SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

One can attend lots of training and courses in his lifetime but it is of no use if he cannot apply the knowledge gained from these training courses to better himself. Knowledge gained from a course will rapidly decrease to zero after one has returned home from the course and chuck the course materials into some hidden corners in his home. And in less than a day, he will have forgotten what he has learnt in class! The most important point to bring to a training course is one’s attitude towards the course: Is he just trying to pass time in the class or is he not only an active recipient of knowledge in the course but also a proactive participator in class? Each course is unique. Attending the same courses on different locations is never the same, though the course materials may not be changed. The learning experiences provided to the participants in a course come not only from the course materials, it also arises from the sharing between the participants and between the participants and

I watched the fantastic Singapore F1 race on TV just few hours ago. I was glued to the TV for 3 hours to watch the adrenalin-pumping action of 20 speed demons navigating the challenging 5.8 km Singapore circuit. There were twists and turns in both the circuit as well as in the action itself. Masas who was leading the pack, ultimately became No. 13 and there were unexpected hits and crashes during the race as well to add to the excitement. If not for Singapore’s hosting of the F1, I would have never watch a F1 race in my life. If not for Singapore’s top table tennis peddlers playing in the finals of international table tennis competitions, I would have never watch an international table tennis match in my life. Singapore’s hosting of creative top international events opens the eyes of the world to Singapore as much as it opens the eyes of Singaporeans to international events.

The world’s first F1 night race held successfully just an hour ago was one of the innovations by Singapore: An F1 race is ordinary, holding it at night then becomes creativity. Just some months ago, Singapore also hosts the Sundown marathon, a marathon that is special because it was one that began at night and last till early morning the following day. And we have one of the world class night attractions: Night Safari! Again, an innovative concept using night to make a safari (which is normally opened in the day) to become an innovation. I am not surprised if we can continue to hold certain international large scale events at night, this will increase the excitement and creativity aspect of the event and attract greater global attention! A safari itself is an innovation: it is a reinvention of zoo: animals in cage and people are free where for safari, it is : people in ‘cage’ and animals are set free.

I went with my Dear to Clarke Quay yesterday night, my first time visit since the place was revamped. Clarke Quay was revamped beyond my recognition! It looked as if I was in an actual European place filled with pubs, alfresco dining by the beautifully lit Singapore River (lit in line with the Singapore River Festival) and many other interesting shops. Clarke Quay has become a jewel, it is simply a beautiful and romantic place!

This coming week will be a short week (a 4 day week, with Wednesday being Hari Raya Puasa). The working people will be happy with this coming shorter week! (not to mention me of course!) Let us see such ‘holiday week’ in this perspective and we will be even happier: treat Wednesday which is a public holiday as a Saturday (a resting day), and hence tomorrow which is Monday will thus become Thursday! When Thursdays come in every week, I believe every working people will become happier: thus bring this emotion to work tomorrow: a Monday which becomes a Thursday already. Similarly when the coming Tuesday is here, it is like Friday and when the coming Thursday (the real one) comes, its just two more days to counting for the real Saturday! See this coming week in this perspective, working week will become even shorter and it will become even shorter if some of the working folks clear some leaves in the coming week!

I had a bit of adventure today as I took a bus, Bus service No. 10 whose route has been affected by the Singapore F1 race. As such the bus travelled along other ‘unprescribed’ routes, making the journey exciting and fun for me. This bus even travelled into Chinatown as part of the diversion route. I enjoyed the alternative unknown route which my familiar bus took me to as it was one of the rare times that bus services could be diverted. And not to add, a rare experience too!

1939 to 1945: World War II 1962: Cuban Missile crisis 1979 to 1982: High oil price and third world debt 1985 to 1987: US stock market and US real estate bubble (Black Monday) 1990: Japanese stock market and property bubble 1991: Iraq-Kuwait War 1994 to 1995: Mexico crisis 1997 to 1998: Asia currency crisis 2000 to 2001: Technology bubble 2001: The 911 incident 2003: SARS 2007 to 2008: Sub-prime, credit crisis and high inflation

As soon as my Dear and I stepped out of Raffles Place MRT Station today at around 7.30 pm, we were greeted with the high-pitching, enthralling 'vrooming' sounds of the F1 cars..... It seems surreal to hear the sound of F1 cars buzzing not far away, right in the heart of the financial heart. This is the first time I witnessed for myself the 130 dB vrooming of the buzzing speed demons and in Singapore. Read that Singapore will be hosting the Grand Prix for 5 years with this year being the first of the series. Singaporeans should come down to Raffles Place or Marina Bay area tomorrow night to experience the power of F1.

