Phew

What a year's end. Am so tired. Never been tired being on holidays. Went overseas more than twice, technically speaking but it was worth it. The drive to Penang was an eye opener and my wife did a significant amount of driving on the way back to Port Dickson. Anyways, the photos here are pics from my trip to Ubin. Went to Ubin with my ex colleagues from Holy and it was a swell time. We wanted to take the taxi to Chek Jawa but ended just sitting at some coffee shop near the jetty. So last Sunday, we decided to go to the zoo. We've packed and I even made egg sandwiches. But the queue was so long. The queue to get tickets into the zoo stretched from the ticketing booths all the way to the bus stop and beyond. So, we decided to go to Ubin again. It was me, wife, Adam, Yan, Wan and Joy. I have to admit, the drive to Changi Village from the zoo was quite a distance, but I've driven to Penang...
So we took a bum boat ride to Ubin, cost us $2.50 each, one way and once we reached there we took a taxi to Chek Jawa. Never been there and so happened did all of us. We did enjoyed ourselves though. It was a tiring walk along the boardwalks and it was not the lowest of tides. But we did managed to catch glimpses of Fiddler Crabs, mud skippers, monitor lizards and believe or not, the nipah fruit. Thats where attap chee comes from. We spent some three hours in Ubin after which we took the boat ride back to mainland. We were lucky as it started to rain heavily on the ride back. If we were still at Chek Jawa, I guess we would be drenched. Bought dinner at Rasa 21 in Tampines and brought it back to Woodlands.
Oh, visitor center is a real house nicely restored. Its beautiful. The jetty used to be a private jetty that the owners used to access the house. I strongly recommend that one check out the tide times before going though. More pictures in the album.

Penang

Just came back from Penang some two days ago. Still very tired. Drove there and back.
Its like
Sing-PD-Penang-PD-Malacca-Sing.
10 days altogether, felt like ages. Great to be back.

Must

I must be sick today. Its 2.35 pm and I've not bathed. I've not changed my clothes and I'd would readil fall asleep if given the chance. Glad the bed is in the other room. Been sleeping the whole morning. Well not exactly the whole morning, most of the morning.
Woke up at 6.45am and prepared sausages, toast and half bolied eggs. Wife and Adam were still asleep. While wating for them to wake I fell asleep on the sofa. Adam woke me up for breakfast but I'd ended up in my room only to wake up at 2.00pm. By that time, Su had already prepared lunch. So I had lunch, fried rice and sushi. Adam made sushi. They were nice.
Now I'm hanging out the laundry but Su decided to do the dishes and the lack of space prevented me form finishing. So, here I am, waiting for Su to leave the kitchen.
I'd really must be sick. I'm so tired. Must be the rain during the bbq with the cvps people. I wonder if any of my friends and their kids are affected.
It was a wonderful bbq though...

Ubin

Went to Ubin today. A friend's idea of a simple get together almost got ruined as there was no food!
Took the boat from Changi Jetty and it costs us $2.50 one way. Reached there and the restaurant selling halal food was closed. So we had to wait for another friend to bring us food from Changi. Ended up eating nasi ayam penyet while the non-muslims ate at one stop ubin restaurant.
Was there from 12 noon till 4.00 pm. Not exactly an active affair as we just sat and talked. I had four coconuts though. A very nice environment, where kids actually still ran barefooted.
The weather was quite warm and we ended up another hour in Changi Village drinking pineapple drink. Next meeting will be a seafood dinner in JB!

Camp

Went camping at East Coast of Friday. It's Sunday now and I'm still recuperating from my back ache. Anyway, Adam and Wawa loves it and I lurve it when its time to go back!

I seem to have problems posting pics into my albums so I guess I'll just post them in my blog.

