the geylang park connector looked new to marathon man. the last time he was in dakota, he did not see it. anyway, the place was quiet, and the air was clean. though it was hot, it was pleasantly hot, not too humid. as he was heading towards tanjung katong, he saw a hawker centre in the junction of joo chiat road and dunman road. it was the dunman food centre, opened in 2003. 2 floors, small place. he ordered the char koay teow without black source and soya water with almond, thinking that they ground the soya with the almond. instead, they just mixed the clear almond water from the bottle to the soya water. anyway it had the medicinal taste of almond. not many people came to eat. just nice for marathon man to open his nonya pasta stall here.... no need very good business, no need to have a big crowd, as long as he could earn his living, he's happy.
then he met a colleague, ah huay, buying koay chap.
"hi, koay chap good or not?"
"good, very good, i always come hear to buy. i have got an extra ticket for rwinds concert tonite, you want to come?"
"where?"
"victoria hall, at 7.30pm."
"what concert?"
"rwinds, the rjc, ri and rgs alumni band."
"ok." though he's not into brass band music, he's much into getting closer to ah huay.
so tonite, the band played the pieces, but marathon man did not connect with the music, the classical music most of which plays on and on, sometimes quarter of an hour or more..... marathon man knows that there's a theme of the music some kind of a refrain...then some off-shoots from the theme, then some crescendo, then some mellow tunes....... some theme are very catchy which marathon man likes, some are total obscure, almost all band music so far i have gone to were dead-pan unfamiliar, obscure pieces, like tonite 'Yorkshire Overture','shirim' with a familiar tune of 'donna, donna' in one of sections, 'Wintersturme' with the lead-conductor as the soloist, 'Saga Maligna ', 'the incredibles', 'beauty and the beast' which really reflects what the band looks like when it turn a beautiful score into a blowing-fish bag-of-air(the beauty being the score, the beast is the band, who else?), and edned with persis... you have to imagine what the music is trying to convey, they said.
but some pieces, whether claissical or otherwise, just click to your mind, some love at first sight, some needs a bit of time to get familiar.... also modern music or pop music does have the same obscure, non-event kind of scores, infact there's as many as those in the classical arena.... it's not the composer's fault if the music doesn't click, or climbs to the pop-chart. he just thinks that he has done a good job, good enough to let the public to appreciate, but the tune just isn't there.
all this is very subjective, people like mozart's clarinet concerto in a major, symphony 21, beethoven's fur elise, symphony 5,bach's tocatta and fugue in d minor... because they have catchy tunes... but musicians, they like everything under the sun, seems they can understand even junks to lay-people.
what's a cathcy tune?
if classical music can be accompanied by motion picture like some animation, like some thing in the movie.... it would be of much help to lay people like marathon man, instead of trying hard to make sense of he hears, the picture tells the story...
in real life, there's no background music to lead the mood.... and in real music.... only imagination makes sense out of it. but not the ordinary imagination.... with pictures, with objects..... it doesn't even need imagination to appreciate music.... it needs the an extra sense on another dimension.
it seems music and real life don't go together. but why human makes music, consciously and subconsciously?
what's that music bring to life, or what can people get out of it?
- perhaps, you don't get anything out of it, but it opens the door and lets you into some place where all things originated
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
victoria concert hall - moody night
mozart - clarinet concerto in a major.... they would not play it in the CODA 5 concert in victoria hall. instead RWinds would be engaging themselves on a journey though the lyrical lanscape of France (Beauty and the Beast), Belgium (Saga Maligna), Iran (Persis), America (The Incredibles) and more! Every musical musical journey begins, but Coda 5 will also end with an overture, marking the start of new beginnings for both RWinds and Victoria Concert Hall.... but marathon man did not care too much about these windy sounds that's not doing decent justice to these hard-to-blow instruments...
music is it created from the emotions or just the dexterity of neurons on notes?
he just sits by the piano, and start hitting some keys, hear the notes and their periods. before the next note is hit, the mind has to do some analysis on the notes just heard, trying to make sense of it in terms of melody, tempo, and harmony...... that will detremine the next notes to be hit..... it's a process of feedback between the hand, the ears and the mind.
or, everything already done up in the mind of the composer, then he would just sit down and play it out to finetune the , then jot it down on paper?
or tune comes up when the composer is walking, eating, shitting..... then he quickly stops whatever he's doing and beginning to clarify the tunes and put them into memory, or jot it down, or record it in a recording device?
or tunes comes from his dreams, daydreams......?
or tempo comes first then melody?
in the beginning, Godsaid to man, "I want you to understand that whatever you do, you must find time to make music and listen to it."
"what is music, God?"
God said, "music is sound, any sound."
"then why some sound sounds so irritating, like when people quarrel. is that music also?"
"it is. if you take away all that's rude and improper."
"so it's sound that's filtered?"
"sound that leaves memory in the mind."
"can a good advice be msuic?"
"it is."
"what is the person is deaf, music to him is a non-event, then?"
"he cannot hear what normal people hear as music, but he has other way of getting to know the beauty of music, equivalently."
"what is equivelent to music for a deaf person?"
"viusal represetation of notes? vibrations felt thru the sense of touch. if you train them from small..... they could very well get the hang of it like what great musicians do."
"music without the mood is not music..... music is mood....."
"or rather MY mood is music..... "
music is it created from the emotions or just the dexterity of neurons on notes?
he just sits by the piano, and start hitting some keys, hear the notes and their periods. before the next note is hit, the mind has to do some analysis on the notes just heard, trying to make sense of it in terms of melody, tempo, and harmony...... that will detremine the next notes to be hit..... it's a process of feedback between the hand, the ears and the mind.
or, everything already done up in the mind of the composer, then he would just sit down and play it out to finetune the , then jot it down on paper?
or tune comes up when the composer is walking, eating, shitting..... then he quickly stops whatever he's doing and beginning to clarify the tunes and put them into memory, or jot it down, or record it in a recording device?
or tunes comes from his dreams, daydreams......?
or tempo comes first then melody?
in the beginning, Godsaid to man, "I want you to understand that whatever you do, you must find time to make music and listen to it."
"what is music, God?"
God said, "music is sound, any sound."
"then why some sound sounds so irritating, like when people quarrel. is that music also?"
"it is. if you take away all that's rude and improper."
"so it's sound that's filtered?"
"sound that leaves memory in the mind."
"can a good advice be msuic?"
"it is."
"what is the person is deaf, music to him is a non-event, then?"
"he cannot hear what normal people hear as music, but he has other way of getting to know the beauty of music, equivalently."
"what is equivelent to music for a deaf person?"
"viusal represetation of notes? vibrations felt thru the sense of touch. if you train them from small..... they could very well get the hang of it like what great musicians do."
"music without the mood is not music..... music is mood....."
