What a life.....

Dolphin 1 was *swimming* *jumping* *spiraling* *twisting*, and he remembered his good friend Piggy 2. The last he spoke with Piggy 2 was through his waterproofed satellite phone and the latter was crying his hearts out due to some problems. Dolphin 1 had advised Piggy 2 to look for crazyjarjar to “borrow” a coconut tree to lean and relax. Dolphin 1 wondered if Piggy 2 managed to borrow the coconut tree, and if Piggy 2 is still relaxing at one of the coconut trees!

Dolphin 1 whisked up his waterproofed satellite phone and called Piggy 2, who picked up the phone almost immediately.

Dolphin 1: Hi Piggy 2, how are you?

Piggy 2: I am fine thank you?

Dolphin 1: Alamak, how come we sound so ‘formal” to each other. So you are fine ah. That’s nice to hear. So what have you been doing? Still leaning against a coconut tree?

Piggy 2: As a matter of fact I am leaning against a coconut tree, and relaxing too right now. But of course I have not been leaning here since last month lah. I came over here a few times and found that it was good. Crazyjarjar was kind enough to “lend” me this coconut tree indefinitely, as long as I needed it. Crazyjarjar said he has plenty of coconut trees to spare, so he wouldn’t mind lending me one tree, especially when you Dolphin 1 recommended me to him. So thanx a lot Dolphin 1.

Dolphin 1: Hey, nice to hear that you have been relaxing and have a permanent coconut tree, courtesy of crazyjarjar. Yah, that crazyjarjar is my great friend. He is a nice guy but sometimes a little crazy. So which coconut tree are you at now. Maybe you can give me your exact coordinates and I can use my satellite to look for you

Piggy 2: Wah, you are so advanced. Satellite some more? I am at 1 deg 10 min N 104 deg 30 min E. Look out for that coconut tree which is almost balding and slanting above the beach towards the sea.

Dolphin 1: Good spot leh. Somewhere on the northern coast of Bintan! Hey, you on holiday ah? So envious.

Piggy 2: No need to be envious. You can come visit me if you want. You can swim much faster than me. I am sure you can come over now if you want to.

Dolphin 1: Well, I am not too far away. Just had some tunas and so it might be good exercise for me to go meet you. See you in a short while.

Dolphin 1 swam, and with strong and swift strokes, he soon saw Piggy 2 really relaxing below a slanted coconut tree, with a glass of red wine and some peanuts! HA. Since when have pigs started to drink wine and eat peanuts? But then, since when do Dolphins have satellite phones? :p

Dolphin 1: *Shouting and Waving* Ooooi Piggy 2…….I am here!

Piggy 2: *sipping his wine and crunching a peanut* looked up and saw his good friend Dolphin 1. He was very happy to see Dolphin 1 *snort snort*

Dolphin 1: Hi Piggy 2. Nice to see you again. It has been quite a while. But I am glad to see that you are enjoying life now.

Piggy 2: Thanx to you Dolphin 1, I find time to relax and now I am feeling great. Amidst the hustle and bustle, we must really find time to relax leh.

Dolphin 1: Yeah, you are right. For me, I have lots of opportunities to travel round the whole world. I get enough exercises and can eat all the tuna I want. I also visit many interesting places like Alaska and New Zealand. Fun right?

Piggy 2: Yeah, good for you. Being able to relax here is good enough for me lah.

Dolphin 1: So, if I may ask, how is that problem of yours? Settled already?

Piggy 2: What problem? HA. No lah, there are many ways of handling a problem. It may not be the best way but I think it is appropriate for now. So I have put the matter aside and not let it affect me too much. After all, why do we want to bog ourselves down with so many problems all the time? If we adjust our expectations a little, things may become very different and reach a more acceptable level.

Dolphin 1: You are probably right. So you are putting the problem aside and not solving it directly?

Piggy 2: Could it be that putting a problem aside is actually one way of solving it? Ponder ponder.

Dolphin 1: Hmmm….hey, it is almost dusk. Lets not talk about your problem any more. Can I have a glass of red wine too?

Piggy 2: Sure, *takes wine glass and pour wine for Dolphin 1*. Cheers, and let us sit back, think of nothing except to enjoy the beautiful sunset and the wonderful red wine.

Dolphin 1 & Piggy 2: *sip sip red wine* *relax* *ummmm*......

Some Flowers

Just to share some pictures of flowers taken during my Mt KK trip last month.


Rafflesia - World's Largest Flower (kind of ugly looking cos it is already in its 6th day - going to wither)


Ginger Flower


Not sure what flower this is....anyone has an idea?


Hibicus

Mid-Autumn Festival 2005

A bunch of us gathered to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival at Bishan Park last Saturday. It was a last minute decision to go there, instead of other darker places. The moon was shining brightly as we arrived. We set up "camp" at one open spot and started feasting on some of the mooncakes, fruits and yam that some of us brought along. It was a warm evening, with little wind, supposedly good for those parading with their lanterns.

