Hippo!

Someone sent me flowers cos she thought i looked like the hippo. Got teased by my colleagues.. Haha..

OUCH!

Its the end of the year and I haven’t used any of my dental reimbursement benefits.

I went to the dentist at the nearby mall last week cos I was a little lazy to go to my usual dentist. This place was pricier than my usual but it was still within my allotment, so I asked to see the dentist now. She said they were booked out until next year! Wow! Seems like there are a lot more people like me around with last minute dental appointment.

So I went today to my usual dentist. So to my dismay that I have 2 decayed teeth on my wisdom teeth and a third wisdom tooth that was growing out and needed to be extracted! Argh.. the nice lady asked if I wanted to extract or fill them out. As I was not mentally prepared to do so, I just told them to fill it up. It then occurred to me that I have never had a tooth filling before.

Worse thing is that with the filling of two teeth, it has now exceeded my quota so I have to pay the surplus myself.

Sigh it was depressing. Plus at some point, I should go back and extract the third wisdom tooth.

Off to buy an electronic toothbrush with a smaller head to get to the hard to reach areas.

Action Packed

Just got home after a late night range.

Friday night got late night mahjong.

Saturday got golf in JB!

Sunday got badminton. So many things to do on the weekend man!

Inagiku

We went to Inagiku that day and whacked a massive set and a mini set..

Appetiser



Sushi



Sashimi



Fish with Soup



Beancurd skin with sea urchin



Another soup.. not very nice..



Beef



Oops.. didnt take the tempure cos i was too happy and started whacking..

It was a good meal. The lunch menu looked good and quite cheap. Will be going this weekend.

w00t!

Adult?

I know i dont go to the supermarket enough but Adult cereals??

Haha.. means the boring kind of cornflakes with lots of fibre..

Warmed

We all gathered over last weekend in Yokie's house over the weekend for her housewarming party. She prepared dinner which seemed like a surprise to everyone, which was odd for me cos she said she was preparing dinner. What was odd for me was that she didnt have rice at home. Haha. I love rice so much that its inconceivable that a house doesnt have rice.

Here's the spread.



The roll thingies were pretty good. I ate three!

Giggsy brought his four month old and shortbin brought her 26 month old, so a lot of the attention was centred around the kids and how they eat, how they shit, why they cry and how they cry and the differences. Of course there was an occasional and usual gossiping about our JC friends. Hee hee..

Seems like we are all transitioning to adulthood. Adulthood doesnt come with age, it comes with responsibility, voluntary or not. It's a little odd to see my peers being parents. The cajoling, the chasing around, the stern-ness, the feeding, the diaper changing, AND ALL THE ATTENTION SHOWERED TO ENSURE OUR SAFETY AND WELL-BEING.

Gosh.

That somewhat brought to mind about how my parents especially my mum would have fussed over me when i was younger. I was a sickly child back then and my mum spent so many sleepless nights getting me back to health, getting me through school, etc.

I watched this documentary by National Geographic on WWII - http://www.ngcasia.com/programmes/apocalypse-the-second-world-war. Absolutely wonderful yet at the same time, it was very pitiful for children to be born during the era.

Golf!

I have some leave to clear before the year ends and it has been two months since i went to JB for golf.

So i took leave to go for some golf tomorrow! w00t!

It's a little disturbing that i have so many combination of golf attire that i really had to take some time to think it through. Quite tough to match the top and bottom with white/yellow gloves and white/red shoes.

But yay! im excited.

Uproar

When i posted my entry about my personalised notepad, i didnt expect to create such an uproar.

But it did.

A number of people msned/smsed me to tell me how silly the post was.

But this one takes the cake: T|ny mmsed me a picture two days ago. It was a pic of her own personalised notepad from work. Tsk.. no wonder she has been at the same job since she graduated from uni.

Showoff!

Cheapo

When it comes down to it, im a cheap ass. I usually like to see the housekeeping trolley out in the corridor when im staying at the hotel, cos I can then ask the housekeeping for some extras.

Im not those who’d ask for more shampoos or soap cos those are all low quality stuff. I usually like to ask for laundry bags cos these are just so useful especially on those golf trips and badminton games for the sweaty cloths. In this trip, I got about 20 bags. W00t!

