Parents WATCH OUT: Scary but true

Spent a lovely evening with an aunt who has been residing in HK and as we chatted, she share some really scary but true stories about the REALITY of child-napping around asia. So I thought I'll share what I can recall to help bring about some awareness.

She says that there's news of children missing daily in the newspapers. Its a real threat. Not one that's hearsay. Just because its safe in Sg, doesn't mean that we stop to educate our children what is "NO talking to strangers".

1. One duo-income family with 2 young kids hired a helper from China, they are addressed as 啊姨 (an affectionate auntie term). Their parents went to work one day, only to return home with no kids, no 啊姨. They reported the police and CCTV around train stations, bus interchanges showed how their 啊姨 took their kids further and further away from home. Finally into the chinese border and lost in the crowd. GONE forever!

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2. Another duo-income family had a 3yr old boy and 6yr old girl. For many months after their domestic helper from Indonesia came into the family. Nothing unusual occurred. In fact, their helper was diligently bringing the kids down to the nearby playground daily. Without fail. Every single day. It became such a routine that no one really took noticed that the boy is not really talking much. The girl is not such a chirpy young child. One morning, the girl pleaded with her mummy not to go to work. Mommy thought that she was just throwing her tantrums. So mummy went to work as usual, left her daughter crying for attention.

One evening soon after that day, while the helper was busy with something. Mummy decided to shower her daughter for a change. 1st time in about 10months.....

Daughter told mummy that her private parts hurt. Mummy examined her, she was swollen, red with infection at her groin area. What comes to mind? 6yr old young child?

Their helper has been bringing the 2 young kids down to the shed NEXT to the playground daily to a guy. A guy who paid this maid $200/month to bring the kids to him. These poor children is traumatized for the rest of their lives.

What good does it do to the young children even if both the helper & the bad guy got caught?

The little boy has chosen to not speak.

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3. Real life encounter:
One of my niece who took part in a school overseas trip in China for an exchange program with another school. She and 2 other girlfriends were taking a break and went out of the school gates for a chat. One big, clean, tourist looking bus drove by the gate with 3 men inside the bus. The men told the girls to get up the bus. They said that they knew which hotel they stayed, they can wait for the rest of their friends on the bus.

Thankfully, the girls were sharp enough to notice that it was a different bus from what they're taking. So they did not get up that dubious bus.

Who knows what will happen to them? Young blossoming girls! They actually knew where they stayed! Doesn't that mean that these guys were just waiting for an opportunity?

Be careful on your overseas trips people. You never know WHO is watching at you, just for one short moment when you are not looking, your kids may just vanish. Forever. So teach them well, grill into them to be ALERT.

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4. Another real life encounter in SINGAPORE
A young and very pretty cousin just got her driving lessons and drove her daddy's car to Takashimaya for a shopping spree.
She got into her car and thankfully her mommy taught her well. LOCK immediately before you do anything else in the car. She hasn't even start her car yet.

A man came knocking on her window. Whacking it with some urgency.

Initially, she thought that he was trying to offer her some cleaning services. She was going to lower her window to give him so money when she noticed that there was something not quite right with that urgency on knocking on her door. He was also trying to open her door!

She also noticed that he's got a white hanky behind his back held by one of his hands. She knew that there's something not right with this guy!

She started her car engine quickly and drove towards the exit. Somehow that same guy got ahead of her and was waiting for her at the exit. He told her that he will remember her with fingers pointing towards her!

Ain't it scary?

They went to report to the police, to Takashimaya management and guess what? There was NO traces of that guy in their cameras at the carpark nor lift landings. So no one can figure out how this guy can appear in such a popular spot along Orchard road in Singapore.

New Tribe in Sg?

Your Friend S-H-A-R-O-N

Got one of the thousands tele-marketing calls again. This time they were a little bit more creative, they found me a friend named Sharon. Here's the conversation:

Telemarketer (TM):"Hello, good afternoon, may I speak to Ms J please?"

J: Yes speaking?

TM: Ms J, your friend referred you to us, we are from True Yoga, we are very happy to offer you 1 week FREE trial at True Yoga.

J: (tempted to say YES immediately, FREE leh, my kinda of cool. But this is also like the 1001th Free trial i've been offered, so abit more cautious)
What is the name of my friend who gave you my name?

TM: Oh let me check, (flips paper in the background for 0.01sec). Its your friend Sharon.

J: Sharon? Sharon what? What's her surname?

TM: Oh surname ah, (flips MORE paper in the background) we do not have that data with us. Its just Sharon.

Wont it be strange that for a member to register, they have to pay quite abit of registration fees, subscription fees etc and they wont have their member's surname? Even donkey forms in most places would require you to give them your NRIC. They don't have the member's surname?

If its an authentic phone call with an authentic recommendation, there should be more details. What's there to hide anyway?

J: I don't have a friend by that name.

TM: (in shock) You don't have a friend called Sharon? Its S-H-A-R-O-N! (yes, she spelt it out for me)

J: Nope, not one that will give you my particulars and do not dare to admit it anyway.

TM: Oh okay, thank you very much then.
*hangs up quickly*

How fake can this be?

They gave me a pseudo friend ha ha ha

And she was not the first one to do so. The last one gave me a friend with a local dialect name which I really dun have a friend by that name ha ha ha Like di-gum for them eh?

So for all those reading here, please do kindly drop a note to me if you were pressurized to give my name to any organization, for any purpose, for any free trials, freebies etc. Its only courteous to do so if its a friend that you are pushing to these telemarketers.

But I know for much certainty that my friends are sensible enough not to put my name down on these forms. Because they are nothing but a nuisance!

Cat Walk!

Yes, finally, after years of telling my friends who obese cats, it IS possible to walk your cats!!