Though I was not out there like thousands of Singapore today at Marina Bay to 'catch' a little of the action of the Grand Prix rehearsal, nevertheless I watched it on Channel 5. It was AMAZING! Never imagine such a great piece of action could actually happen here and right in the heart of CBD! This was the first time I actually watched a F1 race-related show and to watch my first F1 race-related show in Singapore F1 is real meaningful! As expected, Singapore has done a GREAT job in creating the first ever F1 night race, delivering the project in 10 months whereby other countries would need 2 years to complete the same scope of work! This is what makes Singapore tick: efficiency and effectiveness.. these traits are now synonymous with Singaporeans. Actually, the sounds of machines emanating from the speed devils could be heard everyday.........wat I mean is some really ignorant folks manipulating their motor machines and tearing down the streets, to the anger of many, polluting

I read the news today that a 96-year old man is filing for a divorce with his 74-year old wife! He was still quite fit for his age and mentally alert enough to be able to file for a divorce. But it is sad to see divorce even at his very old age.

Today, after being 'tortured' by the MRT glitch in the morning, at the end of the day, knowing the coming start of weekends, I heaved a sigh of relief at having survived one whole week. I increased the pace of my walk towards the MRT station to take the train back. Nearing the platform, I saw the display board indicating that the train I was going to take would be departing soon! Naturally, I ran so as not to miss the departing train and to waste precious time waiting for another. Few other passengers who noticed the display also ran forth to catch the train. When we were finally in the train, we became surprised after the train did not move within 5 minutes. All this while, there were many passengers streaming, running into the train, assuming that the train would really be departing soon. Another MRT glitch I encountered in a day!

You spend hours and hours preparing, rehearsing, finetuning for an endeavour which is very important to you. It could be a performance which would showcase your finest skills to the world or it could be a test which would take you to the other higher stage of life. But alas, on that most important date, you fumble or you gave it your best shot but still could not make it. The hours spent preparing and rehearsing hence seems to be a complete waste of time as ultimately you are not able to achieve what you want. In life, it is not the achievement that counts always, it’s the process of endeavour and learning along the endeavouring that is more worthy. I believe time is not wasted in practices, as there are certainly always things to learn along the way. Its giving your best shots, trying your very Best and not regretting that you have not tried hard enough in the future. When things do not fall within your expectations, you are able to say ‘I have tried my Best already’ and with that, it

Something went wrong with the SMRT train services yet again! This morning as usual, I take the train to work. All seemed well as usual but when the train came, it was super-packed! Then the announcement came forth to inform the passengers that ‘‘Due to a train incident, train services would be delayed for 20 minutes’’. But the delay was more than 20 minutes, it was almost half an hour. Waiting for the stalled train ate up so much time, and the other contributing factor was that when the train moved, it moved and stopped intermittently! When the seeming efficient MRT service FIRST encountered problem, it was deemed to be an ‘isolated case’. But now and then, the frequency of such train service disruptions has become more frequent that it become an ‘expected’ incident and to think that we are actually paying higher MRT fares for the train services! There must be a surge in the SMS sent by Singaporeans today as so many affected working Singaporeans were seen sending SMSes to inform their

This website was revamped today with the following changes: a) a new layout template for the blog b) implementation of labels to act as cabinets to collect all related blogs together The above changes are carried out for You, readers! Putting labels individually on 500 odd blog posts take many days, but its worth the effort! Thanks for visiting my website and hope you have an Enjoyable time here!

Singapore F1, the first F1 night race ever, will be held here, right here, in our country in less than 2 days, with the practice session held tomorrow night. It seems that many Singaporeans are nonchalant about the race, with me inclusive; ‘what is the hype about F1’: the common thinking of the average layman. To many, F1 is just one of the many many ‘invented festivals’ of Singapore! There is the ongoing Singapore River Festival and even a Singapore SUN festival! These festivals in the eyes of many Singaporeans, are being held to capture a slice of the tourism market, and the F1 is no exception! Look around us, recent developments like the Singapore IR, the Integrated Resorts, the Esplanade; many Singaporeans would tend to think that these are built to attract tourists. So what if these infrastructures are built and events held to attract tourists? Singaporeans tend to benefit as a result from the use of these infrastructures and the visiting of these events! In fact, I relish all the

The government is looking into a proposal to hold all the classes of primary schools in Singapore in the morning, giving time in the afternoon to the primary school students to take on additional self-development programmes. It is a good mood though such proposal could need additional teachers and schools to house all the primary school classes from Primary 1 to Primary 6 all in one morning setting. The Ministry of Education is also looking into upping the minimum entry level of all teachers including Primary School teachers to that of a bachelor. More studies to be done on this. One thought I immediately have upon the MOE’s proposal for a single morning session for the primary schools is that roads may become even more congested and the already ‘sandwiched’ buses and MRT in the morning may become more packed, with more students and workers clamouring for the coveted seats and places in the buses and MRT!

