Do you like ants?

Of late, i noticed the presence of small ants everytime i try to sweep my house. Most of the time i would find a few roaming on the floor surrounding the sofa. Must be the new indoor money plant, i thought. But on closer inspection, i don't see any ant nest nor any dead moths/ flies lying by the corner of the living room.

Among the pile of dust that i swept up this morning, i saw at least 5-6 ants scurrying for their lives. I swept the whole pile up into the dust pan and emptied it into the bin. As i continue to sweep, some of these ants managed their way up to the handles of the dust pan, and that's when i feel the itch from crawling ants on my forearms.

Because of this daily phenomenon, i have developed a new hobby: Ant squeezing.

2 days back, i was sitting in an office completing an accident report for my car in woodlands road. For some strange reasons, there were small ants roaming around the desks as well. So i conveniently squeezed them and started flicking their dead bodies around... for a good 10 seconds i started killing 2-3 fleeing ants on the table, only to realise that the lady sitting opposite my desk has been watching my massacre with a very queer look. I quickly switched my attention back to the papers, subconsciously finding myself fighting hard NOT to care about the ants which were still alive and kicking....

That's how good i am killing ants. Cos my house seems very sweet.

Good suit and good time.

November came fast and furious.

I am finally baptised into the Catholic Family. Having followed my wife to church since 2006, my motivation to be there evolved; Initially only wanted to get to know about my wife's belief, my focus turned to wanting to know more about my purpose in life...

I took a bold step to attend RCIA for almost the whole of 2009. I must say that the lesson was done well, to an extent that it triggered me to find out more about the Faith. 3 weeks before my baptism, one of the RCIA facilitators requested me to be one of the lectors for the Baptism mass. Gosh!!! Of course i cannot resist such an honourable request. For those who know me, i have stage fright by nature. What's more i never had the experience to stand near the altar during mass. But thank God, my reading was audible and sounded confident. Many of my RCIA mates came up to me and pat my shoulder for affirmation after my reading was done.

Just 3 days after my baptism, i went down to assist my colleague Tommy for his wedding. To be frank, i like being involved in wedding activities, seeing how fun things can be during the gate crashing session. Thank goodness, the band of sisters were very merciful and kind( if only mine was as nice as them one year back hahahaha ). It was my first time helping out as a brother( guys of my age dont get married so soon )and it was refreshing to see the whole ritual from tea ceremony to getting ready at the hotel. Certainly brings back fond memories of rushing around, looking for people to settle guest seating in panic mode, ensuring things were done right at the right time. I was very fortunate this time round to be involved as the Mandarin Emcee( if only my sec and JC chinese teachers were around; they would have been very proud of me!!! ). Being in my 650SGD suit certainly adds confidence in me. Truly enjoyed myself when i was tasked to back up Tommy's singing as a stage guitarist( peanut playing skills but heck, i was thrilled to play for him ! )

Coming up next for the rest of Nov and Dec : House blessing, standard chartered Marathon( that means waking up early to train during my off days ).

Good suit, good time. Thank God.

SUIT yourself!!!!

When i was in the midst of preparing my wedding celebration in May 2008, it never occurred to me that i need to tailor my own suit for my big day....

I bet most couples out there want to look their best on their big day. However, 2008 was a very critical year( i was doing my Air Traffic Control training and i only earned PEANUTs back then.... ); Knowing that my wedding package includes the use of their suits was really a God sent; I wont want to spend time and effort just to hunt, try out, ponder and worry about my own suit. At the back of my mind, this ' suit ' issue got chuck behind. I got through the wedding ceremony happily and forgot about this woe( at least, for the past 10 good months of my married life. )

When i was arrowed to be the Emcee for my colleague's wedding one month back, i knew that it was just a matter of time before i have to hunt for it.

What an irony , i thought. I am obliged to make a suit ( for someone else's wedding now hahahahaha ).

I chanced upon this PERSONALITY MENSHOP tailoring boutique yesterday.... as i was served by the shop owner, i realised that i have no single idea how i wanted my suit to be done. In the end my wife and i sat down and browsed through magazines featuring classic and latest designs of suits. Took us almost an hour and a half before i finally chose something comfortable.

I parted 650 bucks for my suit. I hope not to be disappointed by the worksmanship.

September's gone.

Yeah....September was gone... without a post from me...

Was i really that busy?

I signed up for standard chartered run 2009... doing the 42km distance. It is going to be my first ever marathon. Previously the longest distance i ever ran was 21km( army days.. 2002 ). That was quite a bad experience.

I remembered perpetually overtaking people during the first 15km of my run. Then at the 15th km mark, i realised i need to pee badly. I sneaked in sweat among the bushes and let go of my bladder. The sudden lost of body heat resulted in a 20-25min lower limb cramp. It was my worst feel for a run like this.

The table was hence turned from the 15th km mark all the way till the end of the run. I saw people running ahead of me. Jason Ho( my camp mate in 20sa )nudged me from behind when he discovered me walking. In his very low and mellow tone, " Hey speng, come on man, dun walk... even ladies are over taking you now..."

