Residing in sunny Singapore where the food is great, weather is either too hot or too wet, where the worst drivers in the world are found and cars prices so high that car owners feel they own the road.
As far as snowparang is concerned, it started with Napster, which was shut down quite a few years ago. In fact I can vividly recall more than 50% of my university life in year 2 and 3 spent on downloading mp3 from Napster.
Then Kazaa, which was good while it lasted but then some idiotic ad program was added (Gator) and I stopped using it. And it was fine for a while, cos I have pretty much obtained most of the music that I wanted.
Then came Bittorrent. The demand came from the slew of anime and movies and er...other stuff which was available through this sharing network. And of course this gives me an excuse or a REAL use for the 2 mbps ADSL line I subscribed to Singnet (I mean, why do you need unlimited broadband for checking emails?!?!? Note that silly stuff like Facebook ain't around yet.) Bittorrent seems to be the next trend and it seems to stay, given the immense popularity of it.
However, Bittorrent is simply a distribution network/protocol/software. Somebody must start to share (or to 'seed') the file first before it can spread to thousands of downloaders worldwide. Still, we (aka the leechers) need to know that something good has been seeded i.e. a site that list the hottest and latest bittorrents. Enter Suprnova, where you can download shit like mp3, software, movies, TV shows etc. It was massive.
And exit Suprnova a few years ago, due to legal pressure from the rights holder. Then out of the ashes, a Mininova was created, mirroring the same functions (and more) of Suprnova. It was good while it lasted....and then today arrived.
Mininova, like Napster and Suprnova, inevitably came under legal pressure to shut down it's free distribution service. So we can see a trend, that the lawyers takes about 3 years to completely shut down such sites. Good luck in keeping up with them!
In the meantime, I guess I have to start searching elsewhere....
If you can recall, we got a 2nd hand, 30+ years old 3 room flat in Ang Mo Kio for an exhorbitant $305,000. Don't believe all that govt nonsense about affordable homes...
Anyway, here's how it looks like after the contractor (we asked the company GSID to do our house) removed the existing kitchen cabinet.
Next they overlay the existing kitchen tiles with new ones and repair some broken wall tiles...
Then they strip the existing wall paper and started painting the walls.
After they have painted, some of our furniture from Ikea arrived. And that's because whatever you ordered from Ikea, they can only hold it for 3 days before they deliver it to you...
Assembling the bookshelves cum display cabinet...
And had our first meal in our new place, on our new coffee table.
Did everything went smoothly? So far so good until yesterday, when they came to do up some electrical wiring before the cabinet are mounted.... Notice 3 holes? Yep, the person got it wrong TWICE!
"As many of you now know this friday will be my last day with PwC so I wanted to say good bye and thank you for everything. My decision to leave was not a snap decision as it may have seemed but a well thought out process. It started one night in the audit room as I was helplessly attempting to focus on some inane, completely irrelevant task so I could leave when the green card carrying cleaning lady came into my cage to empty my garbage when my decision was made. I realized that I was actually jealous of her job. I would have gladly emptied the garbage cans in the whole building over any of the nonsense I was doing on my computer. See, at the end of her shift she has made a difference, she has added value, be it minimal, of removing the refuse from the employees cubes. At the end of the day she sees the empty garbage cans and knows that she accomplished something. When trying to apply this mindset to my own work I found it to be impossible. At the end of my shift, I will have documented a control, that was only created for the sake of having a control, and my work will..."
It was nice to see most of us coming to school in red. But what struck me the most today is how enthusiastically everyone sing together when the teachers played the NDP songs. So here are some of my favorite NDP songs in order, ending with my most favorite at the end of the post. But I must thank http://www.sha.tc/singapore/ndp-songs for the inspiration and some of the links.
10. One People, One Nation, One Singapore(1990) An oldie but you can't deny it's catchy and easy to sing. Lack a bit of emotion though.
9. Where I belong by Tanya Chua (2001) Not too bad but just lack that little magic. And the tune is not that catchy.
8. Stand up for Singapore! (1985) The first song written especially to commemorate National Day! (before that, we only have 'Chan Mali Chan' and '相信我吧!新加坡!') Upbeat and catchy but too many politically correct words inside. And right now, Singapore have come far enough that 'standing up' is no longer enough... the people have to do more than that!
7. Count on me Singapore (1986) One of the songs that sometime I mistaken it for 'We are Singapore'. Soothing tune, easy lyrics, catchy chorus. But slightly corny and 'fake', yeah?
6. Home by Kit Chan (1998) A bit melancholic (sad) and a bit slow but otherwise beautifully written. Can't say it's a song for high spirits but if you're one of those listening to this while stationed overseas, I bet tears will roll.