Dun pamper them anymore!



hahahahahaha :P

Pie Kia!

I recall one of our early trips out with our Godson BabyA (not so baby anymore now) and we were all taken over by his "hokkien slang" when we tried to teach him a few hokkien words.

Here's the recap of our hokkien lessons...



Now, some humorous Singaporeans even opened a food chain to delight our hokkien roots with some attitude!

Orchard Central: When will you be opened?

Always exciting to have a new place to explore on this tiny island of SG. So when news got round that Orchard Central is almost ready, I took the opportunity to snap some shots! I think I saw a giant Nike sign behind some glass doors.... wooo.... soon soon... In time for GSS? hmm....

Yummies!

Ad did it again!

He served up Boon Tong Kee standard chicken rice after 2.5hrs of intensive preparation & cooking.

Together with "ling-lok" (lemon coke in cantonese), its just yummy beyond words!

Do you need $?

These notices sprouted out on the "green" fences along the very popular pedestrian walkway in TP Central. its amazing how entrepreneurial some folks can be to capitalize on the various situations. During SARS, people were buying face masks in tonnes to stock up and "fry" the prices of the masks. During poor economic downturns, they offer loans with "little" strings attached. Sounds very dubious if you asks me. But to someone who is desperate for some cash, someone who is at their wit's ends, this notice may come as a saving grace to them. That is if they can survive the high interest returns rates, at hopefully a reasonable repayment loan terms.

Good luck folks!

New Buses!

These days, many things on the road are new, new taxi companies, the cabs comes in so many colors that its tough to remember which are really cabs and which ones are not. It was simpler last time when it was just blue or yellow.... or black+yellow right?


BUSES also got alot of new stuff on them besides being new on the outside, they have a new ticket dispensing machine!

I was impressed by how tiny it is now!





wonder if the older folks can figure out that this is the new ticket dispensing machine, it is tucked away so neatly that it can be readily missed!

bored stiff

i cannot imagine how bored i am right now

my mind is just so not able to focus on completing the last 10m of my 1st race

arrggghhhhhh!

-signing off by a frustrated writer

We are Truly Blessed!

Below are extracts taken from Yahoo News through a concern friend.

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REYKJAVIK, Iceland - This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial meltdown.

Home to just 320,000 people on a territory the size of Kentucky, Iceland has formidable international reach because of an outsized banking sector that set out with Viking confidence to conquer swaths of the British economy — from fashion retailers to top soccer teams.

The strategy gave Icelanders one of the world's highest per capita incomes. But now they are watching helplessly as their economy implodes — their currency losing almost half its value, and their heavily exposed banks collapsing under the weight of debts incurred by lending in the boom times.

"Everything is closed. We couldn't sell our stock or take money from the bank," said Johann Sigurdsson as he left a branch of Landsbanki in downtown Reykjavik.

Famous for its cod fishing industry, geysers, moonscape and the Blue Lagoon, Iceland was the site of the Cold War showdown in which Bobby Fischer of the United States defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in 1972 for the world chess championship. Last year, Iceland won the U.N.'s "best country to live in" poll, with its residents deemed the most contented in the world.

Back home, the average family's wealth soared 45 percent in half a decade and gross domestic product rose at around 5 percent a year.

But the whole system was built on a shaky foundation of foreign debt.

The country's top four banks now hold foreign liabilities in excess of $100 billion, debts that dwarf Iceland's gross domestic product of $14 billion.

Those external liabilities mean the private sector has had great difficulty financing its debts, such as the more than $5.25 billion racked up by Kaupthing in five years to help fund British deals.

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more reads at the original Yahoo News site.

Can you imagine a whole entire country going into financial crisis? Everyone's assets becomes 45% of its original worth. Overnight your country is in severe debt.

Here in Singapore, each individual is heavily padded from such downturn of events by our government who thinks very far ahead. Which government keeps stuffing cash into their citizens's bank accounts?

Arent we truly blessed?

So stop complaining about being a Singaporean and start being grateful for the peace that we enjoy!

Things that I will never understand perhaps...

There's this activity which a group was interested to participate on a monthly basis or at least seems to be interested to participate.

But since the beginning, it has been an uphill task to gather the members together every month. Like little children, they have to be coax and conjured to the activity. If so, then why do they make that initial agreement to it in the first place?

Or time has changed their minds about it?

If so, why not just be straightforward to admit that the activity has no significance to them and they would rather let it end?

Instead, every month now, I have to go round coaxing the little children to get together for something perhaps they themselves see no meaning in.

Should I just stop being hopeful about it already?

I think I'll have to seek higher powers for this....

"A Typical Day in the Life of a Chinese Man"

in the light of the melamine-tinted milk products that is affecting world-wide supplies of any milk related products/industry, there is an increasing need for awareness in what goes into the food that we eat, the products that we use. Natural leather smells GREAT but how often are the bags/shoes/car seats made of real leather, would the average joe be able to tell the difference? The blog below is a direct copy from The China Blog.

