'Tis a season to be jolly

I have been pretty dormant the entire December even with the holiday going on, but recently I have been going to quite a few gatherings and dinner dates, about...3 in the last 7 days maybe? But it's a good time and excuse to see people whom we don't usually meet, and I think it is quite important actually, to remember the past together with those who were in your life previously.

I've got a strange thing going against boisterous and noisy celebrations however - I like to interact with people in cosy settings, and I hate the soberness one feels in the silent night after something wild. Like you know it was just another day in your life that had passed just now, despite all those crazy things and good fun.

I wonder what I'll be doing on New Year's eve and New Year's day itself.

Some thoughts at the end of the year.

• Met some old Odac friends just now at dinner, and one of them told me incidentally that the internet was down in Singapore because a Taiwan earthquake had disrupted underwater cablings. My goodness. It is quite a surprise I didn't know of these things because usually I will read my papers religiously everyday, but now I don't have a subscription at home. I'm getting suaku I think.
• Roland was just asking me to go climbing tomorrow cos he got nothing to do, and he is contemplating getting new climbing shoes! Climbing as an activity is now very far from my mind usually, and to think I was the one who got Roland and a few others into the sport. There's a very underutilised climbing rope under my bed by the way.
  
• On the other hand, I am now taking badminton lessons from a coach four sessions for 2 hours each month, costing me $200 for it. I resolve to be a 'proper' player, not only being able to play but to be able to demonstrate correct footwork, which is a killer to learn because it have to be drilled in as a habit. Wish me luck.
• And I'm into my third driving lesson tomorrow, but the test date is freaking far away in May. Ok it's quite fun and interesting (like all new challenges for me), but no, I'm still not gonna get a car.
• Read Alex's blog and he promises to post his end of year reflections and new year resolutions soon - wow. I can't remember if I ever do those things before, but I think it will be a pretty pointless exercise for me, unless I pinned up my resolutions written on a huge board, and even then it might not be enough to induce me to work towards fulfilling them. All the best to you bro haha.
  

New wheels!

I've just got new wheels! Reputed to be of very good quality, and costs a small sum of $350, they are quite a steal. Ah...I can't wait to try them.


I picked them up from a little shop space in Little India, and after that I had dinner at 'Komala Vilas' just outside at the main road. It brought back carefree memories of my younger days, when as a sec sch kid me and my best friend Wenjin will go to Rex complex there to play pool frequently and once, we ate at that exact same place, marvelling at the huge ball of dough that the 'bhattura' was. The food is still good, and I stuffed myself with ghee masala dosai, a samosa plate, and masala tea (which I always have to remind me of the days trekking in Annapurna, Nepal.


On the way to the train station, I went by many jewellery stalls, those which caters to the Indian community and mostly didn't bother with stocking precious stones and pretty baubles, just pure illustrious gold. At the stairways, I saw two elderly Indian women sitting on the floor displaying (what I think is fake) gold chains out for sale too. I was hit with a truism of the capitalist economy upon the sight - we price gold and jewellery only because people think it's pretty and it happens to be rare. It's actual 'practical' value is almost zilch - what exactly is gold good for anyway? It doesn't gives us health nor is helpful for any purpose except to show off wealth. Then, if it only has show value, what's the problem with wearing fake gold (since no one will know anyway)

Christmas Day

After a dinner and KTV session on Christmas eve, I woke up to a sober Christmas day. It happens often, that the pre-celebration of some festival makes the actual day rather dull, or perhaps you sleep deep into the day because of the late night; and you realise that these holidays are just like any other day you get everyday.

I woke up to sunshine at noon, and that made me happy at least. I went down with skating gear to get lunch and then walked over to Bishan Park to skate immediately. Doing my rounds there, I realised that monkeys have since migrated from Lower Pierce reservoir to hang out at the end of the park now. I sneaked up behind one to get a better shot of its ass here -


Unexpectedly, I met Daoshen, a primary classmate and prime joker of the class then. He is now a bronzed botak who looked like he just came out from DB, and he was carrying this huge 10kg medicine ball with him, intending to carry it and run. He said he just signed up with SCDF and am going into the elite DART team, so need to do some training. Somehow, I was hit with this bout of nostalgia and melancholy sets in, that I lost my mood for skating soon after, and went home.