On the last evening, I was in a good mood cos I was going home. I saw the trolley cart again and asked the housekeeper for more of the chocolates that he leaves by my bedside every evening. Milk one the best.

When he did come by later, instead of the usual two pieces, he took a cup and filled it with lots of milk chocolates. That made the impending return home all the more sweeter.

Motivation

It has been a very hectic and bordering on terrible last few months. In fact sometimes i felt like throwing in the towel.

It didnt help that someone told me my ex-company was hiring a VP. I wrote to my ex-boss and he said he'd be "honored to have me back". Haha.. That certainly stuck in my mind for a couple of days as i grappled between being a quitter or being a 好马(who doesnt eat the 回头草).

I was somewhat in the middle of my deliberations when my current company gave me something that made me decide to stay. To me, that's a testament of how much they cherish me and how much of a valued member i am.

They gave me a personalised note pad. Yes, a note pad with the company logo at the top and my name at the bottom.

I have attached a picture of it here... cropping away the top and bottom.

Shittybank

I smelt pop corn in the air in my office lobby today. Then i saw a huge crowd of people mulling around some "stalls" like a pasar malam at my lobby.

Then i realised it was some Shittybank funfair or whatever and everyone, presumably staff, were enjoying themselves with the popcorn.

Gosh, how can they do this with the government bailout that they got, especially when they havent paid it back??

Tsk tsk.. shitty

Shoes

Two activities i dont get is playing with a yo-yo and spinning a top. I dont get how much fun these activities can be for the players as well as spectators. In my day, i have of course bought tops and yo-yos but that's cos i like to buy things. After a while they just arent too fun. Which is why i dont see the point of people crossing roads while playing with their yo-yos, queuing in the line and playing with their yo-yos or entire audiences transfixed at watching tops spin.

Of course, i have made the same comments on more than one occasion about golf too. The futility of making sure a small metal face hits the ball nicely to bring it nearer the hole. The absurdity of spending hours after hours on the range trying to master that swing. Not to mention the throngs of people who follow golfers close to 6km just to see him hit that small white 3-piece ball.

But I was bitten by that bug.

Which is why, every time I find myself at the range, sweating my guts out and swearing at my inept club and my inefficient swing, I remind myself that unless im in that person’s shoes, I would not be able to fully comprehend that feeling.

Look a-likes

Its Friday today. I have buttload of stuff to do before going to Hong Kong in 2 weeks but i just am so bored with work. Decided to post this which ive been meaning to for almost a couple of years.

I have noted some look alikes between the people i know and i decided to post their pics for everyone to see.

Patrick


Jack


LB


Jack


I just realised that both of the latter are named Jack. That's pretty odd, considering a lot of people always say " You dont know Jack.. "You dont know Jack shit".

Startling discovery on a Friday.

Maintenance Day

I was on leave the other day cos I wanted to some alone time to do some admin stuff. Scheduled to service my car, go for facial and cut my hair. A day of maintenance.

Ive reached my 40,000km milestone on my car. How time flies. I still remember the pure joy and elation when I collected it. And now, my faithful baby have brought me 40,000km. The mechanic was trying to convince me to change my car battery after having gone 2 years and 2 months. He said usually cars need to change after 2 years. Then he pointed to a car across the road. It was a new Toyota. He said that car only ran for 1 year 1 mth before it needed a battery change. I then said Toyota sucks.

I later found out that the car was his. :(

Then I went for facial. Before my appointment, my facial lady had already sent me this message:

Oh ya, can u pls chk ur balance products. miss out to let u noe that we r having Early Bird 18th Anniversary product's promo : Buy $1,000 products of your choice n get $800 worth of products FOC. Very worth deal n great supports frm our supplier @ almost 80% off !!!

Notwithstanding the $1,000 I’d have to spend, it seemed like quite a good deal. 80% leh!! But after giving some thought,

1,000/1800 = 55%.

It’s only a 45% discount.. Heng my powerful maths skills saved me yet again.

Exactly what i have been talking about for some time now.

..............................................................................
Mid-Tuesday blues?

LONDON- NEARLY half of British workers say mid-morning on Tuesday is the moment when they feel most stressed at work, a study suggests.

