SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

I received some emails from readers these days, thanking me for writing an impressive Singapore blog covering all genres. Many have hailed my blog as the Best Singapore Blog they have ever read! I feel happy that readers like my blog and I hope readers like you can give me your continuous support! Many Thanks! Yours sincerely, Singapore Short Stories

This morning, just before I reached the door to my office, I saw two men, who were complete strangers to me outside the door.As I walked up further, one of the men asked, "What is this place? This place got any jobs?" I replied to them the name of my office and that new opportunities of my company will be found in the newspapers. Thanking me, the two men left. I was surprised to personally witness the unconventional job hunting modus operandi of the two men. However, with the uemployed figures ballooning, this method may soon become commonplace. The two men may be following the adage: "Do not wait for opportunities to find you, find opportunities yourselves " They seemed sincere, though with a sign of little desperateness, I do really hope their jobhunt will bear fruit soon.

If you have large powerpoint presentation slides to email to friends.. those of sizes exceeding 1 or 2 MB, it may be easier to explore other methods rather than jamming your friends' inbox.. to their indignation. I have learnt of this website which could be useful for sending your presentation slides to your friends for viewing.. instead of the huge files.. just send the URL!

Singapore is a tiny country with only a history of 44 years, however within this short span of time, it has transformed itself from a third country into one of the leading nations in the world today. Singapore has experienced a tumultous past, from World War 1 to World War 2 where the Japanese soldiers killed thousands of our ancestors. Singapore also experienced communist activities, racial riots and being booted out from the Malaysia Federation on 9 Aug 1965... that is when Singapore is born and the rest is as the cliche goes.. history. But sad to say, ask the youths of Singapore today on the history of Singapore, they are sadly apathetic.. they are into the cyberworld, the latest IT gadgets and the latest fashion trends.. thus to me it is sad that Singapore's history may soon be forgotten and the invaluable lessons so gleaned from our past experiences may soon be reduced to nothingness .... Last week, I watched a documentary on Channel 8, featuring the so-called 'last ka...

After a protracted drought, it is such a relief that it rains at last on my side of the island!And I chanced upon the greatest rainbow I have seen in years from my home.I snapped a photo of the great rainbow: Very sorry readers, the rainbow span such great kilometres that from my home windows, I only managed to capture half of it. I made up for myself when I went to jog after the photo shoot. I was astounded by the brilliant rainbow! It span hundreds of kilometres! and such magnitude could only be witnessed when one is outside! Too bad I did not have a camera to capture the immense beauty of the rainbow. Whenever I see a rainbow, I thought of some carebears gliding down the rainbow like a slide. No, I am not a sissy. The image of these furry cartoon animals have always been etched in my mind ever seen I watched some of these cartoons in my younger days. Too bad, these days, the cartoons which are in production have not much of an impact on youths who are immersed in the cyberworld.. g...

Amidst the economic gloom, there is at least some good news: the price of Singapore fast food is coming down! Ya, I have started to receive the discount coupons from different fast food chains accompanying the newspapers and in my mailboxes. A meal at the MacDonald now cost $4.50 as compared to $6.50 without a discount coupon. $4.95 for a dozen of meals at the Burger King. But would it be better not to eat fast food at all? Then you save even more? hehe....

Recently I came across new coined word: "ME" time. "ME" time is a concept of time for oneself. With a majority of us working hours everyday, it is paramount to set some time for ourselves, the time that is "ME" time. "ME" time is time meant for us, time meant for us to do personal things and not be at the beck and call of our superiors. Come to think of it, time always seem to fly. Rather than burying our lives working and working (but sometimes we cannot help it), it is time to have some "ME" time for ourselves. Taking care of our spirit, health and soul is paramount, we need constant rest and time for our body and soul to rejuvenate to tackle greater challenges in the future. As oppose to "ME" time, I heard of quite a number of working employees engaging in "Face time"? So what is "Face time"? "Face time" is time after work when employees having little work on hand, still deliberately stay ...

Calling all Singaporeans, whether you are young or old, male or female, you can all come together this coming Sunday 1 Mar 09 at Bedok Reservoir Park for the International Women's Day Run 2009- IWD Run 09. For further details, do check out this website .

I learnt of this fun and interesting quiz website which I believe you will like it too! Enjoy!