"or rather MY mood is music..... "
seletar camp - freedom
the seletar camp trip this time brought a lot of surprises. he never have thot that the camp was actually much bigger than what he imagined it to be, for the few times he jogged there and the many times he played golf in the 9-hole public golf club. he crossed the bridge across the tpe, from jalan kayu, and hit the seletar westlink, then passed the seletar golf country club. as he wanted to turn to the dike on seletar reservoir going to yishun, he realized infront of him, the road led to some new place he never stepped feet on before. he continued on, without turning. found quite to his pleasant surprise, that this corner of singapore also had some home-made wooden jetty-like terminals, from a few fishermen's homes into the sea, for their fishing boats and a few privately-owned power boats. he met a few guys collecting mussles from the seaside and knocking out the concrete-like stuff sticking to the shells. he said to one guy, "are you collecting toa-tau's?" "no, its chai luan."
there's a bridge spanning across the small bay. he went up the bridge and crossed it over to the other side. it was a reclaimed land, characterised by the big stretch of cauarina trees planted as wind-breakers. he was heading into no man's land, no idea of where it would lead him to. it must be more than an hour now, still he did not see any familiar road names or landmarks that he could figure out where he's heading towards. he came to a big lokang-like river, with the end of it separated from the sea by the road that marathon man was stepping on. beside the river, he noticed a pathway cut into the big stretch of casuarina forest. he saw some people playing in the river, some distance away from him. he decided going for the pathway, instead of going ahead on the main road. he smelled the very faint scent of the casuarina trees... some kind of pine-tree smell, but so faint that the next minute, he wanted to take it in all, it evaded his nosy sense. he went down to the river, and the water was very clear. he could not figure out what river was it. he went deeper into the path, saw a van with a driver stopping beside a shack, he pointed to the front and asked, "is there a way out that direction?" "i don't know, i came from the other direction." pointing to where marathon man came from. he decided to moved on toward the unknown destination any way. and he was rewarded by the many birds, big and small, that made the bushes in the river bank their paradize, obvioulsy, quite a remote place for any normal guy to step feet on. and he saw the river turning into a sort of lake, opposite the place he stood, he saw some factories, smelling of oil processing. and ther's a flood-gate on the other side, joining another river.
amidst all the nature and man-made artifacts and creatures, he was totally captivated by two small yellow butterflies, frolicking in the air.... one going after the other, dotted in the air, high, then low, then parted, then came closer again, then set feet in the grass, then took to the air again.... after a couple of minutes, they finally flew apart. but for that brief couple of minutes, nature had shown marathon man what freedom was all about - it was all about, to do whatever you like, to whoever you like and in whichever way you like, wherever and whenever you like.... and the same freedom was available to all in the group.
and the freedom to intrude into some unknown space which befits marathon man the title of some sort of explorer, did lift his drooping and tiring spirit; since his handphone ran out of battery after his fren ah cheng called him 2 hours ago, he did not have any way to call for assistance if his feet give up on him, at this juncture.
but he found his way out anyway - back to where he started - the bridge that spanned across the small bay.
seletar camp has changed alot. they were tearing down old houses and put up new building and extend the seletar airport run to accomodate the aero-tech industry here. marathon man used to play golf in the 9-hole public seletar golf club here. he got his pc and handicapp cards here a few years ago. he met a lot of strangers in the golf course and he befren them one and all.... though he has not kept in touch with any of them, he specifically remembers one chap.....
ah huat, that's what he told marathon man his name was.
ah huat got this very funny sound when he laughed, something like a revebaration from a big tong. and he laughed a lot. obviosuly he's a happy man.
they played golf a few times. one time, their flight-mate, ah kong said, "my wife is pregnant, and her mood swing is really fantastic. one moment she feel very high, then the next cries like a baby..... how ah?"
marathon man, single himself, don't know what to advise. the flight mate ah seow, a father of 3, said, "don't worry lah.... mood swing due to hormone only. once delivery over, ok already."
"i heard there's something call post natal blue.... how if she continues her pre-natal into psot natal?"
"blue is the color of the bright sky..... should not be signifying anything melancholic." marathon man somehow blurted out something, though it sounded irrelavant.
"what? you must be drunk. blue is blue which is like blur, blur lah... like you cannot see anything clear.... sad, low mood, unhappy.... lonely.... " ah kong said.
the ah huat, who'hv been keeping quiet so far said, "your wife situation is temporary, whether pre or post natal blue. my wife is chronically feeling blue, her sickness is post marriage blue syndrome?"
"wow, how do you deal with it?" ah kong was curious, since ah huat didn't seem to be bothered by it.
"simple lah... when she's angry, i just tell myself that, to make her happy, i would have to let her feel that she's still single."
"how?"
"to act like a single myself..... go pubbing like nobody's business, go ktv's, go golfings.... just don't stay at home."
there's a bridge spanning across the small bay. he went up the bridge and crossed it over to the other side. it was a reclaimed land, characterised by the big stretch of cauarina trees planted as wind-breakers. he was heading into no man's land, no idea of where it would lead him to. it must be more than an hour now, still he did not see any familiar road names or landmarks that he could figure out where he's heading towards. he came to a big lokang-like river, with the end of it separated from the sea by the road that marathon man was stepping on. beside the river, he noticed a pathway cut into the big stretch of casuarina forest. he saw some people playing in the river, some distance away from him. he decided going for the pathway, instead of going ahead on the main road. he smelled the very faint scent of the casuarina trees... some kind of pine-tree smell, but so faint that the next minute, he wanted to take it in all, it evaded his nosy sense. he went down to the river, and the water was very clear. he could not figure out what river was it. he went deeper into the path, saw a van with a driver stopping beside a shack, he pointed to the front and asked, "is there a way out that direction?" "i don't know, i came from the other direction." pointing to where marathon man came from. he decided to moved on toward the unknown destination any way. and he was rewarded by the many birds, big and small, that made the bushes in the river bank their paradize, obvioulsy, quite a remote place for any normal guy to step feet on. and he saw the river turning into a sort of lake, opposite the place he stood, he saw some factories, smelling of oil processing. and ther's a flood-gate on the other side, joining another river.
amidst all the nature and man-made artifacts and creatures, he was totally captivated by two small yellow butterflies, frolicking in the air.... one going after the other, dotted in the air, high, then low, then parted, then came closer again, then set feet in the grass, then took to the air again.... after a couple of minutes, they finally flew apart. but for that brief couple of minutes, nature had shown marathon man what freedom was all about - it was all about, to do whatever you like, to whoever you like and in whichever way you like, wherever and whenever you like.... and the same freedom was available to all in the group.
and the freedom to intrude into some unknown space which befits marathon man the title of some sort of explorer, did lift his drooping and tiring spirit; since his handphone ran out of battery after his fren ah cheng called him 2 hours ago, he did not have any way to call for assistance if his feet give up on him, at this juncture.
but he found his way out anyway - back to where he started - the bridge that spanned across the small bay.
seletar camp has changed alot. they were tearing down old houses and put up new building and extend the seletar airport run to accomodate the aero-tech industry here. marathon man used to play golf in the 9-hole public seletar golf club here. he got his pc and handicapp cards here a few years ago. he met a lot of strangers in the golf course and he befren them one and all.... though he has not kept in touch with any of them, he specifically remembers one chap.....
ah huat, that's what he told marathon man his name was.
ah huat got this very funny sound when he laughed, something like a revebaration from a big tong. and he laughed a lot. obviosuly he's a happy man.
they played golf a few times. one time, their flight-mate, ah kong said, "my wife is pregnant, and her mood swing is really fantastic. one moment she feel very high, then the next cries like a baby..... how ah?"
marathon man, single himself, don't know what to advise. the flight mate ah seow, a father of 3, said, "don't worry lah.... mood swing due to hormone only. once delivery over, ok already."
"i heard there's something call post natal blue.... how if she continues her pre-natal into psot natal?"
"blue is the color of the bright sky..... should not be signifying anything melancholic." marathon man somehow blurted out something, though it sounded irrelavant.
