60 minutes with Josh

This is a slightly belated post.

Got to spend 60 minutes with Josh (short for Joshua) two Sundays ago. In this short span of time, this nephew of mine, obligingly (or instinctively) demonstrated all his newly acquired abilities and tricks.

Newly Acquired Ability #01: Crawling
Still a wee bit clumsy and slow, but still gets him from point A to B.

Newly Acquired Ability #02: Eating
Learning that there is more to live than just milk.

Newly Acquired Ability #03: Spitting
Totally self-taught. Helps him to reject foreign food-stuff from his mouth and keeps mummy busy.

Some of his other abilities …

Object Identification.
The ability to identify objects is still at its infancy. For now it involves putting object into mouth.

Modeling.
The ability to pose in the presence of a camera is among one of his oldest abilities.

Good for another 10 years

Finally got my re-entry permit extended for a further 10 years. Got myself over to the ICA (Immigration and Checkpoints Authority) on Saturday to submit my application. The process took only 45 minutes and I paid $100 for the extension. Ten bucks a year, that’s not too bad considering ten more years of hassle-free entry into Singapore.

The re-entry permit, as the name suggest, allows the PR(Permanent Resident) holder to re-enter Singapore as long as the permit is valid. That means if the PR holder never steps out of S’pore (ie. no overseas holiday, no balik kampung) he/she can do without the permit, but what are the chances of that?

I also dropped by the access card counter to extend by access card. This card allows me to bypass the queues at the passport lanes at the Singapore checkpoint. Just hate the queues especially on Friday and Sunday evenings.

A few more things that will my make the border crossing more enjoyable/tolerable :

1) MRT right up to Woodlands checkpoint.

2) A covered travellator (like the ones in airports) spanning the causeway. (no walking required!)

3) Good bus services from Johor checkpoint to various destinations including Larkin Bus Station.

(Note : This will do away with those cross-border bus services)

Well these are just some of my personal opinions. If you are one of those who gets to fly out of Singapore or takes the express coach from Golden Mile, then these suggestions won’t help you one bit.

28 more days to Christmas !

Ode to Roy

An age comes to an end,
As Roy leaves Old Trafford grounds,
Twelve years he laboured,
To bring glory and trophies abound.

Fearless leader, tireless soldier,
As a captain he was without a peer,
As we forge a future without Roy,
None ready to fill his boots we fear.

THERE WILL ONLY BE ONE KEANO

Evening Canal Run

Thursday was my running day. So was Tuesday and Wednesday, but I overslept on one and it rained on the other. No more excuses. So leaving the house about 7pm, I jogged towards my starting point – the road junction in front of my block. The skies were already a shade of dark blue. The Green Man lit up and I kicked off.

It is only less than a km to the Ulu Pandan Canal, so I will usually start my run from home. The route I run takes me along the busy Clementi Road into the quiet and scenic Ulu Pandan Canal jogging track. You get to see all kinds of people here. There are the casual joggers like me, pet lovers who takes time out to bring Doggy for a stroll, one particular woman who pushes her two furry canines in her pram, a group of inline skaters who zips up and down the stretch, old couples out for after-dinner walks, and an old man who easily out-paces me with a Jack Russell in tow (yeah the dog can sure run too).

Running is not exactly a sport that I use to enjoy. It used to be a boring and joyless exercise that lacked any sense of competitiveness that other sports brought with them. I would have rather played some foreign unknown sport than to impose my body to this sport that relies on repetitive leg motion and a good lung capacity.

But as all working people soon realize, that gathering a group of old friends to loyally meet-up every week for a game of hard-court soccer or badminton is no easy task. Other priorities and petty excuses soon rob us of finding a common time to play the game we love. So that was how I turned to the sport that I used to avoid for my weekly dose of exercise.

I still find it hard sometimes to find the motivation to go running after work. But as soon as my feet start pounding on the cemented pathway, I feel a sense of escape as my sub-conscious mind takes over. That‘s why I like running in the evening after twilight. The dark surroundings allow my mind to wander freely and not to focus on personal problems or on the tiredness of the body. By not focusing on the struggle between the will (spirit) and body (physical), I can now slowly improve my running distance too.

Babes of the 70’s – The Best of TV

You’ve probably read the e-mail about a post reminiscing about the unique memories that people(Malaysians) born in the 70’s share, aptly titled ‘For those 70’s babies’. It talks about TV shows, primary school days, projek susu segar, games we played and even lament about the how spoiled the kids are nowadays (our parents must have thought the same about us). Anyway that got me thinking and I decided to go on my own walk down memory lane, to reminisce about those good old TV shows we used to watch on our limited TV channels then.

Growing up we had only RTM (and later on TV3) to rely on for entertainment. There were the weekday afternoon cartoons, evenings’ Cantonese Drama Serials, after-dinners’ comedy belt, night time’s American TV Series, and weekend morning cartoons and Disney’s wholesome family movies. Well here are some of my favourites.

Cartoons - the daily staple of growing kids and my motivation to complete my homework (or no Cartoon of the day. Arrggghhh!!!). I grew up with classics like Rubik the Amazing Cube, Fat Albert and Friends, Smurfs, Jem!, Care Bears, Paw Paw Bears, and Muppet Babies.