Now that my morale hit all time low, things got worst...i kena nipple abrasions from wearing loose cotton singlet and developed toe cramps as i inched my way towards the finishing line.


I only hope to finish this coming 42km run in good shape.


I have been dutifully running in Macritchie Reservior at least once every 2weeks, apart from my normal 6-7km run( once every 2 days ). Running trail is definitely an agenda i look forward to. The longest distance i've clocked so far was around 12km there. Another 64 days to the actual run, and i must beef up my mileage in 2 weeks time. Need to start running at least 10km to replace my 6-7km regime.

A few weeks back, i had a good mini chat with PH( this slalom enthusiast cum pro i got to know since late 2006 )... realized how badly i want to slalom again but i guess i could no longer join the younger ones for their frequent Friday night sessions that easily. Just practicing my skills alone can prove to be a challenge....

Seems like life still feels packed for a married 28 year old, except its packed with different agenda now. At hand i have 4 weddings to attend..one on the 4th Oct, another on the 18th Nov( was asked to be the MC cum wedding singer for that one gosh!!! ), 4th December( for my slalom mate benjamin ) and 27th December.

In a few weeks time i would be going for my Cathecument Retreat, a final rite before going into the Catholic Faith. Since the beginning of this year, i have been faithfully attending Thursday night RCIA lessons to know more about my wife's Faith. What i have to do now, is to think of a Christian name and choose my God Father... would THOMAS be a good name?

Random entry of a boring man

Guessed this one is really random...

I am playful by nature. When i was young, i remembered sneaking into my parents' room one afternoon( my mom was asleep that time ), searching for some paper to throw down from my 13th storey home in Geylang Bahru. I cant recall exactly the damage done, but i think i released a quarter of a rim of blank printing paper( piece by piece ), just to see it swing left and right as it suffers the effect of gravity.

I have this deep fascination about mobile cranes... It often reminded me of giraffes with overwhelming strength. Whenever one crane pulls up at the carpark beneath my house, i would easily spend about 20-30min just to see the crane operations 'action front'(an artillery lingo). I could imagine myself controlling one of these big things back then.

When i was in Primary 4, video games were a hit, followed by brick games. I wasnt exactly a fan of the latter though. My aunts couldnt brush me off from my persistent want to get a game console and finally gave in. We finally had a new addition into the family - 'Good BOY'( i cant remember how many bits the ram were but its lower than SEGA ). I got drawn into Good BOY and soon found myself playing more and more games.... until Street Fighter was released in summer of 92. My request came again and this time, it saw an upgrade from Good BOY( by then it was starting to get cranky from all the hours of playing contra and super mario )to SUPER FAMICOM . I got sucked into the game and even bought sticker albums featuring the characters explaining their profile in terms of background and skill sets...


In 1993, my friend introduced me to bowling. It was after PSLE and i could recall my very first visit to a bowling alley( SUPER BOWL in hougang central ). To be frank, up to today, bowling and me just couldnt click and i suck big time on this game. But being in the alley that faithful day exposed me to video game arcade. It was then i realised how skilful other players can be, doing combos on joysticks. There were so many variations of Street Fighter, so much so that i started visiting more of these places....

I guessed this is me. Never academically inclined, never created for the engineering world, but am glad to find myself doing what i do now - Air Traffic Control. Somehow i think my childhood attributes and my past times have some influence over this job that i chose.

The cow for the calculator

I have once heard of this very interesting story about this man( it IS A TRUE STORY and i know this guy )named SAMY( not his real name though )

Samy was born in a rural village in India. Like most village boys, he attends lessons in a village school. One day, Samy's teacher told his parents that Samy was a very smart student and that they should enrol him to a bigger city school where his potentials could be better realized.

Samy eventually studied in a city school.He was a very hardworking student and excelled academically, just as his ex teacher from village school predicted. During one of his math modules, calculators were a requirement. Samy had no calculator and wrote to his parents, hoping that his parents would provide him one. This request in Singapore context could be easily brushed off with a "OK, son i will give you the money for it, go buy it tomorrow" or something like that. But Samy's parents were poor and they couldnt afford a calculator at all. However,Samy's father was determined to see his son through his education at all cost....

The very next day, Samy's father sold one cow( his father had 2 cows under his name )for cash.

Decades later, Samy is now holding a senior position in his company, all thanks to this fatherly act of sacrifice and Samy's teacher who said the right thing at the moment in time.

Probably this is one real episode to remind all teachers out there that words spoken at the appropriate moment could change lives.

Irritated by a cockroach

I was doing control work during my noon shift today when i was disturbed by a cockroach...

Not only was it a disgusting sight, it made deliberate attempts to distract me and made me feel sick and frustrated. I cant confront the insect and have decided to appear nonchalant to its perpetual sneak attacks.

I cant understand why some living beings have to behave like that. Simply no EQ and i hate such beings for trying to make others inferior and low.