A lousy manager is also one who could not discover the hidden talent of an outstanding individual and casts him aside, giving promotion opportunities to those who have no talent but nevertheless know how to ‘curry favour’ , ‘wayang’ and ‘impress’.

General Knowledge of Singapore Youths seems to be low. Many of them do not know that USA is currently undergoing a major economic crisis from one report I read. I have also seen in some shows that some of them do not even know the names of key political leaders in our country! I hope it is just a minority of Singapore Youth else it will be worrying for the future of Singapore as Youths are future masters of our country.

With time being a premium, I do not have the time to read every article in the newspapers everyday. I had to quickly glance through 5 sets of newspapers everyday though I would be very much like to read in details each of these articles in the newspapers.. but I simply had no time! Newspapers pack a gem of knowledge in them, to read every article in the newspapers is a worthy act as one's horizon, knowledge and perspectives will be expanded.....it will take more than 6 hours a day to read every single article in the Straits Times... just my rough guess as I have not attempted this feat before. If one has too much spare time to spare, I would like to recommend him to read newspapers and as many as possible! And with blogs, internet news, the choices to a reader is further expanded beyond imagination and there is increasing competition between the traditional printed media and the online media to capture its readers.

Well, today is Wednesday already, how time flies… its going to be October soon and it seems to me that Jan 08 was just some days before only! How time passes! Days pass, soon it will be months, and then it will be YEARS! And before long, we will all soon age, with our looks fade: hairline recede, skin sag; we will become more and more physically challenged, illness will catch up with us and before long our body would start to disintegrate into NOTHINGNESS…………. AND WE WILL SOON BE GONE! with time tricking every second, LET US SEIZE THE DAY AND DO WHAT WE WANT TO DO IN LIFE ! All of us have passions, have our dreams; we should pursue all these dreams before its too late for us to do so. The worst thing in life is having regrets. Are you having regrets now for things you have not done in the past? Do not let history repeat itself again! The present now will be the past of the future. Let us do what we always want to do (hopefully it is within moral grounds) and do it NOW! I admit that not

Everyone has his or her own passions. Each and everyone one of us have different passions. We can never understand the drivers behind the different passions of others. What one think of as a waste of time, others treat it as a passion. Yesterday, I watched a MediaCorp TV show featuring SBS diehard fans who live and breathe SBS buses! They started collecting any form of SBS printed publication and SBS collectibles since decades ago. Some of their publication were really vintage! I could never have such a passion for SBS buses. I have passion in life for other things for which others may not understand. To what lengths would you go for your passions? For me, its all the way! I am not saying that I am going to be successful or what but all successful businessmen and entrepreneurs have made it due to their unrelentless and tenacious chasing of their passions at almost all cost! That’s what separate achievers from the rest of ordinary folks!

Singapore prides itself on rankings and has come out tops in many surveys, good surveys of course. Today, I present the fresh baked, crisply fried and boiling hot list of Nasty Singaporeans, which in my opinion are! Based on my experiences and those of common Singaporeans, the list are: In no order of merit (or rather dismerit): 1) The Boot Licker 2) The Easy and Charmed Lifer 3) The Uncommitted 4) The No-replier (email and SMS) 5) The Defaulter 6) The Bossy 7) The Arrogant 8) The Artificial 9) The Mercenary 10) The Ultra Rude Customer Service Officer 11) The Walking Smoker 12) The Reckless Driver 13) The Stupid pretend to be Clever 14) The Irresponsible Marketer 15) The Gossiper 16) The Escalator Hero 17) The Drunker 18) The Gambler 19) The xxx NS Officers and Sergeants (I mean some, not all) 20) The Wayang 21) The Wanton 22) The Night Sports Enthusiasts in your Neighbour 23) The Hero on the Harvey Norman giving Singaporean the reason to fight pollution 24) The Spitter 25) The Kiasu 2

It seems like after the joyous and splendid Beijing Olympics, lots of misfortune things happened around the world: the terrorism attacks in Yemen, China’s milk scare and the US financial crisis. Why?

Are you finding satisfaction in your work everyday? Are you seizing the day, learning more things everyday and making hay while the sun shines? Or are you there just to pass time? Are you there because now financial crisis is looming and you need security which your current job offers? Only some people love working, I suppose. Many treat work as a mean to generate income to pursue their interests and sustain life. Tomorrow is Monday again! October is coming and there would be two public holidays to look forward to.

If the financial crisis were still to hang its ugly head and the after-effects to be felt in the world including Singapore, some retrenchments are inevitable. Retrenchment is not a word for the fainted-hearted! It is a real crisis for many people, especially for those who are the sole bread winners in their families or whose families have real pressing needs for health care, where constant liquidity is a must to sustain life and their quality of living. When retrenchments come, one has to take it. One can go for skill retraining to be equipped with more skills for the better times. Skill retraining necessitates one to spend some money first with the hope of getting a good return on their capital outlay as they find a better job which pays more when the economy is up! The global economy seems to be okay for now but are more fallouts about to come?