Singapore is a small island surrounded by sea. On weekends, I would try my best to go to one of the many beaches in Singapore to take a break from the hustle and bustle of work and the city life. What I find satisfying is the increasing number of beach goers, be it runners, skaters, folks going for picnic, BBQ or camping, kite-flyers, love birds .... I am starting to see an increasing array of different beach lovers, this bodes well for Singapore as I can see that its effort in giving its residents the greenery despites our tiny land mass is gaining traction! However, the refuse strewn around may be increasing with more goers to the beaches too! Beaches are really relaxing for all goers there. The moment I am at the beaches, I immerse myself to the rhythm of the waves, sashaying upon the shores... the winds embracing me in all directions, the rich aroma of BBQ assailing smoothly my nostrils.....time seems to come to a standstill as I embrace all my six senses with nature.....

I stumbled upon this great website which offers an intriguing array of powerpoint presentation templates for a variety of presentation. The collection featured is certainly more interesting than the one provided by Microsoft Office package! See which of these powerpoint slides is to your preferences and liking, hope you find these handy!

The OCBC cycling event will be held tomorrow (22 Feb 09), however I have unwittingly mistook the date as 22 Mar 09! Hence I have missed a chance to participate in this grand cycling event! To make up for this lost opportunity, this afternoon, I dusted off my bicycle which has accumulated lots of dirt as a result of not using the bicycle for some months already, donned a sporting attire and off I went, for my own cycling endurance event! The journey I have planned will be from my home to East Coast Park, then head upwards to Changi Beach and down back home. The total distance is approximately 20km! It has been one year plus since I cycle such long challenging distances! 30 minutes on my bike, I reached East Coast Park. The weather today is marvellous for cycling: cool, calm and windy. SkatePark 360 degree (sea-skiing park) greeted me as soon as I descended on East Coast Park. Being a weekend today, East Coast Park was packed with joggers, cyclist and skaters. East Coast Park is al...

As I was hammering away at my keyboard yesterday night, I was nonetheless perturbed by the chorus of Cantonese opera music, chanting, prayers and the smell of incense which emanated from the void deck of my ‘block’ (Singapore’s parlance for a Housing & Development Board building consisting of apartment units for dwelling). Yes, if you have guessed correctly, there was a Chinese funeral wake being held at the void deck of my block. It is common for average Singaporeans living in HDB blocks to hold funeral wakes and rituals for a number of days for their loved ones right after their decease at the void decks. A resident living in a unit in my block has passed on… I wonder who this resident might be and whether I knew or have seen him or her before? I have noted a number of young children clothed in the solemn colours of black and white (the Chinese colours of death), congregating at and outside the void deck while taking the lift up to my home earlier: the older helping with the n...

We spend a great proportion of our life working everyday so much so it has become a social norm to equate the worth of a man by the work he does and the amount he earns. The earning power of an individual is perceived as the status of the individual by the modern society. The richer one is, the higher the status is accorded to him and he is deemed to be worthier than others, so much so during a remark about the Tan Yong Soon’s cooking incident, Member of Parliament Charles Chong has, as reported in the newspapers, referred to common Singaporeans earning an ordinary income as ‘lesser beings’, I belong to this group too. When I read of the term ‘lesser being’, I could not believe that this term could actually come out from the mouth of a member of Parliament! In what way am I a lesser mortal than the well-heeled? Though I may be earning a modest income, I have good moral values and like all Singaporeans and have dreams we want to realize too! Why should the worth of myself be dictated by...

It has been decades since I have played a real good computer game, so imagine my excitement when I was introduced to a great game gadget: Xbox 360 by one of my buddies just a month back! These days, I have been spending my time these days after work and other commitments playing Xbox 360 . I am now totally hooked on it as the gadget is so, may I use this word, intoxicating! For more details on Xbox 360 , do check it out here ! Just one week back, I introduced this game to another buddy, what transpired next was that he became addicted and now he fared much better at the game than me! Well, I am not sure how on earth did he manage to play better than me, did he rely on cheat codes ? I do want to give him the benefit of the doubt as we are afterall brothers… hehe. The last I heard of him is that he is doing some hacking of the game, I am not sure what that means, till I researched further and found this link ! For now, I am going to play Xbox360 for a little while before I sleep. I am...

