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