Yahoo FREE Internet

its amazing that in this day and age, the tonnes of free wireless services one can get in many neighborhoods these days.

Let's hope that more people can become aware that your network can be easily tapped into to make numerous "illegal" downloads if you chose not to protect your network. Its not enough just to have wireless facilities in the house anymore. The additional step of protection is evermore IMPT!

Secure your network people!

(in the semi west district, near to ikea.... heh)

headless chicken

do you ever feel that you are stuck in a situation running round and round like a headless chicken?

For me, it feels like a daily situation when I think of my lab work & PAPERS that I'm suppose to miraculously produce with little or no guidance. Maybe I'm just super terrible in writing proper scientific papers that is remotely close to the lowest standards in the scienctific community. But most of the time, after dissecting what is written in tonnes of other's papers, I can barely see any real "meat" in their report. It is heavily peppered with nicely formed sentences which is truly tough for me. The "right" words cannot seems to float in my mind (most if not ALL the time) and I'm seen as a lesser kind just because I suck at writing.

Most of the time, I cannot even figure out what I want to write!! ha ha ha.... I guess all the "answers", "theories" and "discoveries" feels so obivious to me that I have a difficulty in trying to relate them to someone who may need very thorough explanations. Or worse, thorough explanations written "chimly".

I wish I have someone to give me more directions.
I wish I have more company in doing the same shit things so that we can bitch to each other (or maybe learn from each other's terrible experiences).
I wish that I had been given more gradual training in writing good english rather than having to always feel that my write-ups are junk and have to keep revising and revising and revising them.... if they can even be revised in the first place.
I wish I can put my thoughts into pleasent sounding sentences.
I wish I had stuck on to economics at A's and had a better teacher to guide me to analysis stats, data etc....

With some intensive "practice" on my own, I think I'm getting better, but I the verdict will only be out later in the day, after the expected heavy-duty "discussion" with my boss and a discussion on Evolution with my classmates & lecturer.

let's hope that they are not expecting an exponentially leap from me, to get to where they already ARE instantly. But be gentle and KIND to a headless chicken like me... ha ha ha....

once we can sort out the writing, we can start to work on the analysis of data and then on the sorting out of the thousands of references that I've collected and then on having the "instinct" in the field... and hopefully, we can accomplished all of these in the next few months to come....

more headless chicken stories to come....ha ha ha

A Blast, A Tow & A Supper

This evening was an eventful one for us. Maybe I'm still in shock, or perhaps I'm just too tired from all the excitement. We decided to go over the causeway for a spin this afternoon to avoid the peak hour jam. Going in was fine. It was the coming out that was the problem. After a 30mins slow move towards the Singapore Custom....

I witness a Blast! Coming out from my trusty Proton. The loud unmistaken blasting sound came from the burst of a pipe, steam started to escape from the bonnet. I quickly switched off my engine and turned off the lights by the time I got out of the car, the patrolling officer for the causeway was already there, making enquires what has happened. The driver of the car in my adjacent lane had lowered down his window and adviced me not to touch the bonnet. ( I thought that it would be good to let the car cool down....). A few other drivers also came out of their vehicle to investigate on the nature of the blast. Also, there was a gentlemen, Peter, who came forward to tell us that his car also broke down and offered to help us push our car behind his. Imagine all these people came forth within and offered help/advice all within a fraction of a sec.

I'm deeply impressed and more so, deeply touched. Yes, there is warmth and willingness to help amongst us Singaporeans.

In the next hour, we chatted with Peter while he was also waiting for his car to be towed by the tow-truck. We were also assisted by a police officer on duty to get us a tow-truck to tow us through the custom. (did you know that this service is FREE? but only goes to Woodlands Town Center ah) Not only did Peter helped us in pushing the car to the side while waiting for the tow-truck, he also offered his car mechanic to us. Without hesitation we took up his offer, because his mechanic was still working at 9pm, so he must be very hardworking man. Peter highly recommended him to us, telling us that he is an honest man. etc.

As we chatted with Peter, we were curious as to what was his livelihood because of his good naturedness and the bright glowing smile on his face. We had a few good laughs and he told us that he will never retire. He owns one of the biggest funeral service in asia and yet, to him, life is about service. Being of service to those around him, those in need. He made a perfect example of his belief by coming forth to offer us his help without hesitation.