"what? you must be drunk. blue is blue which is like blur, blur lah... like you cannot see anything clear.... sad, low mood, unhappy.... lonely.... " ah kong said.
the ah huat, who'hv been keeping quiet so far said, "your wife situation is temporary, whether pre or post natal blue. my wife is chronically feeling blue, her sickness is post marriage blue syndrome?"
"wow, how do you deal with it?" ah kong was curious, since ah huat didn't seem to be bothered by it.
"simple lah... when she's angry, i just tell myself that, to make her happy, i would have to let her feel that she's still single."
"how?"
"to act like a single myself..... go pubbing like nobody's business, go ktv's, go golfings.... just don't stay at home."
Friday, December 25, 2009
seletar farmways - Merry Christmas
seletar farmway 4 it is. some years ago, marathon man was here. he could hardly recall details of the place. that's why he wants to try it again this morning. there's a foreign worker dormitory at the beginning of the road, converted from some old hdb shop houses and hdb flats. they could have been very good quarters for the locals, but why they were abandoned?
he turns into farmway 5, and enters the 'animal resort'. it's the same resort he visited before, not change as far as he can remember. though he couldn't remember whether there was a horse, a lovely horse. marathon man wants to whisper to it, since it comes close to him, with its double-eye-lid eye, ignocent look, it tempts him to say something to it. they interact for sometime in silence. then it turns away.
the peacock in the coop, is excited and spreads out its technic-color feathers into a fan, strding proudly facing him.
the fat, old goose groups with the white ducks, as if he's the leader of the group.
the fishing pond begs some leisure lines; 2 adults and 2 kids try their luck, but so far no fish.
he spends half an hour in the mini zoo, fully relishing its atmosphere and its creatures. he continues his journey, walking slowly toward farmway 8. and lands in the swee lee landscape, where there are many tall trees, palm and other types, with tehir roots packed in soil, wrapped in back plastic bags, all ready to go to the IR in sentosa.
further on, he enters farmway 7. and somehow, he hits on the jalan kayu terraces - he remembers the last time he was in jalan kayu, he wanted to detour into the forest trail... now he's in the forest trail, coming out to jalan kayu.
he stops in an indian restaurant, ta'aanam for his $3.80 lunch(mutton, omlette, lady fingers and spinach). the cumin in the masalah makes his day.
On the this joyous day - what's better to spend it to re-discover the rustic lives of singpore's zinc-roof-house lot?
he turns into farmway 5, and enters the 'animal resort'. it's the same resort he visited before, not change as far as he can remember. though he couldn't remember whether there was a horse, a lovely horse. marathon man wants to whisper to it, since it comes close to him, with its double-eye-lid eye, ignocent look, it tempts him to say something to it. they interact for sometime in silence. then it turns away.
the peacock in the coop, is excited and spreads out its technic-color feathers into a fan, strding proudly facing him.
the fat, old goose groups with the white ducks, as if he's the leader of the group.
the fishing pond begs some leisure lines; 2 adults and 2 kids try their luck, but so far no fish.
he spends half an hour in the mini zoo, fully relishing its atmosphere and its creatures. he continues his journey, walking slowly toward farmway 8. and lands in the swee lee landscape, where there are many tall trees, palm and other types, with tehir roots packed in soil, wrapped in back plastic bags, all ready to go to the IR in sentosa.
further on, he enters farmway 7. and somehow, he hits on the jalan kayu terraces - he remembers the last time he was in jalan kayu, he wanted to detour into the forest trail... now he's in the forest trail, coming out to jalan kayu.
he stops in an indian restaurant, ta'aanam for his $3.80 lunch(mutton, omlette, lady fingers and spinach). the cumin in the masalah makes his day.
On the this joyous day - what's better to spend it to re-discover the rustic lives of singpore's zinc-roof-house lot?
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
oasis - found
a caravan of camels had to stop over in this oasis for the nite.
the beasts filled their stomachs with food and water. the caravaners went to look for their chicks.
and marathon man was left alone to tend the camels.
one camel said, "are you not interested in women?"
"sure..."
"but you are here with us?"
"it's my turn."
"nobody is around, you can go for some fun, and make it back here before anyone finds out."
"how about you guys? sure you won't play the hide and seek game on me, like you did with the last guy?"
"don't worry. you are a good guy, we only tricked the guy because he treated us bad."
"what did he do to you?"
"he smoked a pack of camel."
"wow.... that's very in-considerate, smoking camel infront of the camels."
"you are telling me.... so you want to go or not?"
"heeheheh,..... i need some humps... and surely not the ones that you have...."
the moral found in this story - smoke and hump don't jive, so
QUIT SMOKING
the beasts filled their stomachs with food and water. the caravaners went to look for their chicks.
and marathon man was left alone to tend the camels.
one camel said, "are you not interested in women?"
"sure..."
"but you are here with us?"
"it's my turn."
"nobody is around, you can go for some fun, and make it back here before anyone finds out."
"how about you guys? sure you won't play the hide and seek game on me, like you did with the last guy?"
"don't worry. you are a good guy, we only tricked the guy because he treated us bad."
"what did he do to you?"
"he smoked a pack of camel."
"wow.... that's very in-considerate, smoking camel infront of the camels."
"you are telling me.... so you want to go or not?"
"heeheheh,..... i need some humps... and surely not the ones that you have...."
the moral found in this story - smoke and hump don't jive, so
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
forest - lost
there's still the urge to shoot something. but no target yet.
the hunter got lost in the forest. his immediate call was to find the way out, not so much as to hunt.
yet he did not want to miss the chance of shooting something, if he found his game.
along the way, he saw a deer near the bush. he raised his bow, and aimed at it.
the deer noticed him, said, "wait, i know you are lost. but don't tell me you're so lost that you don't know you are lost and your job is to find the way out."
"you are right. perhaps i should not waste my time in hunting, instead, looking for a way out." so he let the deer go.
after wandering the forest for another hour, he saw a trail of tiger paws on the ground, he toed behind them and saw the beast resting under a tree. instinctly, he readied his bow and arrow, and was about to shoot. the tiger turned around, gazed at him, said, "young man, you must be lost to find yourself in the deep forest.... you shoot me, you still lost.... perhaps i could find you the way out"
but he shot it anyway. he reminded himself, threatening adversaries always presented themselves as threats, must be eliminated.
he moved on.... still lost as ever.
then the sound of the wild buffalo attracted him. he saw one near the river bank drinking water. and the buffalo saw him also. it said, "hunting chap, you look like you have been lost for quite sometime. you need some water?"
"yes. but i also need some food." he shot it and got a good steak out of its meat.
and nite fell. the forest took on its own life... creatures and creepy crawlies, big and small had a field nite, foraging, preying and looking for mates.... the hunter put himself in the mercy of the nite.
he lit up a fire. and without a shut-eye, was in full alert of any imminent menace around him.
then a big snake hanging from a tree caught his attention.
its aggressive hissings prompted him to aim his arrow in its direction.
it stopped hissing and said, "oh, your arrow would not hurt me, with my thick skin..... and i see, you are a hunter, a lost hunter and soon will be my sumptious supper."
he gave it a shot anyway.....
marathon man is very much that lost hunter..... would he have survived the ordeal, and found his way out of the forest or ended up finding his way into the snake's tummy?
the hunter got lost in the forest. his immediate call was to find the way out, not so much as to hunt.
yet he did not want to miss the chance of shooting something, if he found his game.
along the way, he saw a deer near the bush. he raised his bow, and aimed at it.
the deer noticed him, said, "wait, i know you are lost. but don't tell me you're so lost that you don't know you are lost and your job is to find the way out."
