Why Women Want? Read This!

Times and again, it is surprising to see what guys perception of girls. Eventhough it’s not typical, but from friends and relative and others, there are some truths that guys might use to deal with ordinary girls, and there are a lot of ordinary girls out there. More than half of my friends are, some are not, some are even more ordinary. Unless you don’t believe me. Warning: It doesn’t work with all girls, but I think it works with more girls than you ever thought it would.

#1. Money is not (really) important.

This one is the most argued statement and most guys will jump on their seats. What? Then how do you explain all the suffering that we had gone through to win a girl’s heart? Sell kidney, cut toes to claim insurance to buy her stuff that she will proudly use or won’t throw away?
True. Go sell your kidney.
But the other truth is, there are a lot of girls who are not impressed with money, especially if the money is not belong to the suitor, aka daddy wealth etc. So flaunting a Ferrari or spending dad’s money only gets us pissed.
Impression: this bugger is unappreciative, dependent and proud of it. Logically, who will like this type of person? Genuinely?

Things would be different if the wealth is his own. He earns it, he has it. But mostly, guys who work up from bottom know how hard it could be and tend to be more down-to-earth and low profile. That is good. Even better if he doesn’t use it to woo a girl.

But if not belong to the two categories, girls still like hardworking ‘poorer’ guys, if not more. There is a will, there is a spirit, he gets out there and tries to support his family. It proves more.
Good and happy moment is not what money can buy.
Imagine the movie scene of dressing up, watch opera in another country, meal in another country and big diamond as a date gift, then cruise date.
It might be a dream date for some, but not necessary is. It’s like wearing a tight dress and there is no way to escape or breathe properly.

How about strolling in the beach or park with the guy who makes you laugh and feel comfortable..?

It’s personal, romantic, fun and the girl got all the attention undivided. Well?


#2. Singing in the balcony is not a really good idea.

For old movies, that is what romantic is. Showing unlimited affections in the public or sending bed of roses.

Showing affections is good, but overdoing it can works in reverse.
Most one can do is run, and fast, and wear a mask if have too.
Not too much, we want to feel special but not centre of gossip and mockery, especially when the affections are short-lived aka during the very first love blooming session only.

What happen to your bed of roses/balcony singer guy?
Oh. He passed through that phase and now just fart at home and pick me up two hours late if he remembers at all.
With fresh roses?
Nahhhh. Stinking breath.

So if it’s not you, don’t be it to impress a girl. Girls are demanding. While guys thought wooing time is the time they do their best, girls will hope that the best is the one they will keep getting. So, when the standard drops, they start to question your love.
So, better present what is real, be yourself. (If you don’t have the quality of ‘be yourself’, don’t blame me if it’s not working ;p).
Don’t over do but keep the standard. Genuine is the word.


#3. We need security

Nothing, nothing can underestimate this factor. Almost all girlfriends who look for my listening ears when they have sour relationship, this factor came up.
It’s not really the way the guy look at girl’s boob on the street, or on the teve or on the magazine, it’s not the way a guy turns his head to see beautiful women and sprains their neck. Most of girls are okay with that. Girls appreciate other’s beauty too.

But when a guy starts to show less interest, showing up later and later from the plan, forgotten about her in the group, and shows less and less appreciation to their relationship, most girls will question that and feel insecure. Who wouldn’t? It’s the dose that different. It sucks when a guy being all appreciative to woo you and then wear off as time goes by, how can you look into future if he keeps it up? Remember no #2. But above anything, non appreciative is the key for trouble to every relationship. Every. Even family and friends. Just because what you have, don’t forget to be grateful and treasure it. Human feeling is too fragile, nobody knows how many shots one can take, and even if someone can take multiple shots, the scars are there.

Insecurity is such a big factor that can drive people insane for every aspect of life. It takes away the fun of adventure, the peace of rest, the mind over body, and the logic over fear.

Don’t interpret this as calling to your girlfriend 3-4 times a day, showing up every where she is and celebrate every little things you can think of. It doesn’t work that extreme, it will kill the guy and even the girl off very fast, suffocated.

Some things will wear off the longer the relationship is, but main thing, it simply means that one have to be respectful, appreciative in relationship and never take it for granted.
But this is not easy at all.


#4. We hate fake gentleman or ungentleman.

Women are traditional creature. Regardless how bitchy and feminist we could be ;p (except a very extreme one) we still like to be treated as woman. It’s nice when we go out with a guy and they sort of protect and take care of you. From very simple thing like protecting you from the rain, putting himself on the side of the road where the car come first, offering you helping hand for some obstruction like steps, holes (honestly, we can do it. We are built almost the same and we won’t die jumping over small hole or climb some height), but it’s a very nice gesture and believe it or not, it sends us thinking of the guy higher.

We also like it when a guy takes charge. Waiving for cab, initiate to order food, make decisions and think about our safety in small or extreme way. For example, escorting you away from danger first before engaging to fight with another guy over you. Mhaha…But take note, no girls except blood thirsty one likes to see her guy or friend got beaten up or involve in anything violence, unless you are superhero who can kick ass without being hurt. Intelligent self control and cool is highly appreciated, together with logic and wisdom. Ce e lah…

These small protective and gentleman quality always win some soft spots, but warning: It has to be genuine, it really has to be genuine. We are watchful and really respect those move that goes under the radar, because it could be so genuine that the guy didn’t realize he is doing something really good. For example, pouring rain, one umbrella, classic scenario. You get to destination safe and sound, and dry. Only when you notice the guy is half drenched like a rat inside the gutter. Winning point: He takes good care of you without thinking of himself and he respects the personal distance (so he was out of the diameter of the umbrella just to avoid you being uncomfortable for getting too close). Aww…. It works the other way around with opportunist who take the chance to cuddle all over you without seeing the killing signal. Don’t share umbrella, and if you already did, kick his nuts.

The top of all and priceless is when a guy gives up something very important just to be there for you when you need him. This can’t be fake and it proves a lot. A loooot. This is kind of guy one who has the quality to be the companion of life. :")

Speaking of fake, fake gentlemen is the worst when they get caught. It’s like they treat us good, nice, and all of the qualities of making us feel impressed, flattered and protected then when we turn around, he bangs a door in front of old lady or someone else who he doesn’t have a purpose with. Or he is only good with those good looking ones. This kind is a branded male chauvinist pig that we don’t want to get involved seriously. He only treats us good when he wants us or something from us, the moment we don’t fit into the category, that is the moment he will turn his back or slam the door across our fore heads.
Point is: being fake doesn't work for long term.

This is far most a very important if not the most important point. It can hide ugly faces and other defect. Genuine smiles and gentleman deeds are really attractive.



So, for the lengthy post.
Indeed, because everytime I only have a chance to write half a point only. The post has been hanging around forever, better get it posted. When I finish, I don’t even know whether this is the topic I intend to write on the first place, and I’m sure I miss a lot of things, but the key important things are there.

Sorry for girls who don’t feel represented as ‘we’. Everybody is different, nobody is identical. Screw you, write you own. Ha…joking…
For the guys, we are not that complicated. Okay..we are.. our brain is clogged with tangled nerves and we think too much for too many little things. We can’t help it, we don’t have moustache to worry about.

But I dare to say, we are complicated in simple way, it is actually quite easy to read once you get the pattern. Hm?

Above all, these are good base but of course there other important factors, without chemistry it won't work, also, different personality attraction affect different people.


Sure God created man before woman, but then again you always make a rough draft before creating the final masterpiece.

A woman never forgets the men she could have had; a man, the women he couldn't.

Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.
- Oscar Wilde

Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed.
- Albert Einstein

Men need rule books. Women want men to intuit what they want. And only about 2% of men can do that, and most of them are not heterosexual.
- Dennis Prager


;p



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Christmas Is Here Again

Christmas is here again…yay!
It’s my favorite time of the year although I have mix feeling for Christmas.

I love it because the weather is cooler, the city is more romantic with the raindrop and drizzling wind, essential for my survival in the city.
It’s also the time to care and share more and be grateful, especially for the wonderful family, that even we are apart and scattered everywhere, we gather our thoughts of them together.
I’ll never forget the twinkling lonely Christmas tune in the dawn of some some years ago when I had to leave home for college and realized how much I’m going to miss it again.
Christmas is also blue because it was Christmas time when I had my heart break. Ceeee e lahhhh…
But on top of that, nobody can forget the tragedy of Boxing Day 2004, it affected me more than I never thought it would ever be.

