It's bon voyage to Aw in his foray to the land of sushi and superheroes in bug masks~! Gambatte~!
The air-con man cum snowman...
Aw, this is for you to put in your wallet when you are overseas... can use to scare away robbers... or scare away Sadako also can~!
I have a new calender, courtesy of Uncle, Mas and Siwei~!
This is not a flying cockroach, but a rarely seen mole cricket, which spends its life mostly underground, digging through the earth with its unique huge front legs. This particular one decided to spread wings to fly to a better place, until it ended up in my house trying to dig through the floor tiles in vain... until I brought it to the window for it to continue on its way~
Today on the bus ride home from school, there was a special guest on board with us... A mynah was accidentally trapped in the bus with us, and the bus drove off from the interchange, packed with the after-work crowd. The poor bird was so lost, and so distressed, and it flew up and down the length of the bus windows, sometimes flapping into heads and hairs... It was actually quite funny~! This bird managed to light up several smiles after the initial shock it gave to many people... It stopped flying after it realised it was not going to get out by flying about, and it quietly perched beside the bus driver for a good while, before the driver actually saw it there and opened the front door for this special passenger to alight... It wasn't a flying cupid but it did light up this Feb 14 for many fellow passengers...
My pitcher plant (Nepenthes Ampullaria) grew its first pitcher! It's not big, but it's still rather cute and pretty~! Pity my other pitcher plant (Nepenthes × Hookeriana) still hasn't started sprouting pitchers yet... Patience and some more TLC will pay off I'm surely sure~
CNY Fireworks at Esplanade~ Shot a video but forgot to save it D*$@&^! Photos as usual courtesy of Wei~ csiwei.blogspot.com
Yes Wei... the three lonely men hahas~ Nice backdrop nonetheless~ =)
Sneaked out for the last ride of the year, getting some much-deprived workout before the frenzy of reunion dinner... Great luck in having such fine weather to enjoy my first bike ride in the trails in 3 weeks? The trail had dried out just nice for me to enjoy railing the snaking turns and smoking the downhills on my rikety old girl... Until some stray dogs decided to start the Rat year with some excitement by giving me the Tom-&-Jerry treatment, with me being Jerry! The pack of 4-5 black mongrels decided to race me, and led to me discovering that my best riding skills only manifest in times of need... I had the chance to try going through this tricky, rocky, bumpy, off-chamber down-sloping left-turn kink at full-blast, both front and back wheels sliding aka Initial D... And I survived~! Surely the mutts snapping at my legs right beside me surely helped in this stunt... But come to think of it, it was pretty great fun~
This 3-foot long wild monitor lizard was much friendlier than man's best friends gone wild... It let me get within touching distance to kaypoh it, while it nonchalently got on with searching for tidbits among the leaf litter~
Yet another sleepless night... I tried to go to bed early (about 12am~), felt thirsty so had some water, went back onto bed~ felt hungry so I had a snack, and went back to bed~ had some wild thoughts running through my head so woke up and flipped through a book, went back under the blanket~ felt warm so I took off my shirt and switched on the fan, lied back down again sans blanket this time~ Still too warm, so woke up walked around the house aimlessly and repacked my bag again for tomorrow, and decided to switch on my computer, at the glorious time of 2am, a good 2 hours after I went to bed, and out, and in, and out, in, and out...~ Ok, time to try sleeping again, if there is another post right after this, then it's back to square one~
Actually my first time viewing a sunset at Labrador during low tide~
Explored a new short extension to Labrador Park... including this vast beach being slowly swallowed by the incoming waves~
Don't know for sure if he's really thirsty... But surely not everyday you see a big grasshopper at your friendly convenient water cooler on the first day of school~!
Strangely, school's Canteen A kopi is still my favourite kopi... Makes taking time off for kopi breaks worth it~! Same for the milk tea, judging from Qingfa's love for the "big cup milk tea"~!