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This is a spoof diary of a day in the life of an ordinary Chinese that has been circulating on the web recently (in Chinese here, for example). I have edited out large chunks as it gets pretty repetitive, though that of course is the point. The excellent translation is courtesy of Chris Hughes of the London School of Economics and Political Science to whom we extend our thanks for his permission to use it. (I have also dropped his footnotes that link the reference to specific chemicals mentioned to actual incidents in which they were found to have been used in China.) This sometimes stomach turning account is representative of a whole range of stuff that has been appearing on the web--spoof TV ads for the milk companies involved in the ongoing scandal over tainted milk powder (here for example, courtesy of danwei.com), doctored print adds featuring witty (and not so witty) jokes about milk powder and so on. Talk about black humor. (There's also an interesting swipe at super-nationalist/'my-country-right-or-wrong types at the end, by the way):


I wake up in the morning and... I turn on the renovated TV ... The TV weather forecast says the air condition will be good. I look at the sky for a while – Oh! A very yellow sun! I will not need to wear my acid rain proof raincoat today. After I get out of bed and put on my carcinogenic ‘amine scented’ Walmart clothes, and my suit that has been dry cleaned with carcinogenic acetylene tetrachloride, I feel that there is a slight odour on my body and burning in my eyes. Luckily I can freely use my scent for non-pregnant men and the sparkle immediately returns to my eyes. I pick up the toothpaste with its slight traces of the chemical Triclosan and let it react in my mouth with the chlorinated tap water to produce carcinogenic Trichloromethane. I always eat well in the morning and after using the carcinogenic toothpaste I wipe my face with the Benzidine contami nated towel, have a cup of Melamine polluted milk, eat some fried bread sticks (youtiao) cooked in diesel, dipped in some chile source died with Sudan Red, added to a bowl of duck egg gruel with poison rice and egg with large amounts of Lead Oxide, not forgetting of course do add some condiments made with chemical ingredients. After a belch, I put on the helmet I bought for 10 renminbi to keep away the traffic cops and go out. I get on the motorbike which has just had its cut price famous brand brake pads changed and carefully go off to work.


Our hero continues to ingest horrific amounts of chemicals, including when his boss treats him to a fancy dinner:
The boss is very happy when he hears the report and of course offers to entertain everyone for dinner. Before dinner we all drank a cup of Biluochun tea died with lead and chrome, and have some pine nuts roasted in caustic soda and Sodium metabisulfite along with some pumpkin seeds in talcum powder and paraffin wax. The dinner itself is of course more sumptuous, with DDVP soaked Jinhua ham and chicken feet soup, boiled beef with spicy source washed and filtered by thousands of people, beef injected with water [6]and contraceptive fattened eel slices with red pepper, soy-cooked squid rolls puffed with caustic soda and preserved in formaldehyde, dyed Carmine pork, steamed crab raised on several types of Western medicine and dead cats, dogs and ducks, garlic shrimps baptised in human urine. He also orders a plate of seasonal green vegetables with excess pesticides cooked in hogwash oil. There are some bottles of ‘15-Year-Old Maotai’ spirit ‘filtered’ through women’s stockings and a couple of boxes of artificial sweeteners and red wine with excess colouring. The filler is steamed bread buns bleached with Benzoyl peroxide . Finally there is a plate of fruit with strawberries, peaches, apples and water melons grown large and ripe with hormones.


Not surprisingly, our boy doesn't feel so good when he gets home:
I feel very tired when I get home. My head is dizzy and I can’t sleep. I take some sleeping pills made with glutinous rice, but it is no use. Because I have caught a cold I ask the company for some time off when I get up in the morning. I take some carcinogenic diethylene glycol glycerine that has been passed off as cough medicine, but I do not take a turn for the better all day. After passing a few days like this, my headache gets even worse, I became nauseous, lack energy, sweat, vomit, and have diarrhea. So I have to go to hospital. The instant intravenous revival is no use, so the doctor can only give me false medicine produced by Shangqi,[ but it still isn’t any use! Finally the doctor consults and recommends that I go to the US for a complete examination and ask an expert from the FDA there to find the real cause. As soon as I hear I have to leave the country, I suddenly become excited: I resolutely will not go! I was born a Chinese person, and will die a Chinese spirit. I want to be a pure Chinese person!

why so much blogging?

Cos i'm feeling very restless in the middle of the night!

Plus, I have to write some stunning reports to woo some reviewers to say Yes to my reports. And I suck at writing. I figured that with more blogging, I feel more at ease with writing and hopefully, I can write better?

I may have to write in more scientific terms, so please bear with me.

As it shows, I can most likely complete my tasks something this life time. Hopefully.

*deep breaths*

Dryclean @ Petrokiosk

You can now dump your dry cleaning in your petrol kiosk!



you will just have to trust that your garments will come back cleaned to you hee hee.....

Would you try this?

Make Up Day

Then another day, when I was sooooo bored out of my wits, I decided to wear make up to work.

My fren D, called me bo liao when he heard what I did.... *bleah*

It took me 1hr to wash up and put on the make up and get to work! Much longer than what I normally take, which is like 5mins. So I concluded that its not time worthy to wear make up to work!

(btw, i work from home hee hee)


besides the eye brow set & eye shadow set, I wasnt very fascinated by the rest of the items! :P

I guess I gotta try them in different combinations again to have a fair assessment hee

when shall I wear make up to work again? any suggestions?

I'm Queen of MJ! Yahoo....

Its rare to game after collecting $ for kang.... hee hee....

this happened really long ago... just decided to blog cos i just found the picture....





Woo hooo..... I love MJ in moments like this!! I feel like the Queen of MJ!!! hahahahhaaha

Clearing Dead Skin

A New Me!

Thank you to contestjunkie.blogspot.com for the lead to join this contest. I had great fun and best of all, a new wardrobe!

more on the story of the A New You contest here.

*muaks*

Airport got check ah!

Even the layman taking the bus to the airport is now been checked!

Or has it always been this way? But when I take the cab, it arrives infront of the glass window of the arrival or departure halls and no one ever asks me to open my bag or check if I'm carrying anything suspicious...

Then why do they do it to buses or vehicles that enters the basement of the airport terminals?
If I cant bring forbidden stuff through the basement, I'll just do it via other ways.... not very smart leh....

got loopholes, must plug them!

Help me!

Its been two weeks since they've been hanging out there... I cant help them because we do no own any long bamboo poles at home, we use the DRYER hee hee

It has become my daily routine to check on these helpless creatures if they are "released" from their hangman position. Despite strong winds, heavy rains, occasional birdie companionships.... they are still hanging STRONG!

