Soccer Update (28 May 2008)

I received some good news before leaving the office so I boldly proclaimed to WM that I would score "five, six, ten" goals today.

By stroke of luck again (I assure you there was no match fixing), the dream team got back together just like last week. Wee Kiat, Maurice, myself, Chng and Lampard got on the same team. A slaughter was on the cards again.

We used a new match ball today as the old one was too koyak. We took some time to get used to the new ball as the flight pattern and weight is not the same. We ended up misplaying some passes which almost resulted in near goals by the opposition.

We won every match but one (the winning goal was scored after the scorer hand-balled, so I think that should not be allowed). There was fantasy football all over, inch-perfect one-twos, good wing-play, central striker knock-ins.

Lampard, Maurice and I whacked a hat-trick each, Wee Kiat got two. The latter was a bit out of form (scoring wise) but his movement and match fitness is still excellent. I teed two goals for Lampard and Maurice to shoot from long range, and they got them in, so I was pretty pleased.

Sometimes setting up your teammates to score is more satisfying than scoring it yourself!

No "five, six, ten" goals but three with two assists is just as good. =)

Reflections from the toilet

It is perfectly acceptable for a female cleaner to enter the male toilet when it is occupied (with you in your full glory emptying the contents of your bladder) but not okay for a male cleaner to enter the female toilet before checking it is empty (you can get sued for sexual harrassment).

Why the disparity?

Does the sight of my dong hanging out any lesser than that of an exposed female contemporary? Female toilets have doors in cubicles; we guys just pee in the urinals! We are the ones who are exposed! Only the feminists or androgynous types would pee in cubicles anyway.

And then there are those guys who unzip, unbelt and let their pants fall to the ground, just to pee in a urinal... It is a weird sight for those who have not seen a long sleeved shirted guy in his underpants pissing into a urinal with his pants around his ankles (and soaking up the residual pee on the ground).

Moral of the story is, female cleaners should at least knock on male toilets before they enter. Lest they get shocked (or worse, turned on) at what they see.

What A Difference A Year Made

By now, you guys probably know that I lost my mobile phone recently. Also with it went my contacts collected laboriously over the years.

I received a call the other night (on my new mobile phone). I have yet to restore all the numbers and the names to those numbers, but nonetheless I picked up the call quickly without looking at the blinking number.

"Hello", I went.

"Hi... you called me yesterday ah?"

The voice sounded familiar. I thought of asking who this is, but my instinct warned me better of it. Such is the speed of thought and counter-actions that only age and experience can give you.

I spared a quick down-look-up 1.5 seconds to look at the number. Indeed, the number belonged to who I thought the voice belonged to.

And so...

"No... I didn't call you. What's up?"

"But I got a missed call from you yesterday... so I was wondering..."

I suddenly reflected that had that point in time when I really needed someone at the end of the line in a life and death situation, it would have been faster for the police to find my now-deceased body than for the person to return my phone call more than 24 hours later.

Mentally I made a note in my head never to list that person first in my "Emergency" call list.

A year ago, I couldn't wait to pick up calls from this person. A year later now, I couldn't wait to hang up.

"Er ya...", I went, explaining briefly that I lost my phone the day before and it was probably the finder dialling randomly. "Anything else?"

"No lah... just thought I would return the call."

"Sure, thanks. Catch up with you another time. Bye!"

I actually felt happy after hanging up.

The only sourish feeling was that if the missed call belonged to some kind soul wanting to return my phone to me, this person had blown it away. Now there is one more reason to be sorry to me.

What a bummer.

Vending Machines

Vending machines are solitary, lonesome creatures. Pretty much left alone most of the time, they only come to life when someone needs a drink.



When you put coins into a vending machine, you make your selection based on what the vending machine offers, rather than what you really like to drink.

But what if there and then, you really want your drink, be it Gatorade or whatever, and it is not available in the vending machine?

What would you do then?