"you are right. perhaps i should not waste my time in hunting, instead, looking for a way out." so he let the deer go.
after wandering the forest for another hour, he saw a trail of tiger paws on the ground, he toed behind them and saw the beast resting under a tree. instinctly, he readied his bow and arrow, and was about to shoot. the tiger turned around, gazed at him, said, "young man, you must be lost to find yourself in the deep forest.... you shoot me, you still lost.... perhaps i could find you the way out"
but he shot it anyway. he reminded himself, threatening adversaries always presented themselves as threats, must be eliminated.
he moved on.... still lost as ever.
then the sound of the wild buffalo attracted him. he saw one near the river bank drinking water. and the buffalo saw him also. it said, "hunting chap, you look like you have been lost for quite sometime. you need some water?"
"yes. but i also need some food." he shot it and got a good steak out of its meat.
and nite fell. the forest took on its own life... creatures and creepy crawlies, big and small had a field nite, foraging, preying and looking for mates.... the hunter put himself in the mercy of the nite.
he lit up a fire. and without a shut-eye, was in full alert of any imminent menace around him.
then a big snake hanging from a tree caught his attention.
its aggressive hissings prompted him to aim his arrow in its direction.
it stopped hissing and said, "oh, your arrow would not hurt me, with my thick skin..... and i see, you are a hunter, a lost hunter and soon will be my sumptious supper."
he gave it a shot anyway.....
marathon man is very much that lost hunter..... would he have survived the ordeal, and found his way out of the forest or ended up finding his way into the snake's tummy?
Sunday, December 20, 2009
giza - brilliant idea
pyramid - a gigantic stone structure that's built by countless man power, and ingenuity. a king's tomb.
having the luxury to command people is no small feat. but only a few can reach that pinnacle of power.
while pushing against the head winds in the giza plain, marathon man's fren ah mark, who said that, he was a king in the land of aisyalam in his past life, told maarathon man how he used to make things happen at his whims and fancies. to him, nothing seemed impossible; it's his immaginations that limited the possibilities.
one day he asked his chief architect, "ah low, you have built many roads and bridges, can you build a bridge within a span of 500m, that will reach a height of 20m, so as to allow the ships to pass under it?"
"hmm.... your majesty, it's tough, to rise to a height of 20m, you must need at least a span of 1.5km."
"i know it's difficult..."
"ok.... we can build a crooked bridge."
"there you have it. i know you can do it. so a crooked bridge we shall build."
"where you want to build the bridge?"
"from our jaybee to the centre of the boundary between our kingdom and the lily kingdom."
"why?"
"oh, i can only exert my power on my people, not on the lily kingdom."
"your majesty, why not invade them and take them over."
"i would if i could, but they are not a weakling, you know."
"your majesty, instead of using the money to build the crooked bridge, why not use it to strengthen our military might and use it to conquer lily kingdom?"
"you have a plan to win the war?"
"sure. simple. we just pay the 8 million illegal immigrants, to march over the causeway..... even bare handed, would've drowned out the little kingdom 5 million population."
having the luxury to command people is no small feat. but only a few can reach that pinnacle of power.
while pushing against the head winds in the giza plain, marathon man's fren ah mark, who said that, he was a king in the land of aisyalam in his past life, told maarathon man how he used to make things happen at his whims and fancies. to him, nothing seemed impossible; it's his immaginations that limited the possibilities.
one day he asked his chief architect, "ah low, you have built many roads and bridges, can you build a bridge within a span of 500m, that will reach a height of 20m, so as to allow the ships to pass under it?"
"hmm.... your majesty, it's tough, to rise to a height of 20m, you must need at least a span of 1.5km."
"i know it's difficult..."
"ok.... we can build a crooked bridge."
"there you have it. i know you can do it. so a crooked bridge we shall build."
"where you want to build the bridge?"
"from our jaybee to the centre of the boundary between our kingdom and the lily kingdom."
"why?"
"oh, i can only exert my power on my people, not on the lily kingdom."
"your majesty, why not invade them and take them over."
"i would if i could, but they are not a weakling, you know."
"your majesty, instead of using the money to build the crooked bridge, why not use it to strengthen our military might and use it to conquer lily kingdom?"
"you have a plan to win the war?"
"sure. simple. we just pay the 8 million illegal immigrants, to march over the causeway..... even bare handed, would've drowned out the little kingdom 5 million population."
Saturday, December 19, 2009
sungei, cinema, sms ....... the detour
a fren said that she's on her way today,
after so many years.
yah, it must be a long long time.
the seasons come and go,
the hair, lesser and whiter,
so many years after the whole thing.
naive not the word to describe it,
rather wishful
and obsessed
or possessed?
waking up early,
brazing the morning breeze,
awating for that cab of hope
that brings joy for the day
joy that never meant to be
sungei, park, and bay
office, cinema and late nite functions
letters, emails, sms....
all gone to the bitter winds
heart racing, blood simmering, mood soaring,
no clue of
what heart ache to come.
hurting, deep, deep
the one who's not supposed
to know what's going on.....
happy birthday
many more to come
after so many years.
yah, it must be a long long time.
the seasons come and go,
the hair, lesser and whiter,
so many years after the whole thing.
naive not the word to describe it,
rather wishful
and obsessed
or possessed?
waking up early,
brazing the morning breeze,
awating for that cab of hope
that brings joy for the day
joy that never meant to be
sungei, park, and bay
office, cinema and late nite functions
letters, emails, sms....
all gone to the bitter winds
heart racing, blood simmering, mood soaring,
no clue of
what heart ache to come.
hurting, deep, deep
the one who's not supposed
to know what's going on.....
happy birthday
many more to come
Thursday, December 17, 2009
al ahreesh street - eat sand
sand storm, that's some kind of sand feeding process, whereby the wind does its job of feeding sand into people's mouths.
a 45-minute walk from metro supermart in al ahreesh street, off al ahram street in giza put a lot of sand into one's 5 senses.
.....
just stepping outside the hotel, a guy came up and asked, "where are you going?"
wanted to ignore him, but he kept asking. still he wouldn't want to say more, just walked faster and tried to leave him behind. but he wouldn't go away. "i'm the police," he said. but he's not in police uniform, though with a walky-talkie....
"where are you going?"
"buy hibiscus tea."
"let me show you the way."
so he followed him crossing the busy road, with him, trying to slow down the on-coming traffic, as if he owned the road.
not far from the hotel, he showed him a small dirt road, "there, supermart."
he went in a small grocery stall... it just opened for business, the stall-keeper still opening up the inner doors. he spoke to him in arabic. and he showed him the hibiscus tea. then he realized he had not changed his dollars into egyptian pounds... so he said, "ok, thanks, i have to go..... no money.."
so they came back to the hotel.
then he exchanged his money and went out the hotel. he met the policeman again. this time he said, "i'm going to al ahreesh." and he did not follow.
after 20 miuntes' walk with no clue where to find al ahreesh, he showed another police man the destination written in arabic by the tour-guide, an asked, "how to go to al ahressh?"
he took a look at the paper, said, "here, follow me."
he went to the road side, and hailed a micro-bus, "al ahreesh?"
"naam", the bus stopped.
"you go up, and pay 1 pound."
so he got into the mirco-bus, with the door always opened, and paid the driver 1 pound. after some stops, the micro-bus stopped, the driver said, "al ahreesh."
he pointed to the street opposite where the micro-bus stopped, "is that al ahreesh."