5. Things so Singapore by Ann Hussein (2009) The unofficial song that had gained internet popularity in this year 2009 NDP. It's nice, but not really a 'group singing' song. I mean, you can't imagine the whole National Stadium echoing with this song, isn't it?
4. What do you see by Electrico (2009) The first song by a Singaporean band that made it big (relatively in the local scene). The lyrics is meaningful and the tune is nice, just not perfect. It just lack that little something, a climax to the song maybe? The song begins with a question, and at the end, I'm still asking myself what do I see...
3. My Island Home by Kaira Gong (2006) Erm...disregarding the fact that I actually know the singer in person (briefly, in NUS), I feel that this song has one of the most changes in terms of mood and tempo. Started slow and gentle, and finally crashing with a strong "I believe!" at the chorus, before settling down again.
And hearing Kaira (or Shi Jia) sing live, right in front of you without any mics or instrument, is way much better than what you hear from the CDs.
2. We are Singapore (1987-1988) This is my most favorite NDP song before the invasion of pop singers and even poppier songs. Still, even after 23 years, you can't deny you actually prefer to sing the National Pledge rather than recite it, just like how they did it in this song.
Extremely easy to sing, lyrics are very easy to remember. Grand and yet not too sombre. Not too slow and yet not too fast like a dance music, I truly believe this is a real gem of a song. And they like it so much that this song was used for 2 years! If you haven't hear this song before, you must give it a try.
1. We will get there by Stefanie Sun (2002) Besides that fact that I am quite a supporter of Stefanie Sun, I really like the tune of this song. The strong rhythm by the bass sets a good intro, with a gradual increase in instrument and finally peaking at the chorus. Part rock, part pop, which is what I like! Lyrics wise I prefer the chinese version but I think the arrangement is wonderful and with Stefanie's unique voice, it's actually one of the few NDP songs that can be 'sold' as a top pick pop song.
For NSmen of Singapore, if you did not manage to pass your IPPT within 1 year (starting from your birthday), you will need to attend Remedial Training (RT). RT is a twice a week Physical Training (PT) session that includes some simple exercise plus a 3 km run. All done in the company of fellow NSmen that had failed IPPT too.
It wasn't as bad as I thought. The PTIs knew most of use were physically ill-conditioned and hence the exercises are scaled down. The last session, we even played a game ("Are you smarter than your fellow RT mate?") whereby the losing side have to do twice the amout of repetition of sit-ups, push-ups etc.
What was most encouraging is that more than half (I would say majority) of the people actually take the training quite seriously. I mean, it's not easy to get 30 year olds like me to count out the timing when we're doing flutter kicks and burpees, but we did. Of course there are those slackers that are here just to pass time, who find every opportunity to skip the exercises and only walked 2 km out of 3 for the run.
Sound like a typical secondary school actually....
That's not all. From the PT sessions, I actually learn quite a bit (warm up and cool down routines, sequence of exercises, 'lesson plan' for PTs) that will prove useful when I take my NCC cadets for PT sessions. :)
I failed because of 3 seconds in my 2.4 run. After 3 weeks and 6 sessions, I passed and even got a silver!
Moral of the story? CPT Guay was fucking too lazy to run regularly, and have to depend of 'regimentation and routine' to get him to train, when he could have done it easily at his own pace. So sad...
My 500+ days of accident free record smashed by a red Latio...
Yup, she jammed brake suddenly, I braked but front locked, skidded then gently knocked onto the rear bumper. I fell and thank goodness there's isn't a trailer/van/lorry to run me over.
I'm basically unhurt and so is my bike except for some paint scratches and bent clutch lever. But this is what happened to the car's bumper.
This just spoils the whole day. Now I have to pay for that bumper! Drats....
Redang. It got famous (for me) after that chinese movie Summer Holiday (Xia Re Mo Mo Cha - starring Sammi Cheng and Ren Xian Qi). Some say the water was much clearer than Tioman (which I've been to). Others say it's not commercialised yet, hence more attractive too.
Right. But 1 thing for sure, it is more inaccessible than Tioman (from Singapore, at least). Located near the coast off Terengganu, it's a torture to take the cheapo coach-ferry way. Hence we opted to fly there and to do that, we have to stay in Berjaya resorts.
The holiday got off to quite a bad start, because while waiting for the plane to arrive on 21 Jun at Seletar airport, we were then informed that the flight is cancelled due to technical issues. So we lost 1 day in our short little honeymoon...
Hence we only manage to fly on 22 Jun, the next day. It was a 4 prop plane that can carry about 30 passengers. Although it's even lower standard than budget airlines, most will agree it's infinitely more comfortable than an 8 hour coach ride. 1.5 hours later, we landed in Redang.