Adam's Kids Fiesta

Was looking at the pictures I took during Adam's graduation concert. Was really happy for him. He really is a nice boy. He has lots of friends and he enjoys being in their company. I can also see that they enjoy being with him too.
It was a grand affair. More than 100 tables. It started from 11.30 am to 5.00 pm. It started with a bang and ended with lots of tears, among teachers, parents and pupils alike. I can't blame any of them, it was such an emotional moment. If any of them are reading this, I would like to thank Ustzh Ain, Tch Ain, Tch Azlin and all of the staff in Iman Tampines for they have not just touch Adam's life but ours too.
Its is this moments that we longed to hang on to. These moments that we cherished and wished they would never go away. But reality always prevails. These moments will passed. Adam may have met his friends for the last time that day. It saddens me as I too have lost touch to too many good friends. I remember the heart wrenching moments when I have to let go. I can't express my feeling to anybody then. It was really, a very heartache period.
Anyway, tomorrow is Adam's second day of his holidays. Need to plan activities for him. I wonder what will be new and exciting for him? He has taken an interest in the television and that is one companion that I'm not too proud of. I think I'll have him conduct experiments at home.

Last Concert.

In less than 24 hours, it'll be Adam last concert as a K2 student. After which, we can all look forward in him starting a new chapter in his life, one as a primary school student. How time flies. It was as if it was only yesterday that Adam was in his cot next to our bed. Thinking about how fast he has grown brought tears to my eyes. I wonder if he'll ever sleeps in our bed again, or whether he'll let us hug him again. He is now 6 going on 7. He is a head shorter than one of his kindergarten teacher. That too brought out the tears as I'd remembered the days when he went to school still wearing his diapers.
Tonight, as I lay next to my wife, I noticed her white hairs. I'd begun to notice that we have changed. Adam has changed too. I hope he'd change for the better and I wish the best for him is yet to come. He is only 6, yet he is so mature for his age. I am so lucky and blessed by Allah for this son of mine to come into my life.
Today was Adam's orientation day at Greendale Primary. As usual, I'd expected and received a boring talk by the principal after submitting the necessary documents. Adam is placed in primary 1-1, and he seems to be not the tallest in class. He was led by one of the teachers to his classroom while Su and me has to sit though the talk given by the P on school rules and such.
An hour after which, we then proceeded to pick up Adam from his class. His class is on the second floor right next to a flight of stairs. His was the class nearest to the canteen. and the toilet. He was quite animated when he described what happened in class.
He told us that he visited the toilet, the canteen. When the teacher asked his name, he said his full name which was quite long. He said that even after the teacher made him repeat his name, she still could not find it on the namelist. He was then asked to point out his name on the list, which he did, and noted his register number as well. His register number is 16 out of a class of 30.
We then looked for the school uniform queue which we found to be very long. As we had pre-order his books to be collected this Friday, we decided to buy the uniforms then as well. We had his food for recess to be catered, but that arrangement is for the first two weeks. After which he can choose to buy his own food for recess.
I'd found out that he needs to be school by 7.40am in the morning and he will be dismissed by 1.30pm except on Thurday when it'll be a PLAY day. On Thursday, he will be dismissed at 3.30pm.
All in all, I'm excited that I'm here to begin this new chapter with him. But sadness has yet to lift its finger on me as I recollect the days when he was in the cot sleeping next to me, in my room and that I'll not have those days again.

FC...

≈
This pic showed that on 24th October 2008, I'd travel 341.1km slightly above three quarters. At this time, no additives has been added to the car.The second picture shows that I'd reached 299.8 with the needle quite far off from the three quarter mark. This is the first time I added a fuel additive bought from an Esso outlet in JB.

The third picture showed that I'd travel 391km just as the needle past three quarter mark.
The fourth picture is after I'd added a fuel additive bought from an Esso outlet in Upp Changi Road North.

The last picture showed what I'd got at nearly the half way mark. I put this up for my own records but you may derive your own conclusion if the fuel additives do work or not. And by the way, I'm driving a trajet 2.0l cvvt. The last picture was taken in Esso JB where I refuel with about 46l. That works out to be 10.91km/l. Not much, I know but much better than some Jet who could get 300-400km in one full tank.

Better.

Leg felt better today and was all fired up to go somewhere after being in bed the whole of yesterday. So off we went to Changi, hoping to catch some shots while we were there. Not a good time to take good pictures anyways, the sky was gloomy and the pain was coming on again. So, together with my Adam's 5d and the 20mm 2.8, I tried.
Reached there around 10.30 am and we had the usual, nasi lemak, for breakfast. While we were enjoying our breakfast, the lunch crowd started to build up. The very well know nasi lemak stall at the corner started to snaking queues. I'd prefer the other nasi lemak stall though. So me and my wife had nasi lemak, adam had 4 epok-epok. Together with ice-milo, ice milo dinosaur and a cup of hot teh, we were all set.
We then went for a walk towards the bum boat jetty. I observed several key changes such as the jetty and some parts of the beaches. Adam refused to take the boat to Pulau Ubin so we ended up walking up to the topside of the jetty. Wished we had went in the boardwalk trails. Should have been fun.