Next, I went to the void deck and played badminton against the wall, practicing my swing as well. When I got tired, I bought dinner, ate it, and went out to cycle after a rest. I intended to go up north to Kranji, Neo Tiew, down to Tuas and out of it again, before going east for the airport coastal road and back north via Tampines.

It was all fine and well except for the drenching I got at Kranji all the way to the end of Neo Tiew, but I gave myself a good break at Jalan Bahar to snack and rest after that. I went down to Pioneer road after that, and straight into Tuas.


It was a real eye-opener - the long flat and totally empty road stretched endlessly about 9km to Tuas, and a left turn to go to the southwestern end of the island took another 6.5km, and that's only one way! Very good training route for cyclists there, wonder how many people knows about this. You can incorporate sprints into the ride too; I got chased by dogs on 2 occasions, and saw a few more that didn't came to bother me. Don't even stop to look, sprint first!


The slight drizzle as I came out along Pioneer road turned into a downpour, and it was so bad water ran into my eyes and visibility was near zero as I reached the start of West coast highway. I had to stop at a petrol station, and after more half an hour of waiting/shivering without promise of the rain stopping, I called a cab and went home at 3pm. That was a smart thing to do, because the rain lasted all the way without stopping till the night after!

So, that was my Christmas, spent torturing myself physically for lack of better things to do.

Christmas shopping

Shopping season is officially open - I was at Orchard on Wednesday night and Jurong Point yesterday afternoon, and there was people everywhere in the malls.

Anyway, I was out shopping for presents to exchange at the Christmas eve dinner of my gang of friends. As the group comprises of the guys and their girlfriends, the presents have to be unisex, must not be size-sensitive to the individual, and to cost around $20.

So, what type of asexual gifts can I get? I thought hard and came to the conclusion that items which qualifies must have a practical use in themselves, and should not bear gender-symbolic meanings if they are merely decorative baubles. So things like stationaries perhaps. Toys and pouches will have to be of the type that both sexes will enjoy using, no barbies or models for the former and no wallets or purses for the latter.

The options are limited. But I think I'll get a toy haha. At least it's more fun!


Look! There's a Singaporean version of 'Taboo' with 'some true blue Singaporean words'! Also saw 'Risk' in a Star Wars version, looks really pretty.

Midnight ramblings.

Man. Everyday is such a routine. First, I wake up to see dark clouds or outright rain. Then I wonder what I should do for the rest of the day, when there's no one to jio for activities because most people are working. Tried to get my class to play tennis tomorrow but didn't succeed. But it's ok, gonna go gym myself, and maybe even blade a few rounds around Bishan Park if time permits.

And then, I can't get to sleep early for most nights. I have been sleeping at 3am almost everyday, and I go to bed cos I have to and not because I feel like it. At this time of the night, it's pretty boring. I mainly use the time to surf around aimless, play lots of Pacman (yes, I'm strangely getting addicted to it), and try to pack my time schedule.

By the way, I'm selling some major stuff, help me out!

1. Waterstick 'Zen' full carbon touring paddle, 2 piece take-apart, 220cm, 60 degrees offset to left and right and also zero offset. Selling for $250.
2. Mountain Hardware 'Skyview' tent for 2 man, 4 seasons solid construction and fabric (can read the reviews of it), weights about 4kg, very lightly used. Selling for $300.

Let me know if you are interested! Can give you more pictures, information, or let you view the stuff yourself.

The seasons

Who says there's no seasons in Singapore? There's the sunny season, and the rainy season. And we're in the midst of the latter now. When that happens...

