that this is not mentioned in Cebu website...no turtle there?

Sure looks like a long list. Who says hantu has nothing to see :-P

So don't you think it's worth conserving?

Reclamation works at Pulau Ular...my thoughts ater reading Debb's blog

2006-04-12T00:41:00.000+08:00

Just came back from white and black manta open house, was very impressed with the luxurious black manta especially. Was quite happy, until this....and was feeling so depressed and sad for what will happened to our reef.

I was reading about the recent post on Hantu Blogger's blog. It's about the last look at Terumbu Bayan, reef north of Hantu. The more I read, the more sad I felt. It's like this healthy living reefs will be gone forever because of the reclamation and my heart aches for it, so much so that I have penned down my thoughts. I always wanted to do more for our nature and since I'm a diver, even more so for our precious reef.

Looked at the beautiful stuff you can find (see her blog...www.pulauhantu.org), there are so many "babies" that have not even hatched! The countless nemos and cowries with no chance at all.....doesn't it make you feel so sad and sorry that we are losing the reef. I sure hope more people can see this and more people can gather our forces to help in conserving OUR reefs.

I hope the project NOAH will do something to preserve our present reef and NOT do something artificial and try to create a man made reef in the man made lagoon of Hantu. They should look around Hantu and do something about it, otherwise I feel what they do is pointless and superficial....

Something special about icon seastar

2006-04-08T21:42:00.000+08:00

Went book hunting today, and bought 2 handy books about the common marine fishes and coral of Spore. Was browsing through and found some interesting facts about Icon Seastar.

This seastar is commonly seen in Spore. According to the book, it's a unique creature and should actually be found in depth of 30 to 40m in Indonesian waters....so the conclusion is, it somewhat like the less lighting conditions of our waters...

The other thing special is the pigmentation of its body. The variation of the dark and light "boxes" pattern on each seastar is unique to individual seastar. So it's sort of like id or our fingerprint and we can use that to differentiate. Amazing facts huh!

Sifu's words of advice

2006-04-03T21:37:00.000+08:00

You know, the previous post I mentioned about my sifu asking me not to dive too much. Well, I asked his advice on how to improve my element. He said increasing metal elt, may not necessary be good for me. Increasing metal elt can be through colour. White, grey are all metal colour. He is also able to see that lack of communication is my main obstacle for my character, be it relationship or career wise. Well....it's kind of true. I'm a more reserved person and don't reveal what my feelings are. Relationship and career are represented by water elt in me, and I will feel pressurised my them. Quite correct, I have been avoiding getting into relationship, most of it becos of commitment issue. I don't really want to...commit I guess, so it is really kind of pressure to me. Becos of my aimless life, as in I have yet known what I really want in my life, it also gave some pressure. Eight characters do hav esome logic.

Anyway, his advice is for me to be more open in letting people know what I feel, be it in relation or career, as in let my boss know what I want. I can do so by reading more perhaps, books are wood elt, and will improve my fire elt. I can read self improvement books....ok from now on, will try to read these books.

Dinner and Movie: Ice Age 2

2006-04-02T22:49:00.000+08:00

Went out yesterdy to suntec. Met my friends, Irene, Ben2, Da Niao and Weiwen. As they have finished their Siam buffet, only me had not have my dinner, so I decided to try the Carl's Junior burgers. Heard it's good, and its portion was huge. I tried the double western star cheeseburger, cost me 12 bucks for a combo meal, with an upsize to medium. Wow, when I saw the burger, I thought ok, it was really huge and heavy, I did not know if I can finished, but I will try, afterall, I just had a jog in the evening and should have an appetite to eat. After chomping half a burger, I thought..hmmm....I should be able to finish it. But after having a quarter left, I was really quite full, so I begun to eat more slowly. Woa, after half an hour, I finished it, and my friends commented I was capable, being able to finish it. Well, I still had my fries, and half a cup of drink. Ok, with some gossips and chit chat to burn off my energy, I managed to complete my task. But I was so full, that I needed a walk around the mall. Thank goodness, we were unable to buy tickets for the earliest time movie.

Ok, movie review, this was a funny movie, great one to spend time. The animations were cute too. I enjoyed it, kept laughing throughout the movie. Sid, the tree sloth, the 2 possums, and the acorn chaser were so funny. There seemed to be some christianity meaning behind this movie though, but I was not too bothered about it. It was a great movie, and yes, I do like animations and tend to enjoy them better, like nemo etc. ....

nudis' nose

2006-03-31T22:36:00.000+08:00

Extracted from sea slug forum....

The word RHINOPHORE is made from two classical Greek words rhino = nose, and phore = carrier, and is a reference to the function of the rhinophores as an organ of "smell". We smell scents and odours with our nose, which has special receptors to sense the chemical molecules in the air. In nudibranchs, and other marine animals, the same sort of chemicals are dissolved in the sea water. In many Sea Slugs this is how they find their food. Scent receptors work better when there is a lot of surface area to test for the chemicals. Many of the rhinophore shapes, illustrated here, show the different ways a simple rod-like rhinophore can be modified to provide a much greater surface area by developing horizontal flaps or lamellae or papillae, or vertical folds. Compare these rhinophores with the feathery antennae of a large moth which needs to detect odours so that it can find the flowers it feeds on and a partner for breeding.

Nudibranchs have a pair of rhinophores at the front end of their bodies. Because of their "worm-like" shape, rhinophores are in constant danger of being nibbled by fish. To protect them from such damage, most are able to withdraw into a pocket beneath the skin. Often there is a raised collar or sheath around each pocket which can be clamped shut when the slug is disturbed.

why some nudi has the latin name...something then doris

2006-03-31T21:50:00.000+08:00

Was looking for some names of unidentified nudi and chanced upon this forummer asking the orgin of hypselodoris. Well, the sea slug expert can't explain why but I found something interesting. the "doris" as was named in many nudibranch meant Greek sea goddess. Interesting.....

Quote from the webpage:

"Stimpson (1855) has a one paragraph description of Goniodoris? obscura from Port Jackson [Sydney Harbour], followed by the following 3 sentence discussion:
"This species, with another closely allied and occurring in the same locality form a genus probably new. It differs from Goniodorus (sic), in having retractile tentacula, and in the greater development of the mantle; and from Doris by the elevated, oblong quadrangular shape of the body. I would propose for it the name of Hypselodoris."

So basically the author didn't give any indication on the origin of the name. Stimpson does mention that it differs from the genus Doris by the elevated shape of the body so it is possible that Hypselodoris is based on hypsos - the Greek word for height - as in 'high doris' but that is only a guess.

Doris was a Greek sea goddess. The genus Doris was an early Linnaean genus into which many 'dorid' nudibranchs were initially placed."

Fate coming??