For a quiet moment, I knew we were blessed by God's grace, to have met these great folks who offered great advice/help/service to total strangers like us. I'm sure they were God sent! Yes, God gives us obstacles, but always with aid, we are never alone in facing our obstacles or challengers. =D

We got the 2nd tow-truck (from the mechanic's shop) waiting for us right after we cross the custom, just as our proton was fitted with to the tow-truck the 2nd time, Blim & wifey called and offered to pick us up at the mechanic's shop and go for supper. All nicely timed without a second in between. Yes, we are thankful! Very grateful even. Because it was also raining, then it started pouring, you can imagine the drag.....

At the mechanic's shop, he was kindly explaining the procedures that he will take to give a systematic examination to the car to track the problem (I have never heard that from any mechanics before, they always just say, yah yah i'll do i'll do, call you later about the repairs...) This was the first time, a nice young man took the trouble to stay back in his workshop to wait for a new car to his workshop at 10+pm on a rainy night. He assured me that the repairs will not go beyond $300 in the worst case scenario which was a hugh relief.... Because I was expecting it to run into the thousands. Thank God! We have finally met a NICE, HONEST car mechanic! And he commented that he had very good confidence of my proton's engine, its a car that can keep going even for 25yrs!

4 hours after a blast, 2 tows, a supper, we are safely back home, with a full stomach and a new appreciation for life. :)

A tinge of sadness

My baby Proton broke down.... in the most undesirable place.... in between the custom, along the causeway...


Notice the professionally looking cones? They were supplied by the patrolling police officers. Nice young gentlemen.

This is Ad, dunno what he was doing with his hp. Either trying to make a call or trying to play games to waste away the expected long wait for the tow-truck....


Then he decides to turn around and look at other traffic instead....


He spotted the tow-truck in the oppsing traffic and was certain that he was for us! We jumped up and down in Joy and Excitement and Relief, that the wait is OVER.

And we also wondered if we looked too happy for someone whose car broke down in the middle of the causeway....

As the tow-truck driver, Nathan, was fastening Proton to his truck and securing Proton this his truck, I felt so sorry for my Proton at the moment when Proton was lifted up onto the truck. There was such a strong tinge of sadness. I almost teared. It was as if Proton was decomissioned or something. Proton has gone through so much and yet remained strong and trustworthy, a great driving buddy. I felt so sorry that he has to go through more repairs and checkups. I'm sure he feels terrible about them too!


dun worry Proton, you are in good hands!

Conspiracy Theory?

I've been thinking about it for quite a while already. Why do we have to keep sending our cars for servicing every 5000km? The cars seems to work fine with or without it!

Do you think that we've gone into the vicious cycle of thinking that every item we own needs to be "maintained"? Especially the cars. Whenever a new car owner gets their new car, they would have spent at least S$50k on their baby. Why would they keep spending more with each car servicing? Each trip to the service mechanics will usually cost about S$100. So if in one year, you service your car once every 3months or 5000km (whichever is "faster") then you would have spent another S$400 on your car just on servicing it! That is also provided that the mechanics do not tell you to change this and that....

I took over my trusty Proton from my parents for over a year now. Initially, driven by fear and "advice" all around, I took Proton to the best looking Shell Service station for a "check-up". After spending S$140, my Proton got new spark plugs, new oil filter, new engine oil and some other checks. But I was strongly persuaded to change the shaft on the wheels for over $300! After proclaiming how shock I was at the price, the manager told me that he can get 2nd hand parts for me, at over $150 with workmanship. Sensing that the many price changes was something fishy, I went to ask the technician if my car was suffering from a serious condition to warranty that change.... the technician asked how long more for my car.... I told him 1yr+. He said... "CAN LAH! No need to change!"

So was the manager trying to scare me about the flying tyres stories so that I would change the shaft? After 10months without any change, my trusty Proton still move with grace and good speed. :)

Was it absolutely neccessary to change and change and change??

After each servicing, I felt no difference in how Proton start up or pick up speed or move on the roads. There was also no visible improvements to its fuel efficiency. (in fact, I seem to have better mileage now then ever before!! - no servicing!)

Was it absolutely neccessary to service and service and service??