• You can forget about cycling, unless you want to be pelted by raindrops and risk skidding on your flimsy 25mm wheels. And spending an hour cleaning it out after that.
• You can forget about rock climbing outdoors.
• You can forget about skating.
  
• In fact, you can forget about asking your friends out to do anything at all, cos they'll find it hard to get their ass out of the house.

It seems that the only activity left for one to do is to go online and write silly blog posts, and chat with people on MSN.

Blogs to visit!

Wow. I just found some pretty intelligent Singaporean essays on the net, and I didn't know why it took me so long to discover that. Please make your way down to Singapore Angle and The Intelligent Singaporean, where thoughtful essays responding to current affairs are posted by different people.

I read some interesting articles from the former on university educations are wasted on most undergrads, the historical background behind the movie Mo Gong, and why the local blogsphere do not need an association to regulate bloggers' activities (My take on this: Do you want Singapore to be an internet police state like China??)

Let's all be intelligent Singaporeans!

'Super Size Me', Singaporean version

It was another tough polo training session tonight, and I only ate a pau before it starts at 6pm (it ended close to 11pm). I was ravenous at the end of it all, and barely had energy to do complete the whole session. When my teammate drove me back to YCK and I boarded a bus to AMK, I headed straight to Mac and binged out.

(Aside: I had a packet of 'Hammer Gel' during mid-training, which helped. I was initially skeptical about the effectiveness of these products, but now I'm absolutely sure they help you keep going after trying it out for badminton and paddling sessions. Last Wednesday, I was hopping all over the baseline smashing every lifted shuttle right to the last game with the help of the gel!)

If you know me well enough, you'll realise that I crave fast food when I'm physically exhausted like this, trying to 'get back some fat' into me. It might sound unhealthy, but my body tells me it is necessary, and I just listen to it. I walked by S11 kopitiam along the way, and pondered a while on whether I should go for ba chor mee instead.

Now the question is this: Do you think that the ba chor mee will be a healthier choice than my McChicken meal? A more interesting question: If someone eats a $4 large bowl ba chor mee with a large bowl of ice kacang with it for every meal in a month, will the person end up like the 'Super Size Me' man? With all the lard oil inside, I actually think that will happen! What do you think?

Rain rain

I wake up at noon everyday, and look out of the window to see dark clouds shrouding the area. I want to cycle so much! And so I braved the rain, cycling out when a drizzle has already started yesterday evening. 1 minute later, it poured so heavily I had to stop at the void deck of a block to let the worst of it blow over. Totally drenched.

After badminton, I went over Sengkang to look for Roland - after a drink, the sky poured again! I tried to cycle through it but ended up at a bus stop a street away because the rain and wind made it too cold to cycle. I huddled under the flimsy shelter for 20 minutes before carrying on, and eventually realised that it was totally dry just 1km down the road.

Argh! It's starting again!

Outdoor pursuits

I was recently dreaming of going to a school with an Outdoor Activities Club that I can manage. I imagine planning outdoor modules for the students to progress through at each level, and having proficiency tests and certification lined up for them at the end of the modules.

I was also thinking of expanding the scope of outdoor activities that one can incorporate into a program for such a club. Perhaps kite-flying? Let the kids have fun making things and learn to fly kite and run around in the open field. Or how about Ultimate frisbee? That also allows them to soak up the sun and have fun too without too much demands on game skills. Tree climbing has taken off for a while here already, but how about real tree climbing, monkey-style, where students can test their coconut plucking skills? Or do some free-running?

Or perhaps, if the school has money, I can get it to buy some playboats/canoes/polo boats and start them off on obscure paddling disciplines ha.

More ideas from anyone?

Reading habits

Was on the train to NTU for training, and had to stand in the cabin cos it was peak hours. I couldn't help but look over the shoulder of the lady in front of me, reading a women's magazine. Every other page have a product advertisement, and every other article is about beauty and fashion, with articles discussing the amount of makeup one should use, and polls on whether people will go out without makeup on them.

