Pile of Posts

This is actually a pile of posts dumped into one long post cos of how lazy I am to post multiple times. Here goes.

Horrible Day (Thursday 17 May)

Well Today is one hell of a bad day. Early morning, I started the morning with a good breakfast of 4 egg whites and oats. Was reading when Xiaoyu came back from Tuition at 11am, saying what a hot day it was. Thinking that it was an ideal day for a swim, I set off for gym. In fact, I wanted to do a nice blog about the gym.

Sidetrack - Jiefang really knows how to get me moving off my butt. The very first month she got her pay, she signed up both herself and I for a really nice gym at Pan Pacific Hotel, which is over the roof of one of the wings of Marina Square. Luxurious place has complete gym equipment, a nice pool, a spa and a steam bath (something like a sauna). Only drawback was that the pool isn't olympic sized, and furthest diameter is 30m which is unusual for laps. To top it all off, she bought me a large tub of Whey protein, and all this was a really nice surprise, and motivated me to get moving again.

Back to the horrendous day. When I stepped into the MRT at Bishan, the sun was glaring and I had my shades on. When I stepped out, fiakz. This was what I saw at City Hall MRT:

So there you go. A bright day ruined at 11.30am. Well what you see on the left is the Cenotaph, and beside it Millenia Tower, and Pan Pac hotel (where my gym is). And the long building in the lower right of the pic is One Raffles Link, where Jiefang is working at.

So I was sulking and walked towards Jiefang's office. Nice timing for it to start pouring and I had to run into a tunnel into citylink mall.

Rained so badly that this was the view of Swissotel Stamford from One Raffles Link.

Japanese styled garden in front of Jiefang's office. Actually, it stands from the basement, you can see it walking over from citylink mall. One Raffles Link stands above the last stretch of citylink mall before suntec and marina square.

Met with Jiefang to just sit around her office lobby (it's lunchtime but we've both had lunch). After a short chat which brightened my mood significantly, I went to e gym.

View from cafe beside my gym.

The day really sucked. Unless if it was brightened by a corned beef hash!

Well so I was at the cafe beside, thinking I would wait for the rain to stop. ordered a corned beef hash, which tasted fantastic (value for money at 5 bucks). Fantastic tasted greens in olive oil, and grilled corned beef hash was superb for a snack.

It was wierd not to order a drink. I asked if they served plain water, and they asked "evian?" I asked how much and the waiter said "8 dollars." Now that really sucked. The cheapest drink on the menu also cost 8 bucks, so I went ahead to order that cheapest one, cranberry juice. I was sour at it cos the juice tasted horrible and cost a bomb.

Nevertheless, I finished e stuff and sat around to read. After the rain didn't stop but went down to a drizzle, I figured that it was silly to keep waiting so I went for gym, running thru e rain only to find out that there were umbrellas placed between the cafe and the gym to cater to patrons. silly me.

So rest of the day was a short run, steam bath, 50 laps in the rain, sneezing, steam bath, poolside reading, steam bath, and by the end of all this shit it was still 6pm. Jie told me at around 3 that there was a company event at night, and would finish around 11, so I decided to head home first, half-tired, half-shiok from the workout and steam baths.

And that was how I rescued a horrible day from the depths of hell.

Community Service (19 May Sat)

Well today is community service day. It all began with a comm service day that Jie planned to go. Spouses could join, so I opted to take part too since I had nothing much to do.

The deal of the day was to bring a group of girls from a girls' home for a family day - well it wasn't much of a family day cos most of the parents didn't turn up out of shame. Which was sad cos all the girls needed was a bit of genuine love. So we had a harder time to make it work, but in the end, we did. Didn't take any pics cos didnt bring anything expensive, as the girls are reformative and I didn't want to make changing over any more difficult than it already is.

Well the meeting time was 8.15am, but me being me, forced Jiefang to wake up at 7 and set off by 7.30. And we accidentally reached half an hour early. But it was ok, we had a look around the home. Really nice place, with a number of common areas, the one which I liked most and stuck at is the pets' corner. There were like almost a hundred hamsters lurking around half of the corner, the size of a 4-room living room, as well as 4 arrowanas and many small fishes and an unidentified crustacean.