The makers of the health supplement Bimuno polled 3,000 adults and found most workers coast through Monday getting their brain in gear and catching up with gossip from the weekend through social networking sites. But everything comes to a head at 11.45am.

'Traditionally, people associate Monday as the worst day of the week, but this doesn't seem to be the case - coasting through Monday means we're worse off on Tuesday - both in terms of workloads and stress levels,' Graham Waters, CEO of Bimuno-maker Clasado, said in a statement.

He added that people lead such fast-paced lives that stress naturally runs side by side with this uneven pace, especially when it comes to work.

Tuesday at 11.45am seems to be the time in the day when the real workload for the week hits employees and as a result stress levels rise. The study also revealed Tuesday as the day when workers are most likely to work through their lunch break due to the realisation they have a busy week ahead.

More than 53 per cent of those polled admitted cruising through Monday and one in 10 said they further delayed their tasks for the week by logging onto Facebook to view photos from their weekend antics. Almost one in five employees will leave the office late on a Tuesday as they work after hours to salvage their week after putting in a poor effort the day before. -- REUTERS

Yet another article.. quite interesting.

Oct 22, 2009
'Adviser over MP' raises many questions
Who should manage lift upgrading at the constituency level?
By Sue-Ann Chia

THE official reply from the Ministry of National Development (MND) to justify why opposition MPs should not manage the Government's lift upgrading programme (LUP) in their wards raises many questions.

The MND's argument is as follows: The LUP is a national scheme that ought to be managed by government representatives, as elected opposition MPs are not answerable to the Government.

So the task falls to government-appointed grassroots advisers in Hougang and Potong Pasir. In this case, both are People's Action Party (PAP) candidates who lost at the polls.

To press home the point that opposition MPs have no right to manage the LUP, the National Development Minister's press secretary Lim Yuin Chien said in a reply to Workers' Party MP for Hougang Low Thia Khiang:

'Mr Low is mistaken when he cites the 'will of the people' expressed in general elections to justify why he should play a leading role in the LUP in Hougang.

'The will of the people expressed in general elections is to elect a government for the country as a whole; and not to elect separate local governments for each constituency.'

Mr Lim added in his letter to The Straits Times Forum Page: 'Singapore has a one-level system of government. MPs, whether People's Action Party or opposition, do not constitute a local government in their constituency.'

These arguments deserve a closer look. Let us first consider 'the will of the people', as expressed by the votes they cast in elections.

The general purpose of general elections here is undoubtedly to elect a national government, as Mr Lim points out. But voters also choose their local representatives: Members of Parliament.

The individual who commands the support of a majority of MPs becomes the prime minister and he forms the government. In most democracies, the prime minister is usually also the leader of the party with the most number of MPs in Parliament.

The Singapore system is quite different from, say, Israel's, where voters vote directly for political parties - not individual candidates - and parliamentary seats are divvied up according to the proportion of votes each party garners.

Here, we elect MPs directly; and the majority among them choose a prime minister. In our system, MPs do have the mandate of voters. We vest in our elected representatives the power to speak on our behalf and act in our interest. They are our particular, local MPs - not the representatives of the amorphous 65 per cent or 35 per cent or whatever who voted for particular parties.

Yet Mr Lim said Mr Low is wrong to assume that this gives him the authority to lead the LUP in Hougang. 'MPs - PAP or opposition - do not constitute a local government in their constituency,' wrote Mr Lim.

If that is so, it is a principle that should apply to all 84 MPs, equally. But only the two opposition MPs are denied the right to manage the LUP.

The MND's justification appears to be that the Government works through grassroots advisers on national schemes. PAP MPs are appointed as advisers to the grassroots organisations in their wards by the People's Association (PA). In the two opposition wards, the PA picked the PAP candidates who contested but lost in the wards in the last two polls as the grassroots advisers. Therefore, the Government should work with them, not the elected MPs, in those two constituencies.

This would imply that the Government accords more recognition to grassroots advisers than MPs. If this is the case, Singaporeans may ask: So what happened to their elected representatives?

To Mr Lim, the MP's role seems to be confined to that of running the town council: Collect service and conservancy fees from residents and maintain the estate. And yet town councils, he emphasised, should not be considered local government - for Singapore has only 'one level of government'.

This statement, however, contradicts statements that senior government leaders have made previously.