I recall Karen telling me about a friend who's the type who almost never step outside and face the world without makeup, and it's something quite sad I feel, to subscribe so fully to conventional notions of beauty (and the need to beautify). And it all seems so frivolous to me, getting endless pairs of shoes and clothes and spending thousands on bags.

Anyway, Alex was just telling me excitedly about his new acquisitions on Sunday - 2 books on NLP/coaching, and one about thinking of getting rich. Now, that's the über-male executive read. And I have not seen any females who head straight for the 'money' section when they start on the papers, nor seen them read books like Rich dad, Poor dad.

So, what do you think I read? I go for neither - I opt to partake in the telling of man's history recounted in antiquated texts, to read of the struggles and trials of man at different moments and in different places. I read to be humbled and humanised, to learn about life from other peoples' experiences, or even from their fictions. But as a male, it is hard not to avoid professional readings that will improve work skills, so I have been reading more and more instructional books. Maybe I'll ask Alex for an NLP introduction too in the future...

So...what do you read?

New Skates!

"Goodness gracious! He's got another new toy!"

Yes yes...I've got myself an early Christmas present. Bet you guys out there never knew I was into inline at all. I didn't expect myself to be so eager in acquiring a pair too. Maybe it's the year end bonus, but probably I was influenced by Alex's devious NLP mind tricks, playing up to my learning values and enticing me with the exciting challenges that awaits me in the process of learning to skate.

I think it's a pretty great pair of skates, definitely a little wasted on me now with my current skating proficiency. After we bought them, Alex and I headed down to ECP to try it out. Woah. The bearings were very, very smooth. and I had not bladed for a very long time already. Every time I sat down and rest, and got up to start again, I would stumble precariously for a moment because my body would had forgetten how smooth and fast the wheels were. I fell twice and scratched my brand new wristguards, and also the skates too - Ouch.

And indeed, I fully appreciated the challenges of learning to skate. So many salient points about the motor learning process, memorised for the exam, came back to me. When skating, I was too consciously trying to take in a lot of proprioceptive data and processing it, making me lose peripheral vision and limiting my concentration to the spot a metre in front of me. I used too much energy just going in a straight line and my body was mostly stiff as it tries to control movement by freezing the degrees of freedom. Alex's simple word of advice "Try to bend your knees more" became a mantra that I inwardly recited throughout the entire session.

But oh well, it got better, I got the hang (somewhat) of swaying to the side of the planted leg when gliding, which is the 'go with the flow' movement people talked about I think. I am dead tired both mentally and physically from the experience, but guess that's what makes it a worthy challenge ha. I'm such a sucker.

We had a good dinner to recover from all that effort, having Dim Sum, then durian, at Geylang. Their Kong Ba Bao is interesting -

...the bao is just a thin layer of pastry covering the huge slice of Kong Ba. Alex couldn't even bear to finish one, but I ate it all up, fat, skin, and all. :p

Movie Review: A Battle of Wits

Do catch this movie before it closes real soon! I thought it will be a intriguing movie about war strategising, but it turns out to be a very thoughtful movie which delivers quite a bit of ideas for you to mull over. Karen didn't liked it because it left her heart heavy, so be forewarned, it's not a movie for mere entertainment.

Anyway, Andy Lau's character plays an admirable role model in the movie, a person who is against warfare but who empowers himself to engage in the issue in order to end it peacefully. Think we can all take a lesson from that - too often you'll hear people complain about their predicaments in the workplace etc without seeing them taking affirmative action to see things done right. As Ge Li says: "Freedom is valuable only if you have to fight for it."

And there's certainly one great unjust war that raged out of control currently. With 20/20 hindsight now, everyone could see how ridiculous that war was, and the ****** (substitute your own word here) who started it can only parrot catchphrases like "We will prevail" to all the problems that the war ignited. Perhaps the only good that can come out of this debacle is that instead of merely voicing out disapproval, the world can take firm actions to stop such rogue powers from starting new wars again. As is often said, it only takes good men to do nothing for evil to 'prevail'.