We cannot choose the country we are to be born, We cannot choose the place in the country we are to be born, We cannot choose the family we are to be born in we cannot choose our parents, we cannot choose whether when we are born, we would be healthy or not, intelligent or not, we cannot choose whether our families we are born into are rich or not, BUT no matter what, We can choose the way we want to lead our lives.

The current economic crisis stemmed from the sub-prime mortgage crisis, which is a crisis of contracted liquidity in the global credit market. Sub prime lending extends to mortgage, car loans and credit cards. It is the giving out of loans which do not meet the Fannie Mae and Frankie Mac at higher expectation of risk and at a higher interest rate. Fannie Mae is a name for the Federal National Mortgage Association while Freddie Mac is the Federal Home Loan Monetary Corporation; together they guarantee about US $12 trillion of the mortgage market. Both enterprises are government-sponsored enterprises and are authorized to make loans and loan guarantees. They are leading participants in the US secondary mortgage markers which serve to provide liquidity to the primary mortgage market. Secondary mortgage markets, market for sale of securities/ bonds collaterized by values of mortgafe loans, group these loans together and sell them as securities called collaterised market obligations (CMOs)

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In the past few weeks, the government is mooting a proposal to build foreign workers' clusters. One related report here . To me, foreign workers have their own habits and cultures back in their homelands, e.g. open peeing, gathering in groups on plots of land, littering etc. We can integrate them into Singapore community physically, but the assimilation of them into our community, our culture needs time. On a typical Saturday, just go to Little India and see what I mean. The foreign Indians talk differently, behave differently. A statistic point out that around 50,000 foreign Indian workers descend on Little India on a typical Saturday. And they become the majority there already! Little India now, in my opinion is different from the Little India in the past. The Little India in the past was Little India with a Singaporean flavour, now Little India becomes really Little India, a hub of the native Indians as it becomes transformed into an activity place for these Indian workers. As t

Singaporeans may be loving our country a tad too much, judging by the scores of state flags still being hung on the walls outside their flat units. It is mid September already, way past our National Day already! Some flags are really in a very bad shape, being flipped over several times by the harsh elements of the weather so much so they look like a piece of unsightly cloth hung outside the units. And it is not too good to have our flags in such conditions.

Singapore's economy is intertwined with the world's. With the collaspe of the few top banks in the United States, though the adverse effect may seem to be cushioned for the time being by the offer of billions of dollars in assistance by the central banks as well as the similarly billions of dollars of bailout by other banks, the effect may still need some time to taper off. Today's news reported US President Bush is seeking US $700 billion from the congress to improve the tricky financial situation. Singapore's economy may be affected and Singaporeans may need to rein in their spendings.

Time is of essence, invaluable and everyone has just 24 hours a day, fair and square. However, there lurks what I called the thieves of time, people, activities which consume your invaluable time …. I am very critical when it come to commitment. I will ponder commitment carefully and if I do not see the meaningfulness of a commitment, I will not commit. I despise those who said they would commit but they will not do what they talk.

Yishun seems to be quite unsafe as 3 women were murdered this morning with one critically injured. Not just this incident, there were sporadic incidents of crimes here and there in Yishun.

In conjunction with the Singapore F1 to be held from 26 Sep to 28 Sep 08, there would be a Singapore River Festival (an inaugural one) where the Singapore River would be transformed into a wonderland. Singapore River Festival starts today and will last for two weeks.

In this time of ever-increasing food prices, I regretted my decision to spend $5.50 on a meal consisting of just a BBQ chicken leg, a cup of soup and some petty portion of rice coupled with some blant dishes. But no choice, the food court I went to with my colleagues today is an expensive one. One bowl of Ban Mian will set you behind by $4.50 ! Seeing the super high prices of the food (a bowl of petty noodle soup: $3.80), I shuddered but I had to have my lunch. After spending some time walking up and down the food court, I decided to spend a little bit more in this super expensive food court to settle on an Indonesian BBQ chicken food dish which look ‘nice’ according to the billboard. As I ate the dish, it is really a nonsense dish at a nonsense price! And the stall was started by a previous entrepreneur who had some rough time before coming up again. That is why; I always support our Singapore Hawker Centres which sell extremely mouth-watering dishes at very reasonable prices. With a