In the 1997 polls, for instance, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong upped the stakes by getting PAP candidates to come up with detailed plans for their constituencies. The aim was to get voters to decide not just whether a candidate could make speeches in Parliament, but whether he also had concrete plans to improve people's lives, Mr Goh said.

'With town councils and community development councils, and my intention to give more power and responsibility to them (MPs), every election in a constituency is indeed a local government election,' Mr Goh explained at the annual PAP conference held before the polls.

At another event, he elaborated: 'In every constituency, there will be a local government with a local programme, and how you vote will affect immediately your own interest.'

His point was reiterated by then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew when Mr Lee commented on the PAP's 'local government' strategy. 'We know that if there is no direct stake, everything is the same, then the voter does not take his vote seriously. He would if he knows that he has a stake,' he said.

Then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong added: 'They know that the way they vote will influence their own personal well-being - their town, their neighbourhood, their property values.'

In the two elections that followed the 1997 polls, PAP leaders continued to invoke the 'local government' argument.

Singapore is not a federal state - so yes, there is really only one centre of power. But that does not mean that there is no local government - in practice and by policy.

When the Government announced in July that the LUP would be applied to ageing HDB flats in Potong Pasir and Hougang earlier than expected, many Singaporeans saw it as an act of political goodwill, recognising that all citizens - regardless of who they voted for - should benefit from national schemes.

Unfortunately, that act of goodwill was marred in its execution: In this case, MND's insistence on working only with the appointed grassroots representatives instead of the elected opposition MPs.

What a stupid article in the other day's Straits Times…Teachers are the happiest? Haha.. my mum told me long ago that most people in the mental hospital today are ex-teachers.

With a score of 59.8 out of 100, that’s the highest score???!?!

...................................................................................
Teachers and trainers are happiest: Poll

Job portal also finds civil servants are happier than workers in private sector By Gabriel Chen

IF YOU want to be happy at work, become a teacher or work in the service sector.
That is the key message that emerges from an online poll of 5,460 working adults conducted by JobsCentral. The job network portal asked respondents across Singapore how satisfied they were with various aspects of their jobs to produce an overall 'happiness' score, with 100 signifying 'very happy' and 50 'neutral'.

Employees in education and training emerged the happiest of all, with a score of 59.8, followed closely by those in public relations who scored 58.8.
Individuals who work to ensure companies comply with regulations seem to be the least happy with their jobs, with an average score of only 52.9. The survey found that employees working for the Government are happier than those in the private sector.

From an industry perspective, employees in services - arts, entertainment, recreation and other services - are the most pleased with their jobs with a score of 69, while industries with low scores include the manufacturing sector. JobsCentral chief executive Lim Der Shing said people who work in the arts and entertainment industry, as well as teachers, have passion for their work.'On the other hand, layoffs in certain manufacturing industries and poor company performance this year could be a reason for manufacturing's lower scores,' he said. Ms Annie Yap, founder of human resource consultancy AYP Associates, agreed: 'In the educational and training sector, very often, they teach for passion, a strong interest to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.'

Mr Renny Yeo, president of the Singapore Manufacturers' Federation (SMa), admitted the manufacturing sector had been the hardest hit by the recent economic downturn, and that this could have been a key factor in employees feeling less optimistic and secure about their jobs. However, he remained confident that most SMa employers fostered active staff engagement through various team-building activities. 'This encourages better teamwork and productivity, as well as the establishment of a conducive and satisfying work environment,' he said.

Individuals contacted by The Straits Times seemed to support the poll's findings.
Mr Pierre Fong, 34, who left the engineering profession three years ago to become a full-time teacher, does not regret his career change. He recounts his experiences with children at Geylang Methodist School (Primary) with a sparkle in his eyes.
'I remember that I had this particular child in class who was very sloppy and lazy in his work,' said the English and science teacher, who admits he is unlikely to return to engineering. 'After a year, you see the gradual change. He is now so much more interested in doing his work and, as cliched as it sounds, it's really heart warming to know that you had a part to play in making that happen.'
Mr Tan Soo Jin, a director at executive search firm Amrop Hever Group and a former internal auditor, suggested that internal auditors who derived satisfaction from the job sometimes felt 'guilty' uncovering wrongdoers because they were usually sacked.
'Compliance is like policing. It can be tedious and time-consuming, so I wouldn't say many people would rate this important role to be an enjoyable one,' Mr Tan said.