So let me lift my mug and cheers to everyone, we have to always always be grateful and enjoy our lives as if there is no tomorrow, but don’t forget to save some in case we don’t die tomorrow. Cheers! :)


Christmas in new office, I never thought it would be this fun. We put up some Christmas decoration, although it’s minimalist, this morning I added some. ;p

Can you tell which one that I added?

We also just had our Christmas race that left me and my two colleagues cramp because we laughed like mad.


HERE ARE THE CONTESTANT!

THE CHEERLEADERS!

THE SUPORTERS!

THE VENUE!


OF COURSE WE HAD TO GET RID OF THE PESTS FIRST!


THE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER!


AND THE WINNER IS...........

(APPLAUSE!!)

Believe us! It's fair! We reconfirm and reconfirm again ;p

Merry Christmas to you all :)

My favorite Christmas's, still the classic!

- Silent Night by David Lanz

- So This Is Christmas by John Lennon

- My Grown Up Christmas List by Michael Bubble

- The Christmas Song

- What Child Is It

- I'll be Home for Christmas

- O Holy Night

- O Little Town og Bethlehem

And some I don't even know the title...

Traveling!

I always want some magical stuff from my favorite cartoon character, the round and fat and bald blue cat who doesn’t look like a cat.. One of the thing I want is the Magical Door, repeat after me with croacky voice “Pintu Kemana Sajaaaaaaaaa”.

How wonderful it would be if I have this thing. Imagine, I can just open the door and go to the best dive sites in the world that I would never able to afford without sacrificing a lot of things. I can just plung to wherever I want to be, staring at the sky above the remote mountain in Java, walking in the snow in Switzerland, canyoning trough the cliff in Tibet, sand tobogganing in Australia outback, watch African Dance ritual in, well, Africa, counting migrating penguin in Antarctica, basking with marine iguana in Galapagos (although.. hiii! Giant lizard!), have breakfast in New Zealand, lunch in Hokkaido and dinner in Yogyakarta, and so and so hell yeah!..

But now I have different thinking, I think human should endure traveling while they can, it shapes important part of our lives. Maybe it’s not so exciting to go everywhere again if what we need to do is open that door. Traveling to reach a destination is time and resource consuming, tiring, dangerous, sickening but it makes us grateful to reach the end of it. Sometimes, the traveling itself is the enjoyment and important part of the trip. We create bonds with companion, make friends, even fall in love, have exciting adventure to remember etc etc.., even movie world admit the necessity, look at movies like TransAmerica, The terminal, Titanic, Little Miss Sunshine to name a few..

Of course there are times when all we want during traveling is to drop dead in the bedroom. I have encountered at least twice. As I am not resistant with motion sickness (I think I lost a screw somewhere in my head, it affects my balance. I even got prescription with what the doctor called cure for “Nerve Imbalanced”, how crazy is that sound? But don’t shun me, it’s quite common ok…).

Yah, there are times when I spent whole day traveling in bus’s toilet. Tell me about the scenery in Twelve Apostles, now it’s not even Twelve anymore, Apollo Bay, etc etc..What I remember is throwing up in the toilet every 15 minutes, literally, I was so pissed that I just sat in the toilet. Tell me about the nice first experience of scuba dive, what I did was also throwing up leaning on the boat, on the sea surface and underwater.
Tell me about squeezing my legs and everything into cramp airline and stranded in the airport waiting for plane delay in hot weather and smelly neighbors, about the fear when being driven by someone who acted like drunkard, or plane that is not working properly just before boarding. Mugger, crappy people, insanity, bau terasi, hairy people…
There are whole load of crap.

But still, traveling is significant, it keeps us grateful when we reach destination, it gives us motivation to be able to step out foot somewhere one day one time, it keeps the quiet place quiet, exotic places exotic, great diving site great, and pretty places pretty. What is more significant?

Of course, if I’m able to bargain, I would like to eliminate the negative impact of traveling, the worry of safety of loved ones. And to get the advantage like being able to visit my family anytime now and then.

That would be ideal.

If only the world is ideal.

Doraemoooooonnnnnnn!!!



Only the traveling is good which reveals to me the value of home and enables me to enjoy it better.
- Henry David Thorea

There is a third dimension to traveling, the longing for what is beyond.
- Jan Myrdal

The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.

- Unknown

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.
- William Hazlitt

My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world.
- Billy Graham

Junkie!

'Spring' cleaning today.
It's amazing how many junks can build up over a life time.

Real junks, rubbish, unused things, garbages, and my first skirt that stun me for almost half an hour, stunned! How could I ever fit inside that?!! Wohoo, my waist, was..WAS, incredibly small that I'm not even sure one of my tigh can go in now! What happened?? Ouch..ouch..ouch...

Other junks in the category of throw or not throw, it's not useful anymore, i don't even know if it has its use, but it's difficult to throw away. Gifts, cards, letters, toys, souvenirs, books, tools for art and craft, even bicycle we had never used anymore because it's so tedious to pull it out of the store room, assemble the wheels, looking for the pump etc.

Some small things contain a lot of stories. I had a bag full of bottles full of sands. Each bottle of sands come from different beach I had visited, housed inside decorative glass bottle, or mini bottle I got from the hotel. Every bottle had different story and place to tell. White sands, rock sand, coloured sand, fine sand, black volcanic sand to bottle full of tiny shell from a shell beach. I stop collecting them long time ago, because my friend suggest to me to collect underwater sand, which I did, once. I would only take a very small amount of it and dry it before putting it into bottle. But then again, we learned how precious is underwater macro life, how tiny are every creature, so I stop my sand collecting, under or in the shore.

I still have sea shell though, some particular beach are full of seashells, colourful and nicely shape seashell. Altamar Phillippine has a white beach like that, what i did was just park my butt somewhere on the beach and pick them around me without effort. Or laying on the hammock and let my hand drop and scoop them up. I planned to make a nice book marks for my colleagues., but then, eh.. time flies..

Some sea shells can make very nice necklace or bracellet. It's not glamourous bling bling jewelry, but it's sure one of the kind and exotic, especially if you got it from someone who made it with you in mind. : )

So, I also had this small bag of sea shell, brought it to office yesterday for my colleague who has a lot of indoor plants; air plants and water plants. He would put it in a used cookies plastic container, and decorates it with rocks (and now sea shells) and plants. It creates a nice green green environment in office.

Toys, I have hundreds of toys. From soft toys, board games, real toys to those I got from Kinder chocolate and McDonalds. Yes, I can ve victim of Happy Meals. Some of their toys are nice, like the one we built into a big ship from 4 parts. Each part is playable on its own. I just don't like the characters of McDonalds. WTC (What the crap...) a clown (yaiks!), a burglar (!), a chicken (!) and potatoo?
Nevermind, don't let me start on that.

I also have a nice big punching bag with Donald Duck faces standing in fighting position. I love all inflatable stuff (eits!), I mean chair, baloon, inflatable children pool for my nephews etc etc.

But these toys have to go, not because I don't like them but I think some kids will like them better. So I packed them all nicely in ziplog bags, and give them away. Many other things (real junk!) or hardly used stuff visited dust bin. Clothings and other useable stuff in good conditions will find way to those who need it.

In this modern time, we might be able to backup the memory with online journals and albums, thanks to that, but anyhow, everyone would always have a storeroom full of stuffs to be cleared once in a while.




To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.


Junk is not, like alcohol or weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.
- William S. Burroughs


Junk is something you throw away three weeks before you need it.

Lonely Planet Bluelist:The Best In Asia - Sucks!

That day I was watching Lonely Planet Bluelist: The Best In Asia, it’s in Singapore, well, only main English speaking channel.

Anyway, the advertisement of that program intrigued me when I saw it, because they are using underwater footage as part of the ad. The best diving sites in the world are in Asia, all located within these three triangle: Indonesia, Phillippine and Malaysia. Their positions in the world globe, equator, current, tide etc make them the best with the most diversity and pleasant water temperature.

I didn’t purposely catch the program, when switching between channels, they were visiting Bali for diving, of course, I stopped to watch, especially when they visited Menjangan, the previous dive site we went in 2005. Menjangan is a beautiful place with beautiful underwater life, blue, colorful, pretty, they have great reef and various macro lives, and also slave boat wreck. The surface interval was also special in the land full of deer, or Menjangan in Indonesian.