Hence, after 2 servicing.... I gave up! I just check the engine oil, battery water, make sure that there is always enough fuel, me and my Proton will not listen to anymore "advice"... till the end of his time...

a Bday treat with MJ

what would you do if you are going to celebrate a birthday? say in a public place... with tonnes of people.... even in our not so youthful state... we spare no hesitation in blasting our lungs with the most unheard-of-version of the happy birthday song to our dearest friend Adam. Right smack in the heart of the east coast parkway hawker center... hee....

so happy BIIRRTTHHHday.....



if you look close enough, you can almost see his entire face buried inside this yummy tirumisu cake... ha ha ha....

After an absolutely yummy meal, we decided to ensure that life-long learning and continuous education occurs amongst our friendly circle.... so we brought the bday boy back home and educated him on the challenges of MJ!! ha ha ha.... along the way, we also doing a test...

remember our fren who is preggy? hee.... if she learns the game, does it mean that her baby would too?? ha ha ha...



Now there is a new title for our bday boy.... the new MJ TalkCock Master!! ha ha ha.....
n I think there are tell tale signs of the baby learning fast about MJ, mama had some dreams about how to game with the different combinations of the cards... ha ha ha...

won't it be cool to have him as the youngest MJ player??

aiyah... just joking only lah.... mama-to-be, promised to keep playing with us ah!! heh....

The beach again....

Good Bye Nicky

yes. it was time to let him go. Although painful... we have got to do it. After being with him for 3 yrs, I cannot help but feel so attached to him. It was love at first sight for us. I could not be happier to be with him. He always brought me lots of joy, warmth and comfort. With him, we blogged for the first time, we iChat for the first time, we video Chat for the first time. He was the greatest source of comfort when Ad is away.

Having to let him go is tremendously heart-wretching... Nicky, my first laptop, my first Powerbook....

I lost sleep over letting Nicky go. Especially the night before, I had a strong tinge of unwillingness.... *blah*

Opening Nicky's casing for the 1st time in a long time felt so foreign yet so familar... I recall the first time when I excitedly receive Nicky, the first glance, the first touch...



now, I'm seeing Nicky for the last time, placing him back into the box where we first met.... back into the plastic bag where we first touched....



Putting on his cover for the last time.... I almost shed a tear...




yes.... I was brave....heart-broken but brave.... bye bye Nicky. Love you....

One day at the beach....

God's way or mine?

Over lunch on sunday, a few of us came to an interesting topic. Modern-day conveniences.

What are modern-day convenieces?

Technology as brought so many new and exciting experiences to our lives but did it bring us to a higher level of morality? Does it make us better people? Kinder? More loving? mayb....

I was thinking about the faith of being a christian. Many would say that our lives are not exactly in our hands, its in the Lord's. All lives's ups and downs are govern by Him. So if we submit ourselves to Him, we have nothing to worry about.

In the same light, why would so many use contraceptives in their married lives to prevent "accidents"? If they truly believe that God will plan for them and take care of them. Why not trust in the Lord to provide then? Having a child in the family is liken to a big blessing. So why do some who professes their faith so strongly yet take having children into their own hands?

I guess this issue was more prominent for me as there are alot of challenges ahead for me. Due to some clever doctor, I'm left with only one ovary. To concieve a baby is like 50% less chance as compared to most people. While I'm facing the financial and mental strain of trying for a baby. I find it hard to imagine that there are so many out there who are trying NOT to have one. Even though they have the ability and the capacity to.

Does it really have to be this way?

Blue blue sky

cant help but notice how beautiful this day was. I simply love the blueness of the sky...

Cutey Pie

Remember our favourite little friend? He has been growing and growing and growing.



Till he's almost out growing his own baby stroller!


look at how tight he looked in it? so cute!! his little toes wriggles happily, his tiny feet dangling in jest and the Tu Tu in his mouth! ha ha ha....

K food galore!

The best part of having Joi as my sis-in-law is I get to have authentic Korean food as dinner! Hee... *slurp* (of course, the real bonus is for CK to have a partner in life blah blah blah.... for us, its just great to have a lifelier family dinner gathering with her presence.)

So theres' this one night. She got all of us to their place we get to bbq our own pork! The K style! Using a heavy duty cast iron pan, heated over a portable gas stove, the pork is cooked over it till they become golden brown. Yummy! Like my favourite BACON! The cool part about this cast iron pan gadget is that it has a small drainage system around it, so all the oil from cooking the fatty pork bacon is able to get drained out into a bowl below! Cool eh?