Xu Liu Shan

On Powto's encouragement, i also went to find this dessert chain - Xu Liu Shan. After my boring cocktails, i went in search for it.



It was super crowded. The mango drink with mango fruit with coconut milk and jelly.

Yung Kee

As part of my belated gastronomical exploration of Hong Kong, I visited Yung Kee - the hallowed place for roasted meats. It was mentioned by two of my friends.

I arrived at 1050am. Closed.



Walked around for a bit to wait for them to open.



I couldnt decide on what to order. So i ordered everything i like - roasted goose, chicken and char siew.

Then it came a mountain of meat!!



Can you see how each meat type is stacked on the other? Amazing.. There was so much food i had to pack them..



That meal, with a pot of chinese tea and a bowl of rice, cost me S$60! Damn expensive man.

Private Kitchen

In a departure from my usual lazy fat-ass self, i actually asked out a friend for dinner when i was in Hong Kong. Decided not to waste my trips and eat hotel room service.

I asked her for somewhere local.

She suggested something called a private kitchen. It's one where it's a small area that is an extension of a person's house. You just go and pay up and they will just serve you a whole course of food that the cook was cooking that day. Yes, you have absolutely no idea what you'll be served that night, though each private kitchen has a specific theme like french, japanese, etc. The restaurant we went to was sichuan food.

Here's the new "restaurant".



At the end of the evening, the cook came out and started to sing a very high-pitched yun nan song.



The food was pretty good and comprised of about 8 courses, including two soups for each person and 2 bowls of rice for each person. I was surprised to be full and the meal only cost HGD280 - cheap by HK standards.

My friend later revealed that actually she had wanted to try the food at the Les Amis restaurant at this new hotel, the Mira or another one at the Upper House, another hotel, but i had asked for local.

Phew, else it'd have been hotel food again for me.

Coincidentally, after dinner as i walked down the Escalators to take a cab, i heard someone call out to me. it was, as some might remember, A&W girl!

Conference

I cant remember if i mentioned that i was in Hong Kong for a conference but yeah i am.

I usually hate to attend conferences and its accompanying cocktails cos i hate to mingle and i dont know many people and therefore find myself standing at the counters just eating and not "networking". Wait a minute, that isnt that bad..

Tonight is the last night and i decided to skip the cocktail and back to go home. YAY!

My ex-boss didnt attend this one as he said he was travelling and he skype-chatted me to ask how it was.

Oddly, halfway he veered off-topic and mentioned he was in San Francisco last weekend and how the journey was long. Then he mentioned how when he and I went to New Orleans in 2007 and how his luggage got lost in Chicago. Then i mentioned how he had to wear his clothes for 2 days. Then he recollected how he had to go to Gap to buy new underwear but the underwear was too big there and he had to buy shorts.

Too much details dude.

Then he said he was actually wearing the same shorts as he skyped me.

*scary*

Yucky Dim Sum

I was late for a meeting the other day and decided to do a quick one by ordering a dim sum platter.

It suxs.

I officially denounce the dim sum at the Shangri-La Tsim Sha Tsui. Cost me S$40!! Look at the greenish dim sum which they make to look like a fat butterfly? I wonder why they'd think it makes it more appetising when shaped like an insect?!@

Waarmly Hint

I saw this on the shower the other day. No idea what it was saying.

Gyu Kakuuuu

To prepare for both our respective hardship trips this week, we have gyu kaku.

In badminton, in the absence of numerous equipment like in golf, we replace it with numerous tubes of shuttlecocks! We only played for 2 hours and out came 5 tubes!

Humble House

After so many years, I finally went to My Humble House.

Furnishings inside is certainly not humble at all. Pretty good food at decent prices.



The dessert came and with it came a bowl and the lady starting pouring water into the bowl and dry ice started evaporating!!!! Scared the heck outta us!

Trip

After not travelling for some time, making one final thrust before the year ends.

Going to Hong Kong/Dong Guan for a week this sunday.

Then to Ho Chi Minh City for hopefully less than a week. I hope the client doesnt drag me to Nha Trang.

