I am Back!!

Firstly, thank you so much you pals for all your birthday wishes. I stole private time to walk around in Taipei a little with my best friend, BeeYean. Trip was great.. eat a lot of local snacks, and tried out the yummy chinchow dessert at "Dong Qu Fen Yuan" once more. Also checked out the 24-hour pay lounge "My Fun", where we used the internet, drink tea and slouched in sofas reading comics.
Taipei city may not be as immaculately pruned and kept tidy like ours, but the people are definitely more disciplined and genuinely more friendly, and social conscious.
Before last week, we drove up to Genting Highlands for Ying Hong's talent competition.
She had a lot of fun, and lived her dream once of singing on a proper stage.
Her principal brought some sparkling eye shadow and mascara to touch up for her, she was sooooo excited. Here's some pictures to share...
Then today we went to the Barbie Movie (The Island Princess) premiere at Picture House, which was followed by a meet & greet session with the main character "Princess Rosella". Again, thanks to Bee Yean for reserving tickets for us.
That's all for now.. it's back to work again tomorrow...... s..i..a..n......

We celebrate life by eating..... more on weekends!

A socially busy week... met my "sister" Bee Yean after work on friday for dinner; had lunch on Saturday at "Nihon Mura" at Tampines swimming complex for the very reasonable $0.99 per plate sushis with family, a potluck dinner at our Condo function room with neighbours, then joined the "crazy" gang at Pepporoni Pizza and Chocolate Factory to celebrate Jasmine's birthday... Sunday was more sane, with Joyce & family coming over for a quick cup cake baking session. Forgotten to take some pictures of the girls playing together as I was busy in the kitchen the whole time...

One thing I read in the Saturday's paper shocked me though.. about a chap who went to the Primary dispute Resolution Centre (PDRC) in 2004 for his motorcycle accident case. Poor guy got awarded for $188 as the district Judge ruled in his favour and costs the plaintiff (woman) $1200 in terms of legal cost. HER appeal case in High court won (that PDRC was not a court and the order was invalid) and poor chap was ordered to pay $63000 for appeal costs, which was subsequently brought down to $45000, but his previous lawyer also claiming a separate $80000 legal fees against him???? Think most people who read this would be like..."what the ?????"
Firstly the fact that the Subordinate Courts issuing a directive that all settlements reached through the former PDRC (now e@dr Centre) would require an endorsement by the courts to give them the weight of legal judgements...indicates there was imperfection of PDRC? Funny right? We allow a judge to make judgement there but high court agreed the order was not valid, and because of this the guy who won the first case have to bear the cost of appeal???? dont quite make sense (common sense, not legal sense).
If someone chooses to appeal, it can only be to his/her benefit.. cos he/she is buying a second chance , so why don't he/she just pay for this second chance?????
The other person didn't AGREE to have a second judgement leh.. So shouldn't the person appealing be committed to pay the cost? Else, then anybody will suka suka appeal right.. nothing to lose mah (except for the case where you lose and the judge mete out a heavier sentence, meant to discourage frivilious appeals).
Well.. just thinking aloud here.. better not complain too much in case someone come after me and sue me...

Lastly, a line from "High School Musical 2" -- Once upon a lifetime .. means no second chance...
Think thrice before we act.. every thing we do has consequences... some mistakes we can afford to make, some... rather not or else you will spend your whole life regretting or paying for it..
Same goes for things you NEED to do.. like telling your loved ones you love them, before they are gone... remind yourself to be kind to your parents no matter how irritating they may seem, cos a parent's love is the only true form of unconditional love and its ever-lasting (whether you like it or not, be grateful..)!
This last paragraph is hasty.. cos feeling sleep now, need to go. Adious!

The Dirty side of Charity?

