Not another one!
Another man was killed by MRT at the Clementi station, reported by Yahoo here. Only about a few weeks ago, one out-of-luck unemployed Tan Jee Suan committed suicide by jumping onto an incoming train. The public donated a cool $500,000 to his widow and son.
God, please dont let this be another copy cat suicide. In a supposedly developed country like little dot, it is indeed tragic and sad to hear a loss of life due to hardship.
Isn’t it eerie the MRT that is used by many suddenly become a suicide tool of choice for the destitute?
sea, breeeze & good company!
pic from leonard
It is always a good break to meet up with bloggers if my experience over the last three meets were any indication. especially when you have good company like leonard, car2, mother superior & cocka. we missed the presence of spinnee & hiao auntie who could not make it due to work/study commitment. how we wish you could join us!
dinner was seafood at the east coast seafood centre. can you spot us at the pic above? our table is at the centre. i appreciate the effort & sacrifice put in by those who turned up.
cocka – came all the way from JB. as we finished around midnight, we hope you could catch enough sleep and made it for the early meeting the next day.
car2 – after burning midnight oil for her last paper on the same day, she badly needed her beauty sleep. despite her bit self, this lady still oozed charm & glam in her every move that evening.
leonard – sacrificed a friday nite out with gf. i understand his situation as friday is my family night out too.
mother superior – needed to go home and fetch her daughters to a function before coming over. we were pleasantly surprised that she made it before we finished all the chilli crab despite the crazy peak hour friday traffic.
food glorious food… chilli crab, steamed prawn, vege & bbq fish… we ordered one more fried tauhu but didnt take any photo no space to squeeze it in here. we were given a dose of chinese language by the friendly waiter from mainland china. Mother Superior ordered coke and the waiter asked her,
“red or white?”
we were stunned for a while before we realised the waiter actually meant “classic or diet?”. For the record, MS was not on diet.
the 2nd round was conducted at the east coast coffee bean club. camwhoring & chatting were heavy here… 🙂
Leonard was foaming at the mouth during this session… can someone guess why? the answer is in the last pic of this post
Leonard, you should cool down with the ice tea. Told you not to get overly excited by the foxy & seductive Car2 (background).
do u know that you can tell the character of a person from his/her camwhore style? Read on….
eg1. the artistic type who cant resist beautiful things – Mother Superior shooting the deco on the wall
eg2. the EQ & quiet type – Leonard as he was waiting for car2 & mother superior to finish their session before his camwhore turn
eg3. big, strong and cautious type- Cocka with his firm hand grip & extra safe camera “belt” on his wrist
eg4. perfectionist type- Car2 (background) patience & persistence on that one shot over the coffee glass…
Dinner Anyone?
butterfly, originally uploaded by See Fei.
anyone? dinner on friday?
where: east coast seafood centre
time: 730 pm
coming: mother superior, leonard, cocka, car2
not free: robin, misti, mick
humsup jokes not provided, bring your own
rsvp
full moon celebration
attended melissa son’s full moon celebration over the weekend. i was happy to see her again. but i guess she was more happy to see me and my wife. she offered me photos taken during the delivery of her son. looking at those photos i was amazed at the amount of tube and equipment present and required during the delivery. science and technology, never realised so much was needed for a simple delivery.
beside myself, some other ex-colleagues were also invited. they were not from my department as most of us had left to to do our own thing. maybe i had left the party scene for too long, i felt weird at some of the topics that were discussed.
like when did “baby talk” made it to party value? ok, this maybe a full moon party but it is so fashionable to talk about making baby? one of my ex-colleague is going for her fourth, motivated no less by the government money for baby scheme. Niamah, i have no quarrel with people who want many kids but to tout the benefits of having many kids at everyone who were within earshots were a little too much.
One more convert for the government message of “Have more than three (kids) if you can afford it!”
wifey was a bit uncomfortable with all this baby talk and we opted for an early departure. we thanked melissa and hub for having us and left promptly.
Harvest
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Tea Harvest, originally uploaded by Yaatra.
How nice if we can harvest our job?
When we are near the end of our career we retire. The employer will continue based on company’s assets like capital, track record and expertise. These assets, both tangible and intangible are built up based on the collective good work of the workforce. We left these assets to the employer when we leave the company. Unless we are given equity share we will relinguish all ownership to these assets when we leave, which is a pity consider how much sweat and blood we had poured into the company.
So, the question that beg to ask is, can we take ownership of our job? When we retire can we exchange our job for monetary gain just like an asset?
I ask this question because i really felt that my ex-company had benefitted from my effort but did not recognise my contribution. They had penetrated markets that they have never gone before based on my vision, network and marketing effort. The sad thing is i would leave all this legacy (market & brand name) behind when i am no longer an employee.
