寂寞光年-《双子星》主题曲

Really like this song sung by 刘力杨- such powerful voice... Most of all, I love the lyrics... Listen to it and you know what I mean.



是谁从我天空摘走了星星
一转眼 眉头聚满乌云
从来快乐悲伤都自己横行
忘了我也值得被关心

一双手一个梦
一路上不断的俯冲
痛到忘了要怎么喊痛

漫长的寂寞淹没我的难过
我的世界是零下的沙漠
其实我也想要拥抱的温柔
融化这颗坚强的泡沫

漫长的等候让人特别失落
锋锐寂寞把天空都割破
还有谁能够紧握着我的手
陪着我期待消失的彩虹

是谁将阳光都剪成了雨滴
天灰了 快乐总有限期
从来都陷在孤独的流沙里
忘了我也配被人在意
一个人一直走看着梦像做了又空
精疲力尽有没有哪里可以停泊

漫长的寂寞淹没我的难过
我的世界是零下的沙漠
其实我也想有拥抱的温柔
融化这颗坚强的泡沫

漫长的等候让人特别失落
锋锐寂寞把天空都割破
还有谁能够紧握着我的手
陪着我期待消失的彩虹
那是谁的温柔留在我的小手
微不足道却那么重

漫长的寂寞把意志都吞没
整个世界是沉默的漩涡
有谁能陪我手牵着手出走
带我离开空洞的星球

还有什么值得追求
还有什么可以拥有
把怀抱借给我是不是就不再颤抖
有谁能带走这美丽的哀愁
能让我相信被爱的理由

Hope dashed...

The test result is out – he is H1N1 negative… so it is a case closed…

And I cannot get unrecorded leave and stay home to R&R (without being infected of course!)…*snort*

H1N1!

So it is getting nearer...

My company has someone who has been tested positive for H1N1, but luckily he or she is located on another floor.

But my colleague's roommate has just been sent to hospital to test for H1N1 - he is currently running a fever after being back from Philippines last weekend.

My colleague who just sits next to me has been sent home already.

This also means if the test result in another 10 hours' time is positive, I may need to quarantine myself too. :O

Forgetting to live

Like this that I read:

"But those who forget the past, neglect the present and fear for the future have a life that is very brief and troubled; when they have reached the end of it, the poor wretches preceive too late that for such a long while they have been busied in doing nothing."

- Roman philosopher Seneca

Squandering the past:
The engrossed are so caught up in the day-to-day that they never take the time to look back. Their lives are like a bottomless well, swallowing up the past as though it never existed.

Neglecting the present:
"Present time is very brief, so brief indeed, that to some there seems to be none; for it is always in motion."

Fearing the future:
"Very wretched, therefore, and not merely short, must the life of those be who work hard to gain what they must work harder to keep." They spend their entire lives preparing to live.

Raffles Marina

Stepped back into Raffles Marina Yacht Club last Sunday after nearly two years . I love that place for its beautiful sunset and peaceful nightfall. Such coincidence - there was a couple getting married that Sunday evening, and witnessing their solemnisation at the garden lawn brought back nice memories...

The yacht club scene that evening...

Another perspective in landscape

Coconut trees! Hah! The sun started to set

The scenery became more charming as the sun set more

The Mind

The Mind
Relationship with it is a tricky affair
Can it be manipulated?
Can it be conditioned?
Such that it serves purposefully

How not to think?
How not to be bothered?
How not to be affected?

If it is overwhelmed, can it be not?
If it pins for someone, can it let go?
If it feels bitter, can it be sweetened?

To what extent can it be stretched?
So it knows more, be better and exhibits more strength
Is the sky the limit?

What's next?

My new toy

I bought a new Tokina 12-24mm f4 lens few days ago. I was deciding over the weekend what lens I should get for my Canon EOS400D - should I get a zoom len or a wide angle zoom lens. Well, it’s all in preparation for my NZ trip in Oct! :P

After doing lots of read-up, I decided that I should get myself a wide angle lens first. You see, I would love to get every len that I desire but one lens does not come cheap, esp those L lens produced by Canon! (Ok, I know I am speaking Greek now.) Whichever, bottom line there are too many different types of lens, and it is easy to let a new investment end up to be a dust collector.

There are comparables - Canon itself, which costs a bomb of over $1K, and third party lens Sigma and Tamron. In the end, I bought into the salesman recommendation and decided on a Tokina lens. At least the price is better at $840. The reviews have been pretty good for this lens, so I am looking forward to try out my new toy over the weekend. Let's see if it takes some good landscape photos.