2006-03-30T23:20:00.000+08:00

Well, after the sat dive, we had been chatting online....he had been asking about me, what I'm doing, my job, etc. This puts me to the thought if...is he interested in me? Is he the guy for me? Ya, I know, when a guy asked me these, that does not mean he's interested in me as a partner...it can just friends getting to know each other. Still I don't know. If you ask me what i think of him? He's a nice person, friendly, sporty I guess, since he mentioned he not only dives, but play golf, trialathon (wow), archery etc.... We met up yesterday, since his workplace was near my home, and I got back earlier than usual as I went to work early. We talked about diving and uw photos, as you can see I'm interested in photography and diving. He showed me some of his trips' photos. This time round I guess he's out of practice for a year for the recent one are mostly blurred photos. He also had his army days photos, and some photos with his EX gf...is that a hint he's available?? Hmm... To tell the truth, I had not have any bf before, just crushes for most guys...I don't say out my feelings, and is more passive...So I don't really know how to handle a relationship well...

He mentioned he was looking for a house near this area and asked he to look out for him. Ok...
It's too superficial for now, as I don't really know him and his character...only chat on general stuff. We shall see how things goes....if we are for each other, we can't run away....

Diving in Hantu on sat

2006-03-27T00:02:00.000+08:00

Great sightings was what I could describe about my dives last sat. The currents were a little strong, had a hard time finning back to the boat after the dives, yes I only had my Mares Avantix3... time to upgrade to force fins or jet fins perhaps?

Had 4 dives, first on the eastern side of Hantu Kechil, then Hantu Kechil jetty, then the western small patch reef and lastly, the night dive, at the western fringing reef. Seemed like some nudi that I saw around the jetty and eastern side were unique to these sites and I have not seen them on the western side. They were also huge compared to those on the western side. How strange right? Some said they were huge because of whatever that came out from the refinery island into the sea, feeding these guys.

Onboard joining us were also one marine biologist from Holland who specialises in mushroom corals. His aim is to see how many species we have in our local waters. This time, he found 13 species here. I also met the famous, at least on UW CS forum, photographer whyzzz. His photos are real good and one of which was featured on a magazine. Wow! Other than that, Jeff was my guide for the first and second dive. Debby was in charge since this was the anniversary dive. Gina was around too, Jason and Aaron the comedians of this trip as well as the pro photographers. The other 2 were Alex and Paul, first time meeting them.

I managed to spot some real tiny stuff this time, and Jeff said I got magnifying eyes. Hehe...don't think others will believe given that I have small eyes...maybe that's why I see the small stuff. I finally got to see the commensal shrimps and gorgonian shrimp that I so wanted to see. Also saw seahorse, thanks to Debby for spotting.
Actually the second dive, I swooped guide as I'm kinda too slow for my group. And talked about it, the first dive I lost sight of them during the last 45min, however I was thinking of carrying on my own. But Jeff could not let that happen, so he kept banging on his tank to ask me to surface. He seemed a bit angry when I surfaced after a few min to join them back for the swim to boat. Opps!

We were on dolpin explorer so it was great that we did not have to carry tanks and the boat even had a compressor for the chargng of the tanks. We also had hot coffee or drinks onboard, especially after the dives. Really good.

After the 2nd dive, we managed to tour around the island. It was nip tide, esp low tide and we could walk across the man-made lagoon....enjoying the scenery. We went back up the boat after about an hour or so, and prepared our dive no 3. We went to the western small patch reef this time. And I saw my first gorgonian shrimp! Wow, finally got to see it, just one only and took a shot of it too.
Other interesting stuff was a toadfish hiding in the crevices, nearly snapped at Alex's fingers. However as the vis was not that good, I could not really see it clearly until I processed my photos. It's quite an ugly fish, however when it was juvenile, it was cute, cos it looked like a ball. No I didn't see before, it was through my reading of the reef books. At some points, I kind of lost sight of them, so I just swam up towards the direction we supposed to go and able to find them. Sometimes, they were at different levels, and the poor vis at one point, just before or after we spotted the stingray, was pretty bad, about 0.5m only. It was about 5m and I had to get to a deeper depth of 7m, before being able to see. We also saw on 1 orange seafan, 3 different type of creatures, 1 commensal shrimp, 1 ordinary shrimp and 1 goby. That part current was quite strong and took a while to hang on and get a reasonable shot. After the dive we did quite a long surface swim back plus the current was strong, so it was very tiring. I was like not moving, when I turned to my right and saw with reference to the breakwater, it was like stationary. That was how strong the current was.

It was around sunset, and it was pretty cold. And Francis did the right thing at the right time, prepared some hot coffee. So nice. However, I had my own packet of milo put up to good use, else coffee would keep me up through the night. Gave the warmth and energy. Hehe... while waiting for the sun to set, we rested and chit chat. Jason and Aaron were really funny. They took some shots of themselves and others were doing all sorts of hand signs, so that the shadow fell would be on their body...ie in the photo. Colour reflected by the sunset was really nice and warm and definitely made a good picture.

Finally, we were going for our 4th dive at the fringing reef this time. Berg was not joining us and he had the next whole week to dive for his mushroom coral research. So I followed Jeff for this dive. At first we didn't get to see much, then we looked under the crevices and lots of creatures were found! Shrimps plenty of them, crabs too, and full bloomed featherstars. Flatworms, and also I think a squid not a cuttlefish swimming around. The colours were amazing! Then Jeff spotted a bamboo shark! He kept giving me the signal of shark, but when I looked under the rocks, I could only see its tail, so I could not really identify if it was a bamboo shark. The shark got irritated by our lights and kept turning its tail on us, flipping the sand up. It was also at this spot that a spider crab that was so well camouflaged was seen. If it was not moving, would have thought it was a pile of silt. Ha! Then a white eel suddenly moved on the right of the rocks, however it slipped into the crevices before we could do a proper id of it. As we moved on, Jeff spotted another bamboo shark! So lucky! But again, I could not see it properly just its tail. At the other end of the rock, I could another fish emerge, I thought may be it was not a shark. But Jeff would have known better than me as he had dived here many times. We passed by the steel structure I identified it as the mid point, before turning back. As we got to about 5m, Jeff spotted a turtle sleeping. It was exciting, my first Hantu turtle. It was quite huge too, at least 1m in length I think. Tried to get some shots but only managed to get headshots. It got disturbed by us, Gina and Paul, and Debby and Alex, that it decided to swim again.

Well, it was a good trip today and enjoyed it very much. Just wished we were that lucky everytime. :) After back on land, some of us went for a late dinner and boy was I hungry!

Not good for me to dive?

2006-03-24T00:22:00.000+08:00

Although I like diving, I'm not supposed to dive too much, or for that matter, play too much water sports. You see, I'm a "weak fire" person, hence by nearing water too much is not good. According to my sifu, the next few years, I have to really try aviod diving too much, due to the combined effect that makes the water more powerful in those years. I certainly don't want any incidents, and have been careful while diving. So I guess next few years will be trekking and travelling for me. Sheesh, you all must be thinking I'm so superstitious, but I think it's quite true to certain extent, so better to listen if I can.