Okies, I din manage to snap pictures of the cooking process because I was too busy cooking the pork bacon away (also to make sure that they are done to the crispyness that I LOOOOVVVEEE and also to make sure that I get to eat them FAST hee...)
here's the end product:


But the correct way to eat it is to wrap it up with a leaf of green lettuce, slap on some of the yummy bean paste, put in a fresh garlic, a green chilli and stuff the whole "bun" into your mouth and chew away! heh.... Initially it was fun to wrap. After 5 wraps, it was faster to just put everything into the mouth and munch at them. It would taste the same and have the same shiok effect anyway! ha ha ha.... I guess its just us being Singaporeans.. Lazy and practical. Maybe the real purpose behind the wrap is to create more time inbetween bites to allow the stomach to work on the food constantly rather than all at once. But do we care? ha ha ha....


Dun look down on that green chili, its super potent towards the middle part of it. So lucky for me, when I was challenged to bite on it, I only took the tail end of it. heh... poor CK, he almost choked on it! ha ha ha... It was definitely fun for me to eat fresh garlic like that. I normally stay far far away from such potent stuff. maybe its a different type of garlic... hmm...must find out for future references ha ha ha...

As usual, the table is laid with a whole spread of goodies (or starters they call it, which is enough to fill up my whole stomach if not for the fact that I knew about the pork bacon). Ad's favourite was the preserved anchovies or ikan bilis. He ate so much of it that Joi's mama took note and made extra for us to bring home heh.... (thank you auntie!! *muaks* *Muaks* but our supply at home is fast running out...)


It was definitely a GREAT dinner, for a long time, we did not have such BBQ style dinner so it was fun!

CK Joi Singapore Wedding IV

Did you know that their big day also falls on Mid Autumn Festival Celebrations? In Seoul, its called Chuseok, a time of thanksgiving and family gathering. So putting together a wedding, celebrating with family and friends will make it even more memorable! Got full moon you know? *wink*

With a teeny wheeny bit of time in between, the couple went around the garden to snap some pictures. They turn out to be so pretty! I wish I had the chance to take some pretty photos too! Perfect lighting, perfect weather, pretty bride, erhm.... no comments on the groom... ha ha ha...





did you know that Korean actor Bae Yong Jun was in Singapore last year? His visit to the Orchid Gardens has earned him an orchid named after him! I cannot think of anything to beat this honor...


The time has arrived. For the night to start. With the clever 4 language translation of the MC, he spoke in english, mandrain, cantonese and even korean! Unfortunately, his korean was pieced together by a string of sounds that try to mimic the actual words. Some of the korean guests have a good laugh while listening to him. For me, it sounded like music hee...

Okies, after checking out what and where. Now its time to check out the Who's Who!
This crowd is anxiously waiting to see the bride and groom walking down the walkway...


The couple were happily hidding on a stairway while the MC was getting all to be ready to receive them:


Here's another picture perfect shot of them....


After the walk down to the yard, the couple thanked the guests, did their champagne popping. And we all had a good old fashion "yum seng" cheer 3 times for them. Photo-taking was refreshing at this wedding. The couple stands at the front yard and the guests just fill in around them! ha ha ha.... So easy!

Its been a while since our whole entire clan took a picture together. I reckon the last one was about a decade ago when my grandmother celebrated her 80th birthday. So we all gathered around the couple and tried hard to squeeze into the frame. It was so tough to squeeze even with the wide-angle lense, that Ad our cameraman had to dash upstairs to the 2nd level to capture the moment.

can you see me?? I'm at the right bottom corner. The total count for our family would be 119. Imagine 119 relatives! All from one grandparents. :D Unfortunately, many are not found in this photo cos many of them are overseas or late? hee...

The magical moment arrived when a full rainbow was spotted. It was the first time I see such a full rainbow here in Singapore. It felt so magical, almost like the heavens are decorating the skies for their big day, celebrating the moment.


During the dinner, the couple went around to chat with their guests, take pictures to capture the moment. And at times its tough to avoid getting teased. Especially when you have very mischeivous uncles like mine. *wink*


Joi said that Uncle Jin was trying to learn korean from her. But judging from his cheeky looks, I think she was perhaps abit drunk to remember the teasing hee...

