mardi, septembre 30, 2008

the man who can't be moved

has finally moved on. Joseph Benjamin Jeyaretnam, or more affectionately known as JBJ, has finally moved on to a better place where he (hopefully) can no longer be sued, disbarred, nor bankrupted anymore.

wow, how time flies; i still remember buying books from him at Centrepoint, where he used to peddle his books to try to move out of bankruptcy. i still remember how he used to be at the same spot, from day till night, week after week, just so that he could raise the money. to live to fight another day.

how ironic that, just 4 months after being discharged and setting up a new party, he is still unable to contest in the next election. well, good intentions does not mean that always mean that you will succeed.

at least he died giving it his all, fighting the good fight when most of us would have just given up, battling for his beliefs and playing the hatchet man for rest of us.

05011926 - 30092008. RIP.

vendredi, septembre 26, 2008

i think..

I should stop second guessing.
I should stop having expectations.
I should stop feeling disappointed.
I should know better by now.

I should be studying.

Racontez-moi
Quel est ce lien qui me tient vivant dans ce monde
Rassurez-moi
Si les douleurs nous rendaient des meilleurs

lundi, septembre 22, 2008

1800-call-a-dwarf

Dang anyone has the contact number for Snow White and her seven slaves?

I need midgets to work in my wind tunnel; I'm 68cm too tall for it! So much crawling and squatting and carrying and 1001 other miscellaneous chores.. Madness. No wonder my FYP is only restricted to males: too much physical work!

And I think I'm spending too much time physically inside the tunnel instead of taking meaningful, contributing-to-my-thesis readings.

Bah.

samedi, septembre 20, 2008

weather forecast

Showers with thunder and lightning over most parts of the island in the early morning and afternoon. Temperature to range between 25°C and 34°C.

I wonder why we have a local weather report; what, did you expect it to snow tomorrow? Goodness, the above forecast is accurate for almost 300 out of the 365 days in a year, with the remaining 65 days devoted to just rain, rain and more rain.

Anyway the recent stretch of sunny weather makes me want to head to the beach, but unfortunately most Singaporean girls just want to be fair and white, so I can't find anyone to go with.

Anybody wants to get a nice tan? Call me! =P

Grahz.

mercredi, septembre 17, 2008

gold

For those who do not yet know, Singaporean Paralympian Yip Pin Xiu won our first Paralympics Gold in the 50m backstroke on Monday, smashing the world and Paralympic records along the way. Yaay. It must have been amazing to hear the Majulah Singapura being played at the Water Cube (or at any other Olympic/Paralympic games) for the first time. History in the making.

Pity then, that unlike the Olympics, the Paralympics did not have live coverage on television. Not even when we had a national swimmer in the finals.

Nevermind that, it didn't even make it to the 1opm news; Pin Xiu's against-all-odds victory was reduced to just a mere blurb on the ticker tape on CNA.

And unlike the SGD1million promised to all athletes who obtain an Olympic Gold, Paralympians only stand to gain 10% of what able-bodied athletes can earn.

Which is sad, since a Gold is a Gold and ceteris paribus, I would think that the physically challenged athletes would have to overcome more obstacles to even make it to the starting blocks.

Pin Xiu might not even be able to make it to London in 2012 to defend her title because she suffers from muscular dystrophy.

Nevertheless, let us bask in the moment and rally behind all our Singaporean athletes. They'll be back tomorrow (18 Sep) at Changi T3 on SQ805. I'll be there. Will you?

the great disappearing act

Lehman and Merrill and AIG.

Amongst them, almost 1.7 trillion USD was lost overnight. Vanished. Gone. Kaput.

Amazing how so much money can be lost, just.like.that, at the snap of a finger, in the blink of an eye. No apparent warning signs and one after another in quick succession. Gosh even the weather reporter can do better! Are our financial markets so weak? Is global financial meltdown that easy to achieve?

On the other hand, oil prices have been falling steadily for the past few weeks now and it means a slightly fatter wallet for me now as it costs less to fill up.

But its difficult to ignore the signs of impending doom. The full impact of the fallout on the global economy, job market, etc., is yet to be known, and with the US market still looking so volatile, its difficult to say what will happen next. I plowed through the details looking for the silver lining, but I found nothing but dark cloud.

Fasten your seatbelts; its going to be a rough ride tonight.

mardi, septembre 16, 2008

tongue tied

la tour Perret @ Parc Paul Mistral

soirée Intég 2007.. this year's edition should have been held last week

peering down the Bastille

grocery shopping with Guillaume is never easy with him always fighting for all the best bargains

Grah. Once-a-week French classes is insufficient to maintain my proficiency in the language. Déjà, je me suis senti que j'ai perdu beaucoup! Why didn't the French instead of the British colonise Singapore or something like that; I need to hear more French more often. Like quotidiennement. Make announcements in French on the mrt (call it the metro anyway), have signboards with French on it, and let's all eat baguettes instead of Gardenia!

Went out with PF the other day, then was flipping through Grenoble photos, and I thought that merde! I should be there instead of here. Bah c'est la vie.

Meanwhile I have started on my Japanese odyssey in a bid to be effectively trilingual. ひらがな and カタカナ are disgustingly difficult. I would rate Japanese 1 to French 6 or English 10 or Bahasa 20. Its impossibly impossible to memorise the various characters, much less read and construct coherent sentences with them. No wonder their culture is so introverted. Must be all the years of Japanese; no more brain juices left for socializing and making friends.

