GoNE FIsHInG


I brought Isabel to the Pasir Ris Elias Park During the weekend...

As we were walking towards the playground, we saw a place where a large group of people gathered. Curiosity got the better of us and we approached the place. We saw they were standing around 2 small ponds, each person with a small fishing rod, their lines are casted into the ponds, the third pond is smaller with many nets for the gamers to place their catch in to keep the fishes alive.

The fishes in the ponds are surprisingly big, in fact, its bigger than you can get in the market. I guess thats the main lure for the "fishermen"to fish there.

The probability of catching one is rather low too, the pond water is so murky, no one knows how many fishes are in there, there may be as many as 20 "fishermen" at any point of time, but there may only be 3 or 5 fishes in the pond. The onwner knows exactly how many fishes left by tracking how many fishes have been caught.

Every so often the owner will let go the fishes that are in the nets under the square PVC pipes floating on the pond. The moment the net is released, all lines will be casted toward it hoping the fishes will be stupid enough to hook on it. The whole proceduer is so artificial... might as well each person gets a pail of water with a fish in it, if you can hook it, its yours... better yet, just buy it from them, why waste time standing there under the hot sun trying to your luck? In the end you might go home empty handed.

I ever fished once when I was like 15, the only thing I caught was fever and flu. Never tried again.

Every friend that has been with us for more than 3 years will know that we used to own a dog... a beagle... name Ace (For those who don't know what is a beagle, look at Snoopy).

Today marks the 3rd year that he has left us...

I was not the one who raised him from a puppy, my wife did. From the day she brought him home, they were inseparable. She would walk him, feed him, bath him... Ace was one of the dowries that followed my wife into our new home, so I shared the responsibility of feeding bathing and walking him too.

I had never owned a dog before that time, not directly at least... my neighbor owned a stray,
althought it was a female, they named her "Bobby". Don't ask why...

Anyway, back to Ace...

He's like any typical Singaporean, loved Durian... he can smell the aroma of the durian sealed in a tubelware placed in a fridge. There was one occasion where he managed to open the fridge and single handedly took out 7 pieces of durian seeds in the middle of the night, swallowed EVERYTHING... including the seeds. Can you imagine the shock when we found him lying on the floor with a bloated stomach, the fridge was wide opened with its contents ransacked.

The next morning, he threw up 5 seeds, pooped out 1, which means, there is one more in him. For the next few days we observed his bowel movement and his behavior, it was very obvious that he began to have fever, and has no appetite, not even with his favorite fried drumstick swinging before his eyes can we get him to stand up.

He was brought to the vet where he was diagnosed to have something blocking his intestine and an immediate operation is required. We agreed to it, and on the same day they went ahead to cut him up.

After the opt, the doc showed us the durian seed slightly larger than the diameter of fifty cents coin... hardly chewed on. As for him, he's up and running 2 hours after the opt.

You'll think he has learned his lesson, but truth is, it happened to him twice. Once when he was 2 years old, the other time at 6 years old. Both caused by durian.

He's really intelligent, he knows when we are talking about him, he'll look at us from the corner of his eyes, trying to sense what are we going to do to him. Dogs don't lie, their body language shows their emotion... fear, happy, depress, stress, envy...etc just like a person.

I can still remember clearly how he'll sneak up on to our bed in the middle of the night and sleep in between us. I would end up waking up with my arms around his hairy body and open my eyes to see his big brown eye staring back at me.

Every morning I would I ask him: "Ace, got anyhow urine or not?" He'll give one of two answers... either he look at me and wag his tail (meaning he did nothing wrong), or tail between his legs and run to hide. If its the later, I would have to began my "treasure hunt" he is sure to have wee-wee some where... It could be at the TV console, curtain, sofa, fridge or shoe cabinet.

Every evening when we return from home, he'll be jumping around and running about... next is, he'll smell our shoes and pants trying to find out where we've been. He'll even go thru our bags to look for goodies.

We love Ace... We missed him still
Even after 3 years...

Christmas Weekend

Christmas is closer than round the corner, ITS THIS COMING WEEKEND!!!

What does Christmas mean to you?

Shop till you drop for things but not sure they like it? Usually this is the day that will test how much you know the person. When you are shopping, you'll try very hard to recall what was mentioned during any conversation that could give a clue what to buy.

The idea of giving gifts to people came from Saint Nicholas, who a few centuries ago, on Christmas eve night started to leave presents at door steps of the poor peasants, blessing them. They are so grateful that they started to make up stories about him.

Now people have immortalised him to be the ghost of Christmas, sliding down the chimney to deliver gifts. Kids are told to be good in order to receive gifts from him, they believe in the realness of Santa than the real Jesus

Crazy Party? Drug and sex?? When was Christmas an excuse to have mindless party? Pick up girls and try to get lucky? Do you know Christmas and New Year has the highest crime rate? Ranging from petty thefts to gang fights to rape cases, you name it they got it. Every year during this period of time, all policemen are placed on high alerts activating them when and where necessary.

But how many really know Christmas is a time for celebration... celebrating the birth of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ who has died for our sin letting us reconcile with God whom thru Jesus, forgives us of our sin, welcomes us back with open arms.

My church just did a Candle Light Service. It was awesome... 7000 candles all over the darkened hall, candle lights flickering but brightening the beautiful faces holding the candles. For the Christmas Weekend, there'll be special Carnival and Special Services with drama, acting out the birth of Jesus.

If anyone interested to attend the Christmas

Special Service, or bring your children or niece and nephew to the children church... all are welcomed.

This week got extra time to do blogging.

My Boss went Thailand going one hole after another hole with his ball and stick. Ahh... don't get any wrong idea, he's there for golf, enjoying the sun and hospitality of the people there.