Then maybe a trip to Shanghai after that.

Phew..

Yummy

I was at sushi yoshida on Friday. Yummy food.. the sushi mixed plate was fabulous and the beef was three sauces was yummy. Tempura wasnt that fab.. *burp*

What the...II

What a creative English name…

What the...

Epitome of being inconsiderate. An NTUC trolley in my lift. :(

Dumbass

Last week, I came to work and saw Advisor’s blackberry plucked into my laptop (I don’t switch off my laptop when I leave for the day), to charge his BB. I thought that was quite rude but I thought hey, I came in at 9:45am, I shouldn’t draw attention to that.

I came in this morning and found this.

One end of the cable was plucked into the BB and the other end was not plucked into anywhere?@?!?@!@? I brought my laptop home over the weekend.

Gosh, what a dumbass.

I called IT and asked them to give him a cable.

I don’t think he got a cable cos he had lost his handphone and said that the BB allocated to him was too fat. He was too cheap to buy a phone and then my boss gave him his old BB Curve. What a loser.

Sale!

It was some anniversary sale at OG and this is a picture of some aunties discussing with each other how to maximise the points to buy more Tefal woks at the cheapest price. OG should use this as a poster for their adverts.

:(

We lost the Malaysia deal. The year could end without me signing a single deal

Shit.

Highlight

You know your life isnt rosy when the only highlight of this week is the printer you ordered finally arrived after 1 month.

This is my very first personal office printer. Brought me 5 mins of cheer before I realised that the printouts have an orange tinge.

Finished

Saw this that day at the pharmacy.

Wet look used to be THE look. Then became the matt look. Apparently, now the Mat look is the rage.

DUI

Saw this Ferrari the other day. Nothing special except for its license plate.

DUI = Driving Under Influence.

Burning Stuff

Despite the haze, people are still burning stuff in the open. While I’ll reserve my comments on the practice of burning paper money, at least they should burn in the allocated metal bins.

More F-1 Madness

This F1 tix thing for my birthday is getting more interesting.

I can't rem if I mentioned this but my boss decided to give the other ticket, which came in a pair when they bought mine, to be in a company lucky draw.

They announced the winner today in a mass email to everyone in the company. It was an uncle dude who cleaned our offices. So it was quite a nice person to win it. There was even a pic of him holding the tix, which of course looked exactly like mine.

Then one dude, a car park executive, whose name is Joe Boh. (His name is already a joke to me), replied to ALL with a "wah liew", complete with his email signature.

Within 5 mins, the entire office was abuzz with Zuo Bo's mass email. ZB sits in the B1 office so the majority of us don't ever see him. But we heard that he immediately called the IT dude to ask to recall the email.

Too bad, cannot.

20 mins later, he sent an apology to everyone.
"Dear all, Kindly accept my humble apology for the earlier mail sent out in error. Sorry for any inconvience caused. Thank you for your kind understanding."

Yes, "inconvenience" was spelt wrongly.

The apology totally cracked me up man. Wahahhahahahahhah. Its five hours since it happened and I'm still laughing to myself.

GPS

Bought a GPS over the weekend. Finally bought one after nearly two years of consideration. Hope this gives me better directions in life.

Eau

Got this in some mailer.. Eau de Toliette from Manchester United? Who wants to smell like Ryan Giggs after a 90 minute match? Brings a new meaning to smelling like a champion.

F1-ed

After some deliberations, they decided to give me one set of the 3-day pass instead. So pai seh.. and the list of people who shared in the present was my King and boss and some of the SVPs in King's company and even some secretaries. Now i really feel bad that even secretaries are involved. Eeps.. so now i have 1 set of quite decent tickets which i probably think i HAVE to go cos my boss might ask me abt it.. hot and sticky weekends ahead for moi..

Comma

Read this in the news that day… doesn’t sound very right on the first read, but thank goodness they had the comma in the right place.

Instead of offering something for everyone, shops could focus on serving certain niche groups, such as older shoppers, to improve their odds of survival.

Nine Word

Nine Words Women Use

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead! : This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often mis! understood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' .. that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F-- YOU!

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.!