Off we went to my in-laws place and from there, we caught High School Musical 3. Honestly, I'd give it a ten for its entertainment value. May be kiddish, but its entertaining. And the plot, well, the plot is real. The move made me flashed back to the period when I was sitting for my A levels. I sure missed my friends. The things that we did together, such as cycling around the island, disturbing the girls and of course, the presentations during GP lessons. They were killers, but I grew fond of them. High School Musical 3. Cool website too.

film

http://photo.net/columns/joshroot/filmtown/

The url above is a new column on using film. As for me, I too missed using it. Maybe for the wrong reasons. Its not that film gives a better picture, its not that film is cheaper, far from it, but film provide less convenience than digital... What??!! I'm complaining that digital is too good... Yeah, its just too good. You could buy almost any P n S and start shooting. Most probably often enough, there will be shots that are acceptable for you and to you. And if there aren't manhy photo editing software are available for you to do some "modification". Digital just takes some of the fun away from taking pictures...
Consider the steps missing when you chose digital.
1. You have to consider which brand, type, iso rating for film...
2. Where to process ur films...
3. The magical or dissappointing moment when you opened that paper mailer with your pictures in it.
4. The fact that if you could not hack it is the results of your skills and not because you do not know how to use your computer.
5. And the fact beatiful sound of film rewinding and advancing in your camera.Sigh...
6. And what about exposure...You really need to know about exposure. With so many auto levels on Photoshop and the likes, who cares? But I for one, you need to care... Because no amt of PS skills could bring a darkened pic back to life...

Exposure, its so important that digital seemed to have staple the sheets of that chapter altogether. I mean, my son could take beautiful pictures as he is able to preview the shots and then make adjustments, but does he know the concepts of f-stops and shutter speeds, the constraints of them...He is 6 years old. He is no genius.

Will continue.

Leg pain

Its 9.05 pm now. About 4-5 hours since my last post. My right leg is still in pain but is numbed somewhat. I still could not walk normally, and I'm having a pretty bad limp. Don't know if I could make it to the toilet. I really should have stayed away from those rempeyek...

Leg pain

Am feeling sharp pain in my right leg now. It came very fast. I think I felt the first sensation of pain about ten minutes before I could not even rest my foot on the floor. No swelling though. Had to limp to the study room to post this entry. Took two 50mg of declofenac and two tabs of colchichine. From experience, it'll take some 2-3 hours before the pain medication takes effect. I can feel some vibration in my leg now. Pain seems to be moving all around in it. Had to ask dad to fetch adam. This is my first attack in more than six months. The longest it has ever been. There was a time when I had attacks every other day. But those atttacks are manageable. I limped to school then.

Oh well, I'm sweating now and I can feel my hearbeat beating very fast. Must be due to the pain.
Will update soon.