We chatted, took photos and decided to play with our lanterns. We started lighting all the lanterns we had (more than 10 of them) and hung them on the tiny tree nearby. We ran out of space to hang and ended up hanging them on another tree. We had lanterns of different shapes, sizes and characters. There were a batman, bee, butterfly, seal, dinosaur, bunny etc.









The strange thing that night was that none of us actually walked around with the lanterns. If we did, I am sure it would have been nicer. Then some of them took out sparklers to play, and while snapping some pictures, we had some great ideas to take some nice pictures and ended up with these.







In between we were "attacked" by lots of supposedly mozzies. Quite a number of us suffered bites on our legs. I wonder why only our legs got the bites. Anyway, so far all of us seemed ok. No dengue. HA. We packed up at almost midnight and proceeded to a nearby Mac to chill out. We needed the aircon. Not a very exciting Mid-Autumn Festival I must say.

Running Dogfishes!

One wet day, Triggerfish was swimming and swimming and Clown Fish was also swimming and swimming but hurriedly. They nearly bumped into each other.

Triggerfish: Hey Clown, tell me a joke?

Clown Fish: Whoa, sorry Trigger. No time, no time. Shhhh, don't tell anyone that I am here. I sense that someone has been tailing me for the past few weeks.

Triggerfish: What are you talking about? Someone tailing you? Someone with legs or what?

Clown Fish: No lah, not someone with legs, but something white white in colour.

Triggerfish: White? As in the FIWs?

Clown Fish: Shhhh, not so loud. I do not know lah. What is FIWs? But I think it is the dogfish lah.

Triggerfish: Aiyoh Clown, FIWs are *whisper* !!@#$%^&*() Got that? But dogfishes are not white what. They are usually brownish and spotted. Oh yah, their bellies are white! You mean now they are walking on their tails while tailing you? Wow!

Clown Fish: Not sure lah. Very scary leh. I wonder what they are up to? Of all fishes, why me? I am such a cute clown fish, except that I don't tell jokes or work in the circus.

Triggerfish: Maybe it must have been something you said or did recently? Did you anyhow say things or not?

Clown Fish: No lah, I didn't say or do anything to deserve this what. But......oh, maybe that day....aiyah.....

Triggerfish: What what? What that day? What did you do?

Clown Fish: Stupid me lah, that day I commented that dogfishes are not allowed in our underwater pub because dogfishes drool, and they smell bad. Stupid right?

Triggerfish: Aiyoh, why you so clown? Eh, you are a clown what. But why you say such things openly? You know the dogfishes will surely take revenge. Now you are dead meat.

Clown Fish: Aiyoh, don't scare me. You always like to scare fishes.

Triggerfish: Yah yah yah....wait.........I sense something is coming. Sheesh....I see shimmering white in the distance, and it is walking towards us. Quick, hide behind me.

Clown Fish: *Trembling in fear* Don't tell me the dogfishes are here.

Triggerfish: I see them now. The dogfishes are here, and they are really walking on their tails. What is the world coming to? Sheesh, they are running towards us. They can even run too. Oh no, running dogfishes! I think I also better scram from here.

Clown Fish: Hey Trigger, wait for me........

The scream of Clown Fish was cut short and turning back, Trigger saw that Clown was no more, short of the 6 floating parts of his dismembered tiny body. *sob sob*

Watch out fishes. The dogfishes (that run) are here!

I wonder

I have not blogged for quite a while. Since I came back from KK trip, which followed immediately with my national service, I have been feeling a little "lethargic" to blog. But I have been keeping up with other forums and news though. Now comes two bloggers being charged for sedition, over some supposedly racist remarks in their blogs and other forums. What is the blogging scene going to be like in Singapore? I wonder........

National Service finally over!

HA. I have finally completed my national service today, after a "gruelling" 2 weeks. Totally drained out. *yawn* Now I need to get myself back to office mode. HA. I was told I have completed all my high-key in-camp trainings and am unlikely to be called up for any more next year. Hmmm, not sure if I should be happy about that or not......

Mount KK Trip

I wrote this short report about my KK Trip in my DiveTrek website and decided to put it here as well.

This trip was one with mixed feelings. Well, we enjoyed ourselves in many ways like roaming the town, shopping, eating, staying at nice resorts, trekking through beautiful scenery, conquering the summit etc, but I guess for some of us, the extremely cold weather while going up to the summit was a big MINUS!

Ours was a relaxed trip compared to the other group (Ernest was in the other group). Theirs was a 6 day trip while ours lasted 9 days. So we had a lot of time to relax before and after the trek. We spent the first two days roaming KK Town, doing some window shopping, exploring the corners of the town, finding out accommodation for the remaining of the trip and looking for nice foods to eat. The local hawker centre near to the sea serves lots of barbecued seafood. We nearly tried the BBQed trigger fish!