I tried not to dive so much but tough. This year, I have been more active due to my volunteering dive guide thing. It's about 2 time a month. I will make it a point to lessen my frequency when ever possible. I will still continue but exercise caution and heheh...try hard to dive lesser. :P

Low Workplace Morale

2006-03-24T00:02:00.000+08:00

If you notice, I seldom talk about my workplace. But lately, the morale among my colleagues is super low. It's really starting to be very depressing working here. In a way, I was sort of affected by this mood too, but recently have been too busy with my work to bother too much. A lot of us, even those like me who is orginally fine with working here, as in a little grumble, but still ok, become affected. Not healthy.

Reminded me a little of what it was in my previous company 4 years ago. There were a lot of words or rumours of privatisation and retrenchment and also posting to other departments. As a result, many of my colleagues were making plans be it leave the company or request to post to other department. Morale was low then and work load was high....and what's more, my room mate(colleague sitting in the same corner as me) left the company....so perhaps, that, in a way made me decide to leave, and of course I also don't think I will be doing this line 10 years later, so better leave early.

In a way, today's situation is similar...lots of talks by people having other plans. Me too, I need to think about it as this is going to be a short career, despite me being happy go lucky, I don't want to be in a clueless state when I'm in my 40s. Oh well, I have some other things to concentrate for now, so not really letting my mind wander around too much unless someone provokes me and push me over the line.

Shall stop talking about work... it's more interesting to talk about diving and stuff than work. This sat I will be going hantu again. Yup, 4 dives including 1 night dive. Hope to see some interesting stuff and water not too cold. Got to think of bringing some good food....very important motivation...hahah...

My doggie's teeth

2006-03-21T22:43:00.000+08:00

Recently, my mum discovered that my silky terrier's front tooth has loosened. She's only 3 years old! That's quite young for her to have her tooth pulled out. We checked with the vet and he said that some dogs are like that, they have poorer saliva properties, ie high bacteria content. No choice, we had to bring her to the vet and had it extracted.

Well this morning she went and she had her teeth cleaned up too. When she came back, due to the drug effect, she looked very sad and drowsy. Poor thing! Our hearts ached when we saw her in this manner.... Then we discovered that the vet pulled out 3 tooth instead of the 1 tooth we mentioned. Now, there's really a big gap in front. So we called up the vet asking why he extracted 3 instead of 1. And he mentioned that the other 2 were also loose, something we didn't notice. Gosh! Can you imagine my doggie without her front tooth....thinking she will suffer from depression for a while, ego bruised....and my neighbour's cats would be laughing at her....
Poor girl...

Missed this weekend's dive

2006-03-05T21:56:00.000+08:00

Mannn.....missed this weekend's dive because me not feeling well. Spend the weekend resting at home and surfing net. Argh! When I heard my friends seeng so many wonderful stuff over at Kusu, really wish I can go with them. They say so many allied cowries, saw-tooth gorgonian shrimp, a nudi nobody seem to see before. From Hantu blogger's site, also saw photos of whip shrimp and commensal shrimp....ahhh...stuff I have not see and photograph... Hope I get to see these too in my makeup dive. My camera seems to have some moisture or fungus on my lens. Last dive, the picture was so badly affected, and I thought it was fogged up. Looks like I either had to get another 2nd hand C5050 or bring it for service(may not be worthwhile, expensive perhaps).

Having a blocked nose...

2006-03-03T22:28:00.000+08:00

Have a blocked nose right now, hope it clears by tomorrow.....for tomorrow is my practical test for my dive guiding. Yippess. So far, still ok. But comparing Hantu and Kusu, I prefer Hantu, may be becos I'm more familiar with the dive sites, and also the surge is not that strong. Well, tomorrow will be back in Kusu. I seemed to have an attraction towards water though I have been advised not to go diving too often. But I can't help it, it's so good to be diving, observing and taking photos of the interesting marine life.

Diving in Kusu

2006-02-12T12:28:00.000+08:00

Kusu Island

Yesterday was a tiring day. Been diving in Kusu Island, NE region, 2 dives. Could not resist the temptation of bringing my camera along. Hate it when you see something but miss the opportunity of taking photos. This was my first time in Kusu, be it underwater or land(well, we never set foot on the island though). It was also the first practical lessons of the local dive guide program.

We met at 9am. I was early and seemed that I was the only one driving too. Jani was first, followed by myself, Tze Lynn and Debby and the rest(Gina, Trond, Marco, Howard and Zeehan). The tanks were supplied by Uncle Han Peng. Yup, same name as Ivy's HP. We loaded the tanks and equipment after the boat has arrived. It's a bumboat too, SP848G, but it seemed to have more space compared to the last we chartered for checkout dive in Hantu. Probably due to the arrangement. Anyway, we had to carry the tanks to the boat. They were all arranged neatly behind the boatman, while we seated at the stern area and by the 2 sides.

It took about 45min? to travel from Keppel Marina to our destination, bypassing Sentosa's famous beaches, like Palawan, as well as the other islands, like sisters island, Terkukor, St John's and Lazarus. On the boat, each of us (except Howard, no time) tried to give a brief simulating that we are taking divers for the reef xplore program, starting with Trond. He started off with self and diver's introduction and what reef xplore was all about and who organised this (not just BWV, but also Hantu bloggers and Gill Divers). Followed by some housekeeping rules and a little on safety. Then about the surrounding islands. And understanding of diver's expectations and skills(as in where and when's the last dive, and dove in locals before) Then more about the dive site and what they may see. The rest more or less briefed in the same manner. A type of nudibranch, phyllidia

Words of advice from Debby were to have certain sequence and what you wanted to say for that topic. The loss buddy procedure and safety brief can be kept to the last before the brief. For example, introduction to be done when everyone's around and try to let them know early who's their buddy, so they will communicate. Then the programs and purpose, island briefing, visibility, etc. To make your briefing more interesting, you can add in personal experience in the local waters, so they will know who's guiding them and have more confidence too. Featherstar on a sea fan

Enough said of the briefing, we were formed in 3 groups, Tze Lynn, Trond and Gina - first group. Debby, Marco and Zeehan - second, and Jani, Howard and myself - last.
The first dive will be the dive leaders leading us to familiarise with the route. It will be a south easterly or easterly direction once at around 5m below the reef crest. Then reciprocal back in a north westerly direction. It was a 60min to 70min dive. Currents were minimal and a descent line was set up to help us orientate while descending. The vis ranged from 0.5m to 3m for our dives. The silt were a lot and I couldn't really see I was heading for the sea whips and fans. Tried hard to avoid them 'cos I didn't want to kill them. I relied on my compass and tried to have a mental picture of the route. I lost my buddy for a few times, but only 1 occasion after the big sea fan that I decided to surface and look for them. Managed to see my first allied cowry finally, but didn't see the commensal shrimps(though Jani said she pointed out for us, but I guessed we couldn't figure out what she was pointing). The corals at 4-5m were huge and nice. There were also huge anemone and their partner, clownfish too. Surge however was strong and one can get seasick easily, even up at the boat or diving around 3-4m depth. The boatman's advice...drink a mouthful of the seawater and you will not get seasick. Don't know how true. Huge sea fan 1 - 2m wide

Oh, we saw the reef enhancement units or artificial reef units and there were quite a lot of them, some with coral recruits growing on it. Like what Tze Lynn said, it's amazing how nature finds its way back.