However, I was very disappointed with the show. Just for your information, I didn’t start my impression objectively, because I always envy people who are being paid for travel. Argh..See, we work hard to have money to chill out and travel once in a while. They travel all the time, everything paid, and on top of that, they are being paid to do so. Why on earth..? But people always say that too much of good things are also not good. My view is, people who say so are simply jealous and try to cheer themselves up. Hm…personally I don’t mind too much of good thing, who in the right mind does?? ;p

So, I’m disspaointed with the show. It’s supposed to give viewer the impression of the dive sites. So this host went to dive in Menjangan with one of the people we actually know personally in Bali, we just met him again during our trip last month. He is the pioneer of coral reef conservation in Bali. Artificial reef, cracking down cyanide fishing and helping out fisherman who endanger their lives by diving with tyre compressor which cause poisoning and paralysis. He is quite a dominant name in Bali scuba diving industry.

The thing is, the host sounds so ‘blur’ in diving. She practically ‘swimming’ under water, saw the hands swing everywhere for buoyancy, and her commentary was like ‘this is wonderful, nice, beautiful' I guess it’s just right if audience expect more in depth comments than that, maybe something more specific about the dive site or diving instead of general comment we can use for any hot guy or hot girl or hot dog in the street.

If that can actually pass, there was another thing that is really really disappointing, she actually said ‘oxygen tank’ for the very tank that she and other divers breathed. It’s very usual that non-diver thought or make remarks that we are using oxygen tank, but it’s unacceptable for divers to say so. When we breathe oxygen, that means we are in trouble, fighting for our life or survival when we had some incident or decompression illness. There are many mixes of gases for different type of diving and depth, but in the tank for recreational diver, we breathe air, just like what we have on the land, 21% Oxygen and 79% Nitrogen. It’s just being compressed. We hope we don’t get to feel the oxygen because it literally means trouble.

So it’s bad. Come on, it’s Lonely Planet, world-class brand, millions of people actually refer to their brand for travelling etc. And you are being paid for it……!
Huhhhhh……


My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too.
- Peter De Vries

Television is to news what bumper stickers are to philosophy.
- Richard Nixon

On cable TV they have a weather channel - 24 hours of weather. We had something like that where I grew up. We called it a window.
- Dan Spencer

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
- Groucho Marx

Tulamben, Bali (24-29 October 2008)

Tulamben, Bali (24-29 October 2008)

Link:

http://apingpingaa-balioctober2008.blogspot.com/

or click the link on the right side..


Cheers,
Ping

Sepatu Butut

Gue banyak sepatu butut. Sekarang sih udah mendingan, dulu saking parahnya kondisi sepatu gue ampe temen gue nawarin buangin, padahal itu sepatu kerja gue satu2nya. Sepatu itu ceritanya udah bolong bawahnya, jadi kalo nginjak aer, kebanjiran. Masalahnya gue suka banget sepatunya karena enak dipakai, dan buat dapet sepatu yang gue suka itu susah buanget. Ada pula sepatu yang lapisan dasarnya udah copot, dilem, copot lagi, dilem lagi copot lagi ampe artinya dilempar. Biasanya gue gak tega buang sepatu gue sendiri, jadi minta orang buangin.

Sepatu casual gue yang terakhir juga udah copot solnya, alias kelewer2 kayak buaya. Udah cukup banyak toko2 hardware dimall gue masukin tapi gak nemu yang namanya lem sepatu yang pake kalengan, kalo gak salah dulu gue pernah denger jualan lem sepatu kaleng ini banyak syaratnya soalnya anak-anak remaja sini suka high nyium lem gituan, murah meriah. Cuman kesel aja, gila, nyari lem sepatu kayak nyari martabak keju atau cerita fiksi. Ada toko2 hardware yang lengkap dan masih jaman dulu, tapi letaknya jauh di Lavender dimana kita kudu jalan, diantara toko2 army dan barang2 diving, buat kesananya juga kudu jalan, dan cuman Sabtu karena hari biasa udah tutup pas pulang kantor.

Akhirnya gue lem juga sepatunya pake power glue. Gua masih punya sepatu laen jadi gue gak terlalu khawatir.

Kebetulan banget, kemaren temen gue yang disini kirimin artiket tentang sumbangan, ceritanya himbauan buat menyumbangkan sepatu buat anak2 sekolah disini. Katanya masih banyak anak sekolah sini yang gak punya sepatu yang nyaman. Sementara standard siswa disini, tiap tahun mereka dapet sepatu baru, jadi mari menyumbangkan sepatu baru atau duit buat beli sepatu baru buat mereka, biar bisa membantu membangun keyakinan diri mereka.

Gue kayak…Eh…tai macam apa…(maksud gue mau ngomong, what the crap..), sementara sumbangan2 laen buat dapet dana nyekolahin anak2, beli buku, vaksinasi atau bakal buat makan dan obat2an. Harga satu sepatu sekolah bata cukup kali buat bayarin uang sekolah anak dipelosok Indonesia sekitar setengah tahun. Pokoknya habis temen gue kata2in. Sementara sepatu gue juga dodol, perasaan dulu pas sekolah sepatu gue awet ampe copot atau paling enggak bisa bertahan 5 tahun, atau dulu pas bokap gue pake plastic kresek sebagai pengganti tas, atau gue pake tas president brodol bekas punya tetangga yang kebuka dan keluar semua isi tasnya pas dilanding tangga, atau pake rok yang pinggangnya dari karet biar pas gue gedean atau lebaran masih bisa dipake. Apa-apan suruh gue nyumbang, harus sepatu baru, biar membantu keyakinan diri? Bakal jadi apa tuh anak kalo gak punya sepatu baru aja gak pede?

Haha,..pokoknya habis messengernya, dia jadi kelabakan, ha..kaget karena gue yang biasanya baek hati…(achoooo!)...tiba2 jadi kejam, salah topik sih loe…!

Sekarang biarin gue dan sepatu butut gue menyendiri. Huh ;p



If the shoe fits, it is probably worn out.
- Craig Bruce

Who will wear a shoe that hurts him, because the shoe-maker tells him 'tis well made?
- Algernon Sydney

A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them.
- Horace

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
- Carl Jung

So now I'm left with cigarettes, and I'm trying to scrape that off my shoe and then I'll be done.
- Diane Lane

Touristy Weekend

19 & 21th September 2008


On this particular weekend, I got the privilege to borrow a company membership card which enable me to go to various attractions in Singapore for free, for a limited number of people. My colleague happened to borrow two cards, entitled to six people, and I got to use it on Friday and Sunday.

Friday night, I thought I had to skip the outing as I was helping my other colleagues preparing props for Halloween. My original plan was to stay late that night, but since almost everybody went home already, I thought I should too. (you should see my work place at night! Can’t beat my university though..) The idea of staying late without company in the workshop inside ‘jungle doing scary things with many scary stories around, well…uhm….not so appealing compared to meeting my husband, my brother and my our friends to have chili crab dinner (How could I chose the other over this one on the first place?).

That Friday night, we went to Night Safari. Brother and family split up, since my group is more into taking pictures. It’s extremely difficult to take good pictures at night without using flash. So I hung up my camera and just enjoyed seeing the animals. Hubby and friend trying t get good pictures. With the energy we got from the very complete dinner; chilly crab, barbeque sting ray, satay, briyani rice, honey chicken wings, and gigantic cup of fruit juices, staff discount can do wonder and increase buying power of course, we stayed until pass midnight, until we were kicked out from the park because they were closing.

Sunday, we met up again around 10.30 in the morning and begun our ‘tourist day’, starting from Sentosa. It was easier to go around with car, we could maximize our time to visit various destinations.

Sentosa, first stop was Butterfly and Insect kingdom. We used to think that the insects are s all dead, apparently, the butterflies are alive. There are inside a small aviary, except the usual ones we always see in the zoo, there were few other types, although it was not easy to take their pictures. For the insect it was all dead, although it’s not fascinating to see them being pinned to the wall, the variety and types are amazing, we could never see them all in the wild. At the end of the exhibit, we met one friendly keeper who let us touch and hold the gigantic stick insect and let the scorpion run through our hands and faces while he shared his knowledge about the insect conservation program we have in Singapore.









Nearby, we decide to catch 4D Magix the pirate movie., it cost sixteen bucks on usual day so we wouldn’t want to miss it. The movie was quite fun about a group of pirates, we could experience water, sounds and winds but it was definitely not worth it if we had to pay the ticket.