One interesting thing we did the second night was to "lay an ambush" at the airport for Ernest's group to arrive. Besides Bee Leng and I, the rest of my group did not know that Lip was joining us a day late. Lip made some last minute arrangements and finally managed to get her leave approved, air ticket booked and bag packed in the last minute. We made a simple vanguard sheet to welcome the group coming out of the departure hall. It was a pleasant surprise for most of us.

Ernest's group "chionged" to KK Park to stay the night while my group continue to relax in the town. For them, they trekked up the mountain via the Mesilau trail to the base camp the next morning and stayed the night at Gunting Lagadan Hut. They rested for that evening and conquered the summit early next morning. They then proceeded all the way down the mountain via the Timpohon trail and stayed the night at Poring Hot Springs Resort. They then returned to Singapore the following evening.

After leaving KK town (we had roasted duck, char siew and wanton noodles for breakfast), we proceeded to stay the night at Mesilau Resort (after settling administrative matters at the KK Park HQ). The resort, situated at about 2000m above sea level was nice and the air was cooling. We had some nice meals at the restaurant, including steamboat in the evening. We also had a fruits feast (consisting of mangosteens, langsat, rambutans, jambu, bananas, oranges and tomatoes bought from a roadside fruit market along the way) that night.

After an early breakfast, some warm up and a briefing by our guide, we set off on the Mesilau trail. The Mesilau trail is more scenic but longer than the Timpohon trail. Indeed the trail was quite nice as compared to the other trips I had gone so far. The trail is more open and most of the time, instead of trekking under shady boring trees, we were able to see many nice scenery along the way. There was one part where we stood on a ridge with deep valleys on both sides. It was cooling and sunny at the same time, and the feeling was good. We were hoping to meet Ernest and his gang at the intersection of the Mesilau and Timpohon trail, but guess they were too early for us.

We took our time to complete the trail. By the time we arrived at base camp accommodation for the night(Waras Hut), it was like 9 hours have passed since we started early in the morning. I guess our speed was a little slow but we took a lot of photos and rest along the way, contributing to the long hours. Nevertheless, we were glad to have reached our accommodation, as most of us were hungry, tired and cold by then. We had dinner at the main lodging restaurant (Laban Rata Hut) which served basic food like noodles, rice, bee hoon, soups and spaghetti. We had our fill and retired early for the night.

As we were in no hurry to conquer the summit, we slept in a little bit. After checking out and had our late breakfast, we proceeded to check in at our next accommodation for the night - Gunting Lagadan Hut (where Ernest and gang were the night before and a short stroll from Waras Hut). Some rested in the room while some (including me) laid on the rock outside the hut gazing at the clouds floating by. My face is like Justice Bao now because of that short 2-hour tan! The clouds hovering around the mountain were very beautiful. They looked like candy floss and you wished you could stick your hand out and pull some to your mouth. Those clouds above us kept changing patterns too, due to the strong wind. It is one of the nicest mountain treks for me so far.

We had the usual simple dinner and sat outside the hut to relax for a while. The night scene was beautiful too. Suddenly as we shielded our eyes from the bright lamp that was just in front of the hut, and looked up to the sky, we realised that it was flooded with stars. We took many pictures and then proceeded to rest early, as we had to wake up at 1 am the next morning to begin our ascent to the summit. I guess all of us managed to catch an hour or two of rest before the alarm sounded all too early. We had a quick simple meal of instant noodles and milo. We were all very excited and revving to go, even though I sort of had butterflies in the stomach. After a short warm up, we were the first group to go up the steps towards the summit. The sky was very dark and the stars were smiling down on us. They seemed very near and within our hands' reach. But we had no time to talk to the stars as the summit was on our minds.

Soon many other groups passed us. As usual, we were slow and steady and was trying to enjoy the night trek in the cool morning. We were quite warmly dressed up with long johns, T-shirst, sweaters and jackets. I think most of us had at least 5 layers on. I found out later Lip wore 8 layers! We soon cleared the 700+ steps and came to the part where we had to clear some wall face with the help of the rope. It was easy and fun for me. In fact for most parts, you don't really need the rope. Anyway, clearing the wall face in the dark was not that exciting, as we were not able to see what was beside us. We were told by those who have been there before that coming down was more fun, because we could see the "danger" we were in. Anyway, up and up we went.