I wonder who do they belong to? Must be from someone very high up, who cannot make up which level they have landed on and are not least bit worried about them...



dun they look helpless? hee

There's smtg about 7th Month

There's something about 7th Month which I dun quite understand....

There is usually massive burning of "offerings" along housing estates for the souls that have been released.

But then hor, arn't the final resting places of these souls located at the cemeteries or temples etc where their ashes/body are buried?

So why isnt these offerings burnt at these places during 7th Month? There should be a higher concentration of burning to your own family or extended family right?

Ok, lets say these burnings are meant for your extended family, but you burn them near your own home? Would they know when and where to go and "collect" their goodies? Or is there some interesting network that connects anyone to their loved ones just by burning something?

I find the randomness of burning makes it tough for both parties to account for it.

Worse still, it usually creates a huge mess after the humans are done with their burning... pity the cleaners who have to go round cleaning up. Maybe there should be some campaign to tell people that 2hrs after their burning, they should go clean up after their stuff.

We should not be encouraging these forms of litter right?

Singfest!

Thanks to the resourceful networks of my dear friends, we got tickets to Singfest 2008!!!! Yahooo!!!

God has really been kind to us!!! It was Ad's first outdoor concert event and I can tell that he had a great time dancing away to the music!!!


the great folks who made it possible!!! Thanks jie! *muaks*

guess who brought drinks??? it has to be him.... hee.....

Thanks Ced!!

Guess who was the BEST entertainer that night?? It was Jason Mraz! His songs have been on the radio for months and sometimes its hard to get his singing out of my head. He really melted the audience with his great showmanship and his hot hit I'm Yours.


It was such a swell time that we kept clicking away our cameras hee...





We really went head over heels with PCD & Rick Ashley, who would have thought that this guy can actually rock the house?? Well, we were merrily surprised!

What do 6 boys do on a hot afternoon?

Drink alot of beer.... 14bottles in all and this is NOT the end of the drinking day... *tsk* *tsk*

New Signs on trains!

Its either these signs are new or that I have been too engross whenever I'm on the trains. But I really like these new signs on our newer trains. Beats the old one hands down.

Qn: Are they designed by a Singaporean? hee hee...

Are You KettleBelling?

Its an ancient Russian training method using cast iron bell, read more here.



I still cant get over the first exercise... reminds me of chinese men trying to tying strings with weight to their groin area to exercise their manhood! hahahahahahaha

"mr" Brown Ping Pong

Where's the trust?

I was at a queue after an elderly lady in NTUC, clearly, she was purchasing daily necessities for her home, she's got canned food, veggies, maggie mee etc on the side a bag of 5kg rice and a tin of biscuit. She asked the cashier if the tin of biscuit can be purchased at a much cheaper price if she hits $25 with her other purchases (the famous Purchase with Purchase deals from NTUC). Cashier nodded her head towards the elderly lady.

After putting the items through the scanner, the elderly lady will have to purchase the 5kg bag of rice in order to make it up to $25!

My heart goes out to this elderly lady, for one, she's really good at saving her $$ because most of the products she purchased were NTUC house brands, hence savings from purchasing other brands. Secondly, she made use of the extra discounts offered to elderly by NTUC on Tuesdays, 5% off their purchases! Thirdly, she bought the tin of biscuits at a discount by chalking up enough $ to qualify for it. Such a smart shopper!

Problem is.... all her stuff put together, is.... very HEAVY!

After I paid up for my tiny packet of gummy bears (to bribe my young niece hee hee), the elderly lady was still struggling to sort out her many shopping bags worth of groceries. So I offered my help. To help her carry to where she needs them to be. I figured, she will probably take a bus/train or at most walk a few blocks away, no big deal for me.

She said "NO, thank you" consistently but was happy by the kind gesture. She said that someone would be meeting her to help her with her stuff. So I thought ok, I left her to continue sorting out her nightmare of about 6 bags.

I was distracted at a corner shop and stopped in there for a minute or two before continuing my walk home... and guess what? The elderly lady has just crossed the roads in front of me, alone! Aiyo! I think she was afraid that I'll ran away with her stuff. And I dun blame her for it.

Again, I walk up to her and offered my services... again she denied it. Well, I guess its hard to believe that there's someone who is wiling to help. But that kampong spirit of helping your neighbors is not so evident in our current HDB homes. We live with suspicion of each one that passes us by. There's little trust in the fellow being next to you anymore. Scary but its true.

Doremon On Honda!

Things that I wanna blog about....

I have about 10million 501thousand things that I wanna blog about starting from as early as January this year, BUT I cant!

I cant because I feel bad "wasting" time on blogging while I'm supposed to be doing eyes-popping actions of analysing data, writing reports, reading journals.

*boo* *hoo* hoo*

here's a mini list hee...
1. young singer in the making....
2. how to be a safER traveller
3. new tech toys at home!
4. birthday bashes!
5. new "kang-taos"
6. work-life-balance
7. car race
8. lego
9. story of a tree
10. how to feed a 2yr old & 30yr old at the same time....

see... so much to blog about! but I cant.... yet.... soon I hope.... I pray.... pls pray for me too!

:)

A sweet gesture

I was helping out at ADEX with Dive Junkie over the weekend and there's this gentleman who made a really sweet gesture that is deeply engraved in my mind. He has a gentle nature and a sweet smile, tanned and semi-blonde hair due to the expose to seawater.

Over the three days, this gentleman came over to our booth to purchase our apparels and wore them the next day! We had great fun asking him to stand infront of our booth to take pictures of him with our apparels. :) hee....

On the last day, again he came over and purchased yet another tee shirt while wearing OUR tee shirt, I cant resist but to ask him to take another photo with our booth again.