General Will

General Will as define by Rousseau is the will of the state and is the product of reason. As such, if an individual who is logical were to come down to reason, he would allow himself to follow the general will as that would be the best decision as decided by the majority. Thus if an individual were NOT to follow the general will, he is thus considered not free. The state has the right to make him be free in forcing him to follow the general will.
For example, during a vote to find the general will of the state as to whether to have a nuclear power station, the vote favours the presence of the nuclear station. This thus becomes the general will. As the general will is a result of logical thinking and reasoning, this is thus taken as the best options a state should take.
If an individual is against the presence of the nuclear station, then his thought run against the "most correct thought". As such, that individual would be wanting something that is against the general will. Acting against the general will is considered as doing something which is wrong, which the individual should not want. Thus that individual is enslaved to his particular will, and as he is enslaved, thus he is not free. The state then has the right to promote freedom by ensuring that that individual is not enslaved and should follow the general will of the people and should allow the presence of the nuclear power station. The state should be allowed to used force as necessary to force the individual to be free. This idea of forcing individuals to be free has lead to totalitarian rules in several cases.
Rousseau.
If a vote has been taken, can we consider Rousseau idea of the general will to be equal to democracy?
Democracy, two similar but with fundamental differences.
Simple democracy, where ever opinions from every individual counts in making decisions. Quite similar to have a family discussions on where to go for family vacations. It is here that democracy differs with Rousseau. Rousseau believes that there should be one options and that options is one that has been voted on by people using logical reasoning. Rousseau does not believe in considering the opinions of many others and that will include their particular wills. For example, the general will of the family are to go and visit Penang, but the son is of an opinion to stay a day at KL. The family hears his opinion and takes that into account. As such they'll be a day or two late to reach Penang. If every member of the family opinions were to be taken into account, the family may not even reach Penang especially when there are many members in the group.
Another drawback of simple democracy would be the fact that EVERY member has to be consulted on EVERY matter that pertains to the state of which that individual in a part of. Would that be a very efficient arrangements. If every Singaporeans opinions were to be noted for every matter, for example, the position of ERP gantries, the type of HDB houses to build, it may be too troublesome. As a result if asking and noting down opinions becomes too complicated, governments may just NOT asked for opinions.
Next we come to representative democracy. In this environment, people elect representatives to enact and enforce laws on behalf of themselves. Would this be considered an environment where the state should be run that the people govern themselves, How does the people govenr themselves when decisions are made for them and not BY them. Decisions are made by the representatives they elected. And thus Rousseau contents that the right to govern themselves are only apparent on the day the vote for their representatives. Here, the people do not vote for laws to be enacted or passed or to be made redundant but to vote for people to be elected into government who then makes decision for them.

Skin

My mom radiotherapy sessions has ended. Besides the fact that she now coughs, unable to eat chicken rice yet, she is in high spirits. Doctors said she is recovering very well. And she still wants to go to JB, I guess things are looking up for her. She has lost some 12 kg since the treatment started but she sure likes the fact that she is smaller than me. That's my mom...

So bad

Been a bad 24 hrs for me. Firstly, I scored only a 51 for my TMAs, that got me really upset. But the one that really got me was the fact that my Melayu is so bad, I can't even complete a K2 assignement for Adam. Sigh...

So for today, I've sent Su to school at 7,00am. After which I bathed and read the newspaper till 9am. Had breakfast with Adam. And now I'm coaching him in his Malay revision. But not after I went to Jalan Kayu to buy eggs. $5 for 30 eggs. Not bad, quite big.
Not being a good tutor though, Adam just said he is hungry. Sigh...
I think we are having nasi lemak today.

Swelling

Body has started swelling again and I don't mean I'm getting fat. The meats and the proteins during the Hari Raya feasting must have crystallised themselves again. Sigh. Now it hurts at my left hips, the sole of my left feet. Went to JB today. Brought mum along. She said that her radio sessions are almost done. I hope the cancer gone. She is such a fighter. I mean, she can't eat, she can't pissed and yet she walks faster than me to take a look at the buffet line. We went to Jalan Padi Emas today to service dad's car. It's near, in fact, next to angsana shopping center in JB. While waiting for the car to be serviced, we had lunch at Osman's restaurant. Wished I had taken some pics. I had mee goreng (very nice), and my mom had beef murtabak (which she took only a bite of) and a bowl of chicken soup. She then pack some rice and dishes for dad. Cost us RM21 for a meal for four. It took about 45 minutes for the car to be serviced. I had the engine oil, the oil filter, the spark plugs and one of the tyres air valve replaced. Cost RM35. Of course, I brought my own oil filter, engine oil, and spark plugs. I usually buy my oil here. But this time, dad chose Mobil 1 5w-30. I'd personally would choose a 0w-20 oil but then. He got it for $13.50 per quart so that means about $54. I'd go for amsoil. Then we went to angsana and it was here that I regret not bringing my cam. The salesgirl at the kuih bahulu outlet has this pair of huge, er slippers (yeah slippers). And she wore the er slippers covers so tight... Oh well. As for me, I bought for Su a tub of bahulu, 10 tabs of declofenac (painkillers), 50 tabs of colchicine (gout medicine) and refresh eyedrops for Su. Smooth driving to the immigration, as usual. Only we were stuck at Singapore customs. As usual. Reached home 2.20 pm. Just enough time for dad to take over the car to send mom for another radiotherapy sessions. As for me, I went up to my parents place and played Total annihilation...again.