After the surface interval and our lunch, the second dive would be us leading the way, first 30min would be me leading, then changed to Howard. There was slightly stronger current, took me a while to fin to the descent point. This time, saw blue dragon/ flabillinea, scorpionfish (spotted by Jani great eyesight). She also managed to spot pipefish, but no matter how much she pointed, we also could not see it...vis and great camo). We finned around 9m...compared to 10m for the first dive due to the receding tide. At first I thought I was wrong, but the lighting somehow told me that it's correct...going 1m deeper would be darker. Anyway, we also saw the seawhips and fans, and brittlestars and featherstars, on Jani's wishlist. Then the huge seafan too, and the allied cowry on sea fan, 45degrees up from this huge seafan, right side. It was on an orange colored sea fan. I didn't get a good shot, cos I did not use manual focus...next time must remember to try. Blue dragon

All in all, I would say the dive was not too bad. Vis was not so good and surge was strong (remove my reg to puke in water once at the shallow part of 2nd dive), but many stuff to see. Saw my first allied cowry too!

Recently....

2006-02-03T12:09:00.000+08:00

Time for updates...Had fallen ill on CNY eve. Had a hard time controlling myself not to eat all the goodies. Had sore throat and flu, but it did not blown into more serious conditions, with my timely medications. Did my duty on 3rd day of CNY. Wow! The crowd was huge, even larger than the time on ND. This was the first time I did an afternoon open house. There were more programmes and things to co-ordinate. No major upsets, except demands from the performance organiser and the drop of plaque.

Yesterday, went for a short reef walk at changi near the chalet, since the tide was low. Managed to see a fair bit of things. Like an OCTOPUS! Wow! It's medium size, head was about 3cm. Grey colour and was hunting for food with its tentacles all stretched out. Also saw hermit crabs, shrimps, small gobies like fish, a 5cm wide anemone. There was a red thorny sea cucumber as well. The only sad thing was there was quite a lot of rubbish, glass bottles and plastic bags. Some of them even had barnacles on it, that showed how long it was there. I didn't managed to walk too far as I wasn't wearing my booties. Overall, it's nice and maybe next time can come again.

First Badminton match for me

2006-01-26T21:41:00.000+08:00

Last minute I was asked to go and represent my unit to play badminton match today, as they were lack of lady players. I went for fun and also because it's been a while since I played (and also some other reasons I won't reveal, but certainly not work related, in fact I was pondering if I should go, as I had a brief to give actually for today). I was sort of expecting a walkover, but too bad there were lady players too for the other 2 team. So okay, this is my first badminton match of my life, like I only play for leisure sometimes.

I also met up with 3 colleauges who used to play badminton for group 2 and I was their convenor at that time when I just joined the unit. It's nice meeting them and they were good players.

It was going to be mixed doubles, and my partner is quite an experienced player, he too was called in last minute. Good thing we still had another lady player in our team, else one of us would have to play 2 matches (Tiring leh). My match was the tougher one as we were up against the better lady player. Bear in mind I haven't been exercising these few weeks, so my stamina is a bit weak. In fact, I felt my hands trembling from the strain at the start of the game, but subsequenly was okay, once my muscles warmed up.

Anyway, it was a good match, we had good fighting spirit, never give up (but my partner was pretty anxious and argued sometimes). We lost the first set, won the second set and the last rubber set was a close fight too. This was also the critical match for our team as the opponent's mens doubles team was very strong, so we had to secure this point. By the end of the 3 sets, I was really bushed. Muscles are aching...

Well, for that, some of us rewarded ourselves with a good lunch at famous Sembawang Centre. Good break from daily work.

Decided to buy my own BC

2006-01-21T12:51:00.000+08:00

I have decided to get my own BC...It's going to cost me a bomb. 700 plus but it's really comfortable. I 'm also going to go concourse and see if I will be getting a reg. If I do, I will have a spend alomst a thousand in 1 shot. Heart pain ah. But the BC is really comfortable leh. Although I can get a BC and reg set at about 700, less than the backplate BC that I'm looking at but....so comfortable in water...

Maybe I can strike a deal with Yan, he get the BC and I get the reg. Then I will really have to spend a thousand plus today. Yan also mention he's selling his arm set as his smaller strobe has flooded during his last trip. I am also tempted to buy. Oh dear! I have been spending a lot if I really buy them. What am going to do??? Trying to earn money on one hand and spending the money like water on the other hand...

This afternoon, I spent a few hours just in the Richmond Supplies shop. And...I bought a dive computer finally. It's a Uwatec Aladin Prime. It has a very big rounded face, from the advertisement it does not look that big. Anyway, I wasn't expecting myself to buy the dive comp actually. I was really pondering more of the BC and reg. Went to Oceanic and looked at the Alpha S 8, however it was not too much of a liking except for the price. So I have to reconsider again.

Anyway, I changed my mind again for the backplate BCD, after speaking with the shop owner and testing the Scubapro Glider 500. Still thinking which is a better deal. For a thousand, I can get a Scubapro BC and reg. After some thoughts and having spent $538 on the dive comp, I think I will hold on and not be tempted for the deal. I will perhaps try (if I can get hold of the set from friends who actually bought it) in Hantu. The washing of the jacket BC however sounds troublesome. Cleaning the interior of the BC with water at least twice. Backplate one sounds simpler.

Urghh, been spending so much now that I got no money...work hard...Even buying thr new comp does not make me happy leh. Going to test my new dive comp next month. And worse still, guess what? I met up with my friends after that and told them I bought a new comp. And they said they actually have 2 vouchers for this brand and model and this enable them to buy at a cheaper price. Urghh, what a waste! Sohuld have told me earlier and I can save a few tens of dollars. Now they are also having a headache how to dispose these vouchers as it is ending in Jan this month. Lucky it's not a savings of hundreds else I really will scold them for not advertising their deals, to think I met one of them just yesterday.

My First Theory Lesson as a Local Dive Guide

2006-01-21T00:30:00.000+08:00

This evening I just attended the very first lesson for the local dive guide program. It was conducted by Jeffrey and Debby in an informal settings at the Gills Divers' company. There were 14 of us in total. We didn't really get to know each other, but I have met one or two of them other than Yan, during our last checkout dive trip.

We were given an overview of the reef ecology and reef conservation. It was also explained to us why there was a need for such a program and what we were expected in a way, especially how much committment we intended to put in. This was the first of such in Sp and they hoped our batch will not be the last. Many more local dive guides were be trained after us.

Before this class, I actually went through some websites and read about the topics. So understanding what they said was not a problem. In fact, before the class I was a little concerned if I could understand as I was not a biology student unlike some of them who worked in related industry. Overall, I feel that the lessons are informative and provide us with basic knowledge. We also interacted by saying what we feel about our local reef and what we think we can help.

