Photos of Beach Run yesterday

More photos of my Freo trip yesterday :
[Edited : 18 Oct 2005 - Removed Photos]


This was taken at the beach just beside the Round House. If I had told you this was taken in the desert, would you have believed me ?

Went around the beach north of Freo in the late afternoon :


Leighton Beach


Cottesloe Beach - Looks like a fantastic place for another Picnic


City Beach - The only one with lifeguards there.

Well, looks like I had fun yesterday and today.
Tomorrow, we will attempt to go to Pinnacles. Long drive to and fro - 506km, if we do not get lost that is.

Today's Run

Ok. Here is the photo of our transport till the end of next week :


Spacious eh ?

Oh well, today was a lazy day. Had late lunch at South Perth. Bought pizzas and drove to Mill's Point and stopped at a beach to eat.


You can see dead jelly-fish at South Perth water. No wonder nobody is swimming there.

This is a day that you can feel cold while under the sun and realize that at the end of the day, you have sunburnt skin....

View from opposite where we sat 2 days ago watching the fireworks :


View of Perth City from South Perth

Then had a quick drive around Kings Park :



Kings Park bushes. Sort of wondered what kind of park it is. Of course, there are beautiful picnic sites. Will post more of KP picnic after we had ours there.


A view of Perth City from KP

More Australia Day Photos

Ok. Had some requests to put in more photos of Australia Day and the Fireworks that I took on 26th.

I am a very nice guy, so here goes :


Swan Bell Tower under the sun


Swan River Sunset, while everyone is waiting for the event to begin

And some more fireworks. Some are not that sharp. Had to snap them without tripod, and sometimes without manual settings. So they are all Fully Automatic by my camera :

Clean Perth

Saw these around a few of the beaches. So that is how they keep the beach clean. Add also the fact that many people are civic-minded enough to clear their own trash.

Unfortunately, the beaches mostly do not allow dogs...



When I post the pictures of the beach, you can compare it with East Coast Park in Singapore... What a difference man !

Last night, after the fireworks of Australia Day, quite a few trash and a few broken bottles were lying around the ground. Saw this lady with a baby in pram walking along. When she saw a piece of sharp broken glass on the ground, she picked it up and threw it away, even when the trash is not hers.

Fremantle and the beaches

Today, went to Fremantle, changed vehicle, from a compact to a "tank" as our dear KnightOfPentacles commented after he drove it for less than 5 minutes.

Walked around Fremantle
[Edited : 18 Oct 2005 - Removed Photos]


Then went to the beaches. They are nice. I will post more of those pictures after 2 more of my other friends arrive. Most probably will have a picnic.

Australia Day

You can read about the prelude to Australia Day here

Sat at Swan River to watch the Australia Day fireworks yesterday.
[Edited : 18 Oct 2005 - Removed Photos]



You can see that Aussies are more prepared :


That's a SPA tub they have...


See the Sofa/Couch in the tents and the inflatable pool on the right...



Well, I have wondered what the heck I was doing getting involved in someone else's national day, when I never did give a damn about Singapore National Day in the first place. Well, except those 2 times that I got involved in the NDP itself, but that was due to the fact that I was in the Army then.

Plenty disloyal, one might add. Ah, what the heck. I am here as a tourist and if they want to put fireworks out for me, might as well enjoy it. Ha ha ha. *grin*

At about 7.35pm, KnightOfPentacles and myself went to queue at the toilets provided for the day (those plastic portable types). Long queues. I was joking that by the time we get out of the toilet, the fireworks would have ended.

Lots of planes flying around performing.

You can also see the enthusiam of the Aussies : Coming to see fireworks, even if it is dangerous.



20 minutes into the queue, the fireworks popped up. "What the f**k ! We are going to see the fireworks from the toilet queue !". It was a teaser, luckily. And they sang their national anthem after that. But the queues sure moved very quickly. Very soon, we were back to our "seats" on the grass and saw this :











The fireworks lasted a total of more than 30 minutes. 3000kg of fireworks were on show. I have a total of 282MB of Photos and Videos of the Fireworks.

Ask me nicely and I might give you a copy of it. Heh Heh.

See me in Court...