After taking his solo shot, he whipped out his camera and wanted to take a picture with ME hee hee... (cos i'm the self-proclaimed BEST sales person on the sales floor...)

He said that he'll email me my shot! Yeah!

At the end of ADEX, while everyone was madly packing away, I was hidden away in the store trying to organise our stocks, suddenly a head popped into the store and it was HIM! He came to say goodbye! Just for me! So sweet hor?

These days, everyone is so involved with their own lives, they dun make the effort anymore to have a personal relationship with each other. Emails, sms feels cold while a face-to-face, over the phone feels warm. I'm touched by this very sweet and heartwarming gesture, which reminds me that I should have a more personal relationship with those around me too!

(now I hope that I look GREAT in that photo hahahahahaha)

Come & Find ME!

Its an exciting time for all divers again!!!

Time to look for great deals, hunt for the best diving spot around the world and time to listen to some of the very experienced divers who can find you something interesting underwater, take the most gorgeous underwater photography eg. Michael Aw, renowned underwater photography who organised numerous trips to discover new species, lead a few campaigns to save our marine life.

Its called ADEX! happening NOW! Suntec City Convention Hall 602-603.





Why am I so ON about this??? Not because I've been soaking myself under the sun too much, but rather, I've fallen in love with the Dive Junkie casual wear! They are so comfortable! Color lasts me 4yrs already and its still going on BRIGHT (mind you, I throw them into the washer & dryer to wash them hee) Their collars will NEVER stretch, their prints are always fashionable. What more can one ask for in a tee shirt?

Plus they've got NEW designs in exciting colors! Sunset orange, Atoll, Kelp... sounds so delicious already, how can anyone resist?


Check out their website NOW!

Jen's current music

Saw the movie "Music & Lyrics" by Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore over the weekend and I cant get enough of its theme songs!!!


Don't write me off just yet
Its never been easy for me
To find words to go along with a melody
But this time there's actually something on my mind
So please forgive these few brief awkard lines
Since I met you my whole life has changed
Its not just my furniture you've rearranged

I was living in the past
But somehow you've brought me back
And I haven't felt like this
Since Frankie said relax
And i know based on my track record
I might no seem like the safest bet
All I'm asking you is
Don't write me off just yet

For years I've been telling myself the same old story
That I'm happy to live off my so called former glories
But you've given me a reason
To take another chance
Now I need you
Despite the fact that you've killed all my plants
Although I know I've already blown all my chances
Than anyone should ever get

All I'm asking you is
Don't write me off just yet
Don't write me off just yet


Way Back Into Love
I've been living with a shadow overhead
I've been sleeping with the cloud above my bed
I've been lonely for so long
I've trapped in my past for so long
I just cant seems to move on

I've been hiding my hopes and dreams away
just in case i may need them again some day
I've been having a sad time
Clearing a little space in the corners of my mind

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I cant make it through without a way back into love

I've been watching but the stars refused to shine
I've been searching but I just dun see the signs
I know that its out there
There's gotta be something for my soul somewhere

I've been looking for someone to shed some light
Not somebody to get through the night
I could use some directions
And I'm open to your suggestions

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I cant make it through without a way back into love

If I open my heart again
I guess I'm hoping that you'll be there for me in the end


There are moments when I dunno if its real
Or anybody feels the way i feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I cant make it through without a way back into love

If I open my heart to you
I'm hoping you'll show me what to do

And if you hold me in the sun again
You'll know that I'll be there for you in the end

Very awesome lyrics! Go and enjoy them! watch

What's Up Jen?

I think the very interesting question which many have been asking me is... What are you doing Jen?

Sometimes I also wonder.... yes, mostly to myself... especially in the past few days, crunching the data is really driving me up the wall... now I know why they call it permanent head damage, its actually quite hard NOT to have some form of brain damage considering the amount of time one has to sit infront of the computer staring and staring at the screen....

So after a really long and painful time, I finally figured out the relationships between some of my data... but still a marathon away from putting them together in understandable form... well at least I can seek some contentment in my enlightenment... its another one of those toilet bowl enlightenment moments.... I guess if I'm a smoker, its much faster with a cigarette in my hands... ha ha I can truly appreciate those artistic people who comes out with innovative ideas when they are shitting or bathing or just dazing...

So wanna have a look at what "enlightenment" looks like?


ok, it took a few attempts to make it look pretty, I have to right? Afterall, this will be pasted on my wall for quite a while until the whole experience is wrapped up :)

(some of the o-biang drawings are contributed by my very artistic other half hee hee)

Hand hurts from too much keyboard?

ok it hurts to type this blog post...

does it really happens?

this was a rested hand from a night's sleep...

it hurt the moment i placed my right arm on the keypad to start typing. Now i'm doing a slated hand typing!

I used to spend about 16hrs infront of my keyboard and it doesnt happen. Why now?

hopefully it'll get better with a few days of CNY "break".

You know CNY is round the corner when....

You see trays of pineapple tarts waiting to be cooled after baking...



sometimes, they can get really creatively created...(especially when there's an excess of either the dough or the pineapple fillings)



It is almost heavenly when they are all nicely packed into festive mood containers, ready to be shipped "away" (into the mouths of the makers! ha ha ha)
(btw, orders are welcomed for 2009's CNY because we've received overwhelming reviews for our pineapple tarts and have decided to give chance to MORE people to enjoy them hee hee)


If you were to take a walk to Chinatown, you'll see rows and rows of stalls set up selling tonnes of auspicious looking ornaments, food, drinks and even some form of entertainment....