Boon Lay has been the terminal station for the West line branch of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network since 1988. Come this Saturday, 21 Feb 09, two new MRT stations beyond Boon Lay will open: Pioneer MRT station and Joo Koon MRT station! Joo Koon MRT station will be the new Western terminal MRT station on Singapore's network, possibly for eternity until SMRT decides to expand all the way further.... to Jurong Island? who knows? Singapore is dynamic with land use policy as always! These days, I saw the words inscripted on the display panels of underground stations "To Boon Lay" being replaced with "To Joo Koon", similar changes extend to all MRT maps and train announcements. Just last week, I have already heard the announcment: "Passengers going to Joo Koon, please proceed to platform A ...." unwittingly played for this new announcement should not have been played as the two new stations will open only this Saturday. But who is Joo ...

Received this email story from a reader, it is up to you to believe the veracity of the story (pardon the Singlish style of his writing) " This happened to my buddy and I during BMT. We were kena arrowed (SSS: appointed) to do guard duties one Saturday night. We were shui (SSS:unlucky) to do guard duties when all the others can book out on weekends. We take prowlers as we cannot stand still as sentry." "It was tiring patrolling around the stupid island. It was dead silent in the night but we were happy prowling the island as we have not done before. We discovered many interesting things we have not seen before on the island during our training there. The checkpoints of the patrolling was tedious, requesting us to log in our rank, name and NRIC at every checkpoint….soon we were at the checkpoint which was close to the ammo dump which was very ‘popular’ as it was rumoured to be haunted." "What so haunted about this ammo dump? we asked ourselves. We braved ourselv...

Singapore is shrouded in haze these days. However unlike the haze we were inflicted with that came from Indonesia's clearing of large tracts of forests, the haze these days came from the burning vegetations island wide, which were caused by the unusually hot and dry weather. It is not recommended to exercise outdoors lest we breathe in the particulate matters which could be lodged into our lungs and organs. Singapore's weather: Hot and Sunny, Raining, Cloudy, Hazy and Windy. We witnessed the power of the strong winds just two weeks ago, now the power of the haze, I hope it will rain soon! Rain seems to be MIA these two months!

Dear Fellow Singaporeans, If you have been to the Esplanade and City Link mall in the past one month, you may have catch a glimpse of what I called the "The Bee Man" of the Esplanade and CityLink Mall. Ya, if you spot this guy who I am describing, this "Bee Man" is a young bespectacled, short, slightly fat man, carrying a haversack, ears plugged into a headset. You may spot him behind you, muttering a humming sound at low frequency. As you are figuring out where does this humming sound comes from, you spot this "Bee Man", and there he goes, walking fast, and humming a loud, high pitch humming sound. This "Bee Man" always emerge from some corner in the Esplanade and like a bee, flit off in a succession of hums and trots down CityLink mall, creating waves of curious stares, uncontrollable laughter and some people just thought this guy was 'siao'! I have the unenviable opportunities to meet this "Bee Man" about 5 times while I...

You may have seen this naked sculpture in City Link mall just before the escalator to the Esplanade. But are you so busy to pause for a second and have a look at the sculpture to figure out what message this figure is protraying? I have captured for you the philosophical words of thought that serve as invaluable takeaways for all of us. This sculpture is unlike me.. I am no slave to brands. I wear simple. Simplicity is everything. Everything in life is Simple. Simple is Perfect. Perfect is simple. Nothing is impossible. Impossible is nothing... Oh wat happens to me? I am waxing lyrical after seeing these philosophical words of thought!

Just recently, I have learnt of a website called Blog Vertise which enables bloggers to earn revenue from their blogs by writing on the topics/ websites/ products that the administrators of Blog Vertise assigns to them. Sound interesting to bloggers, I believe!

On our road to Success, there will always bound to be people who try to distract us from reaching our destination by their hurtful comments. I have learnt not to have my emotions be at the control of these persons, whose hurtful comments may spoilt an entire day for others. I have learnt to control my emotions, and not to have my emotions be swayed, hurt by others. Think of it this way, if these people can destroy your confidence just by saying some words, will not they be very powerful people? having control and an impact on how we behave and hurt our self esteem. No, these people are just NOTHING to confident persons. A confident person realises that time on this earth is short and there are far lots of important things to be done during one's short lifetime on earth than to sit down and wallow in pity after hearing some unkind words from others or to argue with them. A confident person knows that those people who come in regularly to throw a spanner in our life and hurts u...