Post-trip aftermath

As always, lots of cleaning up after a trip. My stuff left all over the floor during the trip now have to be packed neatly into the pack again, along with little bits of stuff here and there that I careless throw onto the table.

I also packed my shoes neatly into boxes and finally put labels on them so that I can find what I want everytime without having to go through it all. Guess what, I have 14 pairs of shoes in all, excluding my chacos and slippers; never thought I have that much!

At times like these, I wish I can get my own house asap so that I can finally store all my gear neatly, display all the CDs I have, and line the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves I'll have with my books. I need my space badly. At the same time, the purchase of a house means the start of my life in debt, so I'm not looking forward to it that much after all.

I don't feel like growing up. And I have this feeling my debts will be more than just in monetary terms in the future.

Wolfie's limited guide to Perth

Getting there
Qantas airway tickets cost us $690 each, and when we checked in they were looking for 5 'volunteers' to switch to an SQ flight going Perth too flying an hour later cos they were overbooked. We volunteered ourselves, only to have SQ telling us they don't have seats together for us, wtf! Eventually when we boarded thankfully we managed to make a switch. Great to be able to watch movies on both flights. Qantas have aunties and ordinary-looking blokes for stewards.


Weather
It was quite alien to a suaku Singapore, to have a big blue sky without a whiff of a cloud greeting us at the airport. The wind could bring a chill especially when temperature drops, at about the time when the shops closes. Then there were two days of morning rain, which made temperature unbearably low for Singaporeans. The cold wind blew very strongly when we were doing our tour to Monkey Mia, but weakenedas the days went by.

Shopping
Almost everything is more expensive there than in Singapore, surfing brands, biking stuff, books, CDs, you name it. Only groceries are cheaper by a little, and Havaianas sandals at this surf shop. So spend only on stuff that you can't get in Singapore, like souvenirs. 70% of the stuff we bought were groceries, very weird.

Sleeping
Underground Backpackers:
Neat, organised, large reception area with cheap net access, and a nice bar with free pool table to use. Double room a little small though (walking corridor inside is less than 1m wide and 3m long), and central-controlled air-conditioning blasts at you throughout the night.

Hotel Bambu:
Horrible. It's NOISY, dirty, unorganised and crowded mostly by wasted backpackers of the sort I don't want to meet. The owner interacts with you civilly at best. The staff are punks who can only do the basics. Despite what the website says,

1. Soundproofing doesn't exists. They have their own party at the front within the premises, and there's a pub playing loud music just besides the hotel that rattles the walls with its bass. They wrote on the reception that Northbridge is a popular clubbing place and that complains of loud noises will not earn a refund, but apparently did not bother to state that on the website.
2. There's only 1 double room, the rest are all dorms. It doesn't even have the 75 beds that it boasts of. When we went there, the system triple-booked the room and we were offered dorms to stay for the first night.
3. There's no fridge in the room as promised, the remote for the dvd player disappeared, the TV is in the smallest size that you can ever find, and DVDs rentals are not free - it costs $2 and a $10 deposit.
4. Cereals and mueslis for breakfast doesn't exist, same for jams. Bread is made of very crummy matter.

The people there are the type that leave their room at midnight to go out partying, and come back at ungodly hours to puke all over the toilet seat. They leave a ton of crockery at the sink unwashed after cooking, or choke up the sink if they do wash up. They obviously like loud noise, and most of them spew the contents of their luggage all over their dorm beds.

I suffered for four long nights.

Grand Central Backpackers:
Creaky place, looks kind of rundown inside and outside, but saved by efficient service.

Activities
Surfing
It was a blast! We booked a 2 day camp with everything in, and went off to the beach within the hour of arrival, packed off in nice ripcurl wetsuits and even free sunscreen. After receiving 15 mins of quality instructions, I was quite surprised we were hurried down to the ocean as wave fodder!