At the end of the dinner, even the kids are having so much fun that they are getting abit too high.... check out how they are drinking beer with Ad....


When my little niece saw what her brother and Ad were doing, she also wanted to participate! What a night of drinking!

I was told that the two yound kids had quite a few glasses of that drink throughout that night. Can you believe it?

Believe it! It was just apple juice lah! ha ha ha...

Nonetheless, we managed to get CK pissed drunk that night, we drown him in red wine, soju and goodness knows what. ha ha ha... here's the red lobster CK with his new bro-in-law, who is just as red! ha ha ha


with 2 red lobster and 1 very drunk Ad, we ended the night, happy. =D

CK Joi Singapore Wedding III

After a long "holiday" from writing about their wedding, here's the 3rd edition.

The dinner reception was held at the Singapore Botanical Garden's Orchid Garden. In this pretty garden full of different types of orchids, there is a old colonial house at the top of a mini hill (which is like 20m above sea-level). Its called Burkil Hall on Burkil Hill hee.... It houses about 140 guest at ground level and another 110 guest on the 2nd level. The caterer did a fantastic job at setting up the table...



I never saw the table settings so pretty before... almost like a star!

They even set up a pretty table for viewing the couple's wedding album... its littered with rose petals, has two champagne glasses filled with peach rose inside.


On level 2, it has a huge balcony which overlooks the front yard.


On the front yard, a walkway leading to the champagne table can be found.

check out what other cheeky folks are there....


Survivor-like light sticks glitter along the walkway of the front yard.


Check out the sumptous array of food:


the hand bouquet is pretty with a string of pearls darting above the roses.

the insides of me

after spending half a day in the hospital and a whole load of $$... the least thrill we can seek from it was being able to see the insides of ME hee...

YUP. the CT scan images were pretty cool! So since not everyone get to see themselves, here's something to share. If you've forgotten your biology, its time to take out your textbooks and try to spot the different organs. =P



here's on close up of the lower abdomen cross-section from the side. (imagine the shot was take from the sides)


I never knew that the backside bone had a delicate piece towards the tail bone.... now I know... either that, or I need lots more calcium to build my bones!!!

I wonder how he sleeps at night.

8yrs ago, my medical saga started as I had intense pain and was warded in a garmen hospital which took 7hrs to tell me that I had appendicitis and needed to be operated upon for the "minor" surgery. Although I had NO symptoms of appendicitis, the doctors insisted on it and I was cut up at 1am in the morning, with my entire family on the way home, I bet it was not possible to inform anyone when the doctors found out that the situation was alot more serious than they thought.

I was woken up from at 5am in the morning, a young doctor stood by my bedside and told me that there was nothing wrong with my appendix. Instead I had a ruptured cyst. In the meantime, they also removed one of my ovary.

Imagine being 22, lying semi-conscious from the GA, how in the world would I manage to capture the essence of his information and ask all the tonnes of questions about it?

So the questioning on whether he seeked parental consent to remove a vital organ from me was never conducted. Whenever he came to visit the room, he would simply check for temperature and the state of the wound and leave the room, not giving me sufficient chance to question the impact of his actions.

8yrs later, I'm still having to deal with the consequence of his actions. Could he have done it in a moment of folly? Could he have made a bad diagnosis to remove my ovary without have to at least ASK me? Does it realise the amount of pain it has incurred? Does he still do it to all his other patients? Isn't the doctor's instinct to protect their patient's well-being their first priority? When does removing an organ becomes a norm?

I think to a large extent he owes me one big apology.

And each time I feel the pain, the discomfort, I wonder how he sleeps at night.......

Rainy Day has finally arrived

I often stressed the importance of saving up for the rainy day. Unfortunately, due to the miserable allowance that I'm getting, there really isnt much "rainy day savings"....

For the longest time, I've been tolerating all the discomforts, pains, strange feeling of hardness in the abdomen area for the fear of some bad news. Well, that bad news is about to arrive.... the rain has started, not sure when it will end though.

An intestinal specialist has seen me and said that I have some unusual hardness in the abdomen, need to go for CT scan before any further actions can be taken. I've already grown accustomed to the pain and the discomfort, but this time, without much pre-meditation, I'm going to try to get to the root of the problem.