The thing had the head of a big-headed prawn, with all feet attached to the head section, but had the body of a crayfish. Now I know for a fact that big-headed prawns have transparent shells with a four-finned v-shaped tail. And crayfish have flattened out heads. Now this thing had half of each and none of us could be certian what it was. Nevermind. I just spent my time playing with the 2-foot large rabbit, which was pretty smart.

After almost everyone had arrived, we entered a briefing room, where the founder of the home, Father Andrew, gave an introduction. Maybe Jon and Wan might know him cos he was previously a pastor at PHS, and moved on to start the home in 1998 with his wife. Nice guy, tho christian, is very brave and can see that he is living his dream and aspirations. Back then when he was a pastor, he pledged all of his 1500 salary to rent a flat to bring delinquent or needy girls home.

This day, the entire operation cost 75k per month, housing up to 100 girls and 100 boys at a time. In his own words, "Everything here is motivated by love, not money. But we always have a hard time finding money to do what we do." Well that's what we were there for. Pledging some of our time and money to give the girls a good time, and take the pressure off the volunteers who almost have no rest.

Well one might actually question his words, given it was a first meeting; but the home is a testament to his words. Love seemed to overflow at the seams. One wall was flooded with notes of love from those who have left to lead better lives, and those who have done wrong in apology; all of them referred to Andrew and his wife Grace as "Ah Pa" and "Ah Ma". One board with rules had the following, if my memory still serves me well:

- Everybody makes mistakes. You are here to admit it and to correct it.
- Do not compare; it makes a fool out of you and me.
- Never end each day without having done something meaningful.
etc.etc.

I particularly liked those rules, cos most of them are things I remind myself all the time. I believe that if every single person memorized those rules by heart and reminded themselves all the time, the world would be a much better place than it is right now.

Anyway, after the briefing and grouping, off we went to the first destination at CCK. Qian Hu Fish Farm. Nice place. Found out that they export ornamental fish to 62 countries, is e first fish farm to be awarded with the ISO 9002 certification, etc. They even have a subsidiary manufacturing and selling pet accessories for not only fish but other pets as well. Saw many nice fishies, tropical and foreign, the most beautiful was a pool of 1-foot wide baby stingrays. pretty. But I've seen better in Penghu, Taiwan, a huge pool the size of a soccer field flooded with 4-foot wide black stingrays. But these baby stingrays had a much nicer wavy pattern on them. The Taiwan view was magnificent; this one was pretty.

Then to the Arrowana sanctuaries. They are the largest arrowana supplier in sg, and are famous for their fine-breed arrowanas. However, these fish never really appealed to me. I just simply don't like their look. Plus they are always so damn bloody expensive. The most expensive arrowana was a purple-hued red arrowana sold for 80k in the farm. However, their distributees broke the record by selling a similar arrowana for 200k. Now I really can't imagine paying 80k for a fish. But there are people who can't imagine spending this sum on a car or a piece of property, so to each his own.

One sight was a 2-foot long Koi flippin around on the road, which Jiefang's colleague spotted and reported to the staff. They said it happens often, as Koi often jump around a lot, and once in a week a rogue Koi jumps higher than e fencing they set around the perimeter of the pool. Quite comical, like high jump. But it's both comical and sad to see the fish flipping around the tires of a white BMW. seemed like it tried really hard to escape it's destiny and almost succeeded.

Then there was the Spa Fish, which can only be naturally found in hot springs. The farm maintains a pool at their conducive living environment, for anyone keen enough to set their feet in the pool. These fish nibble on dead skin on human flesh, which helps aid some conditions such as smelly feet.

After the fish farm, we headed to Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics Farm near Yew Tee Army Camp. It wasn't as interesting as the first location. We just got introduced to hydroponic farming methods, and a number of types of herbs. Not particularly interesting, and we wound up being each given a gift of VEGETABLES and a more useful Hydroponics starter kit.

Next up was lunch at Spizza at Jalan Kayu. The place is famous for Pizza made by traditional indian methods, i.e. baked in a charcoal furnace. The food was unquestionably good, nice calamari, nice salad greens, nice thin-crust pizza, etc. However, the management must have been pretty screwed up cos when we first arrived, there were not enough seats, and we had to sit almost as far as the main road. Some of us had to end up eating standing up so all the girls could have a seat. That was our leader had to haggle on the price as it wasnt really justified to pay the price previously agreed upon. There was one point where the buffet serving table was empty, and 10 people were queing up at the furnace for the next pizza, and there was ONE pizza in the furnace. Quite a sad sight for an eatery, a contrast to the fantastic sight of seats being filled to the brim.