Third stop, we went to the luge and skyride. It was the first time I rodea luge, a small ‘vehicle where you just sit inside and pull the handle if you want to break. The vehicle is very simple, a flat surface for sitting and a handle, I think that’s about it. We got to wear helmet. The track is a sloping down with twist sand turns, like racing track. If we never break, it would go very fast because of the slope. One person in front of us was very slow. Hubby and friend overtook her, but I was stuck because of the narrow passageway cause by barrier with word “SLOW’.. Cheeee’’’ When finally clear from the passageway, I couldn’t see them already.
To be honest, I didn’t go full speed. Somehow, it was a bit scary because of other people around. It was fun though with the sliding left and right, but it was too short.

Going back we had to take the skyride, up above the tree with our feet dangling on the mid air. That was why friend’s wife skipped; she was not comfortable with the height. The only thing to watch out is when they lower down the safety bar, if not careful, it could squeeze your thigh or worse, groin,, maha… We had to run a bit when boarding and alighting, because the sky chair doesn’t stop.

Afternoon already. we proceeded to the underwater world, but dang, the dolphin show was only an hour and the place is half an hour away, it was not located next to the underwater world as we thought. So we only had limited time there. Anyway, the underwater world here is not fantastic, quite disappointing instead. The exhibit that we looked forward to, the sea dragon, was under renovation Grmbl…although nevertheless, the eagle ray, clown fish, harlequin shrimp and rhinopias made me soooo miss them in the wild.

After making a round, we proceed to the Dolphin Lagoon or Dolphin Discovery, I can’t remember which. That was the first time I see pink dolphin in person, eh, in fish. It’s the same with bottlenose dolphin, just that they have pinky patches color, it’s unique, but don’t imagine pink solid color, not like that.

Basically, for dolphin show, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen all. Maybe. Jumping, reversing, playing with ball and human interaction. But it’s nice to see the smily mammals. That’s the substitute of not being able to see them in the wild.
We took a scenic ride with cable car to Mount Faber and back. From top, we could see the development of of Sentosa Integrated Resort.

There will be greater grief because in the plan, they are going to display whale shark, like aquarium in Osaka, so I heard. But whale shark is such a big fish that need spacious space, plankton diet and.. the wild! We can’t just confine them in the aquarium. From what I heard, they have to keep replacing the whale shark in Osaka because it dies. And to fit to the tank, the put juvenile. So they keep harvesting ‘kiddy’ whale shark, who will never grow up and replenish their species in the wild. Huh..

After Sentosa, we went to have dinner in our friend’s favorite food court. It was cheap and good. Since we were so hungry, we ate a lot and couldn’t move for a while. We then proceed to Singapore Flyer passing through the F1 track, it was a week to F1. The streets were so bright it was brighter than day time.

After going around for a while to search for ticketing counter, it was frankly not easy, we went up for the ride at the flyer. It was gigantic; the capsule itself is almost the size of the bus. The structure was quite impressive. I heard it was going to be a boring ride for half an hour. But four of us were busy taking picture of the city line and the F1 track that we didn’t feel the length of the time. The skyline was nice from the top, we could see all the city light glimmering below, it was the advantage of taking the ride at night. We could see the grandstand for F1 and some activity were going on inside to prepare for the race.











Overall, it was a fruitful day. We would have to pay more than 100 bucks per person of not for the membership card my colleague lent me. It’s expensive to go around Siangpore, to enjoy its attraction. Worth it? Depends on who and whom. I would think that tourist will spend more willingly on attraction. For us, perhaps we will go to some, but not in one day or in a rush. I can think of other things better to do with over a hundred bucks, many many things ;p….

Macau-HK : The Tale of One of The Kind Fellow

6-13 September 2008

http://places-aping.blogspot.com/

Cheers,
Ping

F1

I have proof many times that it’s not good to play with karma. Sometimes I laugh at silliness of people but occasionally I found myself doing it. For example, I used to laugh at people who stay in my area. Well, it’s about halfway out of nowhere. From commuter wise, it’s either a choice to board earlier where there are still high possibility to get seats, or to board later, when you don’t need to stand too long to the workplace. But then, we are staying here.

The karma that I faced for the weekend that just passed, I was laughing at F1, who on earth wants to go to the town during F1 period. As you might have guessed, I did. Although I’m not as stupid as those who are going on the Sunday, the peak of the race. Hihi….

So this is the first Grand Prix that Singapore hosts, and the first night race. They erect barriers and lights along where the track would be, for few months to a year we saw the progress. Actually, just last week, we still circling around the circuit in friend’s car and took the opportunity to boast that we had been driving around the track also. It had been lighted up and it was so called three times brighter than day light, reason being to eliminate the shadow of the road as it could be dangerous for the drivers. Even so, last week, everything looked not so ready to take off last Friday. Earlier last week then they started the roadblock, and it creates ho ha and multiple jams.

Well, in here, previously, Grand Prix is not welcome excitedly by many of Singaporeans. It was maybe just a bit of shock that the government suddenly took extreme change in tourism. What used to be loathed, like when they announced about opening up casinos, and about two years ago, they announced about Grand Prix. It felt much more that they are trying to become Macau before other country in the region. Another reason is that, there were not so many fans of F1 in Singapore. Hell, I hardly ever seen racing program in TV, or never. All they are crazy about is English football, Manchester, Chelsea, Liverpool, others sports like NBA don’t have a lot of chances. Since the news was announced that Singapore was going to host F1, the excitement was only so-so, except for those diehard fans. Up to few weeks before the event, there are up and downs of rumors in the market. One rumor says that F1 was picking up, ticket bought earlier were sold wit handsome profit and the price was still climbing up. Another rumor was ticket was going down, there are still many hotels along the F1 stretch that had a lot of vacancy.

The first road block also didn’t come in favorable, it created jams and flows of complaints in newspaper. But then again, to be fair, Singaporean complaints about almost everything.

For us, we didn’t try to get involved because partly we were not aware about what can we do, the other ore valid reason is of course, the cost of the ticket can easily give us a weekend of diving or more, Bottom line, we skipped. Anyway, hubby got a free Friday ticket from a friend, so he went down to catch the practice round. He came back with surprising news, that it was not as crowded as we expected, even the train back home was quite empty, and there was a stretch of street near the ticketing booth where people can actually watch without having to get into inside the paying area.

On Saturday, we had the paintball appointment with his colleagues. But because of unclear info, we went to the wrong paintball site, then we decided to cancel the paintball and head for town for me to catch a glimpse of F1.

This time they are smart and stingy. Everywhere along the track was covered with those opaque dark cloth, even the one exposed the day before. We found a spot where we could see through a transparent sheet. Even though I agree that it’s much more clearer to watch in TV, the feeling of actually being there was completely different. The sound was so deafening, so loud and exciting, stood there for ten minutes I felt almost nauseous, for a longer period of time, earplug is highly significant for the health. I had never seen anything move as fast as the car, literally, it disappear within an eye blink, well, I actually tested that.

ON the race day itself on Sunday, we watched through TV and it was a final full of twists and turns. Ferrari mishap, and Alonso turn of luck.

Ah well, I guess I have just gain a new interest.


Hubby's Pics:

Okay..

Okay….
I have been feeling guilty I haven’t been backing up my brain often lately. Thing comes and goes, drafts written and forgotten. While I had a lot of time waiting for computer rendering in my previous job, new job, I don’t have the idle time to write. So, I only write on the bus, then pile up the files but never really edit and post it. Aiii…
When I reach home all I want to do is relax…
Not only my backup is suffering, my assignment too.

Yesterday morning I threw away two Snickers bars from my chocolate box. It’s kind of pity to see because Snickers holds special place in my memory.
Back then in Batam, when snack was luxury and surviving for the next pay check was a challenge. I remember a friend of mine bought Snickers and we all shared it. It was probably the first time I taste so-called more premium chocolate and it was good. First time we were able to save, that was the thing I buy, even though I’m not a big fan of chocolate. I still mentioned nowadays, how different things are, now it’s not a life changing situation to afford a Snickers.
So, this China food scare put the Snickers for our rainy hungry afternoon snack to the bin.

Anyho, nowadays it’s difficult to tell poison to food. What is safe to consume now? Pesticide, tapeworm, madcow, madbird, boraks (sp?) , and now..plastic?
Huh….

Okay, I don’t like this subject. So I’ll stop and promise myself to backup my brain at least once a week.

We can never trust plastic infested digestive system.

Shoes!!

While it’s a brisk and perhaps a monthly necessity for other girl, it’s a big task for e to find shoes. I can enjoy buying sport shoes, even slipper and unusual shoes like boot style, but when it comes to ladies shoes, I will prefer to be locked in a mall full of electronic stuff I might not understand. I can spend much more time in department store’s house ware floor than shoes and bag section. That is the most depressing section or me. Either I sip it at all or I stand there in agony looking for a gift for somebody who I know, they like ladies shoes and bad. Actually, I don’t know anybody who doesn’t, aaargh.