There's so much fear, fear of what's happening? Is it something serious? Something curable? Doc highlighted that since cancer runs in my family, he has instructed to run blood tests for any cancer markers. Would it be something manageable? Will it change my life-style forever? How long will it take for me to be able to roam the streets, shopping, eating, travelling without a care again? What does this mean to our family? There are tonnes of questions that weigh my mind each time I think about it.

I wonder about all those patients who have been diagnosed with cancer etc, how would they feel? What goes through their minds? Is it worth it to go through so much pain and $$ to even try to treat the condition? I guess if i'm 60 and i'm diagnosed with cancer, I'll rather spend the $$ on other things other than medical hee....

Interestingly, my bro called me asking me to run some errands, when I told him that I'm not doing well, he's response was, I'm so sorry to hear about it. Yup, that's it. Nothing else, not a word of is there anything I can do? Need help? On my return trip home, on the bus, I witness two sisters joke and tease each other, I wonder what happened to my own siblings. When was the last time we teased each other? When was the last time we felt that warmth of having a sibling who would stand by our side? Or was it only me? Earlier in the yr, when my bro had abdominal pain, i made sure that he got the best medical care possible, made frequent trips to the hospital to see how he was doing, dropped all my plans when he told me that he was getting discharged. I guess I did all that because I knew the horror of being a patient, feeling weak and helpless, doing my part to be there felt necessary. Often I asked myself how many times did I get a visit from my siblings throughout my history of hospital stay, I think alot less. Perhaps that's how we are all different.

Nonetheless, I feel very blessed with Ad as the ever caring hubby, with endless streams of friends who prays and sends me their regards. So be prepared to brave the rain with me dear friends....

The World's Best Doc

There's this doc that I've been seeing for the past 8yrs, even though it takes a good half a day to see him, usually wait for at least 3hrs, spent at least $100 on each visit. He's still the world's best doc to me.

Because he cares! Yes, each time, with any new arising medical condition, in his simple, quiet yet assuring way, he manages to make me feel totally safe in his hands.

This week feels like a re-enactment of what happened a few yrs back. Pain, go see doc, doc scan gives diagnosis as not so good, gives expensive injection to try to control the situation, come back a few weeks later says the doc. Goody, Jen goes home feeling that all will be taken care of.

Two days later, jen feels incredible discomfort again. So went back to the world's best doc again, although jen knows that this pain isnt exactly under this doc's specialty, but she needs to ask him for his expert advice. When he saw Jen, he made sure that all the discomforts were not due to his care. So he quickly referred to another specialist in the building. It was 530pm, the specialist was preparing to go home. He wasnt exactly interested to see me *blah* he said, if I wanted to see him, I can go in through A&E dept! So weird.

My world's best doc sigh and was saddened by the fact that many docs are not prepared to go that extra mile for their patients. Unlike most doc, my world's best doc works really hard. He is in the hospital at 7am daily, to do his rounds for admitted patients. Then by 830am, he is in the operating theratre operating on patients to resolve their many many issues. At 3pm usually, he opens his clinics to see walk-in patients or patients who needs check-ups (like me). His clinic often extends into the nightfall, even beyond midnight. In my 8yrs of seeing him, I only notice that he works harder and harder, later and later.

He is truly a caring doctor who puts his patients interest before his own. I feel so proud to be one of his patient because I know that he truly cares about getting me back on my feet.

Rude People Pisses Me OFF!

I must confess that I'm not in the best of my moods today and yet, a young smarty-pants young chap manage to be so rude that it pisses me off big time!!!!!!

Again, its related to the 'transpassing' incidents which I've been encountering in my office.

Today, this young chap came through my main door as if he own the lab, as I stood up from my cubicle to inquire his purpose for coming through, he quickly moved towards his exit and scrambled across the hallway with a tiny reply of "I'm just going there". I think these people should be taught MANNERS! How can they just run across hallways with a pretty young face chasing them like that?

So feeling totally out-of-place with this stranger darting across my office, I took the opportunity to ask more directed questions about his intentions and his identity to be bypassing MY office (for the 100th time!!!). He quickly retorted by saying that he is a staff with another department even questioning how come I do not know him. Yah right... Like he's the president?? Should the whole world know him? Again he wanted to walk away, but before he did, he told me that he had permission from my boss to use our office as his passage way whenever the other office is being occupied. Too bad for him, I did not know him, nor his name, nor got any of that information from my boss.