"naam."
good men, cannot be known by just their looks. you meet them, it's your luck.
a 45-minute walk from metro supermart in al ahreesh street, off al ahram street in giza put a lot of sand into one's 5 senses.
.....
just stepping outside the hotel, a guy came up and asked, "where are you going?"
wanted to ignore him, but he kept asking. still he wouldn't want to say more, just walked faster and tried to leave him behind. but he wouldn't go away. "i'm the police," he said. but he's not in police uniform, though with a walky-talkie....
"where are you going?"
"buy hibiscus tea."
"let me show you the way."
so he followed him crossing the busy road, with him, trying to slow down the on-coming traffic, as if he owned the road.
not far from the hotel, he showed him a small dirt road, "there, supermart."
he went in a small grocery stall... it just opened for business, the stall-keeper still opening up the inner doors. he spoke to him in arabic. and he showed him the hibiscus tea. then he realized he had not changed his dollars into egyptian pounds... so he said, "ok, thanks, i have to go..... no money.."
so they came back to the hotel.
then he exchanged his money and went out the hotel. he met the policeman again. this time he said, "i'm going to al ahreesh." and he did not follow.
after 20 miuntes' walk with no clue where to find al ahreesh, he showed another police man the destination written in arabic by the tour-guide, an asked, "how to go to al ahressh?"
he took a look at the paper, said, "here, follow me."
he went to the road side, and hailed a micro-bus, "al ahreesh?"
"naam", the bus stopped.
"you go up, and pay 1 pound."
so he got into the mirco-bus, with the door always opened, and paid the driver 1 pound. after some stops, the micro-bus stopped, the driver said, "al ahreesh."
he pointed to the street opposite where the micro-bus stopped, "is that al ahreesh."
"naam."
good men, cannot be known by just their looks. you meet them, it's your luck.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
alexandria - a city with a brown turban
Go alexandria from giza, 3.5 hour bus journey. A lot of oil refinaries at the suburb, belching out large amt of smog, polluting the air - the whole city, from far, can see a layer of brown smog hanging over it. The seaside is very long and people take to the seaside and beach to fishing and enjoy the sea and waves and cafes and water-pipe smoking. Traffic very heavy.
Visit catacomb - group-tomb or like today's memorial. The surrounding area is very dusty and dirty with narrow streets and haphazard, characteristically egyptian un-finished houses. Also go pompeys pillar near by. Then makan along the seaside. Then go library and farukh's gardens and palaces.
Eat in 'tang cheng' chinese reataurant in giza.
what's dust to marathon man is air to many egyptians - their wrapped-up bodies separate most part of them from the dust - their lungs won't be so protected - life within the dust bowl is also life for so many people for as long as history is known to mankind.
alexandria, a city destroyed by the 4th century earth-quake, the city that holds cleopatra's dreams never had it so bad - people do not have any more conscience on cleaning up their acts to make the air, if not particularly clean, at least not that bad - why?
because their rice-bowls literally come from the dust-bowls.
Visit catacomb - group-tomb or like today's memorial. The surrounding area is very dusty and dirty with narrow streets and haphazard, characteristically egyptian un-finished houses. Also go pompeys pillar near by. Then makan along the seaside. Then go library and farukh's gardens and palaces.
Eat in 'tang cheng' chinese reataurant in giza.
what's dust to marathon man is air to many egyptians - their wrapped-up bodies separate most part of them from the dust - their lungs won't be so protected - life within the dust bowl is also life for so many people for as long as history is known to mankind.
alexandria, a city destroyed by the 4th century earth-quake, the city that holds cleopatra's dreams never had it so bad - people do not have any more conscience on cleaning up their acts to make the air, if not particularly clean, at least not that bad - why?
because their rice-bowls literally come from the dust-bowls.
cairo - kickless boost
Yesterday, go saladin citadel and md ali mosque. It's built after the blue mosque in turkey. Very grand deco inside. With a big chandellier from france and jade-green paintings on the inside of the domes. And a lot of letrik candle lights hang slightly above one person's height in the big hall.
Then go khan khalili market donwtown cairo. The 4 gals late coming back, everybody claps and they still want to argue. Give them a piece of his mind. Eat in hard rock cafe. Met gracie, his colleague n family, from another tour. then go to cairo museum. Visit exhibits from old, middle and new anicient egyptian kingdoms - old ones have better art sculptures than the others. Impression of more than 2000 yrs, little change in the traditons and other aspects of the egyptians. The kings of the old kingdom donned the same attire as the kings from new kingdom - worshipping the same gods, making the same monuments except the tombs of old kingdoms were pyramids, whereas the later kings built tombs in the kings' valley.
Looks like history is more of kings and powerful people than of the ordinary folks. If the kings don't change their ways of life, the people would care little to do so. Hence the point to democracy is to let the people have more say what they want and how they want to live their lives instead of pushed down from the top. Singapore reflect exactly the kingdom system where by changes are pushed down from the top.
Witness king tut's exhibits - very glamorous and mind boggling how more than 4000 yrs ago people already had what we are having now as the means to live and enjoy life - fans, mirrors, diff types of bed, diff types of container jar, perfumes, nails,...the workmanship of the sedan chair was like done with a precision machine on the wooden handles and capped with bronze at the ends, done in such neat fits you wld think it must be done with some kind of high tech robot.
Dinner at egyptian buffet retaurant - so so. Buy a can of beck, the non-alcoholic beer. Tastes like beer but no kick.
beer is no beer if it looses its alcohol, just like salt is no salt if its looses it saltiness.
singapura is no singapura if it looses its singapore-lah!
Then go khan khalili market donwtown cairo. The 4 gals late coming back, everybody claps and they still want to argue. Give them a piece of his mind. Eat in hard rock cafe. Met gracie, his colleague n family, from another tour. then go to cairo museum. Visit exhibits from old, middle and new anicient egyptian kingdoms - old ones have better art sculptures than the others. Impression of more than 2000 yrs, little change in the traditons and other aspects of the egyptians. The kings of the old kingdom donned the same attire as the kings from new kingdom - worshipping the same gods, making the same monuments except the tombs of old kingdoms were pyramids, whereas the later kings built tombs in the kings' valley.
Looks like history is more of kings and powerful people than of the ordinary folks. If the kings don't change their ways of life, the people would care little to do so. Hence the point to democracy is to let the people have more say what they want and how they want to live their lives instead of pushed down from the top. Singapore reflect exactly the kingdom system where by changes are pushed down from the top.
Witness king tut's exhibits - very glamorous and mind boggling how more than 4000 yrs ago people already had what we are having now as the means to live and enjoy life - fans, mirrors, diff types of bed, diff types of container jar, perfumes, nails,...the workmanship of the sedan chair was like done with a precision machine on the wooden handles and capped with bronze at the ends, done in such neat fits you wld think it must be done with some kind of high tech robot.
Dinner at egyptian buffet retaurant - so so. Buy a can of beck, the non-alcoholic beer. Tastes like beer but no kick.
beer is no beer if it looses its alcohol, just like salt is no salt if its looses it saltiness.
singapura is no singapura if it looses its singapore-lah!
Friday, December 11, 2009
abu simbel - progress
The egyptian nite in winter is chilly. But inside the air-conditioned van, it's warm. It left the cruise docking location in aswan at 3.00am in the morning and has to wait for 30 minutes in another area where all the buses going to abu simbel gathered and go thru some security check before it actually leaves aswan, heading south on a 3-hr journey.
After leaving the road lit by street lights, they are into the desert with no street lights and no other man-made lights other than the headlamps of the van and occasionally head lights from other vehicles.