This belongs to a very ancient form of chinese entertainment as there were no television, no internet, no mobile phones, no movies, instead there were lots of creative juices flowing by artists who can mimic a few different voices to bring out a puppet play. The audience have room for imagination to enjoy the play to the fullest. Not bad for entertainment I would say for the dull minds ;)

Ahh... CNY cannot happen without some of these yummy food, namely the waxed duck! This year, these stores are few and far in between, we combed about 4 streets to spot this stall, so we grabbed the opportunity to stock up our waxy food. But they are pretty EXPENSIVE this year, one tiny drumstick was sold for S$7! *ouch*


Another sure sign of CNY is when you see Mother Mary and Baby Jesus dressed up in traditional chinese costume in your church! hee hee... Ad says there was an original painting by some ya ya artist in Rome, so here's a replica.


Finally, when NTUC doesnt sleep, you KNOW for sure you HAVE to stock up your food supplies to combat the few days of store closures. This year there may be more stores who will opt to close for a longer term as the public holidays falls on Thursday & Friday, they can get super extended holiday by just taking another two days off. So be sure to stock up people!

Yes, NTUC closes at 2am until the 5th of Feb. So all the night owls, you can start shopping at midnight, or if you have been cleaning the house till the wee hours, rest assured that NTUC waits for YOU.

(but hor, I feel that the late night opening has always been a feature of the wet markets, for the hawkers to make a killing before they close for the only time in the whole entire year. So with NTUC in the competition for late night business, is there anymore decent profits for these hawkers? hmm....)

The Scare of my Academic Career

As with every career, especially those which you are going to see the end of the project, there are usually some "excitement". Mine is no different.

Just in the last few days, there was an active discussion among those in the community about how postgrads have "displacement activities" as Alvin calls it. Most were to describe how different individuals would be extremely productive in all other aspects of their lives EXCEPT for that ONE thing they had to do, that is their thesis! ha ha ha

Today, I noticed that my main harddisk space is dropping very quickly (HD is partitioned for Applications and another for DaTa). So I happily backedup my photos, music etc, deleted those music files that I hardly listen to.

NEVER for ONE single moment did I actually think of backingup my OWN research data which I've been working on for the past few years.... (my last backup was 1month back). I'm not sure why I'm so careless!

After happily deleting most of the files, I started to work on some of my data until 2pm when hunger pangs took control over my body, I had to run some errands during lunch, so I put Peppermint to sleep and went off.

When I returned, I was shocked beyond words.... imagine if someone just took away 4yrs of your research, analysis without your knowledge, you did not even get to say goodbye....

I have absolutely NO idea where my DaTA drive went!????

*panic*

(quickly open my trash bin... nope, I have diligently emptied my trash as well)

*more panic*

I recall Jr saying that these data are never really "deleted" off your machines, they just get over-written.

Ad is in KL on his way to a meeting... what do I do? I cant possibly wait till 11pm! I called Jr, hanged on to the foreign sounding ringtone.... I guess he's overseas as well, but he's my BEST BEST bet at recovering anything....

Thankfully, Jr picked up my call and Thank God that he was quick-minded to give me some VERY useful instructions in VERY simple steps in addition to his assurances.

OK, here are the steps, just in case anyone needs them, (but pls do YOUR backUP NOW!)

1. shutdown the computer
2. unplug power cable from machine
3. remove battery from machine
4. Do NOT do anything at all to the machine until....

a. you find another Mac (Jr calls it the Happy Mac)
b. download the trial version of SubRosaSoft
(use the trial copy first to check if its "powerful" enough to see the documents that you want to recover before you pay for it)
alternatively, you can use Virtual Mac Lab or Boomerang Data Recovery
(Jr was the BEST, he gave these links to me within mins of my panic phone call, kept me on the line to ensure that I got the steps right...)
c. Close all software on the Happy Mac and just open the data recovery software
d. ensure that both Macs (Peppermint was Sad Mac for a while...) are plugged in with power (so reassemble Sad Mac withOUT turning the power on) If either one runs out of juice during the recovery, it'll be total failure!
e. Find a firewire cable and connect Sad Mac to Happy Mac
f. Power your Sad Mac while holding on to the "T" on the keyboard until you see the Firewire Logo flashing on your Sad Mac's blue background
g. Recovery software will be able to "see" the files that you might have lost on Sad Mac, so copy them out to an external harddisk or to Happy Mac first
h. leave both Happy & Sad Macs alone to do their stuff - to take a pee/coffee break
i. JUMP up and Down in joy if you can "see" & recover ALL your files, if not, try another software.

I got lucky, I could see my Data Drive on Peppermint without the recovery software's assistance.

YEP, I backed up and backed up and backed up like mad.

And after the backing up exercise, I had to sit around to physically, emotionally recover from the shock, when that wasnt enough, I headed out for Retail Therapy to "remove the cache" from my system... ha ha ha

I must admit I got a pretty nice dress :P

Once again, thank you to Jr for his calm, collected assistance and patience, he makes a great instructor in a crisis anytime.

(some of you might be wondering hey where's Ad in all this action? later I found out that the sms never got to him... *sigh*)

A very tiny World

The world could not get any smaller... or maybe its because we are in Singapore?

Last night, I bumped into our ex-tenant from Hell. Yep, took the train with him, on the same NIGHT, at the same TIME, in the same TRAIN, in the same CABIN! Can you believe that? I only saw him in my last 2mins of "reunion" with him, not sure if he spotted me from the beginning, I suspect that we actually got onto the train from the same station as well ha ha ha

Last weekend, I attended a good friend's wedding reception and bumped into another old acquaintance. Why not a friend you might ask.... after spending 1month in Aussie land together on a backpack, I still dunno this guy! Can you believe that? ha ha ha Some people are just weird... or maybe its me... hmm...

Have a couple of friends who are also friends of friends'... so the world is getting smaller for me. Is that for you too?