Ok. Took the trouble to upload all the photos. You can see me at court in Perth :

[Edited : 18 Oct 2005 - Removed Photos]

Now In Perth.. And Enjoying

Ok.. In Perth right now. Troublesome to download all the facilities to update photos here, so I will do it when I get back. In the mean time, if you wanna know what we have been doing, feel free to pop over to Knights of Pentacle's blog.

How people get to know me

Thing about capturing visitor statistics. I get people stumbling across my blog, all thanks to google for this

"Penisland".... What the ....

http://www.penisland.net/

Oh No ! Who is there ?

Went back to the same spot this afternoon. Found a surprised visitor (Yes, I was sure they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them) :


Oh No, Who is that ?


Went on to find a closer look :



Wow. Must be running out of places for them to conduct training. Hope I did not stumble upon some secret equipment. If you do not hear from me the next few days, you know where I am....

Nice Place

Happened to come across this place. Reclaimed land. Looks nice. Captured it before it disappears.



Guess where am I




Location of my car.

Today, my friend Left for LA....

Today, my friend left for LA. He and his wife has finally decided to move to America.
I wished them all the best.

Latest metal in town & I've Got It !

Over this weekend, I have gotten more credit cards. So I am mistaken that my credit records will not support more cards being issued to me.

Or maybe they were "solicited" and thus most likely to be approved ?

Anyway, I have the latest Metal in town - Titanium. May not be as high-income requirement as the Platinum, but who cares !

I am still sick.

Still feeling the blues today.
The 'flu is affecting me very badly this time.
Having blocked ears and swollen eyes.
Too much congestion due to blocked nose.

Doctor's orders of "Drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest" are mutually exclusive. Had to wake up 4 times last night to empty my bladder, effectively putting a stop to any deep sleep that I was about to go into. My dry throat is not helping either, due to me having to breathe through my mouth due to blocked nose.

I guess my golf game on Thursday doesn't help my flu. Was under the sun for half a day before I flew back to Singapore and reached home mid-night of Thursday.

On a happier note, I do intend to get well and be in perfect health for my trip to Perth. Needed a holiday. Oh well, been having quite a few, but there is no such thing as overdose of holiday, is there ?

I am having a good week

Most probably will not be blogging this week.
I will be leaving for Jakarta early Monday morning and will be back Thursday night.

My manager will be with me. So rest assured that when I get back, there will be more topics to talk about.. Hahaha.

Will be having 1 or 2 golf sessions, then talk in the office for 1 day or 2. And then I will be coming back.

Sounds simple right.. haha

Fear is good. Fear is all around.

Ever wanted a complete list of "-phobia"s ? http://www.phobialist.com/

Some common phobia we see in people around :

Anuptaphobia- Fear of staying single.
Atychiphobia- Fear of failure.
Atelophobia- Fear of imperfection.
Caligynephobia, Venustraphobia- Fear of beautiful women.
Gamophobia - Fear of marriage.
Kakorrhaphiophobia- Fear of failure or defeat.
Katagelophobia- Fear of ridicule.
Novercaphobia, Pentheraphobia- Fear of your step-mother, mother-in-law
Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything.
Phobophobia- Fear of phobias.
Soceraphobia- Fear of parents-in-law.


Some interesting phobia :

Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Asymmetriphobia- Fear of asymmetrical things.
Coitophobia- Fear of coitus.
Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.
Eurotophobia- Fear of female genitalia.
Ithyphallophobia- Fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis.
Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body.
Medorthophobia- Fear of an erect penis.
Octophobia - Fear of the figure 8.
Paraskavedekatriaphobia- Fear of Friday the 13th.
Triskaidekaphobia- Fear of the number 13.


As you can see, the world is full of interesting people. The number 8 and 13 must be damn scary... haha..

Singapore is so Good....

Again, you have to take my word for it :


Jan 3, 2005
School Notes



PRIVATE STUDENT ACES AUSSIE ENTRY EXAM



A STUDENT from a private school here has produced the highest score in Singapore in the recent Ausmat exam- inations, an entrance exam for Australian tertiary institutions.

St Francis Methodist School's Tan Eu Liang, 17, scored 98.65 out of a possible 100. The top score is 99.5.