Hence, i left the company because i think i have something precious that i dont want to leave behind anymore for a mere salary. I still have my old job and work routine. My fortune is still tied to the economic tide and business forces. But instead of my name on the punch card, now my name appears on the letter head.
With this current job, i have a few more options when i retire… pass down, sell, keep or close shop for good.
life is a song
Women have bad hair day and open-wardrobe-full-of-clothes-but-nothing-to-wear morning and these two hit my wife this morning. As a consequence, i had to wait for 30 minutes in the carpark today. Called her on the cellphone repeatedly and incessantly but no reply.
When she finally turned up with a blacker than black face, and asked me “Why did you call?” in a tone that implied i was in the wrong. I must admit i was wrong for not being understanding and being childish with the calls but i was really angry because i was late for work.
I really wanted to give her a piece of my mind and start a world war three there and then. Lucky that didn’t happen. Whew!
Thanks to littlemissmay post yesterday of answer-a-question-with-a-song, i managed to hold back my horse and broke into the chorus of one of Stevie Wonder songs….
I just called to say “I love you”…..
I had never seen my wife so surprised and bewildered before! WW3 is averted and thanks, May, you blogging has made a difference today!
how red is your red packet?
just got a call after lunch from an ex-colleague – was invited to melissa (not his real name) son’s full moon party this weekend. gift and ang pau/hong bao (red packet) time! what to buy and how much to give? headache……
i usually dont give present for red occasion. it is just silly to convert $$ into something bulky in nice wrapper when eons ago our ancestors discovered money as a legal tender so we dont have to carry big stones around as currency.
while doing away with the headache of getting the suitable gift with my reasoning, there is never a get away from the tough decision of how much to give.
too little, paiseh (shame); too much, ouch! (heart ache)
I worked out the following….
CAT1: acquientance, not-to-close fren…. market rate
CAT2: close friends & relatives… market rate + $100~$200
CAT3: very close friends & relatives… market rate + $200~$400
well, the above also depends on the size of my entourage…
i will have no problem sorting out the red packet for this one invitation. melissa had once save me from a potentially career wreaking project which i suspect was politically motivated and directed in my direction. she came back to the office during her maternity confinement leave for a week to sort out the mess in this project for me. i am just glad she gave me a chance to repay her in kind.
peeping tom
nice living 2, originally uploaded by *helmen.
have a feeling someone is stalking me from my neighbouring block. i was trying out the giant zoom of my new canon S3 over the weekend when i saw this huge telescope in one of my neighbour’s window. you know, the type used by people who star gaze.
i was wondering when that telescope was put up? it was at a higher level and has a clear line of sight into my bedroom. as i like my romp between the sheet with a little breeze on my back with the window open, i wonder whether my neighbour had been a having a little entertainment at my expense?
havent told wifey yet about this little discovery as i worry it will freak her out. well, i guess from this point onward, “free and open” sex will be a thing of the past from my own bedroom… so much for apartment living *sigh*
flirting @ yahoo
Long time havent use my yahoo messenger liao. I stopped after i married another yahoo-er whom i wooed over the net using Yahoo Messenger. For obvious reason, isn’t it? It is not like i am going to woo another stranger over the net and bed her any time soon.
But the dramatic experience of actually manage to strike up a relationship over the net lingers on… Call me silly, but i actually felt infidel using the YM now. However, I am starting to use the YM again. I don’t know why but maybe the itch is getting to me.
So fast itchy already? It is not like what you think. I am happily hitched now and working on my project-B. I think i just missed the medium and the virtual social circle of my YM.
Do you yahoo? 🙂
Light Please!
tunnel of trees, originally uploaded by richietown.
I dont know why i am writing this entry… but the picture above evoke memory of an old saying… the light at the end of the tunnel maybe that of a coming train. So what, when you reach the end, it is the END. period.
Life as we know it will cease when you reach the end. To some, Heaven, Nirvana, Syurga or Tien Tong maybe beckoning, depending on your religious inclination. “What is at the end of the tunnel” … that will be the last thing on my mind.
To me, it is the grind to the end of the tunnel that is zapping the daylight out of me everyday. How nice if like “Monopoly” where we can draw a card and go direct to the end of the tunnel bypassing all the misery and suffering of the journey?
Nay, that will deprive me of my bragging right of being there done that. You may say i am a confused fella in mid life crisis. I may not like that tag but then, who like to hear the truth?
When you are in a tunnel with no end in sight and too far away to start all over again, every flicker of light that come your way counts! It makes life more tolerable and most of all, give a sense of excitement to our mundance existence!
Dear readers/visitors, your presence and comments are like the light that lit my tunnel of life. At last , i found a reason to this post. It is my “Thank You” post to you guys/gals for your support!
Burung Pipit 