Marathon man did not have a good sleep , though he tunned in before 9 last nite. But he does not feel like shutting his eyes, but is quite at a lost of what else to do in the next 3 hrs. Looking outside, it's featureless, desert-like lanscape. Then it stikes him when he looks up; there are countless stars hanging in the sky.it reminded him of the nites he spent in the arabian desrt, many years ago. if there's a milky way up there, it would definitley not be seen in the cities, with their lights cutting off all dimly lit starlets and stardusts...
just before they arrive at abu simbel, the sun rises up from the horizon, coloring the cloudless sky crimsonly red, and lighting the trees and plants scattered along the abu simbel village into some brilliant creatures ready to begin the day of sand eating.
the village is a small one, mainly accupied by the nubians, the dark-skin egyptians who inhabit the southern egypt and northern sudan, and who is supposed to be the first civilized people in the world, dated to the years before 3800bc.
abu simbel, 2 beautiful temples dedicated to remesses II and his wife nefertari was moved from the lower part of the nasser lake in 1960's when the aswan dam was constructed. still it retains its glorious mountain-carved structures and also the positionin of the remesses' temple such that the sun's ray will illuminate the three statues in the sanctuary room on the dates 22 feb and 22 oct, every year.
egyptian history like any other ancient or even recent history is mostly about kings, conquerers - most of the relics and artifacts left behind are big structures dedicated to the kings.
for the 200o years of ancient egyptian history, it seems the kings of the 1st dynatsy and those of the 30th dynasty had many things in common, in their beliefs, their attires, their customers..... to them, it seemed thare's no generation gap.... there's only one generation for the 2000 over years.
but now, just within the last century, egypt has changed from a monarchy to a republic and has followed the step of the global changes quite closely, espceially in the big cities like cairo and alexandria.
autocratic society progresses only if the person in power does so - whereas, for an opened society, the motivation for progress comes from the people.
After leaving the road lit by street lights, they are into the desert with no street lights and no other man-made lights other than the headlamps of the van and occasionally head lights from other vehicles.
Marathon man did not have a good sleep , though he tunned in before 9 last nite. But he does not feel like shutting his eyes, but is quite at a lost of what else to do in the next 3 hrs. Looking outside, it's featureless, desert-like lanscape. Then it stikes him when he looks up; there are countless stars hanging in the sky.it reminded him of the nites he spent in the arabian desrt, many years ago. if there's a milky way up there, it would definitley not be seen in the cities, with their lights cutting off all dimly lit starlets and stardusts...
just before they arrive at abu simbel, the sun rises up from the horizon, coloring the cloudless sky crimsonly red, and lighting the trees and plants scattered along the abu simbel village into some brilliant creatures ready to begin the day of sand eating.
the village is a small one, mainly accupied by the nubians, the dark-skin egyptians who inhabit the southern egypt and northern sudan, and who is supposed to be the first civilized people in the world, dated to the years before 3800bc.
abu simbel, 2 beautiful temples dedicated to remesses II and his wife nefertari was moved from the lower part of the nasser lake in 1960's when the aswan dam was constructed. still it retains its glorious mountain-carved structures and also the positionin of the remesses' temple such that the sun's ray will illuminate the three statues in the sanctuary room on the dates 22 feb and 22 oct, every year.
egyptian history like any other ancient or even recent history is mostly about kings, conquerers - most of the relics and artifacts left behind are big structures dedicated to the kings.
for the 200o years of ancient egyptian history, it seems the kings of the 1st dynatsy and those of the 30th dynasty had many things in common, in their beliefs, their attires, their customers..... to them, it seemed thare's no generation gap.... there's only one generation for the 2000 over years.
but now, just within the last century, egypt has changed from a monarchy to a republic and has followed the step of the global changes quite closely, espceially in the big cities like cairo and alexandria.
autocratic society progresses only if the person in power does so - whereas, for an opened society, the motivation for progress comes from the people.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
edfu - pap rules
Woke up in the wee hours, he checked his blackberry, and wouldn't be able to get back to sleep any more. He came up to the sun-deck, chilly and quiet.
The time was before 5am.
The dark sky was clear with a cresent moon overhead. the cold stars sparingly dotted the dark screen.
At 5.55 the loud speakers sounded, one after each other - the call to prayer made a very powerful statement to break dawn in a muslim country - that religion is the expression of human beings inner faith to strive for something that's not humanly possible.
The sky over the east bank of nile show the first light of dawn at 5.30am, though marathon man could not be sure that the very faint shade of brightness was actually that from the rising sun. He was fooled once, yesterday morning when he was jogging along the east bank of the nile river in luxor. He thot the sun was going to come out from the other end of the river given that he witnessed a spetacular but quite brief sun-set to the west bank the day before. but, instead, the sun rose on the south-east of the nile.
at 5.45 the shade of brightness turned into deep orange opposite where the cruise docked, and the rest of the sky brightened up in soothing turquoise-blue.
A rooster crowed - then anotehr one, then one after another, from far and near - morning had really broken at a location along the nile, unknown to marathon man.
The birds began to chirp. many of them, sweeping thru the sky - their scissor-tails alluded to their identity - the swifts.
Every so not often a horse-pulled or donkey-pulled cart trotted along the street below.
As the sky brightened up more, the stars faded away: only the moon with her lemon-cresent still hanging in the sky.
At 6.30 the sun finally appeared from the eastbank, amidst the horizontal strip of dark-grey haze. The glory of the day had indeed arrived in this land of the pharoahs.
Marathon man went on to the street next to where the cruise docked. But it stank with the horse and donkey Pee And Poo. No incentive to explore further - just to wait for the time for the day's tour to kom ombo to start.
edfu and singapore has one thing in common - each is a place where pap rules.
The time was before 5am.
The dark sky was clear with a cresent moon overhead. the cold stars sparingly dotted the dark screen.
At 5.55 the loud speakers sounded, one after each other - the call to prayer made a very powerful statement to break dawn in a muslim country - that religion is the expression of human beings inner faith to strive for something that's not humanly possible.
The sky over the east bank of nile show the first light of dawn at 5.30am, though marathon man could not be sure that the very faint shade of brightness was actually that from the rising sun. He was fooled once, yesterday morning when he was jogging along the east bank of the nile river in luxor. He thot the sun was going to come out from the other end of the river given that he witnessed a spetacular but quite brief sun-set to the west bank the day before. but, instead, the sun rose on the south-east of the nile.
at 5.45 the shade of brightness turned into deep orange opposite where the cruise docked, and the rest of the sky brightened up in soothing turquoise-blue.
A rooster crowed - then anotehr one, then one after another, from far and near - morning had really broken at a location along the nile, unknown to marathon man.
The birds began to chirp. many of them, sweeping thru the sky - their scissor-tails alluded to their identity - the swifts.
Every so not often a horse-pulled or donkey-pulled cart trotted along the street below.
As the sky brightened up more, the stars faded away: only the moon with her lemon-cresent still hanging in the sky.
At 6.30 the sun finally appeared from the eastbank, amidst the horizontal strip of dark-grey haze. The glory of the day had indeed arrived in this land of the pharoahs.
Marathon man went on to the street next to where the cruise docked. But it stank with the horse and donkey Pee And Poo. No incentive to explore further - just to wait for the time for the day's tour to kom ombo to start.
edfu and singapore has one thing in common - each is a place where pap rules.
doha - co-incident?
