So sad...

As I stared at the TODAY news article, I try to grasp the reality of the event. A ex-uni project mate, a woman at such age...and yet had to go through such an ordeal. Would have rushed down to offer my condolence if I had seen the news earlier...but now all I could offer is to pray for her to be strong and move on with life as quick as possible.

Life is short, treasure those around you every minute you are with them.

Treat everyday as a new beginning

Life is short. You will never know what will happen after you close your eyes to sleep...you may never wake up again....

So make sure you do what you plan to achieve today, not tomorrow. At least you will have lesser chance of regret.

人生在世几时载,
起起落落躲不开,
今日事情今日成,
无愧于心至永生.

Christmas is coming...

Finally took the effort to put up my Xmas tree, and placed the deco with help from my little assistant.

Though I don't have a real religion (officially I am a Buddhist), I still think its good to have a Christmas wish...shall wish for continuous health and happiness in the years to come...

Oops, now that I have said it out, would it come true?

Singapore Motorshow 2006

Went to the motorshow at Suntec on Saturday. Miraculously I spent almost 4 hours, took 300 over photos and use up 12 batteries. I left eventually bcos (1) I was hungry (2) I ran out of battery plus (3) duty calls.

Overall was satisfied with the pictures I took. Here's some:

The trademark colour of Ferrari

Some sports rim

Alpha Alfa Romeo's Brera

Lamborghini showcase

The new Mazda SUV

A rejuvenated Toyota CAMRY.
The interior wins Honda Civic and Hyundai Sonata hands down.

Suzuki Swift with wings

Lexus with a sporty look

Mitsuoka

Orange

Okay...what is a motorshow without any babes...so here goes:

Nissan model - Qashqai (I meant the car)

The Nissan babes

Lady next to the Lexus

Subaru model

Sweet gal on a Yamaha motorbike

This babe attracted lots of photograhers

But this is my favorite

Overall it was worth the ten dollar admission fee ;-)

Penguin Books Sale

The Penguin book warehouse sale was on from 17th to 19th at the Expo. I went over after the company's employee appreciation event to check it out....ended up spending 50 over dollars! Hopefully I have time to digest all of them :-P

Hugs

Many many moons ago I wrote about hugs. Recently I read about this topic in one blog.

I think Singaporeans in general are too reserved. Hugging is just not the way of life amongst friends and colleagues. Maybe they do but most likely in the privacy of their home...

Well...I only hug one person nowadays cos he truly appreciate my hug :-)

The only way is up...

Today's ST headline news:

"Tne Goods and Services Tax (GST) will go up from 5 to 7 per cent to pay for more government spending to help the lower income."

Details of the news report is in this blog.

At first it appears nonsensical to me...why are we slicing the flesh off the poor first and then give it back to them later? Why can't we just tax the rich or create a tier based tax? But then again, tier-based consumer tax is probably too complex (heard Malaysia does have that, but I cannot confirm) and to just tax the rich will scare them off perhaps?

What the govt said seems to make some sense though "..in a global climate of highly competitive taxes, Singapore cannot afford to raise direct taxes to meet its spending needs - so indirect taxes must go up".

So no choice but to tax everyone in Singapore who are spending lor ...and then hor through some government programs/initiatives/whatever, try to identify who are the really poor people and give some of the money back to them.....provided some of them don't jump down the MRT track/HDB flat/Kallang River/any-other-kill-yourself-place first.

Incidentally, I read somewhere that there were reports of growing number of millionaires in Singapore...and last saturday's Today newspaper even reported that there is a record number of people buying Lamborgini and Ferrari. Damn, I wish I know a friend who drives a Ferrari....

What is Love?

My friend Kenneth recently wrote in his blog about what is true love? This is a question which I always ponder over many many moons ago, when I was in my school canteen, when I was in the army camp, when I was in the university hostel....but I have since stop thinking.

One thing for sure, parents love for their child and grandchildren is definitely selfless unconditional love. Being a father myself, I have came to that revelation and respect my parents, especially my mother, much more than before. I have learnt to be more tolerant and less demanding, more patient and less critical.

So what is love? Love is to expect less, not more. Love is to give spontaneously, and take less. Love is to share and not possess. Love stands the test of time. Love brings you passion and give you energy to go through difficulty moments.

I read this in the Bible many many years ago which I thought is quite a good description of love as well.

Love is patient, Love is kind,
It does not envy, it does not boast,
It is not proud, It is not rude,
It is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered,
It keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil,
but rejoices with the truth.

Love always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.

Love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

Love Never Fails.

Have you found love?

Beyond East Coast Park

This morning we decided to jog to the indoor stadium from East Coast Park cos the other way was blocked due to the OSIM triathlon. Took us about 40 minutes of leisure jogging (from East Coast Macdonald) to reach the stadium.

It's being a while since I was in that area, especially Cosy Bay in the day. So I snap a few shots of the surrounding with my camera phone.

View of Cosy bay and Pebble Bay condo from the promenade of Indoor Stadium.

Clear view of Gateway and Concourse from Indoor Stadium.

Originally we intended to jog in the evening but changed plan the night before. Fortunately we did that, cos soon after the 3-hr PSI went up to the moderate range. It went beyond 60 in the evening and the sky was hazy again.

As much as I don't like rain as it might spoil my training plan, I rather not see the haze again. So haze, please go away, ok?