The Ausmat is the equivalent of the GCE A levels and can be also be used for admission to universities in New Zealand, Britain and the United States.

Eu Liang, a Malaysian who is a Singapore permanent resident, recently applied to the Australian National University and Canberra University, where he intends to pursue a double degree in commerce and law.

S'PORE STUDENTS WIN VIDEO CONTEST



RESPONDING to a public call to protect the earth helped five Canberra Secondary students clinch the first Asia Pacific Kids Witness News contest.

The regional competition, hosted by electronics giant Panasonic Asia Pacific, turned into a battle between six entries from Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

The Canberra Secondary students won with their video Everything But The Earth, appealing to viewers to be more conscious of the environment.

Said the competition's chief judge, Mr Mike Kitadeya: 'The video was well structured and there was a good mix of studio work and field reporting.'

The students will represent the Asia Pacific region in the grand finals, Kids Witness News, which will see 360 winning schools from 14 nations battle it out in Aichi, Japan, this August.

BURSARIES FOR THE NEEDY: APPLY NOW

* Snipped *

A TASTE OF POLY LIFE FOR FIVE DAYS



MORE than 100 Secondary 4 students got a taste of polytechnic life firsthand last month, attending classes, going on industrial tours and taking part in co-curricular activities.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic organised the five-day event in response to feedback from secondary school students.

Tanjong Katong Girls' Janice Yio, 16, who took part because she is considering applying for a polytechnic, said: 'I used to think that polytechnic students don't care much about school work, but I found out I was wrong after sitting in on one of their classes.

'They are in fact very attentive and take lots of notes.'

1,400 STUDENTS GET EDUSAVE AWARDS

* Snipped *

*~*~*~*~*

Why most of our great achievements come from Foreign Talents ? Mount Everest, Badminton, and now Ausmat. Maybe government is right about bringing in more Foreign Talents.

And Singapore have great naming wisdom. Canberra Secondary. For a while, I thought the report was of some Aussie school, since the first article talked about Ausmat....

Yeah, and I think, sooner or later, Edgedale Plains and Anchorville will be named Punggol Lorong 1, 2, 3, etc..


Oh, and "I used to think that polytechnic students don't care much about school work, but I found out I was wrong after sitting in on one of their classes."

Haha.. now I know Poly has reputation for being a fun place ? Is that why she wanted to go there ? Hmmm.. Now she realized it is no longer fun, how ?

*~*~*~*~*

Ok ok, trivial things, but I have nothing to blog about today. Except: Damn ! I need to pick up golf again before the 10th, as I will be having a game with my manager and customger...

Insurance is fraud !!!!

Not going to link anymore. So you just have to take my word for it :

Jan 3, 2005
Hit by drink driver? Claim on own policy



I REFER to the letter, 'Need to re-examine role of insurance here' (ST, Dec 24), by Mr Chan Chin Keong. Mr Chan expressed disappointment and frustration over his inability to recover the financial loss of his car after being struck by a drink driver.

Mr Chan is likely to have been better off had he claimed against his own insurer for loss or damage to his car.

We would encourage any car owner under similar circumstances to claim on his own policy if he is insured on comprehensive cover.

It is illegal in Singapore to drive a car under the influence of alcohol. It is against public interest for insurers to insure such risks. All policies will carry a blanket policy exclusion for such risks.

The insurer of the drink driver would have denied policy liability. It is for the drink driver to bear responsibility for all damage caused to his own vehicle as well as for liability for death and bodily injury caused to third parties.

Unfortunately, Mr Chan was on his own when he decided to pursue his claim for damage to his car and loss of use against the drink driver directly.

In Singapore, it is compulsory for all cars to have insurance in force covering third-party liability for death and bodily injury arising out of the use of the car. That the driver is in breach of a policy exclusion will not excuse the insurer from its statutory obligation to compensate the third party for such claims.

Other than the above, there is no legal requirement for the car owner to insure against loss or damage to the car and other liabilities for damage to third party property.

Wu Siong Yen

Executive Director

General Insurance Association of Singapore

*~*~*~*~*

Wow. Legal-speak is really confusing.

First it is : "It is for the drink driver to bear responsibility for all damage caused to his own vehicle as well as for liability for death and bodily injury caused to third parties."