The financial turmoil this week has shed some figures, deemed exceptionally large to common layman, the hundreds of billions of US dollars of the bailouts. And my post yesterday has mentioned the trillions of US dollars of US debt. A trillion is 1,000,000,000,000. So are there any more numbers bigger than trillion? The answer is a definite Yes. If we were to keep pursuing for an answer of the highest possible number, there is none. No matter how large a number you have, there is always a large one as we can always add 1 to that number to get a larger number. The largest number that has a specific name is a "googleplex", which is a 1 followed by a googol zeros (10^(10^100)), where a "googol" is 10^100 (a 1 followed by 100 zeros). However, like what I have discussed, we could always add to 1 to this "googleplex" to get an ever larger number and so on and thus to conclude, there is no such thing as the highest number in the world though thereotically this num

I dedicate the song below, to my Dear Honey QiQi, who I love very much. Secondly to you reader and your lover(s)! ... oophs, I hope is one lover, like me! May all seeking love, find your true love soon! Let us all enjoy the great music! Built to last - Melee I've looked for love in stranger places but never felt someone like you. Someone whose smile makes me feel I've been holding back, and now there's nothing I can't do. 'Cause this is real, and this is good. It warms the inside just like it should, but most of all most of all it's built to last. it's built to last it's built to last All of our friends saw from the start. So why didn't we believe it too? Whoa yeah, now look where we are. You're in my heart now. And there's no escaping it for you 'Cause this is real, and this is good. It warms the inside just like it should, but most of all most of all it's built to last. Walking on the hills that night with those fireworks and candle

The US $85 billion dollars bailout of AIG by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday helped ward off a major financial crisis engulfing the United States for the time being. US $85 billion ! That is a huge sum of money! So invariably some people would start questioning where does the Federal Reserve get its source of income from? According to the Federal Reserve Website : The Federal Reserve's income is derived primarily from the interest on U.S. government securities that it has acquired through open market operations. Other sources of income are the interest on foreign currency investments held by the System; fees received for services provided to depository institutions, such as check clearing, funds transfers, and automated clearinghouse operations; and interest on loans to depository institutions (the rate on which is the so-called discount rate). After paying its expenses, the Federal Reserve turns the rest of its earnings over to the U.S. Treasury At this time of a likely looming ec

I always wonder what are the top searches netizen carried out on Singapore. I carried out a check and discovered the out of the hundreds of searches for items relating to Singapore, a significant proportion relates to Singapore hotels. Here, I made a list of Singapore hotels (list not exhaustive), information gleaned from the this website . For a more detailed information of hotels in Singapore, you may visit the this webpage: The list of Singapore hotels is as follows: Singapore 5 Star hotels 1. Fairmont Singapore 2. Inter-Continental (Intercontinental) Hotel 3. Conrad Centennial Singapore 4. Costa Sands Resort (Sentosa) 5. Four Seasons Hotel 6. Fullerton Hotel 7. Goodwood Park Hotel 8. Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel 9. Grand Hyatt Singapore 10. Hilton Singapore Hotel 11. Mandarin Oriental Singapore 12. Marina Mandarin Hotel 13. Marriott Hotel 14. Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore 15. Pan Pacific Orchard 16. Raffles Hotel 17. Rasa Sentosa Resort Singapore (Shangri-La) 18. Royal Plaza On S

With the great banks in America collapsing like a pack of domino cards, is a global recession in the offing? Barring WWI, WWII, some global events that affected the world’s economy are as follows: 2003: SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) 2001: The 911 incident 1997: Asian Financial Crisis 1991: The Gulf War 1973: Oil crisis 1929-1930: The Great Depression From 1997 onwards, the interval between one economical crisis and another is around 4 years… a worrying thought. Times of crisis may well be times of opportunities for some. “Be fearful when others are greedy, Be greedy when others are fearful” --- Warren Buffet

I did a personal numerology test at this website . All I need to provide for the test was my name in English and there it was: the result of my personality according to numerology. Numerology takes the individual character of my name, convert each into numbers and sum them up to produce a unique number for me. This unique number was then interpreted into a personality for me. I just gasped at the results of my profile: it is so accurate! Maybe you can try it and see for yourself! Further, different careers abound for different personalities . In today’s world where the mantra ‘a life of jobs’ supersedes ‘a job for life’, one may want to try the job suggested by Numerology to see whether there is indeed a real matching job for him. Will Numerology still be accurate if one changes his name? The list of suggested jobs given corresponds to one’s personality type, the number will change once one changes his name but since personality does not usually change, so is numerology still accurate

With the mad rush of Singaporeans making their way to AIA Singapore branches to cash out their policies with AIA Singapore, following the financial nightmare brewing for AIG, AIA Singapore assures policyholders that it has more than sufficient capital and reserves to meet all obligations.AIA Singapore has made such assurance on its webpage yesterday