I thanked my colleague for sending this to me and she said “whoa....u sound so serious.....but best to heed the advice cos u will never understand women !!! i dun understand women too...... hahahaha”

My reply was “ Im glad im a man cos I’d hate not to be able to understand myself”

Update: F1

Latest update on the F1 tix…

My colleague who was tasked by the Establishment to buy the F1 tickets told me that she had already bought the tickets before my boss actually asked me. Apparently, my boss actually wanted to give me a pair of $300 tickets but some people thought it might be too extravagant to give me such an expensive gift so decided to only give 1.

Now they don’t know what to do with the tickets. *gulp*

My colleague, who’s also an AVP, told me I was lucky, cos all she got for her birthday was expired chocolates and spa voucher. Asked me to sign that deal in Malaysia to repay the Establishment’s kindness.

*gulp*

F1 Madness

My boss called me to his room yesterday and mentioned that “they” (don’t know who “they” was) wanted to get me a 30th birthday present (???) and thought of buying me an F1 ticket. They even identified the location of where’s good to sit – The Esplanade Grandstand.

But the thing is they only want to buy one ticket (S$298) but tickets are sold in a pair. So he asked me to go find someone who would be willing to go with me and buy the other half of the ticket then they’d buy the other ticket for me for my birthday.

I thought that was kinda weird… there’s so many conditions in order for me to get my present, which I wasn’t expecting in the first place. Why cant “they” just get me a pair of cheaper tickets? Or something else that cost around $300 if that’s the budget.

Very weird.

I had told him I’ll go look for someone and today I told him I couldn’t find anyone. Hee hee..

Putting

Sox actually gave me this thing the last time we played golf. I had mentioned that I wanted to get a practice thingy for putting. You know those with a length of faux grass and you practice your putts by hitting it into a hole.

He said he had many sets and offered to give me one.

Kio dio.

So I was quite surprised he passed me this box.


Inside it’s like this… a “screwed-up” putter. (Hahahaha)


And you put the horseshoe shape thingy on the ground and aim with the screwed-up putter and hit. Quite interesting idea.. quite mobile…

WWII

Interesting article on the differing views on the various parties involved in WWII. I love reading about WWII and I have read most of Stephen Ambrose’s books on WWII. He wrote Band of Brothers, which was the basis of Saving Private Ryan and the tv series Band of Brothers.

Its surprising that an event as such is construed by so many people in different ways, either consciously or through the lies of others.

EUROPEANS mark this week the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, which took more than 60million lives and ushered in the worst barbarities in human history.

The main commemoration was held in Poland, the first nation to be attacked by Nazi Germany. It was a moving affair which ended on a high note when German Chancellor Angela Merkel, representing the country which started it all, spoke of a 'Europe which transformed itself from a continent of horror and violence into a continent of freedom and peace'.

Yet almost everyone who attended the commemoration still holds a different impression of that war and its implications. The battle for historic memory continues, and is unlikely to be settled for decades to come.

Russia represents the most extreme example of how the same set of historic events can be interpreted in diametrically opposed ways.

As heirs to the Soviet Union, the Russians feel proud of their World War II achievement. Bedraggled and often barefoot, Red Army soldiers pushed all the way to Berlin, an epic march soaked at every step in Russian blood.

Unfortunately, that's only part of the story. For on the eve of the war, Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader, signed a deal with Adolf Hitler. The Soviets claimed at that time that this was merely a 'non-aggression pact' designed to prevent a European war.

In fact, under secret clauses to the deal, Stalin carved up the continent with Germany. So, as German troops marched into Poland in 1939, the Soviets took their share of Poland, and swallowed up the Baltic states and a chunk of Romania as well. The Soviets entered the war only in 1941, when they were themselves attacked by Nazi Germany.
For a brief period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, some Russians were prepared to accept that their country's conduct during the war had been less than honourable. But those days are gone.

For, just as the commemorations got under way in Poland this week, the Russian security services released a batch of documents which, they claim, justify the Soviet Union's behaviour.

Under the new Russian interpretation, the USSR signed the pact with Nazi Germany in 1939 because it knew that the Poles were, supposedly, plotting with the Nazis to invade the Soviet Union.