(1) Look for another vending machine which has the drink you want? But what if such a vending machine is miles away? Are you going to walk that far just to get that drink?

(2) Go thirsty since you don't feel like drinking any of the other choices.

(3) Go with the flow and get the next best drink you like, anyway its just to quench a thirst.

It occurred to me that most people would take option (3). Which was what I did.

By now, you would probably be able to tell that I'm pretty bored at work.

An Adventure To The Unknown

Last Sunday, I went cycling at East Coast Park with MZ and WL. We took a long walk from MZ's house (Joo Chiat area) to the East Coast where we rented three bikes for a horrendous amount of money.

(S$6 an hour and you get "a free hour for every hour you rent")

We were trawling around the Lagoon area when we saw this chap peddling furiously in the opposite direction. MZ called out and the mystery biker jammed his brakes suddenly and swung his bike around, narrowly missing decapitating other cyclists in the way.

It turned out to be Nori, MZ's cousin. What a small world!

And so the four of us continued cycling (Nori at a much slower pace, of course) towards Changi Village.

I was surprised to see a new connector linking the East Coast Parkway to Changi Village! So much safer than riding on the treacherous Changi Coast Road where budding F1 wannabes let loose their Lewis Hamilton fantasies. There were so many picturesque views of the sea from the park connector! My apologies for not having any photos to show... I was kicking myself half the time.

After a cold drink at Changi Village, MZ sounded the idea of visiting the infamous defunct Old Changi Hospital, a boon for paranormal enthusiasts. Nori and I got excited; WL was of course reluctant. Democracy won and we started our trek towards the foreboding hospital.

WL got tired during the climb up the steep slope that led to the hospital and so Nori and I reached the hospital first.

MZ and I almost had wet dreams when we reached the place; it was exactly the kind of place we wanted to stake out over a night!

I must admit the place was freaking creepy even if I am not one to be scared easily. I took the lead by riding into the building. The moment I crossed the boundary between courtyard and building (though only the external corridor), I was filled with an aura of gloom and doom. It was depressing. It was a peaceful evening; there were birds chirping outside and pretty silent otherwise, but my ears filled with a lot of soundless noise.

It was as if there were a lot of things going on in that hospital that we couldn't see or feel. But they certainly were there.

But I must say that the Old Changi Hospital is a great place for photography! The following picture was of this corridor that led to the innards of the foreboding building. It was a classic scene out of a horror movie.

We didn't manage to explore the building further as the sun was setting so we made a unanimous decision to leave the place. WL and Nori were pretty creeped out. I was shaken, to be honest. MZ and I discussed that we will be back one day to take some photos (but don't think we will want to stay overnight... no no).

Soon after, I discovered that I lost my mobile phone... bummer.

A long ride back and extra hours taken meant that we were to pay S$43 for the day's use of three bikes. Profit margin for the operators must be good.

(Photos' source: www.pbase.com/synapseman/och)

Soccer Update (21 May 2008)

Maurice was at HQ today so I managed to hitch a ride from him to the clubhouse for our weekly game (preview to the Champions League final tonight).

I wasn't feeling too happy lately but I decided to give it my best effort today. But being placed in a team with Chng, Maurice, Jeremy and Chin Peng (all the superstars), I never had to work hard. We easily took the first game 5-3. We hardly broke a sweat.

More people arrived, including the guys from Commercial and so we broke off into three teams and the game went on on a losers-out basis.

We played like 6 to 7 matches in all and lost only one. We won every game! It was unbelievable how we thundered goal after goal and moved the ball with slick passing and aplomb. In one of the matches, the opponents had hardly touched the ball after kickoff when Jeremy slotted the ball home.

I scored twice today, both carbon copy goals - right flank, chip using inside of right boot, ball sailing into goal.

I had an injury though. There was a loose ball in our half, and Senderos was charging towards the ball, right foot swung back and preparing to shoot. I charged forward, just in time to nick the ball away and boot met boot with a loud clack. His boot glanced off my shin, taking a piece of my skin off. Blood flowed of course, but I continued playing (its a flesh wound after all).