Yesterday, the world was shocked at the collaspe of the Lehman Brothers, one of the largest banks in US. Then today, news broke of Merril Lynch being sold to the Bank of America. And now the freshest news was that AIG may also be going downunder.... Financial 911? In Singapore, AIA policyholders were quick to head down to AIA's quarters in Singapore to cash out their policy values, regardless whether they make a profit or not. 'It is now or never' said one of these policyholders, Mr X. 'I just want my money back' said another policyholder, Mr Y. True to form, Singaporeans are showing their 'kiasu' (Hokkien word for 'afraid to lose') side and some said, 'kiasi' (Hokkien word for 'afraid to die') side

Today, I encountered a touching sight at one of the public places in Singapore. A blind man was guided by his guide dog, a labrador, as he navigated his way around. Though guided by the dog, the blind man still had his walking stick to feel his way thus it was not so bad. You should see how touching the sight was. At every nook and corner, the labrador would tug gently at the calf of the blind man to warn and prime his master of the obstacles ahead. And the dog seems to understand that his master has a problem walking. Watching the dog, I can sense that the dog has a human instinct, does understand human though dogs could not communicate in a language common to man. It is thus always said a dog is always a man's Best friend and I could not agreed much more with the statement. Stories of dogs loyal to their masters are aplenty in real world since time immemorial.

Tonight, a night after the Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday, I witnessed the one of brightest moons I have seen till far! The moon was so bright, so big, hanging in the blemish-free sky, like one big giant lantern lighting up Singapore, and litting the faces of many. Lantern festival may be over,but seem like the Great Moon still misses us! Yesterday night was a cloudy night, thus tonight, the Great Moon came and say Thanks to all of us playing, merry, celebrating the lantern festival.

I do not watch TV dramas unless I am very free, especially local dramas. I was forced to endure watching the 7 pm Channel 8 drama today as I was forced to sit in front of the TV and subject myself to the some plots which I find very stupid and a complete waste of my time! I feel immensely disgusted at the theme, quality, everything of the show, no matter how handsome or beautiful the actor or actresses were. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying Channel 8 makes horrible movies, else TCS (Television Corporation of Singapore) will not have such a good following among the shows. In fact, TCS makes good quality shows and dramas just that I fail to appreciate, I fail to appreciate how watching some people in the drama quarreling with their boyfriends, girlfriends, family members, friends, dogs, cats, etc can bring entertainment to me or relax me after a hard day of work (in fact it can be more irritating). I fail to appreciate how watching a bunch of people in the drama exchanging expletives

Today is Lantern Festival and in Singapore, Singaporeans celebrate this festival in our own way, our own styles at our own times at our own places that we love. It is a very warm feeling to note that scores of residents flocked out of their apartment units with their families into the parks, playgrounds, lighting up lanterns, mini fireworks as well as candles, not forgetting the traditional lantern procession. Without a fanfare, without prior coordination, Singapore tonight is abuzz with a flurry of activities as Singaporeans celebrate tonight with their loved ones, be it a night out at the park with the lanterns, dining out or spending time with their loved ones at home, eating mooncakes. I went out with my Dear one to a park, carrying lanterns and lighting up mini fireworks and candles. It was like going back to childhood for both of us.The Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) must have gone up a notch or two tonight as many parts of Singapore were enveloped with fumes from the fireworks

Who could resist a Yummy serving of freshly prepared chicken chop, served with your regular fries, beans, salad and bread, wet with marinated chicken chop sauce! It is heavenly to eat such a mouth-watering dish! Chicken chop is always my love! Luckily this delectable dish is readily available in many hawker centres and food centres here!

I went with my Dear to the Chinese Garden to catch the Singapore Chinese Garden Lantern Festival. The festival was not free, it is $15 per entry for an adult but the theme of the festival: Kitties and Friends beckon many Singaporeans to come with their families to the Garden. The garden was transformed into a picnic for Kitty and her friends. There were giant lanterns of Kitty and her friends crafted meticulously such that they do not look like lanterns to the visitors, they looked like the real affable Kitty and her friends, brought to life to Singaporeans in Chinese Garden at this Mid-autumn festival celebrations. There were so many Kitties and her friends all around the garden and the fact that the garden was decked with visitors to the brim means that everyone waited patiently for the others before taking on the coveted spots for photography. There was also hardly any elbow room among the throngs of visitors. It was an indeed feast for the eyes as this was the first time, I believe

There were abundant and abundant of mooncakes for sampling and sales at the Takashimaya Basement Atrium. Companies, hotels and shops selling mooncakes for the mid-autumn festival turned up in full force to capture a slice of the moon-cake crazy market. The sales has been going on for some days already but when my Dear and I were there yesterday to choose the mooncakes to purchase, there were still hardly any elbow space. Today (14 Aug 08) is the mid-autumn festival day for the Chinese. Mid-autumn festivals fall on the 15th of the 8th Chinese Lunar month every year. There were mooncakes and mooncakes everywhere and the floor was littered with hundreds of toothpicks…… sad to say a sign of social disgrace as Singaporeans threw their toothpicks after savouring the samples, though there were used containers to contain these toothpicks. My dear and I flitted from one stall to another stall, savouring mooncakes after another, comparing the prices and taste before sussing out the next stall. F