Next holidays

Yes! I finally booked my SQ tickets yesterday to Christchurch, NZ in Oct...

Is it too early to book for a trip, especially when no one knows how Swine flu will develop over the next few months? I really don't know, but I am not leaving it to chance again for I have been saying this for the past 2 years, but still have never made it happen. Two years ago, we got play out by our friends, and last year we hesitated on the dates and in a week's time, the airticket prices skyrocketed.

So I figured we all can lock in the dates and the attractive flight fares first -cancellation of the tickets costs S$75 each versus the huge difference in airfares come close to travel dates. All may change come closer to date, but well, at least there is a date for each of us to work towards to. The best part is each of us bought a piece of winter jacket at a sale last week for this NZ trip before we even booked the airtickets! Hah.

Four is a great number to go travelling, so I am indeed excited. We will be spending 2 weeks in NZ, and I'll be spending my birthday there. ;) The broad plan is to comb south of NZ, from Christchurch to Queenstown and back to Christchurch via self drive...

There will be much planning to be done and heaps of stuff to buy for this trip... but I am glad that at least there is a long break that I can look forward to even though it is many months down the road.. :)

Finally a post!

I have been really busy since I was back from Layang Layang two Sunday ago. Work has been never ending that I hardly have time to breathe! I was working from home till past 12mn yesterday!

So no photos, no updates…nor anything else for the past two weeks… (But I ought to say that I had great fun diving at Layang Layang during my 8 days there, not to mention that Dan and I were the few lucky ones to see a school of hammerhead sharks in the deep blue at 40m!)

But finally got a breather and thought to share somethig on a book that I am currently reading -“Listening below the noise” written by Anne D.LeClaire. I must admit it's pretty addictive food for the brain.

I’m not quite done with it, but here is a paragraph that stuck a cord in me:

Within each of us there resides our own muddy, messy space, our inner garbage heap where we toss scarps too painful to consider or confront, the loss, pain, grief, and disappointment that are all too real. In the hollow of our hearts resides the fault lines of our lives, the lies we tell ourselves to get by, and the space where narcissistic aspects of personality can arise. When we weed out extraneous stimulation and let go of the reins of control, these things claim our attention…… “In silence, all the deformed children that dwell inside come forward and say ‘Love me.’” And this is what we flee. Kathleen Norris writes of this…..”Any life lived attentively is disillusioning as it forces us to know as we are.”

Do you resonate with it?

Interesting book, I must say…. More to be read and explored…

Over the long weekend

The long weekend flashed past in a blink, and I wished I had more time. Fun times always seemed to pass the fastest…

Fri, May 1
Dan and I went to explore Marang Trail of the Southern Ridges in the late afternoon, walked through Mount Faber and onto Henderson Bridge once again... I ended up all sweaty in two hours, but still it was a new area to discover and experience. Went for early Mother’s day dinner celebration at a vegetarian restaurant that evening too… It is such a nostalgic restaurant for me as I used to frequent it when I was in secondary school.. Those were the times...

Sat, May 2
I tried beginner rock climbing at SAFRA Yishun at noon time with Dan and another 10+ people. Gosh, what an experience indeed.

See how high the wall is…?

Another angle of the wall.... this is an easy wall... There are other walls behind exhibiting greater challenges!

An attempt up got me panting and sweating- it requires so much strength and effort from me! I know it must be an easy feat for many people who had tried climbing on much tougher walls. Yet, I am proud of my own accomplishment - it was my first try after living for some decades, and I scaled the wall 3x and succeeded on reaching the top each time. But I must admit that I really struggled to stay on the wall on my 3rd attempt, as my energy was already low, and arms were giving way at one crunch point on the wall.

However, I soon forgot the pain that evening as I was eating my frog legs porridge at Geylang ( I had sudden craving for it, you see! Ha!) On top of that, I demanded for durians for snacks that night too! Triple wows for me!! :))

Sun, May 3
As usual, I did my run at East Coast Park with Dan in the morning… It was more than stretchy that morning, as our triceps, biceps and thighs were all aching from the rock climbing the day before. Luckily, the weather started cooling as it was raining before that… but obviously the happiness did not last long as the sun was out to play in no time. Nevertheless, we did about 16km before we cleaned up and made our way to Tampopo for ramen and my favourite tasty eggs! Yummy!