Then it is : "That the driver is in breach of a policy exclusion will not excuse the insurer from its statutory obligation to compensate the third party for such claims."

Isn't it contradicting ? So if someone drunk hit me, can I claim or not ? How to claim for injury when the guy has no money ?

Wait.. no money how to drive in Singapore ?
Of course can lah.. Credit Card lah !

Still... I just have to pray that I am not so unlucky lor....

Busy , busy......

Not blogging for the past few days. Was busy with festive celebrations. Basically just an excuse to do nothing but have fun and get drunk.

Though I also realized that I have become older because most of my activities are mostly gathering with friends and chatting. Not much of disco and loud music and jumping and hopping around.

And the next week or so, I will be busy with work.
Yes, struggling to meet quota, business review meetings, presentations and stuff... part and parcel of a sales job.

So I make it up by have 3 blogs today, although the last 2 are sort of related.

Some happenings in the office though. Time for me to do my regular office gossip.
The Technical-transferred-to-Sales-and-now-transferred-back-to-Technical guy, whom I was complaining about not bad attitude, is going to resign. Hmmm.... no gloating or happiness...

Another sales in the team is leaving. Although she did not really clique very well with the sales team, she wasn't that bad either.

My manager, the one that is losing power over his boss, has gloated that someone important in one of our overseas branch has resigned. He is gloating because he hopes to have more of such "good news" so that his boss will feel shaken and he can gain his negotiating power back.

I don't know what to say about such "thoughts".

On the front of my manager's lover boy, he still get away with many things. Essentially, still being "loved" by my manager and is drawing pay without doing his fair share of work. Oh well, this is reality. Life is never fair.

Speeding Kills ?

Hmm.. Just tried to find more correlation between speed and accident rates.

This is taken off U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

The results of the study indicated that lowering posted speed limits by as much as 20 mi/h (32 km/h), or raising speed limits by as much as 15 mi/h (24 km/h) had little effect on motorist' speed. The majority of motorist did not drive 5 mi/h (8 km/h) above the posted speed limits when speed limits were raised, nor did they reduce their speed by 5 or 10 mi/h (8 or 16 km/h) when speed limits are lowered. Data collected at the study sites indicated that the majority of speed limits are posed below the average speed of traffic. Lowering speed limits below the 50th percentile does not reduce accidents, but does significantly increase driver violations of the speed limit. Conversely, raising the posted speed limits did not increase speeds or accidents.

Or you can just get a whole list of information and research in this area from Speed Related Argument Database

New Handphone Driving Law in Singapore

http://www.spf.gov.sg/about_spf/tp/faq_hpdriving.htm

While I agree that many people cannot multitask well enough, and using handphones while driving is dangerous, I have to say our Home Team isn't exactly tackling the issue that well.

What constitutes HP driving
i) the driver of a motor vehicle that is on a road or public place "uses" a mobile phone while the vehicle is in motion

ii) using one hand to hold on to the mobile phone and the other hand holding the steering wheel

iii) communicate whilst driving


Ok. I am not sure, but it looks like all 3 conditions has to be met before it becomes illegal.
Thus it looks like the TP is against (1) Communicating and (2) One hand on wheel.

My bane is with dangerous driving. Not specifically talking, or one-hand driving. I have been driving with one hand half the time too. I have also been picking my nose while driving. Is that going to be illegal as well ?

Problem for handphone driving is the distraction. If you know you can't handle the vehicle and SMS at the same time, don't do it.

I have 3 cases came to my mind :

(1) I was taking a taxi and the driver was talking on the phone with his friend. He was using earpiece and both hands on the steering wheel. We were at the left lane, behind a taxi. Turn-left-on-Red was available at the junction. Taxi in front turned left. My driver went straight across the junction while the RED light was still on !

I guess with both his hands on the steering wheel and his eyes looking ahead, he didn't see my face turning green in fear.

(2) I was driving in the rain in 1996 with a friend. We were chatting and on a bend, I knocked into a car that had stopped to turn right. I had 2 hands on the wheel and well below the speed limit.

(3) Recently, I was driving home and the same friend called to ask for directions to an obscure carpark in town. I was trying to visualize the map of the area in my mind and figuring out where he is, so that I can give the right directions. All while I was driving across 5 junctions of 3-lane roads, across 1 fly-over and 1 underpass.