The class ended around 10pm, and I had a late dinner after that. Pretty tiring if not for my rest before coming for the lessons. :P

For more info about reef ecology, and reef conservation, check out the websites I have included in these links. Some are pretty interesting.

starfish.ch/reef

coralreef.noaa.gov

Learn something new

2006-01-15T15:23:00.000+08:00

I decided to try to make some banners for my blog. It's quite interesting and simple. I just follow a html command and change the link location and the image location. The height and width is through trial and error. And I managed to make some nice ones for my other blog...

Samples below...

Mood swing

2006-01-15T00:44:00.000+08:00

Right now, I'm into one of this familiar mood swing. Been feeling a bit moody after my grandma's birthday dinner. Why? I'm back to this dilema of what's most important to me in life. This is always at the back of my mind just that I keep suppressing the thought of it. Been thinking half the night, if I have all the money in the world, and/ or I'm going to leave this world soon, what's the thing that I will want to do most before it happens? I think for a while and nothing came to my mind.

Does it mean that I have achieved everything? I don't know. But I don't think so. So why is it that I can't think of anything most important to achieve?..This is going to haunt me in my dreams I supposed 'cos I'm off to sleep.

Pulau Sudong dive

2006-01-08T15:57:00.000+08:00

Woke up and it's raining cats and dogs. First thing I thought of was how to go diving in this condition? Would it be cancelled? Sudong is known for its strong current. After buying some bread for my breakfast, I drove to Keppel Marina where our meeting place was. The rain had not subsided at this point. I even checked with DO if there's any chance of weather clearing up, but the reply was disappointing with weather all over the island.

Quite a few people had arrived less Ivy. By the time we set off, it's about 8.30am. This trip, we had 2 full boats. Such good response. We pressed on to Sudong to assess the dive site. If it's not suitable, we would go for Salu or Hantu. It took us about 45min to reach. From Uncle Hock's experience, he said that the current was pretty strong and if we would still want to go. After some contemplation, it was decided for HP and Ivy to test water first. After 5min, if they did not come up, it's good to go.

Apparently, the surface current was very strong. Being the second last pair for our boat, Chay Hoon and I swam hard to get to the buoy that was only 20m away. But this swim was like 50m. After a while, we were drifting back, instead of swimming towards the buoy. We took a short break by returning back to the ladder. Then we tried again. This time worse, Chay Hoon was drifted quickly to the other boat, about another 10m downstream. Okay, then we decided we were not too comfortable with this dive and the surface current was taking too much of our energy. We decided to abort dive. Actually, I thought we could press for it, although I was the one to initiate the short break. But I was a bit too lazy and thought it would not be fun too if underneath current was strong and we had to fin like mad. So what the heck. As long as we both did not mind, it's okay, safety was more important (we were afraid we might get drifted further away), yes we were kind of kiasi lah. The other divers also struggled, but still managed to reach to the buoy for the descent point.

So we ended staying in the boat for about 40mins chatting with Uncle Hock, cold and kind of wet; it's still drizzling. Uncle Hock kept telling us how to look at the current direction and speed by observing the buoy, but I seriously could not differentiate those caused by current and by surface wave. When the current died down, we only had about 10mins to go back into the water before the rest surfaced. So we thought no point, we would just skip the first dive.

As it turned out, one diver that lost his buddy surface to look for him, told us that vis was quite bad. Nothing much to see. Well, we did not miss much at least. That's good. When the rest came up, most too did not see much, just some fishes. And Ivy said the last Christmas dive at Sudong was slightly better.

Oh, forgot to introduce the dive site. It's a wreck with bottom at 13m and deck at 8m. The buoy was tied to its stern (back of the boat) and going on a southwesterly heading would bring you to the bow (head of the boat). The boat would be on your left as you finned and it was slightly tilted.

Sea fan taken on 2nd dive....maybe it has pygmy seahorse? Ya, you wish

It was noticed that Ivy's wetsuit had some creatures on it. Chay Hoon said it was some sort of water fleas and can bite. Her wetsuit really had a lot and some were still alive! Ivy mentioned she could have got it while ascending along the line. During her safety stop, she was trying hard to get rid of them on her gloves. Hmm.. this was the first time I saw these. Pulau Aur and Phuket wreck dive did not seem to have them.

It continued to drizzle as divers were resting for their surface interval, but the sea was calm for a few moments, due to change in direction of current. Francis, owner of the boat, suggested this was a good time to go down with little current, especially Chay Hoon and I who did not go down for the first dive. It was around 11am, so the rest could also proceed. Okay, this time round, I'm going to exit the boat nearer to the buoy so that I did not have to swim so far away.

Well, it's so much easier this time. And we descended along the line. Indeed, I saw those water fleas, quite irritating actually. For our dive throughout, we hovered around 8m. There was not much to see actually. Some kind of green sponges, the sunflower like soft coral, sea fans, clung to the wreck and fishes like damselfish and butterflyfish. We only managed to spot 1 flatworm and that's about it. Vis was about 2m but little current. The current only picked up towards the end of the dive nearer the deck surface. When we swam back towards the line in a northeasterly direction, I lost Chay Hoon at one point. I figured she would be looking for the line too, so not too much a concern and I just continued to look for the line to ascend. I reached the stern with some ropes. However, I could not find the buoy line. Managed to see the anchor line but it was not the rope for our ascent. So I continued to look for it and finally found it. Then I met Chay Hoon on my way there, doing safety stop.

This time we felt the current getting a little stronger, and the silly fleas kept crawling to my gloves. Had to keep flicking them away. Well, all went well for this dive, no complains, except did not get to see a lot and hence little photos were taken.

We packed up everything and left for the mainland. It was this time where the rain really got heavy as we approached the mainland. One of the divers even opened his umbrella to shield off from the splattering rain. We were all wet and cold. Felt and looked like illegal immigrant probably.

That's Ivy, our organiser in the photo above

About 1pm plus, we came back, and after settling some money issues (cost $50 instead of $65 as we had a full boat of 10 each), most of them left for lunch while I had to go back home and rest for the wedding dinner later in the evening.

Diving tomorrow

2006-01-07T21:29:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow I will be going Sudong for my dive. The last time I dove was in Nov. I managed to borrow Kie Beng's BCD again. At this rate, chances of me buying the BC is high especially if my investment goes well. I will know there about next fri. One thing is that the Euro rate has lowered recently, perhaps it's a good time to buy?

Will give an update of my dives tomorrow, hopefully the weather holds and I get to see some interesting stuff. Of course good photos too....

JC gathering on 30 Dec

2006-01-01T13:47:00.000+08:00

Just this fri, I met up with my JC friends for a dinner at the famous AMK Ave 3 Mellben claypot crab coffeeshop. We reserved a table for 6 at 7pm, but we still have to wait for our table. There were long queues and people here did not seem to mind waiting for at least an hour to have good food. We are also one of them. Over here, you get to see some interesting sights. They had several waiters that would take orders while you were waiting for a table. They would emphasize to you that you have to wait for at least 1 hour for the crab even if you had gotten a table. To make sure, they even wrote down the time you took orders.