Yet, the best was yet to be! We had a scheduled massage and body scrub to pamper ourselves at 1pm. Shiok is the word after coming out of the room – whole body felt so much more relaxed, smoother, and better before we stepped into the beauty salon. Such sinful indulgence and addiction really…

The day was still young after my massage and we did a whole heap of things and errands thereafter before retiring in bed at 12 midnight…

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It had been a busy long weekend, yet I felt glad and happy to have such fruitful three days. I had discovered new places, tried new things and enjoyed spending time together, eating good food and doing some activities that I like.

Life is more than just work, stress, getting grumpy about yesterday, and all worried about tomorrow that has yet to come… It is about discovering, experiencing and living the moment. It may not be a simple or easy journey, but the greatest joy can come from simplicity and counting my blessings.

Quote

Someone taught me this last night, and I cannot help but to write about this.

Quote of the day:

"If you know, it is common sense.
If you don't know, it doesn't make sense...."

It does make some sense. *roll eyes*

Swine Flu

The latest is in the air - Swine flu... The virus has very quickly gained much attention worldwide, and has already killed up to 149 people in Mexico.

This new strain of virus spreads from person-to-person and seems to be highly infectious... Adding on to the worries, it seems to kill the young and strong between age 25 to 45 too, and will spread faster than SARS. The WHO has already raised the alert level from phase 3 to 4, indicating a significantly increased risk of a pandemic globally.

So what's next? Will there be an outbreak and and cause chaos like SARS a few years back? It seems too early to tell, but all countries have stepped up their precautionary measures to ward off the outbreak, such as screening all air passengers and quarantining anyone that shows symptoms of the deadly virus.

Obviously, this flu outbreak dampened the already weakened economy even further, as investors feared that it could force the countries further into recession...

Bad news... Many eyes will be focused on the development of swine flu for the next few weeks for sure...

Such powerful individuals

Did a few sms exchanges with my advance sg members who are currently doing LP
Just wanted to see where they are and how they are now
And wow, some are so inspiring and powerful
Some are still trying, but determined and resilient...
They may not know, but they touch me deep from within
Happy to know they are creating results out there
Proud to hear they are not giving up
Delighted to see them playing team for win-win
My contribution to them may be so microscopic,
But being able to witness them grow and soar from a distance is such a privilege
Such inspiring individuals...
This is what life is about – living spectacularly and being in contribution
I am glad that I did make a stand for them...

"Funeral" Commerical ad

The latest commercial commissioned by MCYS... Spend a little while to watch it if you have yet to see it on TV...

"Little imperfections that make them perfect for you..."

Cherish it.

Over last two weeks...

I went missing for awhile without any updates… Simple – I was totally overwhelmed by work awhile back then that I totally had no time or strength to blog.

Long story short, I was so caught up with an offsite event that I was preparing in Hanoi for this weekend. There had been many issues to tackle and areas to look at. Yet, the best is yet to be, for I received a call late last Thu evening from my boss to say that it needs to be postponed… Oh well, what else can I say?

Logically, it’s a blessing for the fact that I have time to breathe this week when it is supposedly to be topsy turvy, and I would need to spend my weekend in Vietnam working. But then again, the whole cycle of nightmare will soon start again once the new dates are out.

I did make a trip to Hanoi over 4 days two weeks ago, and spent some time getting myself familiar there. It was pretty fun overall – it was a whole new experience seeing Vietnamese’s ways of life, tasting their food, walking their streets… The food was pretty yummy ok! We did a day trip to Halong bay too, which supposedly is one of the must-go places in Hanoi. Yet, I think I remembered the torturous 3 and ½h road journey to and fro better than Halong itself!

I also bought a pair of Coleman trekking shoes last week finally, and tried them at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve last Sun. I felt like I was walking in elephants’ feet as the shoes felt so heavy after awhile. Wonder how am I going to climb Kinabalu with the lousy physical state I am in… and we have yet to set any concert date to that climb too… Still trying to find a suitable date - I want to do other holidays too leh! Limited time, unlimited wants!!

Time… always seems to be in scarcity nowadays…*shrug*

Hanoi Highlights

I swinged by to Hanoi for a few days for a business trip two weeks ago, but I did extend another day to explore the area. Such perfect chance, so how to give that up? Some photos below...


View of Hotel Intercontinental Westake from my room. It was a rainy day that day, thus the dark sky. It was only 18 degree outside! Yet, the view was a treat!


