different

Today,

in the ward,
someone asked me if she looked different.

I looked at her from head to foot and I saw her shoes.

It looked kinda different.
Then, it strucked me!

She was wearing shoes but of different pairs!

I had a good laugh!

Everyone did!

kiss in the rain

things a girl wished her guy knew..

When you break her heart, the pain never really goes away.

When she misses you, she’s hurting inside.

When she says it’s over, she still wants you to be hers.

When she walks away from you mad, follow her.

When she stares at your mouth, kiss her.

When she pushes or hits you, grab her tight & don’t let her go.

When she starts cursing at you, kiss her and tell her you love her.

When she ignores you, give her your attention.

When she pulls away, pull her back.

When you see her at her worst, tell her she’s beautiful.

When you see her crying, just hold her and don’t say a word.

When you see her walking, sneak up and hug her waist from behind.


When she lays her head on your shoulder, tilt her head up and kiss her.

When she teases you, tease her back and make her laugh.

When she doesn’t answer for a long time, reassure her that everything is okay.

When she looks at you with doubt, back yourself up with the truth.

When she says that she likes you, she really does more than you could understand.

When she grabs your hands, hold hers and play with her fingers.


When she tells you a secret, keep it safe and untold.

When she looks at you in your eyes, don’t look away until she does.

Stay on the phone with her even if she’s not saying anything.

Don’t let her have the last word.



Argue that she is the best girl ever.

When she’s mad, hug her tight and don’t let go.

When she says she’s OK, don’t believe it, talk to her about it, because 10 yrs later she’ll still remember it.

Call her at 12:00am on special occasions to tell her you love her.

Call her before you sleep and after you wake up.

Treat her like she’s all that matters to you.

Don’t ignore her when she’s out with you and your friends.

Stay up all night with her when she’s sick.

Watch her favorite movie with her or her favorite show even if you think its stupid.



Let her know she’s important.

Kiss her in the pouring rain.

i love you

It takes three seconds to say I love you,
three minutes to explain,
three hours to demonstrate,
three days to appreciate,
three terms to produce it,
but a lifetime to prove it.

falling in love..again

The best thing about me is you.
I'll never be the same again,,,if we ever meet again

live life to the fullest

Personal experience: easy come easy go, hard come hard go. I'm 4 yr to 50 yr old. $ is just like a gust of wind, comes and goes from and to nowhere, makes one wondering "what's going on".

Willing to share my "history":
- I earned $2/hr during poly's holiday, many many yr back.
- "Earned" $90/mnth as CPL as fulltime national service.
- Starting pay $650/mnth, after ROD from army
- 3 months before ROD, bought a 2nd hand "Honda Rider" for 2k. Minor accidents here & there. Gave up motorcycle after being sent to hospital by ambulan 2yrs later.
- $1064 in 1984 while joining MRTC....
-Married in 1993, borrowed 18K from granny's "coffin money" for reno & some stuff. Earned and cleared within a yr.
- Got a 5rm hdb in Sept 1992, for 124K, cleared loan 6 yrs later, all cpf. Sold for 450k in 2007.
-First boy come to world in 1995, now in RI sec 3.
- Bought my 1st 2nd hand "Toyata Starlet" for 21k in 1996.
- Girl come to world in 1997, same day she came, first time car accident - knock by ppl. She now in sec 1, Bedok Green.
- Cars keep changing from Mitshibishi Lancer/Kia 7 seater/Mitshibishi/now Toyota.
- Bought a 3 bedrm in Baywater, cleared loan within a yr. Stayed for 3.2 yr. Bought at 616k in 2005July, sold for 850k in Sept 2009.
- Business travel......."take plane like taking bus" - wife quoted, > 20 countries. See snow, sun rise/set on offshore platforms, sand storm in Egype, warded in Korean hospital, housefly bigger than thumb in Brazil jungle, swimming in yellow sea,......many many unforgetteble...
- Enough is enough, switched job.....no more travel! That was 7 yrs ago.
- Now as a small & humble manager, 6K+/mnth salary.
- 80k loan ,out of 528k, yet to clear, after another 10 months.
- Car loan 24k, can clear anytime, but do not wish to.
- Abt 200K in stock mkt "in" and "out". Average can "make" 2k~3k/mnth. Last yr recorded 36k income from Feb to Sept. Stopped from end Sept 2009 ~ feb 2010, for resale house & reno.
- Back to market again Mar 2010, till now already made abt 14K.
- Enjoy hobbies whenever has time, with wife & children.