I had the most wonderful, romantic Valentine's Day with my Dear yesterday and this day marks a very important chapter in our lives!' I PROPOSED TO MY DEAR IN ONE THE MOST ROMANTIC MANNER THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN ! THE ANSWER IS AFFIRMATIVE!

My Dear gave me a surprise when she called me an hour ago, only to tell me that she has left office and was at the void deck of my flat! I was extremely surprised that my Dear was just downstairs (in Singapore parlance), I know she would be giving me a Valentine Day gift, but it was beyond my guess that she would come all the way from office to my house just to pass me the Valentine Day present! I had a quick change of clothes and came rushing down to the void deck! It is very sweet of her! She has requested me to open the present at 12 am, 14 Feb 09 (i.e at the stroke of midnight), when it is exactly the start of Valentine's Day! I am very excited after hearing her request and I wonder what would be inside the present. I am very touched of my Dear's effort and I know she has personally creates the gift in the box. In less than 2 hours, I will know exactly what will be the mysterious contents in the box are! I feel 'paiseh' (embarrased) for I am an unromantic guy....

Today is Friday the 13th! I am neither a Christian nor do I believe in the bad luck myth and legend surrounding this day which is always believed to be unlucky. Thus to me at the start of the working day, it is all normal, the day passes in a series of meeting, discussion and rushing of work. But the work day ends very late, no complaining, I do not think it is associated with Friday the 13th!

I first noticed my Singapore Short Stories picture backdrop on the top of my blog missing at 7pm today. I was puzzled: what happened to my blogspot pictures? I went to take a look at other famous blogs, to my surprise I could not see the picture headers of them too. After some minutes, the pictures came back to our blogs, then they disappeared! Till this point of writing, the problem was not resolved yet, I believe there is something wrong with the server.

I reached home around 10pm tonight after a meeting. Tomorrow there will be another meeting again which will see me coming home past 10 pm again. This is life of an average Singaporean employees, especially those in the private sectors. Overtime, overwork and under-paid are the grouses of many private sector employees. Who does not want to have more personal time? All of us have only 24 hours each day and with the bulk of our lives spend working, we only have a limited number of hours for ourselves and for our loved ones. Time always pass so quickly...........you see, now is already in the midst of February and it was as though yesterday that we ushered in Year 2009. However such grouses about overtime and overwork would have been tuned down in the light of the current economic crisis which forces many employee to be retrenched, thus count our blessing if we are still employed! What is overtime compared to the loss of income?

I HATE IT! I have spent money again on today's lunch on food which has so much salt and MSG that it is just so plain disgusting! The local authority should not just grade food stalls according to their hygience but also the 'healthliness' of the food to us, consumers. As a result of the MSG and salt partaken, I feel so thristy that I drink like a hippo; stomach bloated and yet the feel of saltiness still pervade. I went for a run this evening to sweat the salt out. Running a google check on the internet, I could hardly find any way to get rid of the excess salt and MSG we have partaken accidentally outside. Does anyone have any ideas to get rid of this excess salt? Drinking water does not help, and I could only think of exercising to rid this salt via sweating. Singapore has lots of good food but also lots of food laden with a plethora of sugar, salt and MSG. Be discreet next time you choose your food to consume. We are what we eat!

This story happened to me some months back. I brought my Dear to my company outing and after the outing, we had lunch at a restaurant. As the restaurant was near to our company's debusing point for the outing, the restaurant was packed with some of my colleagues who had gone for the outing as well. As my Dear and I were happily dining into our meals, I noticed an older female colleague of mine, with her son seated behind us, dining into their meals as well. I turned back and greeted her, but she was simply staring at me and my Dear in a strange manner, in a way that I did not like it. Seeing that she did not reciprocate my gesture, my Dear and I continued our lunch. My colleague was deep in thought, I supposed. I did not really know much about this colleague as she is a very reserved and quiet person since the day I joined my company. Only just some days ago, I heard from a senior colleague that this colleague who had given an engimatic stare to me and my Dear that day has actually...