I was analysing it as Singapore being a tiny country, so the chances of bumping into each other or having a chain-friendship is normal. Besides, most of these folks that we are talking about are in the same age group as ourselves, so naturally, the social circles also revolves around the same space.

But then hor, I also have friends who are cousins of my other friends... that is freaky! ha ha ha

I wonder if this would still occur if I'm not in the country? hmm... will have to live it to try it out! ha ha ha

Sinking heart

my heart is sinking faster than I can catch it.

Usually, when something goes wrong with an experiment, especially if its human error, one can easily, readily point it out. In my case, I'm dealing with a multi-dimensional error that only by God's grace am I able to figure out what went wrong, in order to fix it.

So my dear Lord, please help me see the light to the mountain of errors, guide me to find solutions with the limited resources that is available. HELP ME! Bless me!

Tonight

Tonight was a happy sad occasion where I got to meet up most of my family and extended family in a "celebration" of our grandfather's passing of 20yrs. Yep, Grandpa passed away suddenly one monday night 20yrs ago, the year when I just finished my PSLE, we were looking forward to the annual dinner with Beijing Duck...

That evening is still pretty clear in my head after 20yrs, Grandpa told us to pick up something from him and when we arrived, he was still doing his sums told us to wait for him. While waiting, he had a cough and laid back to rest. So we thought that he was tired and had to take a nap. We waited for around 20mins and never did we realised that the cough was a heart attack. Grandpa passed away before our very own eyes.

My world of comfort, fun, security changed from that moment onwards. Grandpa has left many legacies behind and we continue to discover them when we talk to our elders.

In my conversation with a cousin, I noticed something was not right with her and upon further probing, I realised that she's divorced from her young marriage of barely 3years. My heart sunk for her, to see that sadness and knowing that there's nothing I can do for her at this point. While she learns to pick herself up, I can only pray for her to have the strength to move on, to stay strong.

Remembering, Trusting & Cherishing

This weekend has been one that brought bitter news to many of us. Of those who know the 5 national dragon boaters who met with accident in their Cambodia race.

Ad was shell shocked when he read the news on Sat morning. Because he knew one of them. They had been to the same primary school, secondary school, junior college, entered army at the same time, went to the same university and after all these years, they ended up in the same industry. It is hard to count how many shared experiences they both have together. The fights maybe as kids? The jokes? Maybe even lots of pranks!

Just a few moments ago, I realized that another member of my extended family knows another victim at a personal level as well. Grieving is not an easy task and I'm glad that she took a brave step forward to grieve for her loss. She has decided to share what she knew of him with everyone who is interested to know through a blog. RVHS 2J 2001

It is during such shocking times that we remember all our interactions with these lovely people who has passed on.

In a conversation with a friend who used to BE in the team, so imagine his grieve.... he was wise to chose to TRUST that the accident happened because they were possibly unconscious due to the capsized boat. With that he could bring some closure to the accident and not try to be upset with anyone for it. Because anger cannot bring them back either.

This accident is yet another reminder for us to cherish those around us, tell them that they are important to us and let them be assured of their presence in our lives.

So go tell your loved ones you love them today. Tell them that you thought about them today.

Watson's is EVIL

I tell you.... How....

After working really hard today, I opened up my mailbox to find an interesting broucher, photocopied, scanned and sent to me by a not-so-IT-savvy friend. She got ALOT of heart, remembered that I LOVE Snoopy stuff and bothered enough to send it to me.

So I decided to take a small detour to Watsons before my dinner this evening....

I even planned to buy just 2 Snoopy items because you will need to spend $15 for every two Snoopy items. I cannot really figure out what I'll need at Watsons at the top of my head.

So I called for backup!! (yah like when Macs have their snoopy collection for their value meals, I also request for reinforcements)

I called up a good friend who is usually very sporting hee hee... (although I have to bear with her teasing for a long time to come... nevermind all that, its norm for people to tease me over Snoopy)

She was indeed very supportive, she "ordered" enough items through me to support my cause... hahaha which means I get to purchase another two more Snoopy items if I just throw a few things into the basket.

Then hor, their baskets now come ON wheels... which makes shopping alot easier, you just keep throwing things into the basket, full, overflowing nevermind, got a 2nd basket below it, can continue to fill it up, with its ultra light wheels, even if you put an elephant on it, you wont feel it when you push it around. So you just keep topping it up! (see how evil that is??)

I spent the next 10mins very constructively looking for items that I will NEED and will USE like tissue paper etc, I was even tempted to get shampoo! but it'll be too heavy for me to lag back alone haha

THEN! One innocent looking sales girl walked by and asked me if I was interested to learn more about their products (Silkpro).

Deep deep down inside me I was violently saying NO NO NO

But I just nodded my head because I had to "get MORE stuff" to buy MORE Snoopy items (might as well right? Since I'm at it anyway...)

Then she disappeared!

I should have just ran off that very instant! But I didn't (or else, there wont be this long essay on why Watson's is evil...)

She returned with another lady who was the beautician for Silkpro products, she started with moisturiser, then why I would need their toner and went on to the night repair and why my skin is the way it is now and blah blah blah.... I ended up with 3 bottles in my basket (overflowing already but still can put them on top safely)

Sigh, I'm weak lah. How??

When the cashier kept scanning the items, my heart kept jumping.... total damage $140.

I NEVER EVER EVER spend so much at Watson's before.

See how evil Watson's is?? They put up the Purchase with Purchase for Snoopy items and made me spend SO SO SO much!!

Just as I was leaving the store, I spotted this booth that is operated by Roman (a Germany company that sells pretty good quality stuff at good prices). They were selling anti-slip insole gels for shoes, in many shapes and sizes. Even some for men. Okay lah I thought of Ad and how tired his legs must be daily, I took a set for him. And I also chose another set for myself.