$ comes & goes like gust of wind, be contented. No start & no end. But we come from dust & will go to dust. Get wisdom - $ cannot but, worth to spend time & efforts to "chase after".

Technically possible.
- Car is sure "wasting money"- need not to be big & branded, so long as to transport u here & there can already. Petrol/insurance/parts replacement are going upwards, roadtax heads east for a few years.
- Condo, paying $370/mnth for maintenance fee, bbq, swimming, carpark, tennis, security...Personally concluded "not worth" after staying 3 years in Baywater. Higher living standard always need to pay more, this rule applies to all.
- Learnt 1 important rule/fact here to make more $$$: make your first $100k cash first, whether by saving, selling....
- "Learn" to invest yourself, test your judgement....be prepared to pay "expensive school fee".
- My experience :coverted SGD to USD, earned interests every 3 months, rate kept dropping (loss $), convert USD to SGD then to NZD, earned high interest and gained capital gain! But now no more such lobangs. Waiting for RMB to float.
-Standby for rainy days - get a taxi license or swimming instructor cert, be a part time real estate agent to gain experence....Insurance agent needs to talks a lot, right segment.......
- Need financial planning, best equip with spreadsheet knowledge. Calculate yr annual income vs expense. Set target. Explore new income sources, always start from part time then full time...
- Must know the rule of breakeven, then u know where u stand..

Ugliness

Ugliness is superior to beauty because it lasts....

F word again:Foreign Talents in MNC

someone works in an MNC.
He commented recently that Singapore citizens are a rare breed at his workplace. In his extended team of about 30, there are Indians, British, Asian Americans and Malaysian Chinese, but

only 2 Singaporeans.

And one of the 2 is a contract worker!

This is not only limited to his extended team.
Throughout the office, spanning several floors in the building, he said

it’s hard to find more than a handful Singaporeans

in middle to senior positions.

why?

Quotas are only applicable to work permits and ‘S’ pass foreign workers

On the other hand, foreigners earning more than $2,500 hold employment passes. They are classified as “professionals” (as opposed to “skilled workers”). These foreign professionals are not subject to any quota.

This MOM reply to a query in ST says it all (boldface mine):

“Apart from the S-Pass, companies can also bring in foreign professionals, managers and executives on employment passes to meet their staffing needs.
There is no quota for Employment Pass holders. However the applicant must be paid a basic monthly salary of at least $2,500 and have acceptable qualifications.”

There is no quota.

If you run a company and pay more than $2,500 to each employee, you can have 100% foreigners in your company.

‘Local workforce’ refers to those full-time employees (Singapore citizens or permanent residents).”

So, technically, any company in Singapore can hire zero Singapore citizen and have foreigners as all its employees.

bank Fail and terrorist are totally different thing:FB

F word again: Funny water smell

it has been since a while we have noticed something amiss.
Funny smell in our water.
after we have boiled the water, the smell was even stronger: like something has been added to the water.
very smell chemical smell.

therfore, we have been drinking less and less drinking or boiling water and buy bottles of mineral water.

it is just like drinking chorinated water from the swimming pools.

just imagine we have been drinking chorinated water everyday and we know that chorine is toxic.
just imagine

single

Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you.

Now it means you're pretty sexy and you're taking your time deciding how you want your life to be and who you want to spend it with

another F word: firefighting (HDB Flats)

Resale prices for HDB flats rose for the eighth straight quarter, surging 4.1 per cent between April and June from the previous January to March period. The median cash over valuation (COV) - the cash amount paid upfront by a buyer over a flat's valuation - also hit a record $30,000 in the second quarter of this year.

Speaking on the sidelines of a community event in Tampines, Mr Mah attributed the surge to strong economic growth and increased demand from first-time buyers and those looking to upgrade to bigger flats.

'I think at this point in time, there's still an imbalance. I hope that with HDB pushing out a record number of flats this year, this imbalance will be redressed over the medium-term... I would expect in another year or so we should be able to stabilise everything,' Mr Mah said.

The truth is that it will addressed for those who are first-timers but not those who in need of the available NOW. they could not wait for 4-5 years when the flats have complated.

so, the resale market will head one direction:UP.

the whole things we saw is that he is doing firefighting, when there is fire, he will fight, when there is none, he closed his eyes.

another F word: fares

Mr Gerard Ee, Chairman of the PTC, said,

“This year’s decision is a significant one as it involves a change of our public transport fare structure.

The decision comes after careful deliberation and scrutiny of the impact on both the operators and the commuters.

We have to bear in mind the Council’s mandate to keep fares affordable while ensuring the long-term viability of the public transport operators, so that they can continue to make capital investments and provide the quality of service expected.