You would also see them using a loudspeaker calling for table no, " Table no 3, 8, 25!..... table no 3, 8 , 25!..." They certainly had good business, so why were we still studying so hard and not earning half as much as them? My friends and I were all wondering, ok, time to set up our own coffeeshop, who wants to invest?

Actually, we were given a table no 6 while some of us were waiting. But my friend who called them was not here yet, so when the table was ready. Instead of asking us who were standing around, the waiter called my friend. My friend not knowing the situation and thinking that we had been given a table already, told him to cancel the reservation. Well, in the end, we had to wait for another table as by the time we found out on this screw up, other people had seated down in table 6. It's about 45mins later that we finally had a table.

Another interesting sight occurred while we were having our meal. Suddenly you would hear a series of high pitched whistle, and someone would shout," Chao pai de ren lai le!" meaning the person who issued the summon tickets was here. You would then see many people rushing towards their cars and quickly put a valid coupon. That included one of my friend as well. Typical fellow S'poreans would like to save up by not putting coupons and risk summons...heheh....I'm also guilty except for that dinner, as I knew this area is a high risk zone.

Now back to my story with my friends meet up. It's nice to see them as the last we saw one another is around May. Some updates, most of them were still in the same company except for one who just switched job 2 months ago. She's now working on land reclamation job with the MPA. We were all engineers by background by the way. All except me were still working to engineering related jobs. I started to complain about how their reclamations affect our reefs and they should do something, but my friend just shrugged off saying that they have did the best to minimise the impact. I will try to persuade her sometime down the line, about saving our reefs but I know it's hard being an engineer myself (used to).

We talked about aims in life too after the meal; one of my friends who were married have to leave first, understandably. We were all singles and available (as far as I know) and I realised that not just myself, we were pondering our aims. A few of us had this aim earning to fulfil our travel and me, diving desires. Two of us had the goal of owning a house at the age of 35. Setting up a family did not seem to be our objectives. And most mentioned little satisfaction in jobs too. Apparently, without this aim of marriage, our generation seemed lost. We dreamt about having our own business but no actions taken so far. Don't tell me life is really all about getting married and reproduction???

Collapse of the Hotel New World....Life's so fragile

2005-12-27T23:56:00.000+08:00

Today in the National Geographic Channel, they are showing this programme, Seconds from Disaster. It's really interesting, and it's about our almost forgotten disaster that happened in Singapore. It occurred in 15th march 1986, the Collapse of Hotel New World. That year I'm 10 years old and did not have much recollection. But it's a terrible thing to happen. This show talked about the causes, interviews with the survivors and the rescuers. The rescuers, the tunnellers, and mind you they were not singaporean; they were Irish, helped to rescue our people that were trapped deep beneath the building. These people were admirable who braved their own safety to rescue people. They were also the ones who proposed to use the radical tunnelling method to save people. Before that, the army and our civil defence were using the excavators to remove the debris laying above the trapped personnel. This might further endanger the survivors and also weaken the debris' structural integrity, ie if you have played jenga, and you know you just can't anyhow remove parts of the wood. The concept is sort of similar.

Actually before the collapse, there were some warning signs that the building exhibited, but obviously, these were ignored by people. Significant cracks occurred on the critical columns the day before. There was even mirror that cracked for no reason, not a good sign either. Next morning, the bank workers were also told by a customer that debris were falling off in the basement carpark, and perhaps the building was unstable. However, they were told by ignorant contractors who were doing some retification works on another column that everything was fine. But of course it wasn't. So in the end, to most people the building collapsed suddenly without any warning, trappng tens of people inside. It's a living hell for these people and I can empathetise with them as I was watching this programme. Alone in the darkness, trapped within the debris, hearing people panicking and screaming, and lack of oxygen as well as losing count of the time, despair could set in easily. It's so easy to lose faith and give up hope. Life's so fragile, one moment you are bouncing around, next moment you can just dropped dead or the building can just collapsed. I was just thinking if I was the one trapped, would I be able to survive through, what will I be thinking?...

Anyway, it was by the proposd tunnelling method, that they managed to rescue six more people. And these people were really lucky with a few substaining minor injuries or scratches! Now you must wondering why in the first place does such collapse occur? That's the reason I like to find out too. Especially me with a civil engineering background. I know building don't collapse suddenly, and I have heard rumours before that it's the building management's fault that added few more storeys until beyond the structural limits. The experts ruled out explosion, gas and bomb, and the inferiority of the concrete, and the weak soil strength as the cause for the collapse. So they zoomed in to the structural design. Then they discovered that through the 15 years lifespan of this 6 storey building, a huge of amount of additional load had been added to the building, such as a strong room for the bank vault, air conditional units on the roof and the facade of the building was changed to ceramic tiles, significantly heavier than the previous.

These amount to tons of load. So is this the reason? Nope, surprisingly. Later, they discovered that a basic fundamental design calculations error was the culprit. The dead load of the building was actually not accounted for during the design!! This could add up to a substantial amount of load. In fact, right from the start, the building technically speaking can bearly hold its weight. Like a person who has weak legs right from the start and cannot support himself. This is a ticking time bomb waiting to be exploded. It's amazing how it can hold on for 15 years.

So.... never underestimate the engineer's power huh. People will only think of the architect's contribution for a magnificent building design, they never thought how difficult or how amazing the engineer was to be able to design it to stand. Time to give credit to engineer, and don't wait till a building collapsed before realizing the impportance of the engineer...I know, I know or blame the engineer....

Anyway, it's a good programme, recommend for all to watch.

New Year Resolutions??

2005-12-24T23:05:00.000+08:00

Ok, time of the year for new year resolutions... Let's see what do I want to accomplish this year? I certainly do not need to have resolutions like the bridget jones diary. On the contrary, I'm quite satisfied with my slim built. I've not been putting on weight since JC. But in terms of fitness level, there's room for improvement.

How shall I go about doing this? Ok, maybe I should make it systematically....
First, Family...
Second, Friends...
Third, Job...
Forth, Myself...

Family (esp to my parents), I appreciate that I have a supportive family. Although, I do not express out my feelings, this trait comes from my parents, I hope for the years to come, I will learn to say out what I feel of what my parents, and family has done for me. It's SO difficult for me to say, dad and mum, I love you and really thankful for what both of you have done for us. I just couldn't say it out. It's so much easier to type out over here. I know most of the time in fact, my dad will always wake up early and prepare for three of us breakfast. However, sometimes, we did not even offer a word of thanks to him. For his efforts, I'm really grateful, but most of the time, I'm rushing to work that I don't really have time to eat. Sometimes, I just took a quick bite to at least appreciate dad's effort. He's nice to us, although conservative in thinking. Like most Asians, he put the family's responsiblity on his shoulders; he's our breadwinner. So from young, we are not very close and do not communicate much.