Ooops, "Is it raining?" Oh yes, it started to drizzle. We were ascending up into the clouds and the wind was picking up. Wow, it was getting cold and visibility at one point dropped to a mere 5 m! Even with our powerful torchlights, we could only see a few metres ahead. The wind was very strong that there were quite a few instances when we were almost blown off our feet. We were soon soaking wet. Somehow I wonder why we did not don our raincoats. Perhaps we thought it was a passing cloud and that our windbreakers would be able to hold out the rain. But we were wrong. Within the next hour, we were all shivering and teeth were chattering. The climb had begun to be tough. We slowly made our way up, taking more frequent rests due to the cold and the thin air. All we see ahead were distant torchlights of other groups. Soon we could see the final part of the mountain slope that would bring us to the summit. But each step we took was agonising as it was freezing cold.

Nevertheless we pushed on. Some of us contemplated to turn back, but I am glad we did not. We dragged our heavy feet and our weak shivering bodies, and slowly made our way bit by bit up the granite rock face. We saw many people passed by us but they were going in the opposite direction. Yes, they had gone up to the summit and are hurriedly going down to keep themselves out from the cold. We were still struggling. Hey, we are about 100 m from the summit.......jia you....I shouted.....Yes, the summit was in sight. Our objective is just ahead. We could see it clearly. We could even smell it. But we could not touch it. The last 100 m was not easy, but knowing that the summit is nigh pushed us on. We scrambled onto the last rock and finally we hugged and kissed the signboard that says "Taman Kinabalu Low's Peak (4095.2 m)". Yeah, we have finally made it to the summit. We snapped a few quick photos and quickly descended from the summit.

The journey down the hill took much shorter time but no less grueling. While the rain had stopped, the wind was still blowing continuously and we were soaking wet inside. I still remember my teeth were chattering throughout and I nearly went into spasms. But we survived and were finally back in our accommodation! We took a while to defrost, rest and change. We had a quick lunch and were soon ready for our long descent. Our guide, having seen our pace so far, was worried that we would take too long even in the descent. But we prove him wrong and by 5 pm we were already down at the Timpohon gate, 2 hours faster than expected. We have to pat our own backs for that.

We waited for our van to pick us up, went over to the KK Park to collect our certificates and soon we were on our way to Poring Hot Springs Resort. It is situated at a nice quiet place next to a running river. Surprisingly, it was very warm that night, perhaps to compensate for the cold we suffered in the morning. We gave Edwin a surprised birthday celebration at our room after dinner. We originally planned to do it at the summit but there was no way we could light the candles then. HA. So it was a double celebration for Edwin - conquering the summit for the second time, this time on his birthday.

After breakfast at a local coffee shop (nice curry noodles), we took a walk into the woods to check out the world's largest flower - the rafflesia. It was already in its 6th day of bloom and was almost going to wither. As such, the color was not very appealing, but at least we had a chance to catch a glimpse of how it looked like. We then checked out from the resort, but proceeded to check out the canopy walk after leaving our luggage at the resort reception. What?! More climbing? We had to walk upslope for about 30 minutes to reach the canopy walk and some of us were mumbling adn grumbling to ourselves. But the walk was well worth it as the canopy walk turned out to be very nice. It had a length of about 157m and at the highest point, it was about 41 m. The canopy walk is divided into 3 sections, with each end built on the platform on top of giant solid trees called the King of Trees (Raja Kayu). I tested its hardness by banging my head on the tree trunk. It was really hard. I am not called crazyjarjar for nothing. HA. The canopy walk posed a challenge to Lip, but as always, she emerged triumphant and managed to do some "dance" on the walk at the end.

From Poring we proceeded back to KK Town. Edwin left that night while the remaining 6 of us stayed back to explore the town. It was a tiring two days as the town was actually quite small. We contemplated to do a 5-island cruise but scrapped the idea because we wanted more time to rest our tired bodies. We ended up just shopping and eating. Lip was our champion shopper, as usual :p

I believe we were all glad to be back home, after a long and tiring KK trip. We penned down our feelings of the trip in a little blue notebook where all the happenings during the trip were recorded in detail. So if you ask me why I said I have mixed feelings about the trip, I guess the main reason would be that the weather during the ascent to the summit was bad, and that sort of spoilt all the fun as I could not take any pictures at all. We could not celebrate Edwin’s birthday at the summit and take a proper group photo with our banner which we had painstakingly drawn up for ourselves. If the weather had been good, I am sure I would have somersaulted and jumped from rock to rock on the mountain slopes. We would have nice pictures and memories of the mountain. I don’t plan to go back up the mountain again, but it looks like I might have to make another trip, just to take those pictures.

Anyway, overall it was a great trip. The group trained together before the trip and conquered the mountain together. I want to congratulate ourselves for being one of the few millions who have conquered that mountain. While it is not a comparable conquest like those who conquered Everest, I am sure it was a great achievement for us, especially those who have conquered the summit for the very first time. If you have not been there, I would highly recommend you to make a trip there. Oh, just make sure you go in the drier months (Jan to Jun) but no guarantees though.

Everest awaits………hahaha…just kidding.