"Your flight to paradise"...what an inappropriate slogan for an airline. Hmm...I only want to go Redang, not paradise...yet!
So once we check in, naturally we want to walk around the island and check out the life there. Only to realise there isn't much life. Or rather, there are no established roads on Redang yet because everyone depends on boat to get around! Thankfully, there's still a few small eating places outside the resort, else we have to settle for the horrendously expensive restaurant in the resort.
First meal in Redang, after walking for 40 mins in the hot sun to realise there's nothing to see by foot. Maggi goreng is my default dish I will order in any Malaysian restaurant.
Well at least the resort have some TV channels. My wife is extremely pleased to find Tom and Jerry showing on Cartoon Network!
So...Redang. Beaches, snorkeling, tourist, blue sea, white sand. You either love it or find it too idyllic to the point of boring.
Er...not much else to report actually. But it's natural for me to compare it with Tioman and personally, I though the water at Tioman is more blue (perhaps the beaches are shallower?). And of course, Tioman has more places to walk and stroll whereas in Redang, you're practically stranded without a boat. And I recall other leisure facilities in Tioman, such as jet ski and pubs etc. Was very disappointed to know that jet ski is not allowed in Redang...
However, there are much more fishes and coral at Redang. One great example is Marine Park, whereby you can see corals and the fishes just 10 metres from the shore.
So verdict? Go Redang if your scuba diving, else Tioman may be a better choice for snorkelling and general water sports.
Reach Jo's place ard 750 am. Met the brothers (Xueming, Alex, Owls and Charpin) and all set to go!
The sisters. And the brothers helping me to sing 4 songs... The picture doesn't show how hot and sweaty we were....
"finally found what I'm looking for...'
Offered joss sticks to the ancestors, followed by the tea ceremony.
We were in turn given tea by Jo's sister. Well actually Coka Cola.... :)
And then it's off to my place!
Ate dumplings and other sweet stuff. Followed by tea ceremony again. This time round, there are much more relatives (at least 10 pairs).
Then it's off to the hotel for the solemnisation at night!
It was all plain sailing until 6 pm, where suddenly I find myself rushing around and settling 'stuff', such as wine, sound system, video etc. On hindsight, maybe should have push the ceremony to 7:30?
But anyway, at 7:05 pm, the bride and her father walked in.
With her precious daughter in tow, he handed her to me reluctantly...
The vows, the exchange of rings, the kiss, the signing of papers...
and we're officially husband and wife!
To..er...spice things up, I decided to perform some songs with my aeoband. It was far from perfect but it's the thought that counts, RIGHT!
I'm glad that some of my treasured friends are able to my wedding. My JC mates and RSAF CPT(NS), and people from GENUS as well as current colleagues from Kranji Sec. Thanks guys!
I thought I would be spared of this. But the ex-AEOs still hold this tradition dearly... Within a minute of finishing the drink, my head starts to swim...
The dinner ended early (as planned, around 915 pm) and the next day, we'll fly off to Redang!
Epilogue
The BLARDY plane was cancelled on Sunday due to 'technical' issues...so in the end, we have to catch a make-up flight the next day, shortening our holiday by 1 day....
And we bought, or rather paid a deposit for our new apartment.
Walking distance to AMK mrt. Although it's a corridor unit and not what you'll call spacious, it's well kept with quiet neighbours. And frankly how much space does 2 people need?
9 more days...
Borrowed soft toys from my school to decorate my friend's tables. Using my birthday gift to Jo for my ALOC and HCJC friends.
8 more days...
and I'm scouting for renovation ideas at Ikea. Realise it can be cheap to do a house, if you don't want anything built-in or customised.
7 days to go...
Managed to borrow a ukulele for table decoration of the GENUS table. Thanks Alex!
Rehearse the songs with FHM and Charp. Technically, aeoband's first public performance! Picture shows a 'vetting' by Charp's mum...
Went to the hotel to check out the sound system too. All seems good to go.
6 days left...
Scouting for ideas again but this time at Ikea Tampiness, with Jo. Should we go
simple - just buy furniture and touch up some areas
DIY design - design our own flat, redo it to our taste
Get a interior designer
5 more days...
And I'm freaking gonna stay in SISPEC for NCC Specialist Course....zzz....
4 more days
And I've completed the video montage.
3 days to go...
We collected the certificate from ROM. Bought bubble guns for the bride march in.
2 more days...
And we collected the wedding gown and tuxedo.
1 more freaking day!!!!!
Look what my form class gave to me!
Collected the Beetle. And caught butterflies in stomachs....
and tomorrow's gonna be a new beginning for the rest of our lives.