For my mum, she's more open in her thinking. She stayed at home to look after all our meals and home. We being so lazy, only offer to help at times with the housework. Her only time off is either she went holiday or fell ill, the rest of the year is 365 working days. On top of that, she now has to look after our 2 dogs too. I'm grateful to her, no amount of thanks can express my gratitude... again, I still cannot bring myself to say these words out. Perhaps, one day, I will show her this blog and let her know my feelings. I do not wish to wait till the time has come when they pass away then regret not doing something for them. I can only put my thoughts to action and buy them gifts or treat them for a meal.

And my grandma, I know she's not getting any younger, her legs are failing her now and she can't travel much. Life must be pretty boring for her with only TV to accompany her. I wish that I can visit her as often and even though it's just sitting around, it will perhaps bring some joy to her life. She's taken care of us ever since young, stinch on little, little things so as to buy food for us. I hope she will live as long as possible and watch us, not me for now perhaps, have children...

SO... on a lighter note, for my parents, I hope I can show them my gratitude, other than getting married, that one's really not up to me, I have to meet the right guy who likes me and I like him. Perhaps I should resolve to bring them out for more meals, make them happier, try not to show my impatience, esp to my dad (but some times he's really quite long winded), and do more housework to help my mum...

Next, friends... since I have not had THE ONE, friends are utmost important esp. Many times, I'm just too lazy to meet up with my good friends. Too lazy to initiate a call to meet up. I'm slowly losing my contacts with my uni good friends, and also at least 1/2 of them have started their own family and too busy to meet up. I have almost lost touch with my sec school mates, but this christmas, with the help of greeting cards, ok, we are still not all that lost. :)
I think it really takes a lot of effort to maintain the friendship. It's easier to make new friends than to maintain. Colleagues somehow are different from friends in general, except for some. Perhaps there's some competition or everyday you get to meet one another that you don't appreciate that much till you left the company. So my resolution is of course to continue to treasure my friends out there. Thanks for being around when I need you.

Job... actually I think I'm a happy go lucky in terms of job wise. Somehow, I do not have that drive to climb the ladder. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I'm not hard press for money, and I'm not in some form of debt, materially, I'm satisfied. So I guess I will just take each step at a time. Given the opportunity, I will perform; not given, so be it.

And now for myself....
What do I want??? I'm at lost actually. Without marriage as the utmost priority, yes I know I'm not getting young anymore, I realise most of us are kind of lost.... unless you are in some kind of volunteering service or obsess with career or something for you to put your heart in. So, this year, I've decided to join the local dive guide as a volunteer. I hope my passion for nature will bring some new injects to my present life. Perhaps from there, I will realise volunteering besides taking up your time, can be quite fun, and maybe I will help out in other groups, nature, or children or old folks home. This used to be one of my list of wanted to do stuff but not fulfilled....again lazy to take that step out. I also hope I will pick up my likes for drawing or painting....

Next, is to save up enough to travel and/ or dive. This is my only pleasure at the moment, other than reading. So a huge part of savings goes to fund my expensive hobby besides my liking for photography too. Right now, I was introduced to a money making program, autosurf. Huge risk, definitely, and with that comes high returns too. Hopefully, I can earn additional thousand dollars a month at least with this, and save up for investments. Like the book says, let the money work for you, NOT you work for the money. To be debt free, which I am now, lucky.

All right, so much for now. When I think of something again, I will add on.

Oh, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Finally I'm cleared to go for my off day

2005-12-23T11:24:00.000+08:00

Today they finally let me go on off. Initially plan to do some stuff, but looks like I will only achieve half of my objectives. Wanted to go for jog, but weather seems bad, plus I woke up a bit late, about 10 plus...Washing car and photo taking of the city may be out too, given the possibility of rain, don't want to waste effort.

Tomorrow I have to work, so better send out my season's greetings today. No plans for tomorrow night, wanted to meet up with friends but they are busy or have their own programmes. Looks like I will spend the night with TV and computer. But still, I like the festive mood of Christmas though I'm not a Christian. It's a warm and relax mood somehow. Perhaps I will just hang around the city and watch people. Let's see how it goes...

Today's activities

2005-12-21T22:11:00.000+08:00

Today's work is another boring day. No controlling, just listening out... then clear my emails, and managed to type something for my long stalled paper....basically just doing admin stuff and discussion. Initially thought I ws given off the whole day for tomorrow, so make some plans of watching the chronicles of narina tomorrow afternoon, then go for a jog. But in the evening, I received a call saying I can only go for morning off, as if that's anything good. Shit. Waste my time, and most likely will end up sleeping my time away. What to do, not by choice. Feeling even more sad thinking about my 2 burnt weekends. Got to do duties for the coming and the next weekend while everyone partying. ..hehe... though I'm not the type to party. All myself to blame, to kind to agree on doing for new year when I didn't know I'm scheduled for Christmas eve. *Sigh*. I also don't want to do duty with that particular person, especially on the first day of new year. So boring... Shucks! These days boring has been coming out of my mouth too often, need to look for something exciting or new.

Anyway, just so happen to surf one person's multiply, and saw his journal. Quite interesting and sad at the same time. He had several interesting articles in his journal about life partners. Sad becos his wife to be just left him few months back for another guy, when they have already prepared everything for marriage. He seems to be a nice guy, one who likes diving. But I think his photos can be improved, eh, it's not like my photos are any better. Then I saw the watermark at some of the photos, and gosh, the name ss is not exactly someone I had good impression of in cs from the posting he had, though i did not meet or know him personally. I hope he's not that guy.... I wish him all the best and hope he can find a better partner in his life. Cheers.

Termination of my monthly donations

2005-12-20T20:43:00.000+08:00

I have decided on terminating my monthly donations... especially after hearing and reading about the newspapers on how they mismanaged our money. To think that there are so many accounts that are not accounted for!! Tomorrow I'm not cleared for my off, so sad. The worse is they need me to be around for contingency, what a waste of time.

Losing confidence in our Charity System

2005-12-19T22:32:00.000+08:00

Just heard the news that N*F's accounts audit report was out, and guess what? For every $1 donated, only $0.10 was donated to the patients!! That's so mad and so sad... What happened to all our money that was donated??? To think that now, I'm still contributing to their funds!! I should just cancel my donations to them. Imagining most of our money is contributed to other things (I shall not specify what, in case legality issues are implicated), makes me sick. How can they do such things, it's no wonder there's such huge reactions when we know how much their ex-head earn and his bonus? But on second thoughts, the reason why I still continue to contribute even after the news had been published on the mismanagement is I sympathetise with the patients.

If everyone withdraw their contributions, what would happen to the patients? In the end, the patients are the one who suffer. *Sigh* tough life... I would have to reconsider and determine if I will cancel my monthly donations... perhaps give them to a better managed charity organisation.

Fun of Blogging

2005-12-17T18:54:00.000+08:00

These days been surfing a lot of other's blog. Realise it can be quite fun blogging and looking thorough others' thoughts. It's a great form of releasing stress and inner thoughts with the priviledge of staying unknown... With nothing much to do these days, can expect me to post quite often...