When I hung up the phone, I realized I had no recollection of how I navigated the heavy traffic. I guess I went into auto-pilot, driving not-so-fast, and stayed a safe distance, and not changing lanes unnecessarily.



I mean, all of us drivers should know our limits, on what we can do and what we cannot do safely. Not up to regulators to draft up such silly laws.

If tomorrow, TP finds that listening to radio, talking and thinking is distraction from driving, then will they ban all forms of entertainment and communication while on the road ? After all, I have seen people chatting with their passengers, gesturing wildly and the car swerves left and right.

One day, if they deem we're so incapable of concentration, will they ban radio, talking and manual gears ? We might just drive like souless robots so as to be saved from ourselves. I guess dozing off from boredom is alright as we can do this with both hands firmly on the steering wheel.

And with great emphasis on "2-hands on the steering wheel", no wonder our Singaporean drivers are a "courteous" lot. I also should not "wave to say thanks" , as promoted by the road courtesy campaign, as that will mean I need to take one hand off the steering wheel.

How about other more dangerous forms of driving : no-signalling, dangerously changing lanes, road-hogging. Reckless driving and Speeding are not equal. I do not understand their current crusade against speeding and not other forms of dangerous driving too.

Well, I am no expert, so let the statistics speak for themselves.

My Childhood - Part 5

Secondary School was exciting for me. Multiple twists in my life. Secondary 1 was when I gave myself an English name. Derived from the storybook series The Famous Five. The owner of the dog. Because I liked dogs then.

Due to the fact that my name is not registered legally and officially, teachers and classmates are not used to calling my new-found name. I had a way out. I would ignore anyone who do not call me by my new name, after I have reminded him/her a few times. Teacher or not, I do it regardless. In a few months, my new name stuck.. Hee hee.

Same trick I used in Army. I even sign on most official document with my unofficial name.

Sec. 1 was also when I got my first computer. A Creative PC. The first, Singaporean, bilingual PC. My father bought it after talking to Sim Wong Hoo while he was still working in his shop in Funan Centre. Before the big fire and renovation.

I also remembered I was so engrossed in it that I started to read technical manuals and BASIC programming references in school. We had this "Reading Session", where all students were supposed to read books that are not prescribed textbooks. The school wants us to be widely read, and have better general knowledge.

Of course, most students will be reading storybooks. I am the only one reading a computer technical reference book. One teacher told me that I am not allowed to read these books - that I am only allowed to read non-fiction. My rebuttal then was (of course in a shy student manner) that these computer books are out of the cirriculum, as we do not have computer courses.

Sec. 2 was when I got to know my first "crush". And I got crushed by her. She sits in front of me in class. She is demure, slim and has a pretty face. She has another suitor - the handsome guy sitting 2 rows behind me. Of course, I was a fair, short skinny boy then and felt inferior to him.

One Friday, I wrote a love letter to her. In the letter, I told her that I admmired her. And if she is not interested, she should tear this letter in front of me the next time we meet. I secretly put into her bag just before the end of the day.

However, over the weekend, I couldn't take my mind off this matter. Thus, without waiting for Monday, I called her on Sunday. She told me that she felt flattered, but we are at the age that we should concentrate on school work and not about relationship.

I felt crushed.

Months later, when I am shifting house from Holland to Bt Panjang, I heard a familiar voice at the carpark. It was her, and she was holding the arms of a tall, dark and handsome guy. Both of them laughing and walking towards the swimming pool.

I was crushed again.

Am I Selfish ? Part 2

Maybe some perspective is in order.

The "Mother" used in the example, has an incurable disease. Not too sure when she will die.

So, is it due to this that the mother wants her son to be a doctor ? Or was it even before this illness ?

If it is the former, is it a "selfish" thing for the mother to do ? To induce guilt to the son so that he can be a doctor ?

If so, does she expect the son to cure her of her current incurable disease ?

Is the son infilial in not being a doctor and try to cure his mother ?

What can the son accomplish, as a fresh MD, that thousands of other researchers around the world have little progress ?

Is this son the "Thomas Edison" or "Einstein" of the medical field ?