T3 had become busier and busier. There, he saw a bunch of slim africans checking in the same flight as his. All of them were in track suits, looking very sporting. He saw them soemwhere, before..... It was the singapore marathon. They were the african runners and one of whom, kibet begged the chmapion of the man open race. He wanted to take a picture with himm but all of them look the same to marathon man. So he gave up the idea.
the 9-hr red-eye flight made the unsettled body and mind very pique. and finally it landed in doha airport before dawn.
marathon man shook his jacket before he put it on. then before the plane stopped from taxing, he found out that his $510 frameless, transition-lense glasses were missing from his pocket where he used to clip them when he watched the in-flight movies( he finished 2, 'kung fu chef' by sammo hung, a funny bone. and 'moon' which was a boring sci_fi cum psycho trash). he checked out all his pockets, the seat pocket in front. the seat, but it was nowhere to be found. he kneeled dwon to check the floor. also did not find them. the other passenger were alerted. helped him to find. did not bring any happy outcome. finally, the plane stopped, people started to alight. marathon man remained there. when almost all passenger left, he alerted the air stewardessesw ho helped him to search by turning on the reading lights. as the second ticked away, marathon man wondered where could they be? could they land themselves on someone"s luggage and no more in the plane? as he was feeling a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, he saw something underneath the seat in the opposite row. he realised he was onto something.
How the heck they landed themselves in that spot, he wouldn't want to fathom, he just felt so relieved. he said to the stewardess, " i found them! thank God."
The helpers also were happy. One of them said, "next time, put on your glasses before the plane lands."
He said, "oh, I think I would. You know what, I left my glasses in the seat pocket, the last time I took this airline."
She said, "oh. That was no coincident, you better check whether you leave anything elsee?"
Her reminder triggered a switch in his grey matters, she was the one who brought him back his glasses when he was waiting in the transit lounge. Oh boy, other than thanking her for her kind service, was he not captivated by her arabic-euro facial fetures and her slender shape and her oriental demeanders or what? That face stuck in his mind even when he landed in turkey.
Now he was looking at her.
He said, "yes, I did leave my heart in doha........"
the 9-hr red-eye flight made the unsettled body and mind very pique. and finally it landed in doha airport before dawn.
marathon man shook his jacket before he put it on. then before the plane stopped from taxing, he found out that his $510 frameless, transition-lense glasses were missing from his pocket where he used to clip them when he watched the in-flight movies( he finished 2, 'kung fu chef' by sammo hung, a funny bone. and 'moon' which was a boring sci_fi cum psycho trash). he checked out all his pockets, the seat pocket in front. the seat, but it was nowhere to be found. he kneeled dwon to check the floor. also did not find them. the other passenger were alerted. helped him to find. did not bring any happy outcome. finally, the plane stopped, people started to alight. marathon man remained there. when almost all passenger left, he alerted the air stewardessesw ho helped him to search by turning on the reading lights. as the second ticked away, marathon man wondered where could they be? could they land themselves on someone"s luggage and no more in the plane? as he was feeling a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, he saw something underneath the seat in the opposite row. he realised he was onto something.
How the heck they landed themselves in that spot, he wouldn't want to fathom, he just felt so relieved. he said to the stewardess, " i found them! thank God."
The helpers also were happy. One of them said, "next time, put on your glasses before the plane lands."
He said, "oh, I think I would. You know what, I left my glasses in the seat pocket, the last time I took this airline."
She said, "oh. That was no coincident, you better check whether you leave anything elsee?"
Her reminder triggered a switch in his grey matters, she was the one who brought him back his glasses when he was waiting in the transit lounge. Oh boy, other than thanking her for her kind service, was he not captivated by her arabic-euro facial fetures and her slender shape and her oriental demeanders or what? That face stuck in his mind even when he landed in turkey.
Now he was looking at her.
He said, "yes, I did leave my heart in doha........"
Monday, December 7, 2009
padang - singapore marathon
singapore marathon - he arrived padang at 7.15am. but not allowed to run from starting point; he's did not register. went all the way to marina blvd, towards the marina barrage. the so-called marina bay was now surrounded by tall buildings from the marina square hotels, the shenton way banks, and now the SAIL, asia financial centre building, marina residences, and the IR. it looked more like a pond. the planners must be regretting when they did the land reclaiming years ago, they did not envisage a grander vision to make the water a real bay of magnificent size....
when he wanted to give up the run, and turned back to town, before he entered shentopn way, he met up with the starting group of runners of the 10k run, followed by the bulk of the slower ones. he joined them. the route was a familiar one - the benjamin-sheare bridge, the area around republic blvd, then back to the durian, ended up infront of the old pariahman house. when he was about to reach the finish point, a mashall stopped him and asked, "where's your tag?"
"no tag."
"cannot finish."
so he went sideway and continued running, anyhow.
as they said, you run, when encounter a block, take a break and run again.
when he wanted to give up the run, and turned back to town, before he entered shentopn way, he met up with the starting group of runners of the 10k run, followed by the bulk of the slower ones. he joined them. the route was a familiar one - the benjamin-sheare bridge, the area around republic blvd, then back to the durian, ended up infront of the old pariahman house. when he was about to reach the finish point, a mashall stopped him and asked, "where's your tag?"
"no tag."
"cannot finish."
so he went sideway and continued running, anyhow.
as they said, you run, when encounter a block, take a break and run again.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
gallery by the straits - bad moon rising
"look the sun is rising!" his gal fren shouted excitedly, pointing to the horizon to the east of the straits of johor.
sea breeze blowing, the dark sky brightened up somewhat with the pale lighting from the orange obb. the food was good - lemak curry fish-head, kailan fried with scallop, black pepper crab, and meat-stuffed toufu.
"what? how can it be? how can the sun rise in the nite? it's the moon.... "
"oh... but look, it's so big and so bright. ya.... i think you are right. it's the moon...."
'bad moon rising', the backgroud music went.
but the nite was good.
dinner at gallery by the straits in saf yacht club in sembawang had a good start. the conversation topics went from tiger woods and his hole-some transgressions to tiger whips for people to boost their hole-some activities.
marathon man asked, "if you were tiger's wife, would you have gotten a divorce. remember the man is worth over a bil."
"maybe, maybe not, depends."
"on what?"
"on whether there's still love left between us."
"ok.... but even if there's this thing called love, would you not be tempted by that fortune that you could take possession of, if you did the right move?"
"well.... money is good for almost everything. but it can't buy love. in fact, money breaks up love. further more, she loves her kids...."
"oh... i see. difficult decision for his wife, indeed."
"don't worry....we, women will make a decision when we need to make one. we have the intuition to make the right decision."
"you think so? why?"
"because, we are holely!"
sea breeze blowing, the dark sky brightened up somewhat with the pale lighting from the orange obb. the food was good - lemak curry fish-head, kailan fried with scallop, black pepper crab, and meat-stuffed toufu.
"what? how can it be? how can the sun rise in the nite? it's the moon.... "
"oh... but look, it's so big and so bright. ya.... i think you are right. it's the moon...."
'bad moon rising', the backgroud music went.
but the nite was good.
dinner at gallery by the straits in saf yacht club in sembawang had a good start. the conversation topics went from tiger woods and his hole-some transgressions to tiger whips for people to boost their hole-some activities.
marathon man asked, "if you were tiger's wife, would you have gotten a divorce. remember the man is worth over a bil."
"maybe, maybe not, depends."
"on what?"
"on whether there's still love left between us."