The seducing view at nightfall... The serenity is so different from the busy main Hanoi city.


The busy traffic at the intersection of Old Quarter. Traffic is a real nightmare there, not to mention the air and noise pollution!


The entrance to Ngoc Son Temple at Hoan Kiem Lake. You need to pay to get in - VND10k, i.e. S$1.


Oh well, the incense urn outside the temple. Just feel it's a piece of art by itself.


One scenery taken while we were touring the famous Halong Bay.


Isn't this pic arty farty? Taken at Intercontinental again.

Happiness

I like what I read in MyPaper today:

Deaf-blind Amercian author Helen Keller wrote: " Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow, and then for ourselves." ...

Today is the tomorrow I worried about yesterday. And today was such a lovely day. That I wondered why I worried about today yesterday. So today I am not going to worry about tomorrow. There may not be a tomorrow anyway. So today I am going to live as if there is no tomorrow. And I am going to forget about yesterday...

Happines does not necessarily have to come from striving for something we don't have. It can come from recognising and appreciating what we do.

Layang Layang

Finally, my first diving trip for the year – Palau Layang Layang from 8 to 15 May! Dubbed "The Jewel of the Borneo Banks", it is supposed to offer an amazing scuba diving experience. Flipping through an old edition of the dive magazine “Australasia ScubaDiver” that reviewed about Layang Layang, I already got all excited simply by just looking at the photos! About 12 world-class sites, each site is as prolific as the next…

April and May is the best time to see schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks – their mating season! Other than that, I may get to see megafauna such as sharks, whales and schools of fish to the coolest macro like pygmy seahorses, leaf scorpionfish and pearly anthias. I must pray very hard that I would get to see all of these and more!

Of course, I’m ready to take heaps of pictures during this trip… n have armed myself with ammunition too – additional 2 camera batteries (on top of the 2 batteries that I already have) and bringing along my laptop to upload all the photos taken daily!

Wow, I cannot wait! Woohooo!

《一切完美2 》主题曲 — 放了爱

你指向远方 爱情很晴朗
笑问不如今后就我们俩
怕泪会反光 钻进你的胸膛
但那不是感动 是 泪无法储藏

把美梦锁上 以为是天堂
羽翼折起在你身边静静躺
却只能用目光在空中翱翔
还得乔装安份 靠在你肩膀

放了爱 为了爱
这不是我 该怎么生活
放了爱

你说你喜欢 我笑得开朗
你越温柔 我越不想撒谎
我已办不到你想要的那样
客气地配合你 我感觉更勉强

别人的幸福 何必要模仿
心不在何苦 留躯壳在身旁
加满自由 我要无重量飞翔
就算以分离收场

放了爱 为了爱
这不是我 该怎么生活
放了爱 会明白
有种拥有 叫做放手

我的心 为爱流离失所
紧握最后回家的线索
等到寻获真正的我
证明我决定没有错

放了爱 为了爱
这不是我 想要的生活
放了爱 你会明白
有种拥有 叫做放手
放了爱

《一切完美2》

Have you been watching Perfect Cut 2 on Channel U at 10pm? I have… When the drama serial “Perfect Cut” was aired in July last year, it broke viewership records, received good critics and won accolades. So Perfect Cut 2 was a sequel to that, featuring the original cast, Thomas Ong, Michelle Chia and Julian Hee, with new blood Edmund Chen and Phyllis Quek.

Personally, I think Perfect Cut 2 is indeed another well done drama serial… The surgeries were so real, making me squeak and hair raised… The storyline of each case was so touching that it drove tears rolling down the cheeks… It brought up controversies of individuals going for cosmetic surgeries and presented different points of views to a same issue, stimulating thoughts and feelings... it is also educational as it sheds lights to some facts and figures that a man-on-the-street may never have known.

On top of that, I love this drama serial for the fact that it has incorporated much life learnings into each episode. Some stuff that I learnt or was reminded again:

• If you can give words of encouragement, why give words of attack? At times, all it takes from you is some words of encouragement to let another person have confidence and go forth in life
• Committing suicide is the greatest humilation to a human being's life
• Relationships are meant to be managed, not tested
• Have the courage to pursue happiness in your life
• Start on a clean slate and make the choice all over again
• Give the key to your heart and see who lives in it
• Every moment spent with loved ones is treasured memory; there is no purpose to time spent into earning money only, sacrificing the time spent with loved ones…

It is the final episode tonight… No prize for guessing that I will be glued to my tv…