We were soaked when we ended but we had loads of fun today.

PhotoAid 2008

Over the weekend, I was volunteering at this event to raise funds for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar.

I thought I would earn some karma points but little did I know that 24 hours later, I was to lose my treasured handphone and all my contacts in it forever...

Anyway here are some of the photos I took during the charity event. The event was held at Merlion Park at Fullerton and we were helping tourists take portraits using our SLRs for $10 a pop.

Here we go.

#1: Boat ferrying tourists across the Marina Bay

#2: There were plenty of shutterbugs around
#3: Volunteer (right) explaining PhotoAid efforts to a tourist

#4: The Esplanade

#5: Babes galore! She's Korean, I think.

#6: The Merlion (the salt spray got into my precious lens)

#7: A volunteer and his family

#8: Gimme some brotherly lurve

#9: The Merlion

#10: The Singapore Flyer

#11: The Esplanade in resplendent evening view

#12: The lights come to life

#13: The Merlion in night lighting

#14: The city view at night

Soccer Update (14 May 2008)

To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to this week's game. This week saw the departure of three colleagues which made me rather sad. But thanks to some encouragement from WM, I decided to play my heart out.

After a day of threatening weather, not many people turned up for the game. I ended up on the same team as Maurice, Richard and Alvino while Wee Kiat, Senderos, Chng and Lampard played on the opposite team. By some weird rotation basis, Jeremy would change sides every time a goal is scored.

Now I find myself being really unhappy playing with Alvino. He didn't run much; he pretty stayed upfront the whole time and didn't bother to come down to defend while Maurice and me, the only outfield players (Richard was keeping goal) ran our lungs out running up and down the pitch. And he fumbled so many good chances today. He even missed an open goal from two metres! Even Maurice was complaining at the end of the game while we were sitting down and sweat steaming (there was literally steam from our jerseys and sweat pouring out like no tomorrow).

Though we lost 8-9 in the end, I scored a hat-trick and made two goals for Jeremy so I was pretty pleased with myself. My form is good lately; I have hit 11 goals in the past 3 matches. We have an upcoming 7-a-side game on 25th May, so I will be looking to do well in the tournament. Alvino, of course, must buck up too.

It is a sad week, thank goodness it's over, but let's focus on the task on hand and get ourselves going. Gan batte!

Football Coffeeshop Talk

Wouldn't you like to be in his shoes? He has everything at his dancing feet. Women, song, drink and a hundred thousand pounds a week.

Flair players always have it better. In our daddies' era, there was George Best. Turning and twisting defenders into knots, he was the star of 1968 when Manchester United won the European Cup, the then-edition of today's Champions League Cup.

We also know he bathed and revelled in his success. He was a well-known playboy and often referred to as the "fifth Beetle". Every boy then wanted to be in his boots. Its a pity alcoholism claimed the great winger's life in the end.

Fast forward 40 years later to today, the star of the Manchester United team is (who else?) Cristiano Ronaldo.

I can't say I am a fan of the dancing winger though he has an outstanding record in front of goal. But to me, he hasn't lit up the stage that Best and some other players had single-handedly.

My yardstick for a great player (compared to a good one) is to be able to swing matches his team's way single-handedly. George Best is one. Gerrard is the heartbeat of under-achieving Liverpool. Ronaldo (the Brazilian) has done it too. Michael Ballack shone during the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Zidane, of course, is the successor in the same way that his predecessor Platini conducted the French symphony. And who can forget Gullit, van Basten, the Laudrups, Schmeichel...

I must reiterate that I am not a fan of Manchester United though lately over the past 2 years I have been rooting for them to win. In this age of your everyday coffeeshop EPL pretenders, it is not easy to separate the true-blue fans (e.g. my boss Aloysius who has supported Chelsea ever since the 1950s) from the um... pretenders who swing their allegiance every time there is a new champion.