My Dear and I were at Singapore Japanese Garden when we decided to have a photograph taken at one of the many scenic places in the garden. Coincidentally, we chanced upon a man and his partner both who looked like a professional photographers with their array of camera equipment and paraphernalia. We requested him to take a photo of us. He acceded to our request and when he returned the camera to us and we checked the photo taken, we had a shock. A pleasant shock for the photograph he had taken was really very beautiful and created so professionally that the backdrop looked so wonderful just like a painting! And he did the shooting in just a matter of seconds! Neither my Dear nor I could take a picture of such quality as the man. It was simply awesome and professional! I asked the man how he did it, and he said he just did it, just click and shoot with my camera. My camera was the most ordinary in the market but given to a professional photographer, he is able to make the most beautifu

I never know a Doctor lives in my PC until now! Halfway through the typing of my blog, a message flashed across my screen, stating "Dr. Watson Post Mortem Debugger Has Encountered A Problem And Needs To Close" I hazarded a guess: it must be a virus. Consulting the website even made it more confusing. Some said its really a debugger in-built in the computer while others state it is a spy-ware. Whatever it is, the moment our computers are linked to the internet, we are subjecting our computer to links with possible virus-makers and hackers as our computer is linked to thousands other computers in an astounding array of configuration when connecting to the internet. If there are no hackers, there would be no anti-spy-ware softwares and programmes and there is no constant improvement of the security of the internet.

I have always respected intelletual property rights, thus this website should contain only pictures taken by me and those sources in the internet that are stated to be free for use by others. Without much photos, this website could look a little bit dull and harder for reader to read. I admit this fact however I also believe in quality content. There are hundreds of blogs in the internet that have fanciful videos and pictures but the quality of the text or meaning of the blog is of not much benefits to the reader. Ideas are the priceless assets everyone owns, they can be worth millions of dollars. They form the basis of every businesses, big, small or growing.

I feel disgusted that a strong Australian man boxed and kicked a kind, harmless and friendly kangaroo mercilessly as his friend videotaped the whole process and both of them merrily laughed throughout the ordeal. In the video , the poor kangaroo even seemed to be affable towards the man, waving to him with his little hands, but the bully rammed, kicked, boxed the poor animal on the face till it became injured and possibly died. What an extreme cruel act! I hope the police will round up the man and subject him to be boxed, kicked by another stronger animal than man, such as a pack of elephants or just feed him to the sharks! It will be an eye for an eye! The man must be prosecuted! See full report

I do not like people who look down on people because they are rich or they carry some social status and thought they are the Kings of the world. Sometimes seeing these people who act arrogant and belittle everyone digusts me. I feel even urged to excel in my undertakings to a certain extent due to their arrogance. I was not new to being looked down on. When I was in the NS, rich people look down on the poor folks like me. I am not rich but I got aspirations, tons of good ideas and I believe with the right morality, humility, perservance, self-improvement, willingness to learn, proactiveness, doggness, tenacity, that fire, that spark in the heart and mind, that will weather all tiredness to excel in something that one feels passionate about, and yes that passion... will hopefully see me through to better times somedays. Life may not be fair, in fact who says life is fair, life is not fair at all. The only fair thing in life is death for everyone has to die. The sticky point is that in d

Its already September and today being September 11 was a day to be remembered for September 11 2001was the day that changed the world. It was the day when terrorism took on a new dimension. It was the day when the world witnessed for the first time, how the world’s superpower, the US, could be attacked economically, physically, psychologically by a pack of extremists. 911 started a wave of insurgence and subsequent anti-US attacks, the bringing down of the Taleban regime, the end of Saddam Hussein and his regime, the beef-up of security worldwide, the increasing wave of kidnapping of foreigners and beheading and a myriad of new phenomenon. In a nutshell, the whole world has changed ! 7 years have passed in the flash of an eye ……. While the world has changed rapidly within these 7 years, have you changed? Time and tide waits for no man. Within this 7 years, what have you achieved? Are you on your way to achieving your dreams or still lost in the rat race, or you are still without a goal

Scientists are on the way to unravel the mysteries of the Big Bang and how life starts with the Large Hadron Collider project . Next month, they would recreate the scene of the Big Bang, to unravel how life starts. However, many worry the experiment would lead to the destruction of human race if the experiment is to go awry, creating a black hole that would devour earth. The mysteries of life is sacred, man's attempt to know the world's greatest secret: how life begins may lead them to doom if the experiment is to go awry.