In-Camp

Started my 2-week in-camp training as part of my yearly national service again this week. Reported to my base yesterday morning and discovered that a few of my fellow national servicemen are sort of completed their training quota. There has been some changes to the number of in-camp trainings we had to do and thus the quota has been reduced. I would told this might be the last in-camp for me. Not sure if I should shout hurray for that or not. A few new guys joined my team, so I had to "orientate" them.

As with previous years, in-camp training is very "xiong" ("tough")........but I still find time to blog :)

Backside Pain Ah ???!!!

Dolphin 1 was *swimming* *jumping* *spiraling* *twisting* and *oooops* clashed into Dolphin 2 who was also *swimming* *jumping* *spiraling* *twisting* from the opposite direction.

Dolphin 2: *rubbing his long nose* Aiyoh, Dolphin 1, why you anyhow jump here and there? Knock me until so painful leh.

Dolphin 1: Sorry Dolphin 2. I wasn't sure where I was heading. I simply *swim* *jump* *spiral* and *twist*. Not exactly going anywhere.

Dolphin 2: Why so listless? What happened? Want to tell me?

Dolphin 1: Tell you also you may not understand. It is about my friend Piggy 2 lor.

Dolphin 2: What's wrong with that moody Piggy 2 again? How come he always got so much trouble?

Dolphin 1: Aiyah, he went to climb Mount KK last week, then come back so *xian xian*. Not sure what exactly happened. I asked him, but he kept mumbling to himself. I only could hear him keep saying "always my fault...."

Dolphin 2: Huh? "Always his fault...." What is he talking about? They all cannot go up the mountain because of him ah? If not then why always his fault?

Dolphin 1: Not sure lah. You ask me I ask who? Let me call him now with my waterproofed satellite phone.

Dolphin 2: OK lor. Since I am quite free now, I will wait for you lah. You talk to him first while I look for some fishes to eat.

Dolphin 1: *talking to Piggy 2* You don't cry lah. What's is there to cry about? Just tell me what happened lah.

Dolphin 1: *still talking to Piggy 2* "Hmmm", "Orrrh", "Errr", "Ooook", "Aiyah" Like that also cry. Pigs like to cry meh? OK, I tell you what. No big deal lah. Just go look for crazyjarjar, and "borrow" a coconut tree for you to lean. You sit under the coconut tree, then think think think.....then think think think some more.....then take one deep breath (don't forget to exhale) and you will be ok liao. Trust me. I kid you not. Oh yah, remember to sms me which coconut tree near the sea hor. I can go and visit you mah.

Dolphin 2: Wah, you talked so long to that Piggy 2. So what's his problem this time?

Dolphin 1: Yah yah yah, and you happily go and eat your tuna. No lah, he went to Mount KK, actually very fun one. Scenery very nice, weather very nice, and they climb climb climb everything also very nice. You don't see that Piggy 2 climbing on 4 legs hor actually can climb quite fast. He quite fit one.

Dolphin 2: Everything nice then still so sad?

Dolphin 1: Aiyah, you don't interrupt lah. Let me continue. Quite long story leh. You be patient can?

Dolphin 2: Eh? How come this sounds so familiar? Orrrh, that Piggy 1 also asked Piggy 2 to be patient right? Ok lah, I will be patient else also become real patient.

Dolphin 1: That's better. OK. Then they climb climb climb. Then not sure what happened hor, Piggy 2 fell ill leh. He had diarrhea, fever, runny nose, cough, headache. He also vomited and his backside also pain leh. Terrible right?

Dolphin2: Waaah....like that how to climb some more?

Dolphin 1: Yah lor....but his friends very good lah. Took very good care of him, nursed him back to health.

Dolphin 2: Wow, his friends very good hor. I think if others, will leave him by the road side to rot ah :p

Dolphin 1: Yah yah yah, you so bad-hearted. His friends all very good one, will surely help.

Dolphin 2: So help already good right, how come still got problem leh?

Dolphin 1: Yah lor, strange right. But then Piggy 2 said difficult to make everyone happy lor. Piggy 2 do something or don't do something other people also not happy. I told him go sit below a coconut tree and relax lah. This Piggy 2 gave a loud *Haiz - Always my fault..." then he hung up. I hope he will sms me which coconut tree near the sea he will be at then I can go visit him.

Dolphin 2: Waaah, very confusing leh. Why pigs got so much problem one?

Dolphin 1: Don't know lah. I thought pigs just eat sleep and be merry, but this pig quite active one, everything also do, so maybe got more headache lah.

Dolphin 2: Why can't pigs be more like dolphins? Swim here and there, got tuna eat tuna, no tuna eat sardines lah. Left brain headache, then switch left brain off, since still can think with right brain. HA....dolphin good right?

Dolphin 1: Yah, yah, yah, keep singing your own praises. If both brains headache you switch both off right? You backside pain then you know.