What is up with these two things? Ladies shoes are so uncomfortable that it comes to the point I feel that it’s changing my personality when I have to wear that. Ladies bag, urgh, useless thing that clutching uncomfortably in your shoulder, about to fall but not falling, too expensive to be put thrown anywhere on the earth or too inflexible or unable to be stuffed with things other than handphone and purse. What is a bag that can only carry handphone and purse, and you have to use your hand and hold it? It doesn’t help a thing; you might as well carry you’re the stuffs without the bag.

That’s why I never voluntarily spend time in shoe ad bag department, I don’t even give it a glance unless I really have too. A lot of guys say my husband is lucky, don’t need to put up with crazy expenses men don’t really understand about why girls keep buying shoes. For others, I actually understand that women can need a lot of shoes because there are so many types and colors of it, if they can wear it, then good for them. They look nice for those who can endure. Beauty is pain, although I can’t never subscribe on that ley alone master on that, I would have die long time ago trying. So, in my opinion, hubby has his own nightmare the time comes, when I really really have to buy shoes. Ladies shoes.

He has to be the one who alert about which potentially nice buyable shoes that fit my needs. I f it’s up to me to buy, I’ll never stop for more than two minutes to look at shoes unless it’s really nice but it’s hardly happen. Let’s say, more than half a year I already have a plan to buy a shoes, a nice ladies shoes that can be wore in parties I will have for the upcoming weddings I’ll need to attend. Now, one month to go, I still haven’t really look for any. I tried few times, but it’s like waste of time and I feel bored browsing at the shoes, tried few pairs, but it’s just not my style, so it’s difficult to get excited.

I do have few ladies shoes, to be exact, three pairs with one pair just died. One is so-called my favorite because that was the only one I wear for a few times everytime I can’t get away with casual shoes. I bought this one right after my graduation. Excited, happy to embark to work life that if we see in the movie, it’s time when girls have to use make up, wear heels, skirts and dress properly. Apparently we don’t really have too, ha…. First time I wore this shoes with skirt I felt down on the side of the Thamrin busy road on the way to interview. *%@#^$ But I got to say that I had managed to walk long way, long road in between swarm of people or quiet place with that shoes too, safely and sound. It still survives until now, in fact I just wore it again for one event four months ago, and it’s on stand by in case I’m too lazy to find new one. After all, it’s the only ladies shoes ‘wearable’.

The other one, I got it from a male friend. Out of nowhere, when I graduated, he gave me this shoes. It’s a nice champagne gold colored shoes with strings and amazingly, it fits me well. This guy managed to do the most impossible task, buying a shoe that fits me and suit my taste without I even realize how and when. Too bad, I didn’t have many chance to wear it ad sadly, I think the strings are getting fragile and probably not enough to support me anymore.

My last one, is, well, my wedding shoes which I only wore for the registration of marriage. White colored, nice design, but I think it’s not comfortable, I didn’t even wear it to the wedding dinner. It still safe and sound and untouched somewhere.
So, I do need new shoes, I really need to go out there and looking for a new one, regardless how boring ad tedious it is, hopefully the wearing part is still much more bearable than the buying.

Secretly, I do have a little wish that I can start getting used to all these ladies equipment, that are pretty but painful. Let me keep trying although the ‘try’ is not maximized at all.

Beijing Olympic 2008

Few months, few weeks to few days before the Olympic begins, disaster and unfortunate events came as if they had been queuing to fall on the same time, to prevent China into fulfilling their Olympic year. Politic, disease, terrorist threat, economic, social problem, even pollution and natural disasters took their turn in significant and big scale. Few had confident that the country will be able to host the Olympic well, many cross their fingers, yet many speculate and sit back to watch whatever next controversy might be happening next.

Today, the Olympic has come to the end. Despite all the controversy and discouragement that China faces, it manages to pull out a sensational Olympic that makes Asia proud. They certainly put their weight, their resources and effort into making it a successful event.

To salute all the athlete who scarification might be beyond imagination, with the warm fulfilling heart watching with pride as they make their national anthem echoing in the stadium, Olympic should always be an event where, if all else fail, be the one events all nations celebrate and gather with peace, spirit, pride and patriotism to be part of their country and part of the world.

It should never be tainted with politic, war, hatred if, ever possible.




I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures.
~Earl Warren

If only Hitler and Mussolini could have a good game of bowls once a week at Geneva, I feel that Europe would not be as troubled as it is.
~R.G. Briscow

Are You Afraid of Death?

Are you afraid of death?
My friend once asked this question. To this, I answered undoubtfully, nahh…
To my surprises, there are quite a number of friends answered yes. Not afraid of the process of the suffering leading to it, but afraid to lose everything, and again, uncommon, not to material, wealth or physical existence but afraid of losing what they had gained all their life; knowledge, memories, experiences.

To me, I never think that far. I’m not afraid because once I kaput, that’s it, that’s all, shouldn’t be a burden to me at all. From a very little time I spent thinking about it, I thought if I kaput, it would be mostly by accident. Don’t know why I thought so, perhaps of my true desire to be able to enjoy life until the end. I don’t want to be weakened or driven down by sickness or to count my days off when I know it would be, I hope not.
Somehow, to put aside all the choooooi of thinking about it, maybe I would prefer if it happens when I do something that I love. Nothing to extreme, at least maybe I would have been more prepared. Maybe.

Not long ago, I never took a second look of something called insurance. Blah blah blah.., that is my impression. A talkative unstoppable annoying fellow trying to talk you into buying something that you don’t need. I’m still right about it, although I detour my impression a little bit. The agent I have now has become one of my friend, seems like not all of them are annoying, and if there are some, they are doing it for the sake of work. No harm, as long as they don’t hard sell or force sell to people who are not able to defend themselves, like senior citizens. Really, sometimes, they are far too nice and can’t persistently say no. I curse all time-share company in this world because at least on two different occasions, they tried to harass my parents. Hard selling shouldn’t exists in any strategic marketing plan at all, it undignified and low. I have learned how to piss these people back, but for many others, it can simply ruin their day or separate them from their hard-earned money outside their willingness. Damn hard-sell. Drop dead.

Back to subject, insurance is maybe not something that I always need. It’s also for something your loved-ones might need. But that depends on what kind. For those claimable after death, it’s obvious. But I have come to realize that I do need those like hospitalization, partial accident and even diving accident insurance to ease the burden of cost in case something unwanted occurs.

For almost every trip that I take, I always buy travel insurance. Putting aside my important datas to be discovered and emergency contact if needed. We even put our DAN tag on our BCDs, those who know, knows.
Kaput, I think I’m still not afraid of my own, but selfishthetically (yes this is not a word) speaking, I fear more for others. Forever, since young, I always afraid. If in car or plane with someone I care about, I can’t even sleep in peace unless I knock myself with pills. I’m almost always scared, always afraid, when I drift into sleep I would always wake up feeling that the car or plane hit something or drop from mid air. Selfishthetically, because, if I’m alone, even if the plane was rocking or the car was swerving, I might not be as scared.

I fear for others safety because I’m damn selfish, I admit. I afraid if I lose them, the suffering of remembering, the memories, the experience, the knowledge of them.
So I think I can relate to what my friend said about fearing of death, in much much more selfish way.



- It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens."
- On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done easily as lying down.
- Woody Allen

The one who goes is happier,
Than those he leaves behind.
- Edward Pollock

Sunrise at East Coast

This year National Day, we joined Alan and Dor for quite a different activities. To stay up all night and go around Singapore. Something we found might be interesting and different.

Started at 9.45pm Friday night, we went together to his ex-poly. The facilities there is quite mouth watering; sizeable swimming pool, tennis court, activities halls, karaoke and mahjong room,and their own bowling alleys. It’s explainable because the place closes to student at night and opens itself to members. Those facilities are all new aka they weren’t there during our friend’s study time. I think it would be really good to study with those facilities, but then again, I remember my own uni which I still prefer..! Maybe it was down to earth, but who else in the world have lakes, stadiums, gigantic jogging tracks, trees to climb, grasses to lie down to while listening to music made by the wind and the bamboo? Nahhhhh… that is still the best possible place where I like to spend my study years.

We went around the campus for a while. Around 11pm, we already reached Jurong Point although we still had some time before we caught the midnight show, first in the list of the itinerary . In some point I was wondering why I felt tired even before the program started. No need rocket scientist, I forget that it was actually suppose to be the end of my whole long day. No wonder!