Rubik - alien who got his head stuck in an ordinary Rubic Cube

And cult favourites like Thundercats, Silverhawks, Visionaries, Transformers, Masks, He-Man, Ultraman(not cartoon but have to squeeze it in somehow) , Voltron, Gummi Bears and G.I.Joe. Yeah, in those days you did not have to think hard to differentiate the good guys from the bad. And the good will always triumph before the half hour is up, unless there is a Part 2.

Lion-O and gang

Centurions. Power Extreme!

How about those afternoon shows like Electric Company, Sesame Street, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Bionic Woman, and Little House in the Prairie.

The Beautiful and Bionic Lindsay Wagner

And who can forget those memorable TV series like MacGyver, The A-Team, Blue Thunder, Airwolf, Knight Rider, The Greatest American Hero, B.J and the Bear, The Love Boat and CHIPs.

Faceman, Howling Mad Murdock, B.A Baracus and Hannibal. One of the best shows ever!

Why don't our police get one of this Blue Thunders ?

The Greatest American Hero? But certainly one of the best superhero series.

The daily laughs would come from comedy sitcoms like Three’s Company, Family Ties, Growing Pains, I Dream of Jeanie, Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, Charles in charge, Cheers and Happy Days.

Charles in charge of our days and our nights ...

Brings back old memories huh?

Here’s one of the best theme songs ever from the Greatest American Hero. It makes the small child in us believe we could just take off and fly (and crash land !).

Look at what’s happened to me,
I can’t believe it myself.
Suddenly I’m up on top of the world,
It should’ve been somebody else.

Believe it or not, I’m walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it’s just me.

It’s like a light of a new day,
It came from out of the blue.
Breaking me out of the spell I was in,
Making all of my wishes come true.

Believe it or not, I’m walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be? Believe it or not it’s just me.

Biking around Changi

The Holiday
The Deeparaya hols last week gave me the chance to catch some sun and fun in the outdoors. After giving it a little thought, Wee Loong and I decided to go for the bikes. It has been more than a year since we had gone biking together. Then it was a night cycling trip from East Coast Park to Orchard (with supper at Geylang and many other pit-stops along the way for some night photo-taking) and back. This time though, we decided to take the Changi Airport Loop - a 23km route which passes Changi Airport, loops around Changi Village and ends at S’pore Expo.

On Deepavali morning, we struggled to wake up (for goodness sake, it’s a holiday after all!) after having late night ‘Mamak’ supper the night before. But Ching Poh drove us down to ECP and that saved us lots of traveling time. At ECP, finding a parking lot proved difficult as it looked like the rest of the Singaporeans who were not on a week-long vacation overseas or at home celebrating the festival of light had decided to spend the day at this popular stretch of beach. Fortunately (and surprisingly), we found lots of vacant parking lots at the Marine Parade HDB multi-storey car park located just a stone throws away. And it also came free.

The Ride to Changi
After settling our breakfast, we got our bikes from one of the bike rental shops at ECP and headed off to our starting point. The route to S’pore Expo was scenic with landed residential homes and apartments lining both sides of the road. The lack of high-rise HDB blocks and offices was a welcome sight.

Cycling along the long stretch of Changi Coast Road, which runs adjacent to one of the Changi Airport Runways, we caught a few planes taking off. It was also a good spot to stop and take a few shots.

Malaysian Airlines taking to the friendly skies

The long and lonely Changi Coast Road

Keep Clear. Planes flying overhead.

Once past the runway, it was a short ride before we reached Changi Beach where many campers and families had decided to spend the day. Lunch was just across the bridge at Changi Village – famous for its Nasi Lemak, a tad over-rated, but that was what we had for lunch.

Nasi Lemak for hungry souls

Changi Village in sepia

The Long Road Home
As it turned out, the road leading home wasn’t exactly flat and even all the way. A full stomach and aching thighs didn’t helped either. We found out that Loyang Way and Upper Changi Rd North was not particularly kind to wanna-be cyclists, on the contrary it was probably built as an obstacle training course for real road bikers. The uphill climbs were real torture, and the downhill slope only acts as temporary rest stops for sore limbs as gravity leads you down, often too fast and too soon, as the next uphill slope looms ahead and peddle power is called on again.

So it was a great relieve when we hit the flat plains of Upper Changi Rd East and then made a pit stop at Bedok Food Court for thirst-quenching coconut drinks. Another short ride and we finally arrived back at ECP.

In a nutshell
All in all, it was a good ride (thanks to the great weather) and hopefully I had burnt off some calories on the way. Just hope the next biking trip is not too far off in the future. While Lance Armstrong’s vacated biking throne is still up for grabs, this ride has put me in my place and made it clear that ‘King of the Mountain’ should stay out of my biking vocabulary.

You just hate it when ...

... some inconsiderate delinquent decided to cause some childish mischief by pressing the lift buttons on all floors (all 18 floors to be ezact) of the high-rise HDB .

Well this happened to me this morning when I was leaving for work from my unit on the 19th floor. Imagine the 4 of us in the lift having to endure the long ride down, stopping at every floor to welcome the invisible passenger while my thumb was busy stabbing at the 'Close Door' button. I bet that if you could read our thoughts (like thought bubbles in comics) in there, you would probably see a collective outpouring of curses, un-publishable expletives or just rows of punctuation marks and symbols (depending on your personal content filter). Anyway just thankful that I was in time to catch the bus to work.