SOTA music faculty christmas concert.

Just came back from a concert in SOTA (school of the arts). Its the music faculty christmas concert. One of the piece that they played was the same one in one of Mr Bean's episode. Anyway, the head of the faculty is Dr Joyce Koh. Google her name to find out more.

Love the event. The concert was special for me because of the seating arrangements. Fellow pupils and members of the audience was encouraged to bring their own cushion and sat on the floor. This allow the audience to be real close to the musicians. The musicians, students of the school and some from Singapore Youth Orch, played instruments not native to them. For example, the double bass players are specialising in Chinese musical instruments and the pianist were made to be percussionists. I thought it was cool.

The Principal instead of being seated together with the VIPs sat on a plastic chair together with the audience. Come to think about this, there was no special seating arrangements. Either you sat on the floor, or the plastic chairs or you stood. No class distinction there! The VP because of the lack of space, stood for that hour of performance.

It may not be much, but it symbolised how credit is given where credit is due, at least to me. The credit should be given to the musicians, and those involved in the making of the concert.

The second half saw me within half a meter away from the performace. The music, the noise from those instruments as the notes gel together in harmony seeped into me with an explosive sensation. It was living in a higher plane. I'm so glad I'm given this opportunity to experience this.

Walk-walk

Had a hari raya walk-walk yesterday. It practically blew my mind. Laughed so hard, had problems going to that night. Started at 12nn and I reached home around 10pm. 8 houses. It was really fun. We were really ourselves that day and even the kids chum along nicely. Hope we would do it again.
The day before, had my neighbours in for Hari Raya lunch. That was great too. But not all came, only 4 families. In the evening, had a sort of mini reunion with my nie buds. Have not seen all of them for over 12 years. Met on facebook and I volunteered my place for the meet up. We had roti jala, rendang pinang, tahu telur and a friend brought beef stiks, another bought pizzas and another brought snacks for the kids. Started at 7pm and they left my place around 10-11pm.
Hari Raya sure was a late bloomer for me this year. Was kind of depressed in the beginning and ending as this year, HR was during the exam period. But what an ending. And the food, oh man, the food. I had subsuka, tulang, samosas, gado-gado, lontong goreng, fried kway teow, and not to forget the kuihs and the nuts...oh....the gajus...kacang jawa...oh...
Now I'm just wating for my ankle to swell again.
Met new additions, like dahlila, and the other kids... and oh well, it was such a swell ending, And to top it off, its my exam today, and I am going to die!!!!

Woman murdered.

From the sunday times today.
Malaysian woman murdered in Little India. Seriously in Singapore? People would not believe it but yeah, it happened and many other ghastly JB-like crimes are being committed here. We, the so arrogant lot, who thinks that our northern neighbours are more barbarian than us would best reset our minds. With in the influx of foreign workers, whatever the colour of their languages, its best to have a more open mind that crap happenes, where it may be.
Could not find the link online. Will scan the article later.

19%

I've only got 19% of batt juice left in my laptop, so I do not know how long I got. Woke up at 8 in the morning today. Adam and Su already changed into their swimming attire. I then remembered that it was moi big mouth to suggest swimming on Saturday morning. In the end managed to coax them to go Pasir Ris park and cycle. So there we were having breakfast when my neighbour S and her son L came down and asked whether Adam would like to play some basketball. I suggested Pasir Ris park instead.
So off we went, to Pasir Ris park car park C. 3 adults, 2 kids and 2 bicycles.
There is a stable there and Adam and L fed the ponies. After that we made our way to the playground. Of course, its now we, its them, I had to double back and get the car and then drive the car to car park E. Adam cried foul saying that it's not fair I can use the car while he had to pedal: "Not FAIR!" Reached back home around 11 am and got Adam for whizz club class at 12.00nn.
Risa did a good job in managing the kitchen today as we had some important guest coming in at 2.30pm. They actually came at 4.00pm though but the food was ready. She is now cutting up chicken to prepare for tomorrow. Several groups of important guests coming.
It's 9% now.
See you guys again.
Picture is crappy as it was taken by my mobile phone.