I love going there too. I've been there 5 times, now planning for the sixth trip there, each has different experiences and feelings, but its all nice and fun. One thing I'll always remember from there is their famous Drag Queen Show. "Tiffany Show" which usually cost $500 baht person including drinks

The first time I watched their Drag show I was scared... so afraid the tarnsvestite will come and disturb me. I just wanted to watch from the furthest distance possible, best if its from the balcony. I've see the brave men in the first row seats abandoned their wives and girlfriends and ran to the back row for cover 5 minutes after the show starts. The Ah-Kuahs only attack men completely ignoring the women. They grab the men's head and force their faces into their fake boobs, or they try to kiss guys... but its very funny watching from far.

But why is it such a trend for them to be a drag queen there? The concept of stepping out of the closet for an asian society is really unprecedented. Since the beginning of civilization, men are the outward dominating type, the protector of country, the warrior. Whereas women are domestic based feminine, gentle weaker sex. If the guy is determined to be a women, they would have to leave home town in shame never to return again. Driven by poverty... one can do the most drastic for survival.

But in Thailand, drags are so popular that they have beauty pageants for them... turning them into drag "Queen" literally. Movies about them are common too. Also some of them are more beautiful and behave more like a woman then a real woman. I think its because of their passion in being a real woman. Though not female by birth but a woman by choice.

In the army we call these people 302 (three-Oh-two). They serve as clerks, 9-5 working hours. Protected by law, almost untouchable. A simple complain of sexual harassment from them, is enough to 'hen-tah-tah-ki" any regulars for years.

But bottom line is: They are still people. God wants us to love them and help them discover themselves again. I've seen people like them turning from their old ways and turn toward God. Now they are fathers of many children, facing no rejection from anyone or society.

Well... Jesus loves them, we love them too.

Brought Isabel to see a doctor as she was throwing up everytime she drank her milk...

Doctor gave her something for the giddiness and vomiting.

But the label says:

For Giddiness and Vomiting.
May cause drowsiness.

So is it for better or for worse?

I Brought a friend to SGH Pharmacy during lunch time to see a pharmacist to get high on nicotine... No la... the truth is, he's a heavy smoker, 35-40 sticks a day, easily costing him $600-$700 a month. I really want to help him quit for the sake of his children. Imagine saving that amount of money for less than a year the whole family could afford to go Korea for a week.

The pharmacist recommended him Nicotine patch, each box with 7 patches cost $19++, better than him spending $150 a week on cigarettes.

He got a pretty high ego, he keep insisting he'll be able to quit with in a month, but the pharmacist shook her head and warned him on his attitude, Cos he's been smoking everyday for 20 over years, it will take a while.


In order to completely quit it, he'll have to embark on a 8 weeks detox program. Starting with higher dosage of nicotine, reducing gradually until finally rid of it from the body.

She warned him about the withdrawal symptoms, becoming cold turkey. My friend laughed at it... wait till he go thru it.

Well... I'm back form Genting.

Ooo...K... la... not too bad, considering we only get to be indoor all the time. (Its cold and wet outdoor)

Day1 - Getting there is half the fun

Wakingup at 6am, we rushed through the motion of getting dressed and dressing the princess then set off to catch a cab to Lavender where the coach to Genting will be waiting for us.

We coordinated with another family of 3 that once we catch a cab from our side, we'll pick them up at the end of the road. But after flagging down a couple of taxi NON of them willing to take us the moment we told them we have 4 adults and 2 kids. So we have no choice but to take separate cabs.


Fast forward 7 hours later...


The weather there was good... Cold... but sky was clear though. Since most of them are tired from the 7 hours bus ride, we decided to stay indoor for the time being.

The indoor Theme Park has plenty of kiddy rides, Isabel was extremely thrilled to see it. I think she rode the Merry-Go-Round about 200 times








Isabel had the ride of her life when she took up the Junior Bumper car challenge.

First she had no prior knowledge of what a bumper car is, next, she has no idea how to ride one. But since she wanted to try it, so we let her do it.

If only she figured out how to stop the car from spinning round and round on the spot. It would have been fun for her.



A very big improvement with the whole place is the great increase in the number of restaurants and eating places, the good old MacDonald is still there.

But the prices are ridiculously high, like... RM14 (S$6) for Wan Ton Mee... or RM24 (S$9.50) for Bak Gut Teh... its not even a high class restaurant, its just a hawker stall. The floor is littered and sticky, I don't think they ever washed it ever since they opened for business.



The weather was not really good on the second day. It rained most of the time, when its not raining it will be cloudy. you can't see more than 100m before you.







I caught a couple of movies while we were there. First was Zathura, a space version of Jumanji... I would anytime prefer the old one. This new version is so limited in creativity. Confined to a house, with 2 boys Pickering at each other. Not to mention the actors expressions are all wrong.

The second movie is Harry Potter. If I've never read the book, if I've never come to know the characters in details, I would have called it a great movies just like other movie critics giving it a 4 star rating.

But NO... The director has done a lousy job shortening the story, omitting important details that is essential to the development of the story later. The Potion teacher, Professor Snape has only 2 lines in the entire show, making him a Keh Leh Feh back-drop. His relationship and hatred for Harry Potter is also to have a great part in the later development. The Head Master of Hogwart is so uncool, I can over look the fact that they cast a short man for a tall and lean Professor Albus. But him becoming a raving lunatic strangling Harry Potter in a fit of anger that was never in the book, its just all wrong.

Anyway... Back to Genting.

On the third day, we were debating to take the cab or the cable car to the bus terminal. Of course the kids would love to sit in a cable car. But some of them are afraid of height which is understandable. In the end... cable car.

by the time we reached Singapore after another 7 hour bus ride. its 10pm. By the way, I also watched Transporter 2 and Tom Yum Goong on the coach, but that's another blog.