If the French wrote the rules of their language while drunk on wine, the Japanese must have constructed theirs in the middle of a hentai orgy.

大変ですね。。

lundi, septembre 15, 2008

envole-moi

- Jean-Jacques Goldman

Minuit se lève en haut des tours
Les voix se taisent et tout devient aveugle et sourd
La nuit camoufle pour quelques heures
La zone sale et les épaves et la laideur

J'ai pas choisi de naître ici
Entre l'ignorance et la violence et l'ennui
J'm'en sortirai, j'me le promets
Et s'il le faut, j'emploierai des moyens légaux

Envole-moi (3x)
Loin de cette fatalité qui colle à ma peau
Envole-moi (2x)
Remplis ma tête d'autres horizons, d'autres mots
Envole-moi

Pas de question ni rebellion
Règles du jeu fixées mais les dés sont pipés
L'hiver est glace, l'été est feu
Ici, y a jamais de saison pour être mieux

J'ai pas choisi de vivre ici
Entre la soumission, la peur ou l'abandon
J'm'en sortirai, je te le jure
A coup de livres, je franchirai tous ces murs

Envole-moi (3x)
Loin de cette fatalité qui colle à ma peau
Envole-moi (2x)
Remplis ma tête d'autres horizons, d'autres mots
Envole-moi

lundi, septembre 08, 2008

aviva singapore 70.3

So it turned out that the Nike run last week was not my last race.

The Aviva Singapore 70.3 was, yesterday.

However I participated not as an athlete, but in another capacity, as a bike course referee.

More used to swimming, biking, and running, I found the prospect of patrolling the course on a motorbike to be both relieving and weird at the same time. Heh.

Reached transition at 5 in the morning and as expected it was all wet from the thunderstorm the night before. But it did not seem to dampen any single one of the spirits of the 1000+ athletes as they cheerfully went about prepping themselves up for the race. I managed to catch up with a couple of old friends who I have not seen for a while as well, so it was good.

Went to meet up with my chauffeur for the day, Shaman, then went back to the beach to catch the pro wave start. The sun had just peeped over the horizon and it was shaping up to be a great day.

After some splashing about in the waters of East Coast, waves of triathletes began charging out of T1, looking to get started on their 3-loop, 90km bike ride across Singapore. Time to work, for both them and me!

It was a refreshing experience, both physically and mentally, to be sitting on a motorbike riding alongside the cyclists. While the physical aspect is certainly quite obvious, I found it very interesting to be participating in the race as a third-party official, to look upon the race from a very different angle.

Whilst before I had to contend with the headwinds, yesterday I had to grapple with drafting pelotons seeking solace from the headwinds together. Whilst I once had, as an athlete, to obey by the rules, I had to enforce them yesterday.

This year's bike course was interesting, with the route including both ECP and the West Coast Flyover, in a loop which spanned almost the entire east to west of Singapore. But alas as expected, coming from the Singaporean authorities, only 2 lanes of roads were allowed to be closed, even though there were many other viable traffic detours with full-road closure, which resulted in some very narrow, technical, and dangerous sections.

And of course, drafting.

I did my best at refereeing, most of the times preferring to give warnings rather than pulling out my cards. Of all the rules, drafting and littering were the ones which the most infringed upon. I also had to play the role of bike mechanic, medical liaison, as well as bike marshal as I came across athletes and volunteers who needed my help. And while I felt myself out of water at some of the roles, I did my best to offer my assistance.

Afterall, Ironman is sometimes about dealing with the unexpected.

At the end of the day, I gave out numerous warnings, but zero cards. As an athlete myself, I had been in the competitors' shoes before, and so I understood how terrible it would be for someone else to rain on my parade by giving me a card. Besides, nobody committed a foul bad enough to warrant a card. Apparently most of the people raced clean yesterday, with only one yellow being shown to a racer who drafted persistently even after being warned (given by my fellow referee team mate Alan).

So anyway headed back after most had finished the bike portion and caught the rest of the half-ironman on the sidelines watching people finish. Met up with more familiar faces before heading off for a quick KFC lunch, and then home.

All in all, a great way to spend a Sunday morning; giving back to the sport, as well as learning from one of the world's best Ironman referees, Ross McLennen. =)
one of the perks of the job

For more photos, go here.

the measure of life

sunset over kent ridge

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider expressways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgement, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. (wonder if they are all just vicious cycles)

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, watch too much TV, get up too tired, and read too little.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble saying hello to the neighbour just next door. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We study more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, possess more and more handphones, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion , big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships, of integrated resorts but segregated managements. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and which doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

And always remember:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments which take our breaths away.

jeudi, septembre 04, 2008

toi

Folle comme la neige
qui tombe à tes pieds.
Quand le soleil bronze
encore ta peau.

Et c’est par toi
que je suis comme ça.
Futilement je cherche tes yeux
dans les étoiles de la nuit.

Ton parfum me hante
quand je mets mon chemise.
Ton sourire me manque
quand tu n'es plus là.

Je sais pas déjà à quoi faire
pour que tu sois la mienne.
Et de personne plus;
que la mienne, pour l'éternité.

Toi.

Plus je t'embrasse,
plus je peux pas t'en laisser.
Comme le temps passe,
mon cœur bat sans cesser.

Je suis le fou
qui t’aime comme jamais.
Mais le fait est
que tu ne resteras pas pour toujours.

Jusqu'à le moment de finalité;
le dernier second dans tes mains.
Je t'embrasse,
comme si c'était la dernière fois.

Comme s'il sera notre dernière fois.

=(