We watched Journey To The Centre of The Earth, too bad, they didn’t show it in 3d here. Otherwise it should be interesting. We just sat back and enjoy the show.

Around 2am, we headed for our destination to Jurong Fishery Farm/Port. It was a market plus the port for new incoming seafood where for wholesale and individual purchases. I must say I prefer to see all those fish in the sea. They have regular fish but there are also others, I hope it’s they were accidentally caught, because there was only a few or even one or two of those; barramundi cod, napoleon wrasse (baby size), guitar shark, hammerhead (baby size). Sniff…

Other than that, it also quite heartbreaking to see hundreds of stingray piled together. I just wanted to imagine seeing the big school of them in the sea and how glorious it would be. If this is how much that people consume every day, times all the fishery in the world, soon the sea would be devastated. There might be more fish there compared to all the fish we had seen diving for four years.

Leaving earlier, we headed to Four Season 24 hours Durian Cafetaria. Although we can find durian all year long in Singapore, this is the seaon. We were half sleepy and dozed off in the bus here and there. But we woke up when we decided to try the king of all durians. We got special rate but even so, it’s still expensive. The durian was called Cat Mountain King, cost us 40 bucks. Earlier in the week, my colleague told me about this approx 50 bucks durian and I was like, what is so good about this durian to fetch the ridiculous price? So now there was the moment of truth.

The durian was very fragrant, the flesh is cream yellow color with very very thin seed. The seeds were all irregular and soft. How do I describe the taste.. it was rich, creamy and delicious. I think it deserves the reputation. Maybe it was us, but this durian behaved well, it didn’t leave our finger stink or left un comfortable taste in the mouth. Wow, I guess it just spoiled the standard of all durian for us, ever.

Leaving the durian café, we had light dimsum and ‘dawn tea’ in Hong Kong restaurant nearby. It was almost dawn around 5 am.

Reaching East Coast Park, we walked to the jetty and set our position there. Highlight of the night, sunrise! The semi dark sky and the warm sea breeze was gorgeous in the morning. Like the instant greeting from the sea, it’s how we missed it. Along the pier and the beach, there were tents and fishing poles. There were many joggers or families or friends enjoying the activities there. Nice, peaceful and romantic, I didn’t know there are actually many people here who enjoy early morning dose of fresh air.

Uncommon here, there were stars on the sky and we were hopeful for the good sunrise.

The sun rose around 6.30, we practically spent around two hours wondering around our spots, no camera for me, so our hubbies busy catching good shots while me and Dor just relaxing on the bench and enjoying the ambience. The sky was then filled with cloud and we only managed to catch the orange gloomy sky. Nevertheless, it was still beautiful sight and we had good time.

Around 7+, we went back to campus and reached home 8+.

We were happy that we managed to stay up through the night, something that we doubtfully thought we would able to do so. Well, we are all pass our sleepless night at school and we are not night owls…ha…

But not to laugh to fast, the sleepless night really took its toll on us.

Dropped to the bed near 9am..we only woke up..errr…. at 5+… in… the… afternoon…

We basically don’t know what happen, the six hours of our lives were disappeared just like that!

Poor Froggy Frog N Fish

Last week, I just had D & D (Dinner & Dance) in my new company. It was time to see people I had never seen before. Problem is, it was done on Monday night, because we have to fit into the schedule of those VVIP. The venue was far far away and there was a serious threat that the allocated busses might not be enough, my new colleague offered to give me a ride. The other two from my department went earlier because they were involved in the committee/program.

It was the first time I rode motorbike in Singapore., I must say it was quite fun to see the town in different light. Old shop houses, ongoing F1 track, and places I had never seen before, and I love it when the wind hit my face, although my eyes were full with rocks. Rocks, yes, it was so big that it needed more than a few blink to get them out, but it didn’t matter.

The D & D itself was quite enjoyable, beside the prizes we got from sponsor, the MC that night was funny and entertaining. This company of mine definitely has a lot of shameless people. I mean, those good sport who were willing to’ perform’ and be fooled on stage. Hell yes, even though they didn’t have their chances on the stage, they did their own backup dancing behind. Maybe that is what animal spirit we got from the contagious working environment. What to say, when I left half an hour to midnight, the party was almost just started for some. I had to be like Cinderella to leave before midnight to catch my train. There is no taxi in my dictionary, I mean, no Singapore taxi in my dictionary, if I can prevent it with all my will. Again, my nice new friend saved the day.

I mentioned about prizes from sponsor, some prizes are quite cool like cold hard cash but to avoid ‘bribery’ it was converted into vouchers, which I’m lucky enough to get some. It was 50% chance but even so, I’m not normally ‘lucky’. But..Wohoo! $100 voucher, it must be the best lucky draw prize I ever had, and it’s considered only consolation prize. Some other prizes are short getaway trip or some electronic devices. I’m not talking about prize for the sake of talking, because of a prize, we killed four lives today. Four!

The story is, one of the prize we sort of wondering what is the wonder is, a fish tank completed with light, water filter and 8 tiny goldfish. It was given to my new colleague because the winner didn’t really fancy it. However, we were told that we can’t keep fish tank which can consume electricity yadda yadda in the office. Another option was to have hamster, but we dismissed it afraid that it would be too extreme, and anyway, I don’t want hamster. Its lifespan is really short, and when they fall sick, vet normally gave up on them because it’s too difficult to do anything major to their tiny body. It was fun but traumatic for me.

Since there is a way out to house the fish, we settled for empty tank. So, we decided on an option., to have a frog tank.

Fish freaks me out when they are dead in fish tank, especially those with significant sizes, other than that, except house lizard, I practically quite okay about everything. And it would be nice to have frog tank with nice habitat for us to share keep-up duties etc. It would sort of become mascot of our department. ;p

In front of my office there is a big pond, we can always see frog there. Everytime I take my husband or like last Saturday, take our friends to visit the zoo, we always dropped by to take macro shots of the frogs etc. We can find things like dragonfly, tortoise there also. Except that, we had other small ponds with a lot of tadpoles and fish. So after lunch, there of us minus the boss went to look for stuff we can put as the start of our Frog tank. We just set up the tank and it looked very good, so we wanted to create the landscape.

We squatted around the ponds in midday sunlight like school children to look for fish and frogs. We found a yellow ladybug, too bad it was dead.

I can’t remember how, one thing led to another, instead of just bringing two tiny water hyacinth, we also brought back a bunch of rocks, two tiny fish and two tiny tadpoles. Off they went into the tank, to cut the long story short, they were dead within three hours, except the water hyacinth and of course the rocks.

I feel really2 bad that it happened, we did think to let the water settled down first, but never did we expect that the chemical of the water could be that deadly, and we drink it every day…!

Fortunately for me, I missed the farewell because I was outside the office. When I got back, the tank was lifeless again.

Bottom of the line, …..sigh…!

Smart Card?

I have one favorite little toy shop here. It sells wooden toys, mini weird toys and those puzzles like brain teaser type of toys etc.

Last time I went there, I bought a plastic key with a key hole attached to it. The point is how to make detach and attach the two parts, it’s like three dimensional puzzle, so called. Other than that, we also bought stress detector..whoa…sounds so serious. I’m a very easily amazed with ‘smart stuff’ thingy. This thing is just a card size; actually a card with a small little window to put the thumb for 10 seconds and then the color will appear. Black, red, green, blue represent Stressed, Tense, Normal and Calm. The color did come out! I got a blue so I was so happy, I don’t think I have ever been ‘calm’ before. I’m a stressful kind of restless person or so I thought. If I have problem, I can’t stop worrying until the problem is gone or the person who give me the problem is dead. Kidding…because it won’t be over, then I would worry she/he comes back to haunt me! So I think I’m not a calm person unless when I am under medication or just wake up from long afternoon nap, that’s why I try not to take afternoon nap again. It makes me feel stupid.

Anyway, flattered, I bought the card because it’s amazing. Hey, a $1.90 can read my mood…! I should put it in the office if one day I collapse on the table with one hand holding the card with black color window. Eng ing eng…
The card even have the information that sounds prof “When stressed your blood is drawn inward causing cold hands, and the card will register black”, then follow by one whole long list of how to calm your self. Sound shiokk right….