The Poles - who could be accused of many things, but never of being Germany's allies - are outraged.'Absolute rubbish,' says historian Mariusz Wolos of Poland's Academy of Sciences, who points out that the Russian evidence does not stack up. However, facts are unimportant in this game, for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wants to instil a new sense of pride among his people, and this means a refusal to admit that Russia was ever wrong. Under a new Russian law, anyone who challenges official history is committing a criminal offence.

Although Russia's behaviour stands out in this regard, almost every other European nation suffers from its own selective amnesia about some inconvenient historic episodes.
The Poles, for example, still find it difficult to admit that though they were the war's biggest victims, they were also sometimes complicit in the destruction of Europe's Jews. Few Polish children know that the last anti-Jewish pogrom in their country took place a year after Poland was liberated from Nazi Germany.

For decades, the French lapped up every story about their heroic resistance to Nazi occupation. It was only much later that stories about collaboration with the German occupiers began to emerge. Even Mr Francois Mitterrand, France's president during the 1980s, turned out to have been a former collaborator.

And the British have their own myths. Their failure to defend France during the war is often portrayed as a victory. And the carpet-bombing of German towns, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ordinary German civilians, is frequently brushed aside as mere detail.

More interestingly, however, the Germans are moving in the opposite direction, by challenging taboos that they themselves created. For over half a century, Germans did not speak about themselves, but about the crimes they committed against others. As Chancellor Merkel put it this week, her nation 'bears eternal responsibility' for what happened.

Nevertheless, the Germans now want their own suffering to be remembered. In particular, they ask Europe to acknowledge another crime committed at the end of the war: the wholesale expulsion of millions of Germans from Eastern Europe, for no other reason than pure revenge.

One historic 'mental block', however, is shared by all Europeans: a refusal to accept any responsibility for spreading their conflict to other continents. The horrors of the war in Asia are remembered only in so far as they affected European citizens and soldiers. What happened to the Chinese or Koreans - to name but two afflicted Asian nations - is no longer Europe's affair.

The fact that Europeans have a guilty conscience about their past does not suggest that responsibility for the war should be shared in equal measures among the combatants. The ultimate culprit of the war remains Nazi Germany and its manic leadership.

But the arguments are a reminder that, regardless of globalisation and decades of collaboration, historic memories still remain a strictly national affair.

One day, a common narrative of Europe's biggest tragedy may emerge. Until that happens, the continent will not be truly united. For no country that hides its past will be able to tell the truth about its future.

Snowie

Snow Leopard reached me yesterday. So quick. Order on Sunday night, arrived on Tuesday. Chop chop curry pop.

Smashed

"He looks unbelievable on TV but playing against it was even tougher," said Britton. "It was so scary. I was pretty scared."

"His forehand is just crazy," Britton said. "I tried to keep it away, but sometimes I just hit it there just to see it. It's really pretty to watch."

Devin Britton played Roger Federer in the first round of the US Open and lost 6-1, 6-3, 7-5 to the Fed Express and those were his words. Haha.. “…just hit it there just to see it.”

Font Fondness

The Internet is a treasure trove of information which has allowed me to cast my eye across the globe and one of the things it has opened my eyes to is the things that people are passionate about. I have read about people passionate about golf (YAY!), IT, badminton (YAY!), makeup, etc etc. But.. fonts??? How can anyone be THAT passionate about fonts???!??!

The article that drew my attention was this headline “Ikea's new catalogue typeface hit by cyber backlash”. I then went to the forum mentioned - Typophile (http://www.typophile.com) and found the thread in question.(http://www.typophile.com/node/61222).

Never thought anyone could get that up in arms about the choice of fonts and how it warms corporate values, warmth, and innovation and being cheap.. Amazing really. Just to bring some context to this post, Verdena is a free font but Futura is not free.

Goof Ball

I havent been blogging about golf of late.

I went to JB with Sox two weekends ago, ostensibly cos it’s his 30th but more cos he was available to go.

It was an improvement from my previous games. That doesn’t say much. In any case, with my scores, it isn’t very difficult to show an improvement.

Here’s a picture of this hole at Palm Resort. The hole and the tee is separated by a large expanse of water. I think I probably hit two balls into the water man.



Anyway I am thinking of going for an intermediate course with Sox’s instructor to bring my game to another level. Just didn’t have time to get down to doing it. Havent touched my clubs for 2 weeks now. L

Hope I can sew up my deal and move along.