Dolphin 2: Hee Hee, ok lah, got to go. Don't forget to let me know when Piggy 2 sms you on which coconut tree he is at. Maybe I can go see if his backside still pain or not :p *grin*

Dolphin 1: !!!!!!!

Some KK Pictures

Not in the best mood to come up with a KK Trip report except to say that it was a trip with mixed feelings. While I did manage to reach the summit, the weather on the way up and down was very bad and no pictures were taken at all! The consolation is that in between, before and after the conquest, I managed to snap some interesting pictures.....


A nice shot of a chameleon having lunch


A red indian hiding behind the tree?


Nice silvery tint caused by light reflection


Budding red leaves - young and vibrant


Silver fern - head of a ram?


Moss on the tree - Christmas already?


Ever-flowing waterfall


How good if we could walk on the clouds?


Is that a spaceship? Nope, just a cute piece of cloud!


Catch the twilight rays of the sunset


Can see the stars?


Silver Fern - interlocking rams' horns?


A pretty moth?


I feel so naked


Butterfly hovering on flower

Will write more when I am in the right mood, else it would be more pictures. Standby.

Back from Mount KK Conquest

HA. I am back! :) Yeah, I conquered Mount KK. Stood on top of South East Asia for a few shivering minutes. It was a tiring trip. But I should be well rested now. More reports and photos coming up.....need time to settle in :)

KK here I come!

The day has finally arrived. I would be flying over to Kota Kinabalu later this evening for my Mount KK conquest. Am getting a little excited. Climbing any mountain is like climbing Mount Everest to me. Every mountain conquered is a conquest, no matter how high or difficult. Besides Mount KK is the highest mountain in South East Asia, so that to me is already not too bad an achievement, but HA, let me conquer it first :p

I had this funny dream last night that I was trekking some mountain, and had to bash through jungles and cross raging torrents. Instead of using a rope to help me cross, I was swimming across the level 3 rapids! HA. At some parts the sights were so beautiful and I realised I did not have my camera with me. I had to go back to grab my camera but I never managed to because I woke up! In the dream I was wearing a blue windbreaker, exactly the one I would be wearing for this KK trip, and it was completely waterproof (in the dream, I mean :)) HA, I must be getting very excited.

The plan is for us to relax in the city for 2 days before proceeding to the Park HQ. We would spend the next 2 nights up on the mountain and will likely attempt the summit twice (sounds like Everest conquest eh?). But who knows, we might try the South Peak instead if the first attempt to Low's Peak was successful and the sunrise fantastic :D Weather reports forecast scattered thunderstorms but I hope we will not be at those "scattered" locations. We will pray hard :) We will relax another few days in the city before returning.

I would be away for over a week and am unlikely to update my blog. But I will return with lots of beautiful pictures for sure. So do come and check my pictures out at the end of next week :)

So boring!

Piggy 1 was walking. Piggy 2 also walking. Then Piggy 1 met Piggy 2, then Piggy 2 met Piggy 1, then Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 both met, then Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 talked. So boring!

Piggy 1 - Hey, how's the going?
Piggy 2 - What going? Please speak properly. I don't understand your "chim" english!
Piggy 1 - Aiyah, I am just asking how you are. So how are you piggy 1?
Piggy 2 - Like that lor. Very moody today.
Piggy 1 - Why always moody? Moody your middle name ah?
Piggy 2 - No lah. Getting very pissed off at work with my colleagues. Then they also started the ERP along CTE. I don't drive along CTE in the evening lah, but the ERP diverted many cars to where I travel daily. So now my side also jam and soon they will plonk an ERP gantry there too! *grrrrrr*
Piggy 1 - Aiyah, doesn't matter lah. Patient ok.
Piggy 2 - yah yah yah, always want me to be patient. Soon I will become a real patient!
Piggy 1 - Ok lah, don't say you already. Hey why don't you sell your car and take public transport instead. Our public transport system is world class leh.
Piggy 2 - World class? Sure or not? I have not travelled on a public transport for quite some time so do not know world class or not. All I know is that fares keep going up and these transport companies insist of earning more, when most other people are earning lesser.
Piggy 1 - Yah, cheap world class, LTA say one. It seems that everything is Singapore also world class leh.
Piggy 2 - World class! You have not seen what world class means lah. But then I must admit that setting up the COE and ERP systems are world class indeed! What better ways to milk the cows! *Moooooooooo* (Get your stinking hands off my teats)
Piggy 1 - Aiyoh, why talk about cows again. Wait the cows whack you then you know.
Piggy 2 - OK, OK, OK. That's why I use piggy here mah. But then there is one piggy out there who may be unhappy also. Aiyoh. Cow cannot, maybe pig also cannot. Maybe use dinosaur then no one will complain.
Piggy 1 - Why you always so critical one? Why can't you be a good boy and just do what they tell you to? Get into trouble then you know.
Piggy 2 - The most get deported to Sentosa lor. Eh, in a few years time got IR leh. Not bad to be deported there. Better start polishing up my skills.
Piggy 1 - OK don't talk about this sickening topic. Will make you mad. Hey, you going to climb Mount KK soon right? When hah?
Piggy 2 - This Friday lor.
Piggy 1 - Wow, then you should be very excited right?
Piggy 2 - Not sure leh. I a little apprehensive. Not sure whether can conquer the mountain or not. It will be very cold up there and sekali I get mountain sickness also. Piggy 1 - Never mind lah. So many people have done it. I am sure you can do it. Jia you ok!
Piggy 2 - Hope so lor. Still have not finished packing yet. My back pack now like weigh a tonne!
Piggy 1 - Aiyah, no pain no gain mah. At least you conquer Mount KK liao can claim that you have conquered one of the highest peaks of the world right?
Piggy 2. Guess so lor. Not sure big deal or not. I have already conquered Singapore's highest peak many times liao!
Piggy 1 - KK got things to buy for me or not?
Piggy 2 - Not sure leh. Never been there. Maybe got bird nests. You want bird nests? Those with blood one?
Piggy 1 - Yeee...don't want. Just get me some local goods can liao.
Piggy 2 - OK, OK, OK. Will take some pictures for you to see.
Piggy 1 - Thank you. *Hug Piggy 2*