What a sight! I discovered dozens of water cooler bottles at the Singapore Flyer just two weeks ago. Wonder how long it takes to drink All of them?

Today is the 15th day of the Chinese Lunar month: Yuan Xiao Jie. This day marks the end of 2 weeks of festive Chinese New Year celebrations and visiting. Yuan Xiao Jie is also the Chinese Valentine Day! I deserve a beating for I only remember this fact while I am typing my blog and chatting with my Dear over the MSN. I would have brought her to see the Brightest moon in 52 years on this special date! Yeah, tonight the moon is at its brightest, fullest and biggest. I have never seen a moon so big and bright as it is tonight. Look up at the sky now if you are reading my post now on 9 Feb 09, Singapore Time!

Singaporeans, do not be surprised if you have Batman as your friend for Batman is really a citizen of Singapore. Don't believe? click here to read more. Wonder why he is given such a name. Recently in the west, there is a public outcry over a name given to a baby: Hitler. Parents should be sensible and be responsible in giving a good name to their children. A wrong and funny name may cause their children to be ridiculed for a period of their lives until they change their names. I wonder whether Batman likes his name.

Yesterday, I read the newspapers only to learn of yet another MRT-related tragedy on 'above-ground' MRT platforms. This time round, it was a freak incident: an elderly man standing on the MRT platform waiting for the train suddenly lost his posture when the train approached the platform. He fell towards the train while it was coming into the station, knocked his head on the body of the moving train, fell back to the platform with injuries so fatal that he just passed on soon after. It was reported in the news that the man has not been feeling well and has been on medication. Perhaps, the old man could have fallen onto the train under the effect of medication. The MRT (Mass Rapid Trains) first appeared on Singapore's cityscape in 1988 but it was only in recent years that train accidents and mishaps have become commonplace. A bulk of these mishaps involved people who simply jumped into the track as a mean to an end (of their life). I still remembered the first such suicide...

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, my Dear and I visited the Singapore Philatelic Musuem open house after our visit to the Peranakan Musuem. Surprisingly, the Peranakan Musuem was just a stone's throw away from the Philatelic Musuem, thus after visiting the Peranakan Musuem, we headed for the Philatelic Musuem again and it was our second time there. The majoroty of the exhibits in the Philatelic Musuem was what my Dear and I have seen before on our previous visit. However, there is a fresh exhibit called 'A Cow and Bull Story' in the museum in line with the Year of the Bull (though many have always say 'Year of the Ox', but as I have learnt, an Ox is a castrated bull!) I believe this exhibit will be there at the musuem for a year as the previous exhibit of the 'rat and mouse' stamps have been ongoing for a year. There were artworks, stamps, interesting information about all things cow, bull, ox, buffalo, bison, yak, wow not bad.. I could remember ...

Today is the S$10 million Toto Hongbao Draw. If you have these winning numbers: 6, 14,15,28,37.43 and 24 (Additional Number) Congrats you win $10 million Singapore dollars... you would have think so if not for the fact that there are other 13 winners in this draw, entitling each winner to $732,082. Where are these lucky winning tickets bought? 1. Singapore Pools Ang Mo Kio N4 Branch - Blk 447 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 #01-1685 (1 QuickPick System 7 Entry)2. Singapore Pools Jurong West N4 Branch - Blk 498 Jurong West St 41 #01-472 (1 QuickPick Ordinary Entry)3. Singapore Pools Clementi N7 Branch - Blk 722 Clementi West St 2 #01-164 (1 QuickPick System 7 Entry)4. 7-Eleven Yishun - Blk 102 Yishun Ave 5 #01-137 (1 QuickPick Ordinary Entry)5. 7-Eleven Yishun - Blk 102 Yishun Ave 5 #01-137 (1 QuickPick System 7 Entry)6. Singapore Pools Hougang N1 Branch - Blk 106 Hougang Ave 1 #01-1209/1211 (1 QuickPick System 7 Entry)7. TST Medical Hall - 448 Joo Chiat Rd (1 QuickPick System 7 Entry)8. Singapo...