THEN the sales girl said that if I buy 3 sets, I will get a free gift! An anti-slip thing for shoes (on the outside when it can get slippery on rainy days)

Okay, I'm a freebie queen, mention the word FREE and you see my eyes light up!!

So I bought 3 sets lor. another $30 fly away...

See how evil Watson's is??

Now I have to go put on my 3 bottles of newly acquired stuff to see if it does all the magic that the lady claims, if not.... SOMEBODY's going get hurt real bad!!

here's what damage looks like....

Beautiful Day, rude people

Its the weekend!

And we have a mission, actually two.

One is to go for a warehouse sale and the other to complete some assignments.

To complete the assignments, we will need a reference book from the National Library.

So we head out to the library. Woah the seats were comfortable, quiet environment and even power supply for notebooks!

Wonderful

but being mid-day, there are many people here already. All the seats were taken up.

As I spotted 3 young kids packing up to leave, I stood by the side patiently to let them go.

When they were almost done, a couple came in between myself and the kids and happily charged forward.

So I went to gently remind him that I was waiting for the kids to clear out before occupying those seats.

He had a very unhappy look on his face and still ignored me and went ahead to put his things on the table.

Fine, the table was big enough to accomodate 4 of us.

But there was only ONE power supply available on the table.

I quickly took out my power plug and plunge it into the power source.

He looked ultra buay song and wanted to pick a fight with me. I told him that there was two of us with machines.

He almost wanted to eat me up and said that I cannot "chop" the power plug since my husband is not here.

I told him that my husband IS here. He went to look for a reference book.

He bo chap me, And used his power cord and plugged it into the wall plug.

He threw the cord over my seats even.

Good thing the lady next to him removed it. else, I'll would have just dumped it on the floor.

Ass!

If he had negotiated nicely, I would have been nice. He was just too rude for my taste.

GRC level Green Initiative!

I am so happy to catch this piece of news! Finally, someone who has "power" and resources is actually doing something practical and useful to ease the global warming issue in Singapore at the GRC level.

Am very happy to share that the Tanjung Pagar GRC has just started a "Make Your Own Bag" scheme which recycles used banners into shopping bags!

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it??

The material used for these banners are water-proof, hardy and best of all colorful!

Each bag is ONE of a kind!

Hand sewn by someone who can earn some spare cash or for that retired lady to spend some of her leisure time contributing to the environment.

Excellent idea!

Get the story from CNA here!

How was your weekend?

My weekend has been SHORT! yes too short to start with....

Watched a DVD on friday night and slept in late on sat.

Wanted to clean the rest of the house (because we started clearing things out from our study a couple of weekends ago and felt that the de-cluttering exercise was so liberating that we should extend it to the rest of the house) but guess what? the progress is slow.

My greatest fear: that the process if decluttering is slower than the process of purchase/gifts...

over the past few weeks, while we were actively decluttering, our family and friends were also actively contributing items BACK into our household... hmm... we'll need to put up some signs to tell everyone to hold back their "goodies" till Christmas for us, at least let us enjoy some SPACE first. hahaha

Anyway, sat was a super lazy day coupled by the fact that we were sleep deprived, so we spent a good deal of the time catching back our sleep.

Spent the evening at a girl friend's house and we talked about everything under the sun particularly make-up while Ad went on to do more cleaning up at home and did his mooncake shopping for the year... (see what I mean by slow speed of decluttering vs fast rate of purchase?? *tsk* *tsk*)

When we returned home, what was meant to be putting the mooncakes into the fridge became a "lets clear the fridge now" exercise. We spent the next hour, discovering the amount of sauces, pastes, drinks, food items that we had (hee hee) and YEAH we got more space in the fridge!!

well, after we stuff the box of mooncake into the fridge, we are like kinda back to square one with the not so much space left thingy.... *sigh*

Sun was a even shorter day. We sprang out of bed early to go to church, it was our church's Food and Funfair day. Time to take out those dusty coupons and utilised them! yeah, we were excited about being able to purchase something with our coupons as with previous years, we were always not in time to catch the stores by the time our Mass has ended...

After Mass, we cheong out to the funfair again and yeah there was MORE food available, we ate and we ate and we ate. So guess what was the BEST afternoon activity to do???

SLEEP!! hahaha

oops, with the afternoon GONE, its time to get ready for a wedding dinner.... ironing, washing up, drying my hair to style it, putting on make up (including my first attempt at eyes... hey girls, i did it!!! Ad says it looks GREAT!!), finding the right pair of shoes, bag, accessories etc....

the weekend is GONE just like that.

How was yours??

Warning from Orchard NPC- Snatch Theft

please warn all your friends and family.

I hope they do not spread to the outskirts of heartlands nor "upgrade" into motorbike snatch theft which would be very much more dangerous for anyone to be walking along the streets.

Singnet is NOT trustworthy!!

Singnet SUCKS!!!

I pay $88 a month for 10Mbps broadband speed but hardly reaches that kind of speed EVER, nevermind, but in the past few months we have been putting up with drop lines throughout the day and Night!!

It is terribly frustrating to have such a lousy service provider and its supposed to be our national service, leader... *PHUI*




We used to be on Pacnet, we have hardly encountered such situations, if yes, its rare, in our 3yrs of contract with them. Gosh, even starhub subscribers get a faster download speed then singnet with lesser problems.

this is terrible!!

Earthquake Tremors Felt

Finally, I felt some tremors, actually now that its being pointed out to me, i realised how INsensitive I am.

I thought there was some underground train that was passing through hee hee



for a local update of the seismic information go to NEA website


for a global look at the seismic situation, go to GFZ

local site address kindly provided by Ad, global site address kindly provided by someone's bf, who is IT savvy....