Piggy 1 hugged Piggy 2, then Piggy 2 hugged Piggy 1, then both Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 hugged, then Piggy 1 puked, then Piggy 2 puked, then Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 puked. Then Piggy 1 walked away, then Piggy 2 walked away, then both Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 walked away.......

Shitty Day

I was out for lunch just now with a few JC classmates at one non-airconditioned food court in Ang Mo Kio. We were happily enjoying our food and chatting when suddenly I felt something dropped on my shoulder. Immediately I knew something "bad" has dropped on me. True enough it was bird shit and the bird (mynah) was still perched proudly on the metal bar above. I went to the toilet to wash up but only managed to clean some of it away. I decided to ignore it and even went to take a quick look at my regular camera shop which was just next to the food court.

When I finally got back to the office, I realised that besides the shit that dropped on my shoulder, there were two other big patches of shit/urine on the back of my white shirt! I believe a lot of people might have been staring at me while I was walking around the place. Arrrrrgh. I have no choice but to return home to have a change of clothes. A shitty day indeed.

More paintings

Enjoyed the stick figures? Here are some more pictures which were drawn and painted.








One of the original stick figures

Stick Figures!

Last weekend was the final weekend just before our KK Trip. However, I did not involve myself in any training at all as I was engaged with work and night classes. I guess it would be a nice break for the body just before the actual trek.

While working on something to encourage ourselves for the trip, a few of us got together and started to have fun drawing and painting some stick figures. Here are some of the masterpieces that resulted from the fun sessions. I won't tell you who these stick figures are. You would have to guess :)


The cool one!


A ladybird? Wonder who this represents?


The playful one?


The mischievous and energetic one?


Sleeping Beauty?


Kawai? Cute Cute one?


The sweet and demure?

Whoever we are, we had a lot of fun!

Did you milk a cow recently?

Imagine you have many cows that produce milk daily. Each day you milk all the cows and earn some money from the milk. Then with the money earned you buy more cows so that you can milk more cows and earn more money. So after a while you have a lot of cows that earn you lots of money from the milk you milk the cows of. Soon some cows grow old and they no longer produce as much milk. Also you ended up with too many cows to milk. So instead of wasting your time to milk these old cows on your own and milk so many other cows, you decided to get someone else to milk the cows for you, in return for some money.

Unfortunately, the someone that milks the cows is not an animal lover (not that you are a animal lover too), and he probably hates teats too (how about you?). So he milked the cow day-in-day-out until the teats of the old cows dried out, and worse still, some of them die from manhandling. Haiz....do you regret letting that someone milk the cow, or do you say "Well, it is ok lah, since the cows are going to die anyway.....afterall they are just cows......and I still earn some money" Ponder Ponder.

5 wolves and 1 sheep

HA. I must be in a "great" mood today.

I just happened to read about a guy called Larry Flynt (presumably a writer of some sort) who commented that "Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper."

I thought about what he said and agree with him to some extent. It is true that the five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper would certainly produce a very biased outcome. But there are a few other possible scenarios I can think of that may be applicable to all of us:

1. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

The sheep could have been brought up by the wolves to think that wolves are nice buddies to have. So the sheep, when voting and following the majority, may not even know that the wolves will eat him up one day.

2. 5 wolves and 1000 sheep

The wolves in this case are outnumbered but the sheep could have been brought up to think that wolves are their leaders, and are stronger and smarter and fiercer and deserve to eat sheep. So these one thousand sheep will "happily" send themselves to the wolves' platters day after day, after all, enough sheep would be born to replace the slaughtered ones.