The move to Distance Fares is not possible without the support of the public transport operators who bear the larger part of the costs.

With the new fare structure, commuters will have more choices and greater flexibility to decide on the best route to reach their destination and can choose to make transfers without being penalised.

For example,instead of waiting for a direct bus, a commuter can hop on to the first bus that comes along and make other bus/rail transfers along the route, thereby shortening their total journey time.”

conclusion:

after taking bus and MRT for a week, my fares are increased and not decreased.
and my total journey time did not shorten as we have wait for the transfer bus which came late.
so, for me, it was an increment of 10-20% and not saving.

can i believe what he has said?

i believe that he would like to have public transport operators to earn

even more money

than than keeping fares affordable.

last year, he told 2/3 of us will have to pay more. this year he said 2/3 of us will save more.

last year was a bad year, with economic registered negative growth and now they have pratically 10-20% increment.

is it true? your call.

F word: Flood and Fallen trees

Times have changed and flooding looked to be a thing of the past.

But in November 2009, something unheard of took place.

Flooding affected the upper Bukit Timah Road stretch between Sixth Avenue and Blackmore Drive.

Although it is fair to say that the November 2009 incident was a “freak event that happens once in 50 years” according to a government minister, I am sure when you are the victim who owns a property or an expensive Masserati this is not quite on.

Fallen trees crashing down on a house or a landslide is a nightmare for many people.

Who likes to get involved in litigation?

Any motorist can tell you that once a car gets submerged in water, there is extensive damage to engine and transmission.

Not only you face expensive repair bills from the car workshop, your vehicle will not perform as normal as before.

Flood:ION Orchard

remember the former park next to Orchard MRT station where Filippina maids used to gather during weekends when they had their day off.

The flooding at Orchard/Paterson junction is unusual.

Prior to construction of ION,

the piece of empty land was a big sponge allowing rainwater to flow into the ground.

However, heavy rain falling on the entire complex now cannot flow into the ground directly would naturally

pond at the lowest point

ie. the Orchard/Paterson junction.

suggestions for your next step:

Sell your property

if it is in low lying areas to unassuming FTs who have decided to come here to participate in the gold rush.

Even new properties with basement carparks have not been spared eg.

Gentle Reflections at Gentle Road was hit.

The value will drop if everyone follows this trend.

Even if you can get insurance coverage for floods, the premiums will be higher.

The recurring floods has tarnished our image of having 1st class infrastructure. There needs to some answers to these all too frequent 50-year freak events.

Over

Over again.
Don't make me change my mind.
Do i deserve to be the second option? i think i deserve better,

please prove me wrong.

If you dare to be right,

try to wake me up from the reality you have shown and created!

playing god : marina barrage

The Marina Barrage was meant to help alleviate floods.

Yet it may have been the cause of floods.

In theory, the barrage's crest gate can be opened to lower the level of water in the canal system when the water level rises.

there will take time for the 70-tonne's crest gates to open between opening the barrage at Marina Bay and for the water to flow out from Bukit Timah or Stamford Canals.

Given our climate where we get extremely heavy downpours in

60 – 120 minutes,

The flooding at Orchard/Paterson junction is unusual.
Prior to construction of ION, the piece of empty land was a big sponge allowing rainwater to flow into the ground.

However, heavy rain falling on the entire complex now cannot flow into the ground directly would naturally pond at the lowest point ie. the Orchard/Paterson junction.

our canals may not be able to cope with the sudden rush of rain water while the marina barrage's crest gates are still opening to lower the level of water.

If water is to be retained in marina reservoir, then water will flow back into the canal system feeding into the Singapore River ie. Bukit Timah etc. rendering these canals to be much less effective as they are already half full before any heavy downpour.

Furthermore the water table will rise which means that our soil will be less porous to soak in the rainwater during a heavy downpour.

If our precious water reserves were to be released at the barrage before any downpour, it would probably take 10 hours before water level at Bukit Timah canal to be lowered. And what if the downpour was not that heavy?

Why release precious water reserves so that there will not be floods?


so smile as tomorrow will get worse.

Often

Often times,wishful thinking gives you perception of things that would or might have been if you can twist and turn back the time.

that's why it is called "wishful" it reminds you of what reality is and how some things wouldn't work if it wasn't yours in the first place--anonymous

Flood: they said it was stamford canal, but we say it was The Marina Barrage

When you have massive floods on Singapore’s main shopping street, it cannot be blamed on unusually heavy downpour.