Well actually the basic surfing skills are pretty simple in concept, but practice is key, hence the short instructional time. I developed a new-found respect for surfers (otherwise known as beach bums) after the experience, what with the daily 5 hours of aqua-aerobics that we did everyday. That comes after every attempt (mostly flops at the start) when you get toppled and washed up the beach, and have to walk back into the deep (waist-level) water for the next try while being whacked by numerous waves big and small. You have to do pushups on the board in order to stand, and at the end of Day 1, I could suan Karen all I want cos she can't lift her arms to whack me.

The fun is definitely there for all, and the thrill too, for people like me who eventually got sick of surfing the soup. Going out to deeper waters and trying to surf the curlers brings the experience to a whole new level. I endo-ed a few times when the wave picked me up and drove the board tip into the water in front, and that meant a few underwater somersaults. Not for the faint-hearted.


And oh, the place and food was good too! There's tons of dvds to watch, playstation and pool to play, and you could rummage the fridge anytime you're hungry. Too bad my tired body could only allow me to watch 1 dvd for that night.

Sea Kayaking
Despite it being just a day paddling trip, I brought my paddles, pump, and PFD along just so I can get to use them again. The company wasn't exactly punctual, and were quite slow with letting us start the trip when we got to the put-in point, but at least their Necky kayaks were in good condition, and we got pumps and neoprene sprayskirts too. We received very scanty paddling and safety instructions, which was a negative for them (neoprene skirts for total beginners, and not a word on how to do wet exits??)

The islands that we visited were damn near to mainland, about the distance to cross from Singapore to Ubin only. Headwind was very strong and steering had to be done with rudders as the kayaks had zero rocker at the bow. Initially we needed tremendous effort to do stationary turns on the spot when the wind blew our bow off cos I forgot about the rudder behind. Somehow, we were paddling the slowest throughout the trip, and I still can't believe my paddling skills have deteriorated to the point that beginners could lead me through an entire trip.

Seal Island lived up to its reputation - seals were everywhere, and not shy at all to appear all around us, popping their heads out of the water for our delight. Most were lying on the beach taking in the sun though. We went by another small island before we reached Penguin Island, which had very nice waters and scenery, and a penguin sanctuary which helps to protect those little creatures living on the island and those which couldn't live outside in the wild. The paddling back to startpoint from Penguin Island was 20 minutes only. Recommended for all!


Monkey Mia Tour
This package provided a comprehensive tour of all the sights worth visiting along its route, and we had a very experienced and knowledgeable guide who entertained us pretty well too. People who drive to visit Monkey Mia themselves will no doubt miss quite a bit of the more obscure sights and trails in the parks, and the tour provides for everything, so it's really worth it. You only have to bear with the engine noise and the lethargy of sitting for long hours. The only way I can see to get around the latter point is to do a cycling tour haha.


We saw countless miles of undulating bush terrain under the big blue sky, and spotted the occasional kangaroo sometimes. It was an almost sublime experience to see the ocean merge with the sky at the horizon at some parts of the coastal trail and at Kalbarri National Park, with shades of blue sketched out as far as the eye can see. Kalbarri town was a dream place to stay, situated at a river mouth leading to the Indian Ocean with the houses all staring out to sea.

Pictures paint a thousand words.


Interesting Notes

• Traffic in the city of Perth is very light, and when we got off the cab from the airport onto the streets in Northbridge, we were the only pedestrians around. There was a moment when we saw a road junction at the very heart of the city emptied of cars at 7pm!
• Bike commuters are everywhere! On smaller streets they have a left lane all to themselves, and there are parking facilities even in the heart of the shopping mall area. Interestingly, almost everyone wore plain shells for helmets and had boring bikes; the most impressive bikes around actually belongs to the police bike patrol!
• The world's greatest pizza maker is apparently in Perth, operating Il Padrino's Caffe in Northbridge. Takeaway pizza there is only half price at $13! My tastebuds are not discerning enough to tell that the pizza I ate was the best in the world though.
• I grew to love Kangaroos a lot - They are cute, have very nice fur and leather which made for several beautiful souvenirs, and taste really good too!