Interesting May Day

Spend most of the May Day holidays reading "The Royal Duty" by Paul Burrell, butler to the late Princess Diana. It was an interesting read about the ins and outs of what happened within the Royal Family. Even though I am still skeptical about the trial (The Queen had to come in at the last minute, to remember giving away some of the stuff), I sincerely believed that he was true and loyal to the Princess.
Also ended up collecting 4 tins of Milo from Suntec City...super long queue. Damn Singaporeans are damn passionate about free stuff :p

Super Busy Sat - For a good cause!

XY and Yew Jin - Congrats once again on your wedding!

Everyone's hardwork was definitely worth it! The dinner was also excellent.

Long weekend for all of us to rest :p

Lunches with High Flyers

My big boss has been doing something interesting recently over the past few months. He is currently embarking on a project to invite all his successful JC classmates and army mates to give lunchtime talks to young officers to talk about their life and what made them succeed. My big boss is hopefully trying to consolidate all these thoughts and hopefully published a book (All the best!)

So far I attended two talks. The first was by Dr Lee Tsao Yuen. A very famous person indeed considering that she was a former NMP. Her sharing was very interesting about how she decided at the age of 45 to decide to start a family and take a break from her high flying career. I attended the second talk over the past week and it's by the CEO of SembEnviro. Very well-planned career indeed and exceeding in all fields he has dabbled in.

More interesting talks to come in the upcoming week. Stay tuned!

Finally retirement of my 6110

Finally, after a good 2 year 8 months, I have retired by Nokia 6610. The phone has definitely served me well even after 2 cover changes. One of the best investment I ever made for a very affordable $238 when I bought in on National Day 2003. Sad to let it go but the on button has already fell off and I felt it's a good time to make a change.

And here's my new phone:
A brand new 3G phone. Been using it for over the week and I must say I am impressed by the functions it has. For those yearning for a new phone, do get this one. It really has everything you would probably need and hopefully it can last for the next 3 years. Cheers to the new phone!

First Anniversary

Today marks the first year anniversary for me in working. Have been a really exciting year with many ups and downs but overall a fulfilling year. Have so much to learn but yet so little time. I am really glad that my bosses are tolerant enough to give me time to learn and adapt to the new job and of course not forgetting all those great eating places that I had been introduced to.

Pandemonium will come this Friday when our great re-org is happening. Still awaiting my new responsibilities.

Thanks to all those that have supported me throughout the year!

Super Frustrated

My Ipod has been spoilt over the past week. Somehow, my ipod just failed after only 1 year 8 months. The hard disk just was not working and so I finally brought it to the Apple shop at Wheelock today. Guess what was the price the guy quoted to repair a faulty hard disk: $500!!

My goodness, those Apple folks really know how to price things. For $500, I could have gotten the latest Ipod which plays video and had a colour screen. Well, I can only dream now and wait maybe till the end of the year before I can afford another ipod. :-(

Last of Season 5

Finally finished watching the last 6 episodes of Seinfeld Season 5

The Wife
-Courtney Cox before friends
- Pretending to be someone's wife to get a dry cleaning discount
- Urinating in the shower
- Not wiping off sweat in the gym

The Fire
- George pushing elders and women away to get out of a fire
- Coffee-table book revisited
- Pinky toe
- Heckling back at someone at work

The Raincoats
- Close talker
- Making out at Schindler's List
- Selling Raincoats
- Going to dinner with the Costanza

The Hamptons
- Shrinkage
- Hamptons Tomato
- Stealing lobsters
- "Breathtaking"

The Opposite
- Doing everything in opposite
- The start of yankees
- Even Steven
- Jugyfruits

A Really Happy Long Weekend

This week has been busy trying to coordinate a meeting at work. It went well and was lucky that all the minutes were cleared by yesterday. One other bit of good news is that I got confirmed on my job as well. Not really a promotion but more of a small little increment of pay to supplement whatever I am having now.

Had a good thursday evening with the Michigan gang. Recently we have added a female into the equation and it adds extra spice as she is a journalist. All our usual guy talks are now more subdue with her ard. But had a great dinner at "Ka-Soh" at Amoy Street and then follow by drinks at Far East Square. Man, it has been quite sometime since all of us sat together to gossip about fellow friends and the stock market but nevertheless it was enjoyable.

The long weekend was spent finishing on my reading and getting ready for the week ahead!

Have a great week everyone!

American Idol revisited

Is anyone following the latest season of American Idol? For me, I found it a bored to watch the contestants as they are so off the mill but yet the judges always acclaimed the latest season is the best so far and they had uncovered more talents in this season than all seasons put together. Then what about, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben, Clay Aitken, Fantasia, William Hung, were they lousy compared to this year's idol finalists? Somehow, I reckon that the American Idol phenomenon will only last for at most 2 more seasons. Fox TV, pls let it die a peaceful death!