Going Bananas I started to snack on bananas at work these days. Bananas sold in bunches of 5 just cost a mere $1.30 at the NTUC Fairprice. They provide valuable snack to me especially when I feel hungry soon after meals due to my incredibly high metabolism rate. And I am surprised to discover that bananas can do wonders for our body by enabling people to be more alert especially when taking a test. More benefits of bananas could be found at: http://www.thecryptmag.com/Online/39/Bananas.html Resting eyes I learnt of two simple exercises for the eyes: 1) looking at faraway things for 30 seconds after every half hour at the computer. 2) Nodding up and down your neck to increase blood circulation to your scalp. Sustaining Singapore, Sustaining feedbacks I was put off by the website on Sustainable Singapore at I have contributed a couple of valuable suggestions to the portal but the feedback portal showcasing all received feedbacks has not been updated for two weeks already! The authoritie

Despites how tired I am, my hands seem not to stop as I patter on my keyboard every night blogging and blogging. I am surprised to garner a few following from people all over the world including India, Europe and China. They have somehow managed to find my blog through search engines. I was glad that they have found my blog interesting, many have even activated the RSS links to my blog! I am also proud of the fact that for months, if one is to search for "Singapore Short Stories" in Singapore Yahoo Search Engine, my blog comes out as the No 1 website for some months till now. For Google, listing of my blog is in Page 1 still. As I have mentioned many times, the fact that I am blogging and maintaing this blog religiously comes from the willlingness and my enthusiasm to share with the world some of what I have gone through in life and my stories. It is Passion for something that sustains one through all difficulties to sustain something long after he has started. The above pict

This scene was taken at Suntec City last Saturday. It brought fond memories of my some of my childhood days. When one is a child, the days seem to pass slowly and many of the times, life can seem so enjoyable. But entering adulthood, we see the need to earn a living, entering the common rat race, be embroiled in office politics, seeing the less fairer nature of man and experience aging, some pain here and there. That is Life!

Two important events shaped the face of work. The invention of machines for which changed the role of man from being a do-it-all labourer to that of specialist: in charge of a fixed process. The other invention was the advent of the computer: man become master of work, able to control work processes. However, work also has brought about its bout of illness to man. For one, I believe man's eyes have become seriously overstrainned and harmed by looking at the computer at work for hours. And if it is not enough, man returns home to indulge in the internet for entertainment for another couple of hours too. And sitting for too long on a seat interacting with the computers cause injuries to the spines, bones, wrists and the heat generated from the heat will cause harm to fertilty of man. Thus move about after sitting for sometime in front of a computer!

I was in charge of an important event yesterday. With proper planning being done earlier, it was most surprising that I was caught off-guard by a glitch which threatened to derail the whole event. The problems which caused the glitch: miscommunication, assumptions of people and shortage of manpower. Neverthess it was a good learning lesson for me. Just as thunderstorms could come suddenly in life and catch one unguarded, miracles do also occur at times in the worst of one's moments. I have learnt to move on in life. As Neutro Linguistic Programme experts could not disagree more: There are no failures in the world, there are only feedbacks It is with this mantra that keeps me going and trying new and varied things and learn from books, experiences.... hopefully one day I could be of someone great but most importantly leaves a legacy behind by benefitting the community and the world in one way or another. I attended a talk last week by a successful multi-millonaire. One taking home f

Everyday, without fail, scores of middle aged aunties (around 30 of them) plus 2 or 3 uncles congregate at the basketball court in front of my block, doing their morning exercises starting 7pm sharp. Their morning get-together exercise session is almost a ritual to them as 95% of them never fail to show up. They do simple stretching to the chorus of rhythm “1,2,3,4,5 …” which they chant in Chinese. The cacophony created is instant alarm clock for the residents of my apartment block. After the exercise, they will start to sing the most horrible song I have heard and at this juncture all of them will wave their hands left and right in unison…… imagine we residents have to endure all the sound of their exercise and worst still their song everyday. Their song in Chinese is about Love….. sung in not a peaceful manner. I believe they belong to a cult! The loyalty of all these members to turn up in full force everyday plus singing at the end of an exercise and about love some more are common

I have been so busy these days that I have not been writing on this blog for a couple of days. I have many interests and commitments and it takes a fine delicate act to partake in the many different commitments and my hobbies. I have various commitments and for hobbies, these would be jogging, reading and blogging. Jogging keeps me alert and healthy. Health is the most important thing in life, without health, you cannot take care of yourself lest of others. Reading expands my horizons and knowledge in all aspects of life and definitely have enriched and benefited me in all manners. Blogging provides me a catharsis for my emotion outpouring as well as expression of views. Also through blogging I really like to share my ideas and experiences with others which can be of beneficial to them. I understand my modest blog earns just a few following everyday judging from the slow rising of the number counter, nevertheless it is fine with me as I am not writing for the sake of having my blog bec