i'm back - and right back to work as well! =(
in other news, its only 3 more days to beerfest! =)
in other news, its only 3 more days to beerfest! =)
lundi, juin 04, 2012
mardi, mai 08, 2012
what for?
sadly, this seems to be the government-endorsed singaporean life cycle template, less the retire at 65 part of course.
lundi, mai 07, 2012
a house is not a home
facebook has made it so easy to share thoughts and articles (and reach out to a wider audience at the same time) that i fear that the end might be coming soon for blogs.
over the past few weeks, i had shared quite a number of articles on facebook. those were mostly social commentaries about singaporean life, and how difficult life is getting in singapore. i must admit that i am already much better off than most of my peers or singaporeans, but i always get a sense of foreboding doom whenever i read the newspapers. yes, it might not happen to me now, but looking at things, it will not be long before my cohort belongs to the "past" of singapore.
i think that the thing about singapore is that the government tries too hard to be open to the world. in our quest to attract foreign investment, we have almost forgotten who we are, where we came from, and where are we heading to. in our haste, what happened to this place that we call home? what happened to the swiss-class standard of living that we were supposed to attain? if the government can always beat their chests and loudly proclaim that the singaporean brand is so strong, why are they so afraid that foreign companies will close shop and shift elsewhere if we increase the wages of our low wage workers? i opine that if we are really 真材实料, then investments will continue to pour in because people recognise our value, not that we are cheaper, better and faster than our neighbours.
---
talking about transformation, projet pothaus is coming along nicely. less than a week, and the apartment is a shell of its former self. walls have been hacked, built-in wardrobes removed and existing wires ripped out. now it is a skeleton, waiting to be zhng-ed into a proper liveable habitat. doubt much can be done in the next two weeks when i'm away, but well sometimes fast is slow and slow is fast! =)
over the past few weeks, i had shared quite a number of articles on facebook. those were mostly social commentaries about singaporean life, and how difficult life is getting in singapore. i must admit that i am already much better off than most of my peers or singaporeans, but i always get a sense of foreboding doom whenever i read the newspapers. yes, it might not happen to me now, but looking at things, it will not be long before my cohort belongs to the "past" of singapore.
i think that the thing about singapore is that the government tries too hard to be open to the world. in our quest to attract foreign investment, we have almost forgotten who we are, where we came from, and where are we heading to. in our haste, what happened to this place that we call home? what happened to the swiss-class standard of living that we were supposed to attain? if the government can always beat their chests and loudly proclaim that the singaporean brand is so strong, why are they so afraid that foreign companies will close shop and shift elsewhere if we increase the wages of our low wage workers? i opine that if we are really 真材实料, then investments will continue to pour in because people recognise our value, not that we are cheaper, better and faster than our neighbours.
---
talking about transformation, projet pothaus is coming along nicely. less than a week, and the apartment is a shell of its former self. walls have been hacked, built-in wardrobes removed and existing wires ripped out. now it is a skeleton, waiting to be zhng-ed into a proper liveable habitat. doubt much can be done in the next two weeks when i'm away, but well sometimes fast is slow and slow is fast! =)
mardi, mai 01, 2012
vendredi, avril 20, 2012
handover
can't really believe that i'm officially a property owner now in singapore.
may hdb resale prices continue to rise!!! *HUAT AH!!!*
jeudi, avril 05, 2012
someone like you
so i was going to forward some emails when i accidentally clicked on the "flagged" tab on my gmail browser and whoops, what do i see?
a whole lot of ancient emails dating all the way back to 2004, when i first registered my gmail account.
it was very interesting to read all the tiny condensed emails of the happenings that had occurred in my life. it was no doubt enlightening as well, as this time i had the benefit of hindsight to help me understand better the context and consequences of some of the emails that i had received or drafted at that time.
but were those emails written by my past self? really? no, i would never write those things down. in any case, i'm not who i used to be now; i've grown up and no longer resemble the jeremy kang who sent that email in 2006.
are we the sum of our parts? when do we become distinct from our past, or are we the product from our past experiences? to quote murakami, the past increases and the future recedes indeed.
a whole lot of ancient emails dating all the way back to 2004, when i first registered my gmail account.
it was very interesting to read all the tiny condensed emails of the happenings that had occurred in my life. it was no doubt enlightening as well, as this time i had the benefit of hindsight to help me understand better the context and consequences of some of the emails that i had received or drafted at that time.
but were those emails written by my past self? really? no, i would never write those things down. in any case, i'm not who i used to be now; i've grown up and no longer resemble the jeremy kang who sent that email in 2006.
are we the sum of our parts? when do we become distinct from our past, or are we the product from our past experiences? to quote murakami, the past increases and the future recedes indeed.
lundi, avril 02, 2012
reno blues
if you're wondering what i've been up to, well only ONE thing: renovation.
the magazines all make it look so easy: buy a house, engage an ID, decide on a decor, go to quirky shops to buy furniture, put it all together and ta-da: your dream home is created!
-_-"
perhaps the above only happens to the rich folks. for the more average peasants like me, it means operating within a fixed budget and that also means that weekends have to be burnt, wholesalers all over the island have to be visited, quotes have to be compared, and compromises have to be made, all in the name of getting the most bang out of my pretty limited buck.
so for the past weekends over the past two months, the girl and i have been going from north, south, east to west on the search and research for moderately affordable furnishings and appliances for our soon-to-be humble industrial scandinavian loft. we're already settled on our ID, have sort of an idea of where to get what and at how much, and hopefully in a few months, this:
can soon be transformed to this:
doesn't the reindeer decal look oh-so-lovely?! i love horns!!!
the magazines all make it look so easy: buy a house, engage an ID, decide on a decor, go to quirky shops to buy furniture, put it all together and ta-da: your dream home is created!
-_-"
perhaps the above only happens to the rich folks. for the more average peasants like me, it means operating within a fixed budget and that also means that weekends have to be burnt, wholesalers all over the island have to be visited, quotes have to be compared, and compromises have to be made, all in the name of getting the most bang out of my pretty limited buck.
so for the past weekends over the past two months, the girl and i have been going from north, south, east to west on the search and research for moderately affordable furnishings and appliances for our soon-to-be humble industrial scandinavian loft. we're already settled on our ID, have sort of an idea of where to get what and at how much, and hopefully in a few months, this:
can soon be transformed to this:
doesn't the reindeer decal look oh-so-lovely?! i love horns!!!but first, there's more research, and shopping (oh-my-poor-wallet) to be done! stay tuned for the progress of projet pothaus!
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