Went for my Sunday afternoon bike ride. Was contemplating between going to Labrador for the sunset and sounds of waves, and the muddy BT trail - In the end I chose the cool fresh forest air and the challenge of bullfighting the bike in the mud... It rained at the start of the ride, and again towards the end. The trail was a hellish mud festival after all the rains! The sun peeked through the green canopy intermittently, and the forest looked really beautiful, as steam rose from bLuR's sweaty skin in the humid air~
The slipping and sliding through all the slop made for slow riding, but at slower speeds more can be seen~
Just got this picture from Mas... Scary~~
Just got promoted to the rank of "FD Sotong-fish" hahaha~!
Surprise surprise, pleasant surprise! I was looking through my toolbox, for a couple of stuff to put on my Bike No. 2, when I stumbled upon an innocent-looking ZipLoc bag of nuts and bolts... and found a pair of old crank screws from my old bike! And most importantly, they fit pretty nicely into my Bike No. 1's cranks despite being of different brands and different ball bearing systems! Bike 1's back in business!
Damned screw! Of all times, haunting me on the last few days of December vacation, somemore just when the weather is starting to get better! The screw thread of this crank screw wore off after I tried to tighten it smidgen more on a routine post-ride bike health check. Now my cranks are not secured by anything, rendering my bike unriderable. Now I would have to try to source for a replacement screw, although that is near-impossible... Only feasible choice left would be to get a new crankset, which costs money... Damn the "knnbpcb" designer who proposed using such soft aluminum for a highly-torqued screw!
Jingru's concert... She's so pretty lor~! I especially love her in this white dress! And she really got us laughing with her little snippets and jokes! She's at her best singing with a live band, even though I did find the sound systems a little too loud sometimes... it did help shake loose all my ear wax! Photo courtesy of FishDreamSg.
As usual, whenever there's fireworks to see, I'll be there haha! I love fireworks! The wind was against us, literally! Not only the smoke from the fireworks were blown to our side, we were pelted with all the little granules of expired firework gunpowder throughout the show! Dunno if that's the reason why I woke up to the new year with yet another sore left eye~ Photo courtesy of CSWei.
The last sunrise of 2007, it's a pretty one.
Kallang MRT cat, damn shiok~!
Eh... don't kachiao me~! I am shy, and I want to sleep!
Saw blue sky and sunshine in the afternoon for the first time in weeks, I immediately grabbed my bike out to the trails. But in my haste I must have brought boobs instead of my usual marbles, because I discovered that I had no balls when faced with all those muddy, slippery up and downslopes, must be the severe lack of training... Instead I got to notice all the nice little details on the trail. Until the thunder and lightning stole my attention and forced me out of the forest, with me praying that my plastic-and-Styrofoam helmeted head doesn't suit the taste of lightning clouds above, waiting to cook anything that it liked...
I was wondering how the bicycle magazines manage to photograph bicycles standing up on their own, seemingly with some invisible supports... After flipping through Photoshop for Dummies, I present my very own floating bicycle photo~
Does sincerity really exist? What is sincerity? What does it embody? What does it include? Does sincerity equate to honesty? Does sincerity really pay off? Is it worth it? Is sincerity really still relevant in today's society? I don't know man... Just be quiet, like my shadow, and act blur...