I do have my personal favourites, both of whom are incidently Manchester United players.

Here's the first... the snarling Roy Keane.

He moved from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United for a record 3.75m pounds (which was then a British record) and went on to become the team's conductor and great leader. His snarling personality and biting tackles was constantly replicated by me on the pitch, but to much less success. Yet he remains very much an inspiration to me.

And the other... Paul Scholes.

Scholes is the best pass-master of the ball I have seen, though some contend that Zidane is better. To me, the Frenchman may have more flair and pull-back stepovers, but Scholes is the ultimate passer of the ball. Pin-point fifty yard cross-field swings to the feet of a charging rightback is not something a good player could do; it is rightfully great. He sits in front of the defence so he provides space for a tensed defender to pass the ball to, and makes play from there in his simple way. Of course, and many would agree with me, he isn't one of the better tacklers in the game but in terms of intelligence and playmaking, he is up there with the greats.

One of the other traits that I admire Scholes is that he does not revel in limelight the way C.Ron does. He does not even have an agent! Very much a family man and goes about doing his things quietly, he is very much a role model to how I could conduct myself in public.

But again, don't you wish you are in his shoes right now?

A Tale of an Honest Cheat

In this age of moral-less and ruthless society, it sure is refreshing to see such honesty.

Or should I say, an honest mistake?

Bus-fare cheat says sorry...
...and sends $50 to SBS to pay for past misdeeds
By Maria Almenoar

ALL the recent news about commuters who cheat on fares seems to have left at least one person wracked by guilt.

Last week, the commuter finally decided to do something about it, and wrote an anonymous letter of apology to the chief executive of bus operator SBS Transit.

For good measure, $50 was included as compensation.

The note arrived at SBS Transit's Braddell Road headquarters last Friday.

The brown envelope contained a handwritten note in blue ink spread over two pieces of paper. It said: 'Please forgive me for my error and cheating. I deeply regret my actions.

'Thank you for all your forgiveness. I was short of money that time. I am sorry.'

SBS Transit said it would donate the $50 to its adopted charity, the Home Nursing Foundation.

Said Ms Tammy Tan, a spokesman for the company: 'It is heartwarming to know that the commuter decided to own up to his or her mistakes and sent us a refund for the underpayment of fares.

'He or she could have remained silent, and no one would have been any wiser.'

The belated confession came as laws are about to be toughened to crack down on bus-fare cheats.

The Public Transport Council announced last week that from July 1, those caught cheating on their bus and train fares will have to pay a $20 penalty.

Currently, a commuter who avoids payment by not tapping his ez-link card when boarding a bus, or who underpays by tapping his card at the exit reader too early, has to cough up the evaded fare.

SBS Transit said it detects about 10,000 cases of cheating every month, which works out to more than 330 cases a day. However, thousands more go undetected.

It said half of those caught cheating paid less than what they should by tapping their ez-link cards early.

Soccer Update (7 May 2008)

I feel rather depressed lately. That was why I wasn't expecting a good game yesterday evening.

Quite a good crowd turned up so much so that we had to split into three teams and rotation of teams is on a one-goal knockout basis. The Commercial guys formed a team while I teamed up with Kian "Lampard" Tiong, Maurice aka Zizou and Jeremy aka Fabregas. My team was on paper far and away the strongest team despite only having 4 players compared the rest who had 5.

We won most of our matches but I did not enjoy myself. I hit three goals and set up two more. Halfway through, I sat out one of the matches, citing "fatigue". I just couldn't play on.

The Commercial guys were playing real rough. I locked boots with one of them as he was about to shoot, there was a loud clack. I was later to realise (upon getting home) that I have a huge blood clot on my right toe. Another launched a hard kick on my right shin. Lampard was roughly jousted onto the hard ground and had bloodied teeth. Most of us were shoved one way or another or had our jerseys tugged.