Another Boring Day Tomorrow...or rather today 'cos another late post again

2005-12-16T19:59:00.000+08:00

Thu's post:

So far, so good, for the laptop, which should be else I will go down to the shop and ask for a new one ah. I have managed to install some programs..erm...actually my brother helped me mostly. or rather I have not cos I have some minor problems with my installation of MS office, but it should be solved very soon. I'm using it to do my autosurf program and writing my journals. I can live with wordpad for the time being. No problem. Tomorrow will be a boring day for me, nothing much on hand to do except to update certain documents. The papers I am supposed to write has reached a point that I cannot complete. Couldnt really think of what else I need to include in my report. The stupid suggestion scheme thing is also a headache. I still need one more to complete my target. The previous suggestion though good was not given any award, so gotta start cracking my brains again..... oh well, tomorrow, Mr Zhou, books and internet will be my best friends..but got to do it discretly. heheheh...

Me and Myyy Newly Purchased Laptop... this post is actually meant for monday post...last post

2005-12-16T19:49:00.000+08:00

Last sun , I finally got my own laptop and my first one too!!! At last, I decided to buy one, after many months of considerations. What push me over the edge of buying? The ipod nano's cheap offer, by one shopping centre. But the irony? I didnt get it despite queuing for at least 2-3 hrs. Other people started queuing as early as 7.30am according to the helpers for this mega sale. The 20 ipods are quickly sold out. Too bad, I'm not those who will do that. Besides, I don't badly or desperately need it. I just thought it will be good to have it for a while or sell it as 2nd hand to others and still get the extra cash to chip in to my laptop's budget.

In the end, I got a palm PDA instead as I thought this is the next better deal. It's a Palm Zire 31, yes, it's an outdated model, for $100. It used to be selling for $200 plus.

The laptop I got, and I'm now using, is a toshiba satellite A80-P432. Thought it's a reasonable one for a less than $2000. Well, some may say that I could have gotten for the same configuration, a cheaper laptop, like some brands, I shall not mention their names. But after doing some research, I think the aftersales support and the reliability made me choose this laptop. Besides, I'm actually using it mainly to surf net and process my photos. The only drawback is its bulkyness and weight. So far, I'm happy with it.

Update of my life....

2005-12-16T19:43:00.000+08:00

It's been so long since I write my blog. Well, here's an update of my outlook for life...

Reaching my 30s in less than a month's time..... Sounds old huh? I have to decide on my goals in life once again. Have this thoughts once during my quarterlife, around age 25. And I made a drastic change to my job, and took up the challenge of being an air traffic controller....something so different from my previous job as an engineer.

It's been 5 years now and looking back, you may ask if I had any regrets about this change? Frankly speaking, not really. Why? Becos I can't take home my work for this job, I get paid for exercising and keeping fit, something I actually enjoyed, though I'm getting lazy now. :P But seriously, the only drawback about my present job is the losing of freedom, and doing all the SK and sometimes meaningless stuff. In terms of controlling, I guess the passion is there, which is why I'm not leaving. The other reason why I'm still here, is I have not thought of what to do if I leave.

Thought of starting my own business, but don't know where to start and what business to go into. 40 plus years is definitely short for a career.... unless I can become a tai tai lah. Anyway, some business I did consider is pet shop, cafe, or something related to sports, adventure or travel shop. But they are so far in the thinking process only.

I guess I'm still searching for my life objectives. Sometimes, I feel as if I'm lost, with no aim in life. I realised that job satisfaction is not my ultimate goal, so I'm looking into some volunteering stuff. The first small little step I finally decided to take is to train to be a local dive guide, something of my interest, nature, conservation and diving. The other aim i have is to visit many countries. There are many interesting places I have yet been to, however this needs money and time. Countries i have visited so far is new zealand, nepal, mongolia, manado, bangkok, phuket, some parts of china. places i would like to go is USA, Australia, Mongolia again, Laos, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Korea, maybe Eygpt, Dubai, etc. I loved to go for at least a week or two and slowly take my time to enjoy scenery especially. I will plan it in such a way that the more developed countries, I will leave it to later stages of my life.

Perhaps I should take up more hobbies? Thinking of actually taking up some art courses. I used to love drawing and painting and creating my own little art objects, but some how I lost this along the line. It's not that I don't like to do these stuff anymore, but I'm kind of lazy/ not motivated to do so.

As for money wise, I know i'm not those whose whole world revolves around earning money. so as long as it's enough for me, that will do. Yes, yes, I will still envy those who need not work and get lots of money and drive flashy cars. we are all human beings afterall.... However, having said that, i'm still tryng hard to earn more money, while I can.

Perhaps it's time I should be looking for a lifetime partner? But with a partner comes commitment, something I'm not sure if I'm ready for it and it will definitely take away lot of personal time, you know like less travelling or diving. Actually..... I think I may have met someone I'm willing to share my life with (or also perhaps another potential partner), but my lady instinct tells me he's not exactly interested in me, just friends *sigh*......Besides, I'm older than him; wonder if he and families and friends and, even myself, mind or not....... I'm not those proactive and expressive types, so sometimes, I will just drop some subtle hints and wait, see his response. Oh well, I may just give up on this fruitless relationship, what do you think? *hate to make decisions on affairs of heart*...

What's Life about??

2005-04-29T21:28:00.000+08:00

29 years of living.....

It's now a time of reflection. What have I done so far? I follow the same process of life as with everyone else. Go to school, from primary to secondary to JC to university.... Took a short break with a travel to NZ of about 2 to 3 weeks.... Start my working life as an engineer. As most of us would have realised, time seems to fly when one is working.... Before you know it, I have worked for 5 years. Wow!

At age of 25, I did have a little thought about my future and what I really want. Some call it the quarter-life crisis. Is it to just look for somebody and get married and fall into the boring routine like everyone else? Having a life companion is good, but it gives additional commitment and burden too. For the time being, that's not what I want. Neither do I want to have an ordinary job throughout my life. I figured I could not imagine being engineer for the rest of my life. That's how I ended with my present job, something that's a little different.

After being in this job for 3 years plus, things start to get a little mundane too. That's when I know that career to me is NOT the topmost priority. It's a way to substain my travel expenses. I want to travel, to visit and appreciate nature's beauty and creation. I think when I get old, I probably do not have so much energy or enthusiam to travel around. So my plan now is to travel to countries some may say rugged, such as Nepal, Mongolia, Tibet and China, etc. I want to read as much as I can to broaden my knowledge too.

Life's short. I figure if every year I were to take 2 weeks just to cover 1 country, it will take many years for me to cover just Asia alone and the world is so huge! I also love to dive and with such hobbies, how can I ever get settle down? But there are always society pressure and I felt it as I approaches the 30th year mark. But I have yet met someone whom I wish to spend the rest of my life with. There are crushes along the way, but not those for a life time. I'm one who believe in fate too, hence....it's a waiting game.

Oh well, for now, it's just work and looking forward to travel. Life goes on....