There is something not right in our drainage system. Since embarking on many infrastructure projects to transform Singapore, we have become more flood prone especially in areas which were never flood prone before.

This is worrying!

It cannot be that the more we develop our city, the more flood prone we become.

While being no experts compared to the PUB, one cannot help but make certain casual observations:

The Marina Barrage is a dam in Singapore built across the mouth of the bay, between Marina East and Marina South. It was officially opened on 1 November 2008.

1. The Marina Barrage was meant to help alleviate floods. Yet it may have been the cause of floods. In theory, the barrage can be opened to lower the level of water in the canal system. However there will be several hours between opening the barrage at Marina Bay and for the water to flow out from Bukit Timah or Stamford Canals.

Given our climate where we get heavy downpours in 1 – 2 hours, our canals may not be able to cope with the sudden rush of rain water and therefore overflow which resulted in the floods.

2. The flooding at Orchard/Paterson junction is unusual. Prior to construction of ION, the piece of empty land was a big sponge allowing rainwater to flow into the ground.

However, heavy rain falling on the entire complex now cannot flow into the ground directly would naturally pond at the lowest point ie. the Orchard/Paterson junction.

3. Flooding at Balmoral Road which was thought to be eliminated has now re- emerged. Could it be due to the construction of the tunnels of the Downtown line where again rainwater cannot flow directly into the ground and thus flooding the area?

The recurring floods has tarnished our image of having 1st class infrastructure. There needs to some answers to these all too frequent 50-year freak events.

Many parts of Singapore eg. Balmoral, Newton have been largely flood free for the last 15 years until .... 2009 when the Marina Barrage started operating.

If water is to be retained in marina reservoir, then water will flow back into the canal system feeding into the Singapore River ie. Bukit Timah etc. rendering these canals to be much less effective as they are already half full before any heavy downpour.

Furthermore the water table will rise which means that our soil will be less porous to soak in the rainwater during a heavy downpour.

If our precious water reserves were to be released at the barrage before any downpour, it would probably take 10 hours before water level at Bukit Timah canal to be lowered. And what if the downpour was not that heavy?

Why release precious water reserves so that there will not be floods?

Why not put up with floods after all it would be only 1 - 2 hours of incovenience.

Therefore the government cannot tell us the truth and PUB, the scape goat, will continue to give us hundreds of excuses from leaves to sensors to flaw in computer software to new flood alleviation programmes etc etc.

The truth is that IF THE MARINA BARRAGE CONTINUES TO BE OPERATIONAL SINGAPORE WILL ENTER INTO A NEW ERA OF BEING FLOOD PRONE IN MANY AREAS.

outsourcing is one of the ways of "racing to the bottom

Those who are in IT industry will know that outsourcing is one of the ways of "racing to the bottom", just like why companies are relocating to low cost countries for production.
Outsourcing is beneficial to those IT Big boys as they can offer breadth and depth, and they increasingly are playing the role of main contractor and re-source again to secondary vendor.

With so many hands involved, there is definitely a drop in product and service standards, but now we have a tier-service standard, as long as the VIP users are not affected, then it is ok.

The sad state of affairs arise because IT is the classic example of more sellers than buyers.

If you flood the workplace market with a lot of cheap supply, "race to the bottom" will happen and the buyers will gleefully get the cheapest supply to derive maximum benefits.
Such short-term view will definitely haunt the buyer in future, as again with a lot of changing of hands (due to resignation, re-appointment of secondary vendor etc), it will result in documentation not updated or contain errors, and thus mistakes will happen, more so for those complex systems.Those who are in IT industry will know that outsourcing is one of the ways of "racing to the bottom", just like why companies are relocating to low cost countries for production.

Outsourcing is beneficial to those IT Big boys as they can offer breadth and depth, and they increasingly are playing the role of main contractor and re-source again to secondary vendor. With so many hands involved, there is definitely a drop in product and service standards, but now we have a tier-service standard, as long as the VIP users are not affected, then it is ok.

The sad state of affairs arise because IT is the classic example of more sellers than buyers. If you flood the workplace market with a lot of cheap supply, "race to the bottom" will happen and the buyers will gleefully get the cheapest supply to derive maximum benefits.

Such short-term view will definitely haunt the buyer in future, as again with a lot of changing of hands (due to resignation, re-appointment of secondary vendor etc), it will result in documentation not updated or contain errors, and thus mistakes will happen, more so for those complex systems.

It is all about GDP.

The cost of outsourcing to IBM adds to the GDP, which otherwise would have disappear under wage expenses if it is done in-house.

This is just one of the many ways of cooking up GDP numbers.