Damilola Taylor

Damilola Taylor was a young nigerian boy who's parents migrated to Britain in order to give him a better life. In 2000, Damilola was found to have bled to death in Peckham, London. What had happened led to an national outcry in Britain against the yobs (London's version of ah bengs) and knives. 6 years on, after 2 re-trials, Damilola's murderers have not been found yet. Was Damilola actually not a victim of yobbish behaviour but a freak accident? Nobody knows.

This incident had a deep impact on my mind as I was living in Northeastern London which was considered quite a dangerous area of London. Peckham was on the east side of London which was famous for its neglected neighbourhood but also the set of the famous comedy "Only Fools and Horses" and also the birthplace of many famous footballers such as Rio Ferdinand.

May the parents of Damilola have a closure on their beloved son.

Seinfeld again!

More thoughts from the groundbreaking season of Seinfeld:

The Conversion
- Latvian Orthodox
- The Korvoca
- Keeping fungicide in your medicine cabinet
- Is a Podiatrist a doctor?

The Stall
- Toilet paper
- Phone Sex
- Men's version of bimbo, mimbo
- Rock-climbing

The Marine Biologist (Classic episode)
- George pretending to be a marine biologist
- Kramer treating the ocean as his driving range
- Tolstoy's original title for War n Peace was War, what is it good for?
- Electric organiser

The Dinner Party
- Getting wine for someone's dinner party
- Gore-tex
- Babka
- Saddam Hussein double parking

The Pie
- Not washing your hands after visiting the toilet
- Not tasting pie
- Suit that makes swooshing sound
- Elaine mannequin

The Stand-in
- Little people
- "Lifts"
- Dating a girl for spike
- Making someone in the hospital laugh

North Korea anyone?

Am sorting out my mail today and discover a mail from a local travel agency. They were advertising the usual China tours and what caught my eye was a trip to North Korea. Ok, let me attempt to give a brief of the itinerary

Day 1
- Depart Singapore

Day 2
- Arrive in Beijing
- Depart for Shenyang
- Explore Shenyang

Day 3
- Depart for Pyongyang

Day 4 (here's all the fun)
- Visit the birthplace of Kim II Sung
- Museums of war in Pyongyang

Day 5
- Depart for Mt Myohyang which is one of the five famous mountains in Korea

Day 6
- Drive to DMZ: The North Korean end

Day 7
- Return back to Shenyang

Sounds like quite an exciting tour into the uncharted territories. The cost is only about $1799 and adding in all the extras I think the whole tour will not be more than $2,200.

Any takers?

One year on...

Well it's been a year since I last went to UK. Time really flies pass. At that time, it was exciting trip to be back among friends and familiar territories. It was quite exciting as I had to show a friend ard UK and Paris as well. In fact, most of the trip was spent showing her ard London, Cambridge, Paris and even Cornwall. Cornwall is a place I considered sacred as not many Singaporeans will have a chance to go there and stay in a lovely cottage by the coast. In fact, I would consider Isle of Scilly as the perfect place for a honey moon.

I enjoyed the drive to Cornwall in Andre's Volkswagen and living the Cornish lifestyle of taking walks and of course who can forget clotted cream with scones. Those long and twisting roads around Cornwall was really an adventure but luckily I had a local guide.

All these thinking have made me wonder whether I should ever consider working in the UK. I have a friend in London who had just left an investment banking job at Morgan Stanley to work for a hedge fund. I dun want to imagine the amount of money he is earning. I received another surprise phone call yesterday from my best buddy in uni in super cold Aberdeen. He is working for Shell and seems to be enjoying himself.

Ah...all these thoughts I probably can only dream for the next 4 years...

More Random Thoughts of Seinfeld

Here's the next 5 episode of Season 5 of Seinfeld

The Lip Reader
- Deaf women able to lip read
- George eating fudge
- Using a lip reader to find out what others are talking abt
- Kramer being a ball boy!!

The Non-Fat Yogurt (Classic episode)
- Mayor Giuliani having super high cholestrol
- Swearing in front of kids
- George faking illness (not for the first time)
- Everyone to wear nametags

The Barber
- Crazy Italian barber
- Opera setting
- Edward Scissorhand
- Kramer participating in a bachelor auction

The Masseuse
- Masseuse who refuse to give a massage
- Return of the risotto girl
- Elaine dating a "serial killer"
- George cannot stand people who dun like him

The Cigar Store Indian
- Native Americans
- Coffee table book about coffee tables
- Gyros in the subway
- TV Guides

More to come next week :-)

Seinfeld rewatched

I had recently just completed watching 9 seasons of Seinfeld. I must really say the show is really one for the collection. In fact, I have recently purchased the DVDs of Season 4, 5 and 6 to add to my current collection of Season 1, 2 and 3. What makes the show so unique was the fact that the show was really about NOTHING! The show centred around the 4 central characters of Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Cosmo Kramer and Elaine Benise. The sideline characters are fantastic as well including Newman, Morty Seinfeld, Frank and Estelle Costanza and of course George Steinbrenner.