Well we ended off there, and the girls went home from there. Worth the time, as the girls really enjoyed themselves, talking and laughing on the way back. And we ended up with 2 extra bags of vewetables, which we seriously didnt need. -_-|||

Climbing Upwards (20 May Sun)

Congrats to my blood bro who has climbed higher up the corporate ladder. Considering the last two steps he took were not really worth mention, from AIA to consumer wealth mgmt at StanChart, to consumer wealth mgmt at the roar roar tiger bank. Now, it's up to Jardine Lloyd Thomson. Well I know not many have heard, but I have. The co's a diverse enterprise which delves into too many fields, too many to be famous in any. Well that doesn't sound that good, but the story goes further.

His boss, now a director in JLT, used to fully own the private wealth mgmt firm previously, until JLT bought over the co. and gave him a high mgmt post. My idiot brother started off the interviews as a kind of a test-run, as he just haphazardly sent a resume. Little did he know was the first meeting was with this particular boss-director. In fact, at the reception, he jokingly asked the secretary whether they were some kind of job agency or consultancy. Joke's on him cos he was dressed very non-conformatively, and hair was gelled into a lightning-conductor spike. Shit-hell lucky him left with the boss an impression of having balls of steel. So after multiple rounds of interviews, he landed the job. Compared to the consumer stuff he used to sell, now the smallest product costs in the millions. So you get the picture.

Well the pay I won't disclose, but suffice to say that the basic is twice his previous. He told me today, that as his current manager tried to hold him back, wanted to match the offer. When my bro said it, his manager went "shit. that's more than me." LOL. But a high-paying job has it's own unseen costs. Even his best suit and shirts didn't make the cut for the co's requirements, and he has invested a significant amount in tailor-made wear, high-end accessories and ties, etc. He threw out 90% of his previous work-wear, with the remaining 10% as temporary clothes which prob get discarded upon getting his tailor-made shit. To top it all off, he now has to iron his own clothes as the demand is that all shirts must be starched and fitting, majiam the collars can fly on their own. Crazy sia. No wonder they say rich people are quirky.

In his words: Air tickets can claim. Restaurants can claim. Even Jacky Cheung concert can claim, as long as you get the customer to buy. What the hell man. And he illustrated how unfair the products for the millionaires are - I won't give the details (which can be exploited), but suffice to say that they hardly need to take out any of their money to get insured for multiple millions. But normal people like us don't get to use such investment vehicles cos we don't have assets in the millions to play with.

Well that's as far as the story goes. So due to this, he gives parents, grandparents, Jiefang and I a treat at Crystal Jade Palace at Taka. Food was good, except for one dish which seemed more normal. Didn't take pics cos service was very prompt; they bring you something the moment you finish one, and don't let you wait for things to happen. quite nice service. and nice deco too, as you can see from e pix.

Me and the Ken.

Grandma and Mum.

Everyone after the meal.

Grandma and Grandpa as we are leaving.

Random Post

Well in case anyone is interested in what I have been doing the past week now that I'm done with exams, this is it:

Yup, learning PHP and MySQL. Not for nothing, but for the sake of upgrading my website Salvagers.Net. The business is mature enough for the first expansion in its lifetime, and I'm gonna spend 3 weeks working on the site. If nothing goes wrong it should be up by early June. Well since I always assumes sthg goes wrong, I expect things to be confirmed up by mid-June.

Check this out:

Wondering what that is? That's Jiefang in a Straits Times adticle (that's ad and article in one). Those who are gonna have it, please look out tomorrow May 21st. It should be in the last page of Home. I'm so proud of her I'm oozing with pride. Lucky her got to be in an article in SS after joining GS for only a month and a half. Silly her thinks it's common, and had to be told by colleagues that it's not, and she's the freshest employee ever to be featured in an article.

So proud beyond words. It isn't published yet, so I'm not at liberty to distribute the soft copy due to copyright. But the above image should be ok. I will post the soft once the article has been published tomorrow. This is what I look like now. ^_____________________________^