Today I confirm that the @*(^$ can only detect according to temperature of the thumb, specifically. Since office aircon blows directly on top of my head, my fingers are always cold, so I always get black color even when I feel heavenly aka calllm..
Or when I’m stressed after running here and there for a million problem, I get the blue sign.
So it’s bluff, bluff, bluff…

One day..,one day,.. all those fancy science smart product will come out accurately…

THE RECAP

Before this, got this:

http://places-aping.blogspot.com/2008/06/above-cloud-again.html

and this:

http://places-aping.blogspot.com/2008/06/dayang-gloomy-trip-6-8th-june-2008.html



Dang…
Blame it on schedule and mood, my brain memory is kind of full because I haven’t backed it up.
I would just dump everything inside for a quick recap..

1. THE NEW HOBBY
Me and hubby have another mutual hobby.
Looking back, I ‘kind of’ interested in photography since long time ago. So I wanted to join my high school extra curricular for photography. But opss.. the first thing that I need was a camera, obviously, which I don’t have. So as fast as it came, it went off. I changed the class to painting class. Cheaper, dirtier and fun, with the cool long curly haired teacher.

First time, until now, that I had my own camera, privately own was after I saw all the nice pictures my diving kakis took and how they enjoyed it. I enjoyed my role as finder-helper, because they are busy with camera, I got more time to find objects for them to take. It was shaky experience at first. Taking down camera is a lot of tasks. Make sure it doesn’t leak is another risk. It happened that first trip I brought my camera with is the crazy Komodo trip with the pro and con. I spent few dives without it first because I was too chickened to bring it down, afraid it’d be a task too many with all the unpredictable dive conditions. But after that it was okay, it’s just worth it.

This time, I don’t use my own camera, because the pocket camera can’t do much to be honest. I can’t do good shots at night, and nothing fantastic with the land shots. I can’t even take monkey’s faces without the need to crop from the bigger pictures.

I was not interested with those bulky ugly blacky DSLR at first, but one day we happened to go to camera shop and I felt quite bored so I tried. And wohoho…how can I explain the kechang kechang kechang..multiple shots and so and so.. I would never miss a thing. How many times I had to spend minutes on focusing on a fish and when I shot it was actually gone, or taking monkey’s butt instead of the face because it got bored posing for me..

So when hubby had the new camera, he also brings back his office’s one for me to try. And I tell you, those ugly fat black thingy are so good that it’s just interesting to take shots of everything!

So now, if we don’t have outing or other things, we would go hunting for pictures. Parks, cities etc… As weird as people might think, we can spend a lot of time in various ugly position. I would say land photography is dirty hobby, especially if we hunt for insects. We got to hang around bushes or shrubs or soil, sometimes under the shade or under the sun for those scary creatures. It’s amazing of what human eyes can’t see. We would never able to see a spider’s cynical face and the watchful eye of soldier ants if we were to use only naked eyes. I took a picture of a black shape of what I thought is the relaxing insects, but it turned out to be dead insects. Ho….spookyyy…ha…

Still 1. THE HENDERSON WAVE (20th June 2008)

Other less dirty hunts we had done was to Henderson Wave. I must say this bridge impresses me a lot. It feels good to be there.



We went with Alan and Dor on Friday night. We had barbeque stingray dinner for a start before taking a long walk from Hort Park across the steel bridge..long..long way, through the total darkness (I forgot I was in Singapore!) before we reached the bridge. We spent around one and a half hour walking.
In the bridge itself, after taking all sort of shots, we enjoyed the bright moonlight overlooking the whole Singapore because it was around 70 something meters above sea level. Around us was windy and nice. We were getting comfortable lying down on the highest wooden deck.



Hardly as you heard, I applaud the effort to create nice hang out place for pedestrian like this. If not only because we were jealous of family next to us, who brought their picnic necessity, it would have been perfect.

We spent some time there, just talking and looking at the sky. It is also one of the few places we can actually see stars here. Around 11, we had to leave. We had to take taxi to go back to our first starting point to pick up our friend’s car.

But it has been few weeks that we skipped picture hunting, which lead me to the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth story.


2. THE TOY EXHIBITION (22st June 2008)

Seems like no matter how an adult has grown up, we always have a child spirit inside. Look at the toy exhibition in Suntec City. Did I see any kids? Yes. Did I see adults? YESSSSSS! They were many many times more adults than kids with glowing eyes and itchy wallet. Hard to say, toys are collectible and adults treat them better. Clean, display, take care of those while kids are master in destroying. There were also many teenager showed up as anime characters just to have fun and pose for pictures, and a lot of photographers around for the opportunity too.

Except those ‘freewill’ characters, some booth are promoting theirs. There was this big guy walking around with coat and big boot, red faced with one palm bigger than another. He looked exactly like hellboy because he wore mask. It was too late for hubby to take his picture because it was his break time. When he took off the mask..aiyah!

I hate Star Wars and will happily join Star Wars hater club but I must applaud their collectible goods. They have all character figurines. All…! So even small ugly or whatever and whoever, they have it.

Too bad there was not much happy2 characters like Doraemon around. Kekeke..


3. THE FRIDAY NIGHT BARBEQUE (27th June 2008)

One thing I always keep in mind for barbeque between friends or family, we always have too much food to finish. Everyone brought something and everything ended up too much. Barbeque is also one thing when everybody is too hungry in the beginning because it takes time for things to get cooked and too full in the end. I’ve known hubby colleagues quite well, especially Alan and Dor, our kaki in their office trip and our kaki for hang out also. So everyone was almost like my own friends. We got excited talking about the upcoming office trip which is actually still about half a year.



4. THE GRADUATION DAY (28th June 2008)

Nothing fantastic, in fact, I wanted to skip it if not for hubby and friends. It was not a bad day, although what everyone said is true. Second time is nahhh… But we had fun meeting classmate’s family and each other again. Other reason I also attended it half heartedly because we haven’t actually finished yet. There is final project which I abandoned for quite sometime, which lead me to the another stories.


5. THE MOVIE NIGHT (4th July 2008)

Night time was not always a good time to bring family with children out. So we went out with Alan and Dor for a movie night. Stuffed our selves with cheese-woven-funnel cake look alike before the movie and enjoy Indian instant noodle after that with their famous prata. Bad for me, I don’t remember what is the name of the place. It’s nearby famous nasi lemak…er….nevermind.
Speaking about movie, I had movie day (14th June 2008) with my ex-colleague too, but I skipped the dinner, heard they had big big prawn yummy noodle. Aiyah.


6. THE FAMILY VISIT (from 28th June 2008)

Jovan my nephew is here again, this time with Xin-xin, his sister. I thought he would be a big boy now.. you know, those who knows it all, naughty and hate all the uncles and aunts with early teenager angst. I was wrong, he is still the same kid, so talkative that it dried up my throats talking to him the whole weekend. Xin-xin has different character and temper, she is cute and very active. But if she decides to scream, mohoo, all the nerves in my head feel like shattered into pieces. The problem is if we don’t understand what she tried to communicate, luckily, it doesn’t happen too often. Although it’s bone and muscle cracking for us, it’s a lot of fun having them around.

29th June 2008
First weekend we went to the beach in Sentosa. We went for picnic but forget to bring picnic stuff like food and matt. It was a last minute decision, even me and hubby dress in jeans and shoes, we looked like clueless tourist but we kicked off our shoes anytime. Jovan together with my youngest brother and his daughter swim on the shore while the rest of us roamed around, taking pictures or relaxing. At night, we went to watch the laser show, but in the middle of the show, the rain caught us off guard. Everyone was like chicken running around when it felt on our head. I can swear to you that the droplet hurt when it hit my back because it was gigantic. We missed three quarter of the show and went home half soaked because we were the ones delivering the umbrella here and there.

4-5 July 2008
The next weekend, I went out to have breakfast-lunch with my ex-colleagues. 5 of us had dimsum in this Hong Kong restaurant in Chinatown area. It was nice and relaxing to go out early and the weather was quite pleasant that day. Like old time sake, we chit chat and catching up with each other story.
The rest of the day I spent with family on nearby mall since they didn’t feel like going out too far. They hung out in our house until late before going back to my brother’s.
The Sunday I brought them to the zoo, it happened that it was bloody hot that day. With our pace, we missed quite a lot of things and a lot of shows, but we can always come back another day if they want. We spent the afternoon in the Kid’s play area. Watching two kids running around with a whole lot bunch of other kids is a big tasks..! When they bumped around or ran like mad…

11-13 July 2008
The next weekend, they moved to our house for a change. So we made use of the time well. Friday night we went to Underwater World to see the fish and took cable car to Mount Faber and back. It’s quite real that as I grow older, eh..more mature, things are more frightening…I got echo of agreement from many people. Like watching scary movie and even ride cable cars haha…maybe because we know we could fall and die. Hush…!
Saturday we went to the theme park and waterpark, since we had limited time, we didn’t try all rides. I accompanied Jovan to the bumper boat thinking it was harmless to do. Apparently being the only adult at that turn, I was too nice not to spray the kids and helped Jovan to control the boat when he just turned around and around, the grateful less nephew and other kids sprayed me with all might, with all those passerby (*@# adults. I went up soaked.
At the water park we had great time trying the ride or just lazed around floating. Too bad Xin-xin didn’t want to play, so it was only me and hubby with Jovan while mom, sis in law and xin2 just sat around and watched. Forget to mention perhaps, that big bro only joined us next week. And for this weekend, young bro and family didn’t join us.