Just watched the 1st DVD of Season 5 and here are some of the random thoughts from these episodes to show the show is really about nothing.

The Mango
- Faked orgasms
- Mango being able act as viagra
- Kramer blaming the fruit seller for bad fruits
- Risotto girl

The Glasses
- George loses his glasses
- Dog bites Elaine
- Commando 800 air-conditioning
- Horse-faced cousin Jeffrey

The Puffy Shirt (all time classic)
- The puffy pirate shirt
- Low talker
- George hand modelling
- Crazy George's parents

The Sniffing Accountant
- Accountant who was thought to be taking drugs
- Mohair sweater
- George as bra salesman
- Felt your material

The Bris
- Circumism
- Pig Man
- Excellent parking spot
- Mohel (person who conudct circumism)

More random thoughts as soon as I rewatched more :-)

Uneventful Week

Well, it's been a rather quiet week. Workwise, it's been super quiet as the big boss is currently not around. Been able to do some of my own work areas which had been neglected and also taking some time to take care of our intern. Finally been able to take part in yoga after a nearly 5 week hiatus.

Got hijacked on Friday by some timeshare company and only managed to get home at about 10pm. Sheesh...to everyone, be careful of the young girls doing surveys at Orchard Road :-)

Week ended slightly better with the Rovers edging out another win over Sunderland. 52 points and counting...

Here's to a better week!

Roll On Blackburn!

It's been an excellent week for Blackburn Rovers. Yesterday 3-2 win over Middlesbrough was the perfect push for a European place for next season. In fact, Rovers have already exceeded their points total compared to their past 2 seasons and so what is the x-factor? I would put in down to the renewed team spirit. Yes, Mark Hughes has come in and stopped the slide created by Graeme Souness but it was the excellent team spirit among the core players such as Savage, Bellamy, Emerton, Pederson and co who have really made the difference.

I am actually not hoping for them to qualify for Europe as Blackburn has a terrible record in Europe (Remember losing to lowly Trelleborg in 1994). So a perfect end to the season would be to finished 6th just outside of the Uefa Cup slot. Next year, Blackburn would need to maintain their consistency as teams would be better prepared to take on Blackburn. An additional defender and tenacious midfielder would further strengthen the side.

Cambodia - Land of Peace and Tranquility

Just came back from Cambodia on Friday and I must say it was an eye-opening experience. The majority of the country is stuck in poverty but somehow people there have a sense of pride which I had not seen since Cuba. Pace of life is rather slow but in Siem Reap where majority of people visit due to the ruins of Angkor, the pace is much faster due to the tourism industry.

The Angkor ruins were really a magnificient sight. The largest religious monument in the world, it rivals Machu Picchu in Peru and even the great pyramids of Egypt. Most of the ruins were in excellent conditions or had been excellently restored. Angkor Wat was the main highlight and it was a tiring climb up the grand temple. The sight on top was well worth it. I am just curious how can these ruins lie unnoticed for 1000 years. The sights are really worth visiting especially considering that it's only a 2 hour flight to Siem Reap.

Khmer food was also excellent with a mixed of Chinese and Thai food. If given the chance, I would love to explore Phnom Penh and maybe some of the inner provinces of Cambodia.

For photos of the trip, do visit http://cheewing.multiply.com/photos/album/14

PS: Anyone travelling to either Cambodia or Vietnam can borrow Lonely Planet from me :-)

Something for the Future

Am currently reading the Economist Technology Update and here are some cool stuff that had caught my eye:

• Vertical Axis wind turbines (think merry-go-round)
• Hybrid airplane
• Slingbox (allows you to watch tele on your comp anywhere)
• Standby power and how companies are reducing the power consumption for their products on standby

Quite keen to get the Slingbox to catch up on some good old British tele!

What a Gastronomical Week?

Monday: Claypot Fish Rice at Pek Kio Hawker Centre
Tuesday: Peranakan Food at Ivins
Wednesday: Lor Mee at Golden Mile Hawker Centre
Thursday: Zi char at Beo Crescent (Colleague's confirmation treat)
Friday: Laksa at Kelantan Lane
Vegetarian wedding Dinner at Grand Hyatt
Saturday: Zi char at Hong Kong Street
Sunday: Chicken Rice at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

And somemore this is supposed to be the busiest week of the year :-)