the after new year...

new year's day came and went by very quickly indeed. just realised that this is my first post of the year 2008 hahaha and this year is a day longer... olympics will be held in beijing, and i'll ORD! but it's also the year i'll start school and turn 21... oh well...

for the first time in my entire life, on new year's eve i went to the city area to watch tie fireworks. the past 19 years of my life i've been at home, watching the fireworks on tv on and off, and basically spending the new year by myself. last year i couldn't go simply because my parents wouldn't let me go, but this year they actually let me go! really felt very happy, and made wendy's longtime wish come true too, so that just made me doubly happy =)

the next night i booked in for 2008. planned my off and leave, signed about 3/4 of my clearance form, and i'm sadly also beginning to find out that my company won't be letting go of me so easily. somehow they're dragging us "lao jiaos" into alot more shit. alot more shit than we did at the same time last year. the only thing i can deduce is that the new specs don't have much control over the guys yet, so they just wanna use us to the very end. those evil buggers... well at least i had off last friday, and one more next monday. but after that i'll be in camp for a while more. might even have to spend next saturday at the range! if that's true, it'll really be a FUBAR situation. if you wanna know what FUBAR is please enquire personally. by the end of the month, all my 4 wisdom teeth would've been removed, which basically just allows me to stay out of camp more hahaha but since the SAF is paying for it, might as well get it done right... a thousand bucks per tooth. making up for how underpaid we are hahaha

tonight was movie night! spent the latter half of the afternoon and the night watching movies at josh's house. watched 3 pretty recent movies, and played some xbox hahaha but his mum is really damn nice. and super observant too. guess she would have to be since she's got so many kids running around all the time hahaha but it's a small and cosy home. kind squashy at times i guess, but they've all adjusted to it =)

and for many who will be reading this... manibu d/o kokoroboo is quite a cool name! hahaha ;)

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

different christmas...

i still remember, that 365 days ago at this very hour, i was sleeping in my company office, because i was on COS duty. well my time there is almost up, and i'm spending christmas at home again =)

so merry christmas to all... it's ang bao time!!! =)

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

you don't always get what you deserve...

really don't know what's wrong with me sometimes man. it's such an easy and obvious thing to do, but somehow it just doesn't come to my head. something so small and simple can make her happy, make her feel comfortable and go to sleep with a smile and yet i don't do it. don't know if i'm just stupid... or somehow i've become complacent. probably a mixture of both. i mean who on earth makes someone they love unhappy even though they know that they can make things so different right?

if i lose her one day i'd be the only one to blame for it...

on another note... thanks for the dinner shaun. nice to meet up with the guys again.

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

an impromptu day...

supposed to meet maddy today, albeit on a standby basis hahaha so around 4 i left my house to bugis. walked around, bought old chang kee, didn't receive any msg or call from her so i went back to raffles city. just as well joshua works there now, so he was free for dinner hahaha walked to suntec, did a little shopping, which amounted to alot of money spent, but it still was a little shopping =p then had a cheap dinner. at least josh got his first pay check already... or rather pay "cash" hahaha

tomorrow should be another impromptu day...

oh yeah and i've got a laptop to use now! WOOHOO!!!

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

timbre...

so it turns out that timbre is really pronounced as "tam-ber"... and not "timber". trust the guy who's been dealing with music for like 80% of his life hahaha salute to vig, our class' saf regular hahaha so anyway... in case you didn't know, timbre is in reference to the characteristic quality of sound, thanks to www.dictionary.com heehee

met up with josh, many, clar and vig last night to go timbre to watch koon and his band perform. for 2 weeks of practice it was really a good effort put in. but the drums was just too loud overall lah hahaha but it didn't seem so bad during the last band's performance, probably cos the boys on stage were really freaking good, and the lead was very charismatic and loose up on stage. seemed so natural for him. wonder how many hours he spends jamming at home hahaha

speaking of jams, on to another topic. the hot debate between public transport and car right now is really something i'm interested in. mainly because i'm going to study somewhere next year that's an hour plus away by public transport, but maybe 20 to 30 mins away by car.

the main problem i think is that the government is increasing the price of owning and driving a car, and public transport at the same time. erp gantries popping up everywhere, even charging 5 bucks at the gantry from the pie to cte. taxi prices recently went up, increasing the price when most people need them. so either way, we still pay more!

let's just talk about owning a car now. first of all, the price of buying a car in singapore isn't cheap, with COE making up a third of the car price, or sometimes even more. next the cost of maintaining it. petrol prices of increased about 40 cents/litre over the past 5 years, judging on just the 5000 petrol pump prices. and you can't forget of course, the increasing gst as well, which just adds to the price increase. yesterday when i filled up my mum's car's tank, i paid a gst of about 3.50, and in the next line, they so boldy wrote discount: $4.20. so eventually, the discount offered to their members covers just the gst! not much help there. parking your car where you live isn't getting any easier either. we all know that land is scarce in singapore, but i'm grateful that so far they haven't increasing public parking costs.

but what's the good thing about cars? when you need to go somewhere, you can just go! assuming you have enough money to maintain the car lah. rain or shine the car will be there for you to use. much unlike taxis. sure rain or shine they'll be there for you, but after how long?

now there are 7 cab companies out there, the last time i counted. but somehow, whenever it rains, or during the evening rush hour, there will always be a shortage of cabs. i believe that during those 2 mentioned time periods, most cab drivers in singapore will be out and about, because that's when they can make money for sure, but what actually makes the "shortage" of cabs worse, is the traffic jams. which is why they're having this debate in the first place!

and why i think there even is this debate in the first place, is because the government is pushing up bus and train prices as well! and the reason they give is because of increasing fuel prices. come on, the whole world is dealing with increasing oil prices, so how about subsidising the price of fuel for buses and trains? i know that's what the taxi company comfort is doing for their taxis! the government is always pushing for singaporeans to use more public transport, to decrease the number of vehicles on the road. but how would increasing the cost of taking public transport help? you push up the price, for whatever reason, fine i can give that to you, but then you don't increase the level of service, you don't increase the frequency of buses and trains when singaporeans need them the most, how on earth do you expect us to keep using it? i think the main problem is that many, if not most, of the ministers nowadays all drive. they don't experience rush hour traffic in an mrt station, or after a whole day of shopping, trying to get on to a crammed train home. sure the younger ones might have, but the older ones who can make the most change is actually so used to having their behinds chaffeured around in nice cars, which they can easily buy given how much bloody money they're earning now, to know the problem that MOST singaporeans are facing.

i say let them taste it! let them taste rush our traffic down underground, and do it without all the press hoohah, without people clearing the way for you and having one whole train compartment to yourself, because honestly that would only piss off even more people, especially if you do it right in the middle of the train. and don't send "surveyors" as you call them to do the research for you. because they will send you results, they will send you their suggestions, but all you end up doing is reading it, then coming out in the papers saying that you "understand the plight of commuters", and not doing anything to help it. you're paid to make change, so make a GOOD CHANGE!

but one thing that never has been a strong culture here is car pooling. it would definitely help with reducing traffic! imagine if every car out there had at least 3 people. instead of just 1 or 2... how many fewer cars there would be out there! and you all share the petrol and maintanence cost, depending on what kind of arrangement you make. but then i guess, you have to be really fortunate to have people who live really near you, and who go to the same area as you in the morning for work. that's something that isn't promoted enough in singapore. it's just suggested, but not really pushed for. but i say it'd definitely help the traffic condition.

all i can say is, that if they keep increasing prices slowly but surely, the number of cars on the street won't go down until the next big recession hits singapore. and when that does, the people who make the most money will be those who scrap cars for a living...

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way