Normally when I face a rough opponent, I will keep my temper and answer them in the best way: by scoring. But yesterday I displayed my ugly Hyde. I wanted to hurt them so badly; I threw a couple of elbows, shoved, kicked wildly and tugged and even mouthed the F word. I think I need a break to rediscover myself (which is ironic since I just came back from Aussie).

After the game, I sat down in a playground and stayed there for almost an hour. I sorted out my thoughts and went home.

Let's hope everything turns out fine tomorrow.

To Go Or Not To Go

Have you ever wondered how it is like to work overseas? That is, if you have never worked overseas before of course. Perhaps those who did can share their experiences with the rest of us.

I have been pondering over this question for a good few weeks. My Uncle Pat in Aussie has already laid down the gauntlet - he predicted that I will be working Down Under by the end of this year.

I am wondering if I should make his prophecy come true... and allow him to win all the bets he has taken.

And of course, accepting a job offer to work overseas should mean that you will be getting higher pay that you are currently commanding. If you are offered less than what you are now getting, I don't see why you should accept the new appointment, especially when you are paying for your accommodation and car when previously you could live right out of your parents' house.

Now I do look forward to the challenge of living independently overseas... no more maid (not that I am reliant on her anyway), no more family members around you, no more home-cooked food, being far away from your close friends, etc. I especially look forward to finding my own accommodation (although Uncle Pat has already booked a room in his house for me) and having my own set of wheels (choice of car is undecided but the scale tips towards a white Volkswagen Golf). But the pains of other administrative tasks pokes me in the rear, things like having to open a bank account, regular supermarket shopping, going to the post office, etc.

Of course, there are the challenges of working overseas. Coming from a different country, your colleagues are naturally of a different cultural background. Language may pose to be a barrier and not everyone can understand what "har?" means. The way of writing reports or drafting emails may be different. Going to a meeting may take hours as you need to drive long distances. You start off with zero friends and loneliness may set in and leave you depressed.

In short, it is a different kettle of fish altogether. I really salute those who work overseas on a whim, to leave everything behind and move into uncharted waters.

But being thrown into a different environment and into the deep end means that you must learn to float and swim faster than you did in the past. I think that one can really learn and be exposed to a lot more when placed in an unfamiliar environment compared to being in a comfort zone that he or she is accustomed to. Don't you think so?

I was thinking since I am still relatively young (but the big 30 is looming faster than I realise it) and no strings attached (less for my family and friends), I should do this crazy thing and work abroad for a few years. Who knows, I might even settle down there in the end. And maybe marry a local there eventually... haha. Also, before I get to a managerial level, my current junior position allows me to prod, ask and make mistakes (not big ones, of course) and learn at the same time. That is the advantage of doing this whilst young.

But this is a big move, probably the biggest decision of my life so far. Should I take the plunge or should I hold on first and hope that my next company will send me overseas on postings? I should think about it carefully and not commit without much thought given to it.

Looks like Uncle Pat will not be winning his bet easily.

Soccer Update (30 April 2008)

Our game today coincided with one of the major events for the company this year which took up the entire morning. But it was not a good morning for me for some reasons. Thankfully the day got better as it went.

We had one of the weakest lineups of the year for today's game... only 7 people turned up! There was Chng, Maurice, Kian Tiong, myself, Jeremy, Khalid and Keng Guan. Alvino called in sick and had to miss the game because of flu. Richard was also missing for once, which was strange.

Due to some queer sleigh of luck (shhh), Maurice, Kian Tiong, Jeremy and myself got on the same team against Chng, Khalid and KG. I likened it to Barcelona vs West Ham. A slaughter was on the cards.

As it turned out, we plundered their goal mouth, peppering Chng with shots from all angles. When the dust had settled, I finished with five goals, one of which was whacked from just past the half way line and it soared into goal with a beautiful arc. I seldom hit long range goals so it was something special to me.

My jersey was totally soaked when the game ended but I thoroughly enjoyed today's session.