Sited in a modest corner off Armenian Street is Singapore's Peranakan Musuem, a musuem where you can find all thing Peranakan. There has been a strong revival of the Peranakan culture in Singapore following the dazzling success of Mediacorp's local drama "The Little Nonya" starring Jeanette Aw and Qi Yu Wu who play the protagonists in the show. I know little about the Peranakan culture thus it was an eye opener to me as my Dear and I partook in the history of the Peranakan on 27 Jan 09, the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Being a public holiday that day, the musuem was open free to all. I learnt that there were actually many different Peranakan, for example, Hokkien Peranakans, Teochew Peranakans, etc.. thus people I see everyday on the streets may be Peranakans though they look much like Chinese, it is hard to detect the subtle differences at one glance unless we know the Perankans personally. My Dear and I left the musuem with a better appreciation of Pe...

Since Singapore Short Stories opened its blog for readers' contributions, Singapore Short Stories has received a dozen of readers' contributions, from Singapore and all over the world, on the very day after the invitation! This can only bode well for Singapore Short Stories, as the stories in this Singapore's No.1 Short Stories blog will increase in variety,diversity, quality and richness. One can read stories shared not only by Singaporeans but also by friends from all over the world! Many Thanks to all readers who have contributed, for those who have not contributed, do not wait, its your chance now! Here is our FIRST reader's contributions, I titled it as Singapore mad men and women as no title is given, hope reader Tan find its okay. Here is Brother Tan's story: "Dear author of Singapore Short Stories, many Thanks for opening your blog to all of us Singaporeans. I just want to point out the case when an insane old man attacked Member of Parliament S...

Singapore Short Stories welcome YOU to contribute your articles or short stories, fictional or real life to Singapore Short Stories website and share it with Singaporeans and friends of the world. Feel free to email me your entry at acer_apex@yahoo.com.sg with your name and country of residence. Many Thanks once again for supporting Singapore Short Stories, the No.1 Singapore Blog on all things Singaporean!

The past two months, December 08 and January 09 were months of festivals with a seamless ‘flow’ of holidays one after another: Hari Raya Haji, Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. These festivals undeniably uplifted the solemn moods of Singaporeans in the face of the reigning economic meltdown. Thus with all the holidaying over, it is back to starker reality as the fallouts of the economic meltdown continue to be felt even more sharply among Singaporeans. Retrenchment figures are expected to rise as companies cut jobs in order to save costs. Though the Singapore government has given a slew of measures to help companies tide over this difficult period and has consistently advocated ‘Cut costs to save jobs’, it is inevident some companies just could not sustain their operations with their revenues continuing to bleed into losses. For the working class always lamenting on squeezing in the ever-crowded rains, fret no more, for now it is a blessing to ‘squeeze’ with the morning and eve...

The Singapore Flyer has just been recently reopened to the public on Chinese New Year day after it was forced to shut down due to a major technical glitch, which left passengers stranded in mid air for close to 7 hours in December. Last Friday, my Dear and I visited the reopened Singapore Flyer, our first visit to the flyer individually. Initially I have almost shelved the idea of visiting the flyer as it was raining cats and dogs in the evening, however the rain proved to be a blessing as the evening sky was cleared by the rain such that the entire surroundings became fresh and clear. My Dear and I boarded a flyer capsule at around 720 pm together with another couple. That is it, 4 persons in a flyer capsule that is supposed to carry 28 persons! That was the reason why I have chosen a weekday night for the visit: we get to have fewer numbers of passengers, which translates inevidently to fewer passengers per capsule, but little did we realize we could have this capsule together with j...

My Dear and I attended City Alive!, Singapore's Biggest Street Party held right in front of City Hall from 10 pm, 31 Jan 09 to 3 am, 1 Feb 09. Organized by the People Association Youth Movement (PAYM), this year's City Alive! was the second year this biggest Singapore street party was staged. In year 2008, the street party was named as City Jam and the crowd then was nowhere near what was seen last night when revellers and party-goers almost burst the barricades of St Andrew's Road in front of City Hall, the road where the party was held. As usual, the party followed right after Chingay parade, transforming the century old colonial building into a giant disco! It was unbelievable that an old colonial building which has seen watershed historical moments became transformed into a giant disco stage! DJs featured in City Alive last night included big names like Sassy Pandez, the DJ touted as the sexiest DJ alive by Maxim; DJ Sarasa from Japan and Singapore' DJ Koflow from S...