Jovan was restless playing with water, he did not stop for a minute. Even climbing the stair for the ride up and down didn’t slow him at all. To think that the stairs are actually adult scale and it should be more ‘tasky’ to him, but I guess fun beat anything. We had great fun too although three of us ended up with muscle strain and pain the day after.

Sunday, slide from original plan, we decide to take it indoor by visiting discovery center and science center. There was not much to do in discovery centre; I think it’s very plain and too Singaporean for my liking. Science centre was much more fun with those weird exhibit and animatronics like T-rex etc.

That’s the recap…sorry it looks like long boring newspaper blah blah..
I promise to put in pictures tonight or…give me unlimited deadline….

Something To Ponder

Medical workers provided care under extreme conditions and limitation of time and resources.

Yuan Wentin, 26, first grade teacher. When the earthquake struck, she rushed to carry her stunned students from classroom on the 3rd floor to the ground. She managed to pull out most of her students, but the building collapsed when she was trying to pull out the last few. At the last moment of her life, she was trying to use her body to shield the students from falling concrete.

Soldiers and rescue workers working around clock to rescue people still buried. Unable to transport heavy machineries to the remote areas since roads are buried by landslides, they often have to use hands to move tons of concrete.

People are rushing to donate money. Many rich people donated in millions, but no one can match Xu Chao(徐超), 60. He is a homeless in Nanjing, 1000 miles from the disaster area. He saw the news and went to donate 5 Yuan in the morning. He said people in the disaster area were worse off than him because their lives were threatened. He came back in the afternoon, donated another 100 Yuan ($14). He explained that all he had were pennies and dimes, and he didn’t want to waste volunteer workers’ time to count them, so he went to the bank to change everything he had into one big bill. This is from a man who doesn’t have money to buy food for himself.

Sincity of Asia-Macau & Kowloon,Hong Kong (30th April - 4th May 2008)

This,

http://places-aping.blogspot.com/2008/05/sincity-of-asia-macau-kowloon-hong-kong.html

Or visit 'Places' on the right link.



:)
Ping

Kids at Home???

Some things never cease to amaze me.
I have been staying her for almost seven years yet I can’t get customized with ways of “modern people” thinking.

Singapore is having an outbreak now, well actually, every year there is this disease called HFMD, hand-foot-mouth, somethinggg like that. In the peak, year 2000-2001, 7 kids died from that disease. It affects children, although it’s also contagious to adult, but children are more prone to that.

This year, the quantity of the cases reaches serious number, trigger the closure of some schools and child centers. Well, so far I hope I get all the info right.
If I’m wrong, I have to warn that blogs contain crappy information, stories and grumpy grumpy, so don’t rely on the info you found on any blogs…

With the closing of schools and child centers, comes the news and parent’s concern.
“What am I going to do with my kids?”
“How do I find someone to take care of them?”
“Worse comes to the worst, I have to take turn with my wife to take leave from work.”
“Government/schools should provide us a way to keep the children.”

What the-

I was reading newspaper, perhaps last month, that there is a mysterious flu in Hongkong and they were closing school for safety, trying to prevent the spread among school children. The parent’s responses? It’s the same with Singapore.

I know, I have yet to be a parent. What do I know? By right I should run away Kaing kaing kaing since I supposedly don’t have the right to talk. However, he..I like this word..
Even though I’m not a parent, I know many, my parents, my friends etc etc..
I know they won’t act this way. My mom for example will welcome the closure wholeheartedly. She even sometimes gives idea to us to take break from work to rest at home. Once she shows up in my Uni trying to drag me home while I was down for a week, I think, from malaria. But I resisted and she was pissed. That’s because she was worry, that is the normal reaction from parents, because they always want to protect their children.

Here, I copy it again.

“What am I going to do with my kids?”
“How do I find someone to take care of them?”
“Worse comes to the worst, I have to take turn with my wife to take leave from work.”
“Government/schools should provide us a way to keep the children.”

I'm pissed and shouldn't judge because I don’t know the Singaporean or Hong Kong’s parent’s reason to give the (crap) reasons above. They say they have their reasons. Work. Money.
Fair enough. But not over.
If I have to be not biased, I won’t write here. Reason that I write here is that because I’m free (I guess so!) to write whatever mind that I have without the need to please anyone.

Back to the topic…. What the heck, what reasons can justify it? No maid? Nobody to take care? There are ways…and if everything else fails, look at one way out. Let the kid stay at home.
Here, I guess, people underestimate kids.
Alone in the house? No problemo.
I’m talking about the ‘dangerous’ country that I come from. In Singapore, it’s most likely to be the safest place on earth. People kick you, you kick them back. It’s still quite fair here. Anything happens, accident, robbery, people around will help, not stay quiet for their own safety and not robbing you while you are dying after the car crash. So what seems to be the problem of a kid stay in the house? I’m talking about school kids, primary and above, of course not toddler or babies.

Stay in the house beats the possibility of getting contagious disease. The worst is not that one parent have to take leave, but if the kid go down with the disease, have to be treated in hospital, or something fatal. How do they compare the ‘worst’?
Why don't the embrace the opportunity to protect their kids and grateful that they are okay? Why treat them as nuisance and disturbance? Why blame or ask for other parties about what to do with your kids? Who is talking what?

What reasons can beat the risk of the kids catching disease that is so preventable? Why instead of feeling relieved that they are given chance to avoid it, the parents nag about what to do with the kids when they are not in the school? Are they confused now why they actually have little people stay with them in their house?

Uh…. What about those drunken nights or happy night years ago?

Okay, perhaps a bit of judgmental and drunken post.

But still..
Huek....!

A for Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhh

It has been seven months since the last time I went diving, it has been nine month since the last time I dived overseas, it has been one year since the last time I dived long/one week trip.

The anxiety has built up high, especially during these few days where there are abundant dive magazines around the house. A friend is being nice and he suddenly bought us few magazines that contain special feature of pictures taken with fish-eye lens and of course other pictures that made me droooooolll…

As I have new friend who is interested in wild life, I will bring her the diving dvd that I bought, so when I finally found it, I was stupid and watched it again. Argh, it’s like..like being fed something that will kill you if you eat it because you can’t eat it. Somethiiiing like that.

This DVD was made by a guy we met in Mabul. I think he sort of staying there and earn a living by doing underwater filming around the Sipadan and Mabul. In 2005 when we stayed in Mabul, it was an island that flourish after Sipadan island was closed for tourist. A typical dive resort, divers stay in bungalows and there is a big gathering area for meals and entertainment like library, pool table and the only TV in the island was located in that very room.

The activity in the island is nothing but diving, eating and sleeping. At night after the meal we would gather in the area for a while before we knocked off at the latest..uhmmm..nine o’clock… seaside wind make you sleepy, I swear. So there was not many things to do. This guy will play his DVD footage for marketing purpose. It’s a really nice DVD for somebody who doesn’t work for those cables like National Geographic etc.

He was actually available for charter also. So we could hire him for doing group filming. By majority of us were just holding our freshly made advance card, so we were not confident yet. But we happened to share the same boat with him and a group of Japanese who hired him. I think he is very committed to his passion of filming, and it’s a bloody interesting job to do also. After the morning dive, when we made a surface interval at Sipadan island, two turtles were mating, floating on the water surface between boats. He just grabbed his video and jumped down to catch the rare opportunity.

Looking at the DVD again, it reminds me of the time…

It’s killing me.! It’s killing me more because the quickest time we will be able to dive again will be more than six months away. Quitting job, no money. New job, no leave, that sort of thing. And I have promised, and I swear to it that I won’t dive before I bring mom and dad for holiday first. Been delaying that for more than a year… so it might be next year before we touch water again………huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…….