3. 5 wolves, 995 sheep and 5 smart sheep

The wolves are again outnumbered but as in para 2 above, the 995 sheep have been brought up to think that way and will continue to support the wolves, even though there are 5 smart sheep out there telling them it is not the best thing to do. The wolves will from time to time instil more fear in the 1000 sheep by maiming one of the 5 smart sheep, expelling another smart sheep to Timbuktu to live with the jackals, or put the sheep in a enclosed pen with little food and much torture. This should keep the 1000 sheep at bay.

4. 5 wolves, 900 sheep and 100 smart sheep

Even though para 3 has been prevailing, there arrived a time when more sheep became smarter and the percentage of smarter sheep grow to a more significant number. The wolves are now a little worried, but will continue to use the same tactics to tame the sheep, to some success. Some maimed sheep managed to recover and continue to try influencing the rest of the sheep, to some success too.

5. 5 wolves, 500 sheep and 500 smart sheep

Looks like this scenario will have to take a long time to take effect. With 500 smart sheep and only 5 wolves, the wolves should be shivering in their pants. For sure these wolves would have been trying very hard to prevent the number of smart sheep from growing, but due to the peserverance of the first 5 smart sheep, the number will grow eventually and surely. With odds of 100 to 1, I am sure the smart sheep will be able to trample on the wolves and establish a new sheep farm.

6. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

Eh, why back to one sheep? Oh, it could have been the single sheep is a wolf in sheep's clothing, so there are actually 6 wolves all these while. So what's for supper? I am not too sure.

7. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

Eh, again? Oh, it could have been 5 sheep in wolves clothing and so that makes 6 sheep. Worst still, sheep exploiting own sheep! *Sigh*

8. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

And again? Oh, it could have been 5 sheep in wolves clothing and a wolf in sheep's clothing. 5 sheep against one wolf? A little tough, but then there is no such thing as 5 sheep and 1 wolf???!!! HAHAHA.

Hey, other than laughing, do ponder over this issue. Are you a wolf or a sheep? Are you a smart sheep or a willing sheep waiting to be slaughtered? Or are you a wolf in sheep's clothing and vice versa? Ponder Ponder.

Animal Farm

I was pondering over something and the name George Orwell somehow popped into my mind. Anyone of you out there knows who he is? George Orwell was a famous writer. His actual name is Eric Arthur Blair and he was born in India. But what's so special about him? Well, I am not too sure. He wrote quite a few books, which included Animal Farm (written sometime towards the end of World War II - 1945 when he was working as a literary editor for the BBC). Apparently the book Animal Farm made Orwell prosperous. His other world wide success was "Nineteen Eighty Four", which was a political novel about a omnipresent State enforcing perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propanganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. The novel introduced the concepts of the ever-present, all-seeing Big Brother, the ubiquitous thought police, and the bureaucrats' and politicians' language Newspeak. The book sounds interesting.

I have not read "Nineteen Eighty Four". Perhaps I should, but I have read the Animal Farm as part of my Literature subject in secondary school. Animal Farm is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian Revolution. After realising their desire for freedom, the animals at the farm chased the farmer off his property and took control of the farm. George Orwell used animals to comment on human society and the events of the Russian Revolution and the years from 1917 to 1943. As a literature book, it was a little confusing for a boy with poor english like me to understand what George Orwell was talking about. What is a satire? Who are the Russians and what is Communism? My teacher took pains to explain what the whole novel was all about and slowly the book made some sense.

The sudden thought of this book Animal Farm brought to my mind a phrase which was written by George Orwell (Actually I think someone else came up with this phrase but he used it in his book). I believe most of you would have heard of this famous political quotation.

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

I am not sure how well you can relate to this phrase but I somehow have this strange feeling that this is very real. While my teacher taught me that Animal Farm was talking about communism and the people involved in it, I feel that George Orwell was also trying to warn us that with power comes money; money leads to greed and greed leads to corruption and when you have absolute power, you will be corrupt absolutely! In Animal Farm, the animals (the pigs in this case) portrayed the people who managed to get into power and who exploited the power to secure luxurious lives at the expense of the poor and weak. How true???!!! Hmmm.....I wonder if this is already happening or has been happening for a long time? Ponder Ponder.

What flower is this?

I had been feeling lethargic these past few days and even had a terrible headache yesterday. It must have been because I have no time to relax under my coconut trees. But I am feeling better today. I checked out my flowers folder and seeing some of the pictures helped make me feel a little better. Looking at flowers is also a good remedy for me. I hope to go back and take more of these flower pictures when I have the chance.



Can anyone tell me what flower this is? I thought it is a type of daisy but yet it does not really seem quite like it.