I think the Compare People voting thingy in Facebook is rigged, controlled by some unknown dark force lurking in some dark evil place... Man, I'm 1st in singing? I have good hair? That turf of lallang grass on my head? Yeah let's sing in celebration tonight! I'll join my choir of froggies in the field... *croak*
Found this fabulously fat froggy on the pavement in the light rain on the way home after work... She was almost run over by a bicycle when she refused to bulge out of the way~! Was thinking of keeping her in that disused fish tank in my balcony, so I cupped her in my hands and carried her home. But after seeing her scratching at the glass trying to get out, looking at me with those eyes, making little squeaky sounds, my heart started getting soft... she belongs to the wild wild outdoors, since she grew up out there... Brought her to the patch of field downstairs, where many many frogs and toads can be heard croaking, and kissed her goodbye (french kiss...)... Disappointingly she didn't turn into a beautiful princess... Man... Enchanted really is only a fairytale~
Never knew a lonkang can look this spectacular! This is a feed drain into Lower Pierce Reservior, and it looks like those white-water rapids machiam seen in New Zealand tourist brochures haha! Nice to sit on the side listening to the sounds of gushing water. When leaving the place, the transition from the ferocity of the water noise to peaceful forest sounds of crickets and birds seemed surreal, such is the contrast. Quite special~
Crashed twice at BT trail today, a record number of crashes in one day in a long long time. Really lacked exercise, been lazy these couple of weeks, lack of sleep is another excuse... my second crash was pretty spectacular! I was getting over-confident after managing to go through a twisty and rough downhill section without braking, following some techniques that I saw in a biking video, until I tried to repeat it on the next section. I hit some loose rocks while turning and got thrown over my handlebars; sprained my right hand and brazed my left arm while trying to break my fall, and banged my shin on the same rocks which downed me in the first place. Quite funny to see this aunty who saw me crash in front of her, and continued to pluck her leaves, while I laid down to groan for a couple of minutes... I limped home with this little char siew pao on my shin. Definitely not my first though... Nice to crash once in a while, it's Nature's way of showing who's the big boss~ This crash made me late for ZW's and Marshal's birthday dinner, luckily those old boys didn't get mad at all... I discovered how nice HK ice yuan yang is! Not too late at all~!
Used my dad's industrial-grade degreaser to wash my bike chain and gears, it wasn't stated on the bottle that it shouldn't be used on painted surfaces, because not until I sprayed off all the gunk and the shiny bare metal became apparent among spots of any remaining black paint... well... at least my bike frame is unblemished, and my chain's really clean... sadness still~
静茹, music, Zen~
Fishing season 2007, now on a one-month long half-time break... Next time must treat Fishing Season like In-Camp Training and IPPT, must train or else will get very tired~~
Just one bun and one mug of Milo provided subsistence for yesterday; my dinner of plain steamed rice and stir-fried greens still came out as porridge from the other end... I can't stomach anything with even a nano particle of oil. At least the burning fever is no more...
I didn't know such a big pond existed just 15mins from my home... that military training area behind my estate sure is huge~... I want to explore it bit by bit... already I'm finding some remnants of old CCK villages like old street signs and old wells which machiam look like that in The Ring~
Giant and Blur sets off to explore new horizons and new trail trills... Ketam Mountain Bike Park in Ubin is a real bicycle roller coaster~! No need to wait for those IRs theme parks! Only if the boat ride was cheaper... And only if I live in the east...
Not the Singapore flag minus stars and crescent... the tan line on my arm!
Spent the afternoon sprucing up my balcony and moving some of the plants to bigger pots... Here's a family portrait of all my big and little green buddies green and happy~! My favourite spot to slack and have coffee....
Woke up on a sunny weekend morning with sore eyes again...~ After answering a phone call I tried to look at the clock beside my bed, and couldn't open my eyes... and I felt really drousy and lousy... Must be because I haven't been drinking enough water lately... There goes my plans for this week's sunday... Especially with a busy few weeks coming up...
Arts Design & Media School in NTU, been up for quite a while now but this's only the second time I'm here... Still finding it one of the nicest urban environments that I've been to... Finding closure among all the reflections on the glass and water as one sucky week draws to a close... Clarity will resume when all the dust settle... The crest of the hill is drawing closer and closer... I've laid the foundations... I will keep pushing forward... I will...
I cock-uped at work today. I was angry with myself. I was angry with "them". I sure wasn't pleased at all. It completely wrecked a whole day of good effort. My spirits were really low at the end of the day. I had to top it up with a glass of quality spirit, coupled with a double cheeseburger and some nice dark chocolates... (I'm not an alcoholic btw! It took me 3 years to get through half bottle...) Things are changing around here, time might have come for me to move on...