While it's good to contribute to charitable causes in terms of donations or social good deeds, I find some events are going too far to promote themselves. In the name of creating awareness or education, they implement creative marketing strategies to win more attendance at their events. Many of these do not yield effective results to the actual cause, instead they generate other damages. Sounds familiar? Sounds like the previous NKF saga, and also the recent Korean Missionary group that was kidnapped in Afghanistan?
Close to home in Singapore, we are not short of examples. The Yellow Ribbon Walk held yesterday was one that I witnessed with much regrets and ANGER!!!
* The organizers did not cordon off the walking path from the newly paved cycling path, the huge crowd was walking at snail pace, blocking the entire Pasir Ris Drive 3 (both sides of the road!) while they do their 3.5km walk. I could imagine their thoughts : Sorry lor... this is for Charity leh, so all other pavement users please do not come this way ok!!! ??? (errr.. what CHARITY had been done through walking huh?)
* The Organizers gave out mineral water sealed plastic cups (disposable ones of course.. we are a "developed" nation mah) without setting up proper disposal points One of the ushers explained that they reminded people to dispose of cups into dustbins at bus stops...(err.. thank you for being so THOUGHTFUL hor.. those few miserable dustbins at those few bus stops can hold SOOOOOOO many cups meh? Your organizers don't know how to do simple CALCULATIONS hor? ) We therefore had the OPPORTUNITY to see piles of plastic cups thrown along the entire drive 3!!! Horrendous heaps of rubbish in our beautiful town.. what a sight to greet the residents on a Sunday morning! What happens to all those talk about being environmental friendly? We have campaigns to EDUCATE/ENCOURAGE people to use fewer plastic shopping bags, but don't care about using KILOS of plastic cups which eventually get blown into the canal that's along the path and get sweep into our sea? Wow liao.. really TEKONG man..
* The worst thing is, the majority of those participants are students from various schools..soooo ORGANIZED... which makes me wonder.. if these obviously EDUCATED people still throw plastic cups anywhere they like when they have been taught since kindergarten it's wrong to do so, why bother to ENTICE them to the ending point of the walk --- "Prison Link Centre Changi" to view an EDUCATIONAL exhibition??????Too difficult lah.. they sure cannot UNDERSTAND!
Plus I am sure a bulk of the participants have no idea/interest whatsoever about this Project. They joined the walk because of the FREE yellow caps given at registration, plus the chance to win LUCKY DRAW, plus GOODIE BAGS at the ending point lor... (how many people agree with me on this???)
* Wanna do REAL charity? My suggestions -> Spend those budget, sponsor's money on the actual cause (do whatever you need to do).... don't always look to create publicity (education?) and create more mess. Want the public to work out & sweat out? Get them to volunteer to clean up the trash in Pasir Ris beach and East Coast Beach lah! Throw in lucky draws.. .I am sure there will be quite a lot of sign ups.. maybe queue to register somemore! Hey, why not get some celebrity to grace the event lah... lagi more people will show up for FREE!
Ok.. enough of gripes... but one last thing... my husband just drove past Pasir Ris Drive 3 this afternoon and saw half the rubbish (plastic cups.. remembers?) still lying around!!! Congratulations to the Yellow Ribbon Walk organizers..you have created 2 days (or more) worth of trash lor!! SHAME ON YOU!

A weekend of activities!

Wished I could use a different title, but this is still the most apt. Will post a separate one to discuss some more serious issue so its easier for my pals to choose to read either...
For fun, we went for Boon Chong's company outing to visit a Soon Kuey "factory" and Otah "factory" (Lee Wee Brothers). Not really factory, just shop houses in Hougang that handles production, with retail counters. The following visit to "Animal Resort" in Jalan Kayu was more fun. The children had lots of fun running around in the Kampong area, feeding rabbits, guinea pigs, goats, geese, fishes, cranes and pigeons. The buses made a final stop at Jalan Kayu Roti Prata shop for prata before calling it a day.
In the evening, we watched the movie "Ratatouille" and enjoyed it thoroughly!
Sunday was unusual too, cycled all the way to Changi Village in the morning, then we waited for the rain to stop in the afternoon, and went over to William's workshop/office to finish up my long planned project. Wanted to do this painting myself, but end up only painted the base coat of white paint a few months ago, then painted a few final brushes.. William did everything else, and gave me tips on what "accidentals","textures" are all about. Ying Hong also did a small project of her own oil painting... quite fun. Now all that's left is to find time to hang that big painting in our living room...

Fun week!

Took the afternoon off on Wednesday to bring YingHong to Sentosa Palawan beach for the Hi-5 Meet&Greet session. Turned out to be 2-hour of dance along (the Palawan Boogie dance) and animal& bird show before Hi-5 showed up for 10 minutes of interview, and Hi&Bi, quite disappointing, but still managed to take pictures.

Friday night turned out to be great fun! Started out with only Rickson, Michael and myself going on a very casual and loosely-organized "team" outing. But the guys picked a good location -- "Wala" at Holland V (where Michael, the "di tou she" is known by his clubbing nickname "Retro Mike"), and I thoroughly enjoyed the live band music! Such a coooool place to hang out and relax, unpretentious and a welcoming atmosphere, plus.. the food was pretty good! Alicia and Yvonne joined us later, and we had so much fun dancing (very reservedly for the girls, and more stage-show style for the guys)to the music. Left only past 1 am.... What a shame that Urai, Linda, Joe, Jasmine could not join us, I am sure they will like it there.... should really make a trip there again.