So before he could leave, I told him that I felt weird to have someone walking through my office like some highway as and when they like, they should try to state their purpose and at least let us know who they are. He gave a look that says, Why? Nothing wrong with that what. I asked how he would feel if he gets some strangers walking through his office and that got him to shut up! (1-0)

I quickly checked the staff directory for his information, unfortunately for him there was NONE! I could have called him a liar!

Next min, he presented himself to me again! ha ha ha..... He was asking for it I was thinking to myself. I told him as a matter of factly that I could not locate his staff status in the staff portal. He was shocked that there was even a staff portal ha ha ha... like as if he's been here for a long time..... (so i know he's NEW here... ha ha ha....) (2-0)

Lucky for him, I suspect he went to ask someone about ME ha ha ha... and most probably found out that I'm a stick in the mud about such things. SAFETY people! So he obediently came and introduced himself. He had an interesting name. But he was more interested to know who I am ha ha ha... So unbashingly I told him my name loudly and clearly, so that he can direct all his complains and bitching to me and me alone.

I just wonder if given a staff status vs a student status gives anyone the right to walk into another office and demand "respect" or in this case, clearly he was questioning how little we know about him and why are we questioning his actions across our hallways.

Or is it a serious lack of manners? To even lack the basic courtesy of greeting the people in another office with a simple "hello" or "hi how are you doing" or "heya, I'm making a bypass". It doesnt kill anyone to say all that and it will definitely make the people in the other office alot more assured of your presence.

These days, youngsters and even kids are not taught that basic courtesy of greeting their elderlys. I'm not surprised to be meeting more of such ill-mannered beings around. Just dun catch me on a bad day folks... Be Warned!

The story of Jenad

We've encountered several heart-breaking situations recently that got us thinking about how to embrace Godly ways in our daily lives to encourage those who seems to have lost their faith, lost their hopes and feeling helpless. Then Ad made a striking remark, he told me that nothing was more powerful then a testimony. So here, I'm attempting to put in words the power of God in our lives from the very begining.

Ad was born in a christian family, baptised and confirmed like any christian boy his age, he grew up and studied in a christian school and embraced God's tiniest blessings like sweets with the biggest smile on his face. He knew that he was God's favourite child and often hum hymns while walkiing with a skip.

Jen grew up in a taoist family who emphasized importance in respecting the elderlys and ancestors through many family gatherings like Qing Ming, 7th Month, CNY etc. Jen first knew about God when she was 14, in her fun-filled teenage years, a young friend brought her to a cell-group meeting and Jen got her first copy of the bible which only has John's writings. (But Jen found reading it too tough so left it aside collecting dust....) Throughout Jen's many wonderful teenage to young adult years, Jen's social circle kept expanding and expanding but they circle always seems to revolved around Godly people. Slowly but surely, Jen became increasingly aware of God's presence in her life. However, there was still very strong denial of accepting Him in her daily life.

One day, while Jen was feeling the tireness of graduate studies, the lonely indulgence in lab work everyday got to her bones. She secretly wish to see "daylight' out of the monotonous lifestyle of "lab-incubation". A miracle happened to Jen. YUP! Otterman told Jen that there was a piece of land in P.Ubin that was going to be reclaimed for state use but it was filled with sea-life. So asked Jen to grab the last chance to see what Singapore has before its gone forever. Embracing the thought of being with mother nature again, Jen was delighted to grab the opportunity to break that she was experiencing. Jen told all her friends to bring their friends and not to miss this last opportunity....

So her friend brought HER friend who happened to be Ad (hee.... *giggles*) That was how Jen met Ad....

I want to highlight here that the enormous amount of delight Jen had just to be out of the lab was overwhelming that she did not even realise that Ad was someone special to "bio" (or eye in hokkien). To be doing something different was like a big huge bonus for Jen, it was enough to keep her happily skipping from place to place to explore the mysterious amounts of lifeforms in Chek Jawa. (Soon her friend was telling her that anything from the sea has sea as the prefix, so there were sea-penis, sea-cucumber, sea-fan etc.... u know who u r ah... Friend hee...).

Yup, so that how Jen met Ad, not sure how much Ad had prayed for God to deliver a lively, bubbly gal to him, but it sure happened that very day when God blessed Jen with a beautiful day of outing at the shore and a date with Ad hee....