"ok.... but even if there's this thing called love, would you not be tempted by that fortune that you could take possession of, if you did the right move?"
"well.... money is good for almost everything. but it can't buy love. in fact, money breaks up love. further more, she loves her kids...."
"oh... i see. difficult decision for his wife, indeed."
"don't worry....we, women will make a decision when we need to make one. we have the intuition to make the right decision."
"you think so? why?"
"because, we are holely!"
Thursday, December 3, 2009
nowhere - boring
human invented language to communicate - and to do so, language supposed to have precise meaning in each word..... so that people can understand what you try to say. so when someone says, "i'm HAPPY." you know he's not SAD. but is that true? how do you know that he means he's really, really HAPPY and not SAD? but in actual fact, he's SAD.....
if you don't believe, you can try this with your thesaurus(the book of synonyms and antonyms). start with HAPPY, pick one of its synonyms from the thesaurus, in this case, it's CHEEFUL, then find one of the synonyms of cheerful, POSITIVE and so on......
happy
cheerful
positive
certain
specific
limited
narrow
tight
rigid
stern
grave
grim
gloomy
sad
see how HAPPY means SAD!
when he's not running about, marathon man likes to play this game of turning the meaning of a word to its opposite with the help of the microsoft WORD - Tool-> Language -> Thesaurus....
try it, it's boring..... you got it, i mean it's fun!
if you don't believe, you can try this with your thesaurus(the book of synonyms and antonyms). start with HAPPY, pick one of its synonyms from the thesaurus, in this case, it's CHEEFUL, then find one of the synonyms of cheerful, POSITIVE and so on......
happy
cheerful
positive
certain
specific
limited
narrow
tight
rigid
stern
grave
grim
gloomy
sad
see how HAPPY means SAD!
when he's not running about, marathon man likes to play this game of turning the meaning of a word to its opposite with the help of the microsoft WORD - Tool-> Language -> Thesaurus....
try it, it's boring..... you got it, i mean it's fun!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
maguindanau - fear
maguindanau massacre - 23 nov 2009. some kind of signal to the human race, there's something very seriously sick with the human psyche - ie after all we are animals, but with much mightier power to eliminate our enemies!
we kill to survive, and we kill to get waht we want, and we kill to get to the top.
once you are at the top, you can kill more, with immunity.
the winning killer will be king, and the loosers will be the victims.
what makes man become a killer? a meditated killer. it's no freak incident like the bukit timah flood that happened 12 days ago, that minister yacob said, it would only happen once in fifty years. meditated killings systematically happen across the world, at anytime in any place.... in aftghan, pakistan, the somalia, even in the u.s. of a.......
human life is nothing but a piece in a chess game. any piece can be sacrificed, except the king. so when you are the king, you have to protect yourself. or rather your people have to protect you.
maslow's hierachy of needs - 5 levels. but how do you achieve what you need? you do that by:
inheritance/gift
exchange
leverage
cheat
corrupt
grab
lucky people inherit wealth. honest people exhange their work for their means to live. but most people would just be scratching aliving with their honest work. smart people leverage - they put in little effort and hope to get bigger returns. and really smart people cheat like madoff who was commited this march to operate the biggest ponzi scheme the world had ever known.in the civilized world should not see corruption and grabbing, but we see them or rather we know they do exist even in the "cleanest" societies. and wars between nations and tribes and gangs and clans... are glorified ways of grabbing. glorified thru heroism of protecting one's country, clan, gangs....
hence if you look at the massacre in this light, it would not be hard to understand the motive of the incident. people just wanted to grab what they think belonging to them.
honest people exchange their work for a living. there's nothing wrong with it . if you think there's something wrong, you sure go nuts, and you would think that , cheating, corrupting, grabbing, or killing would be the right things to do.....
marathon man knows that all this wealth and power could be gone overnite just like the collapse of the dubai world one week ago.....
and he knows, precisely, that the fear of losing it all motivates people to want to gather in more and more, to eliminate whoever that threatens their possesions or positions - and that's what's happening in the maguindanau massacre.
we kill to survive, and we kill to get waht we want, and we kill to get to the top.
once you are at the top, you can kill more, with immunity.
the winning killer will be king, and the loosers will be the victims.
what makes man become a killer? a meditated killer. it's no freak incident like the bukit timah flood that happened 12 days ago, that minister yacob said, it would only happen once in fifty years. meditated killings systematically happen across the world, at anytime in any place.... in aftghan, pakistan, the somalia, even in the u.s. of a.......
human life is nothing but a piece in a chess game. any piece can be sacrificed, except the king. so when you are the king, you have to protect yourself. or rather your people have to protect you.
maslow's hierachy of needs - 5 levels. but how do you achieve what you need? you do that by:
inheritance/gift
exchange
leverage
cheat
corrupt
grab
lucky people inherit wealth. honest people exhange their work for their means to live. but most people would just be scratching aliving with their honest work. smart people leverage - they put in little effort and hope to get bigger returns. and really smart people cheat like madoff who was commited this march to operate the biggest ponzi scheme the world had ever known.in the civilized world should not see corruption and grabbing, but we see them or rather we know they do exist even in the "cleanest" societies. and wars between nations and tribes and gangs and clans... are glorified ways of grabbing. glorified thru heroism of protecting one's country, clan, gangs....
hence if you look at the massacre in this light, it would not be hard to understand the motive of the incident. people just wanted to grab what they think belonging to them.
honest people exchange their work for a living. there's nothing wrong with it . if you think there's something wrong, you sure go nuts, and you would think that , cheating, corrupting, grabbing, or killing would be the right things to do.....
marathon man knows that all this wealth and power could be gone overnite just like the collapse of the dubai world one week ago.....
and he knows, precisely, that the fear of losing it all motivates people to want to gather in more and more, to eliminate whoever that threatens their possesions or positions - and that's what's happening in the maguindanau massacre.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
jln kayu - sixth sense
do not be worried and upset!
did you hear the voice? you may think it's not for normal people to hear voices. voices may not be just sound, it could be signs, it could be something you read, it could be somebody you meet, it could be a thot that goose-bums you, it could be a dream, it could be an incident.... it could be a moment, it could be anything that somehow impresses on you.
richard dawkins would probably be flipped out if he knows that experience is not restricted just to the 5 senses - there's something we call sixth sense.
what's it? i cannot relate it to you with normal language which originates from human's 5 senses... but here's it....
thanggam lrt station, where's this place? never heard of.
it's in a deserted location in punggol - actually near to lorong tanggam, in the jalan kayu area. you get out from the lrt, and walk across the bridge from the station to a hill, on a path that would lead you to lor tanggam. that's the 1st time marathon man stepped foot on this area, though he had made a couple of trips in jln kayu and some of its surroundings. he jogged down to senkang w ave, then up jln kayu, where he stumbled into a wanton noodle shop - heji. and attracted by its clean and decent decor, and its advert on the wall, he ordered a small($3.30) soup noodle. nice, but nothing special, though the noodle was the flat, tiny type, not that good of a bite, not that springy.
then he went into the jln tali lilin, jln tali piring, jln tong lee, jln tali payong, jal tali dulang, jln tali zapin, where he was fascinated by the serene setting of the place especially the houses further away from the tpe.
he came out to jln kayu, it was lunch time, alot of people patronizing the 2 prata shops - cafeela, and thasevi. he was not that crazy for prata. further more he was still quite full with the noodle. but his mind couldn't help to want to have it. he entered the restautrant, but couldn't find a seat.
as he was about to go away, a mother of two little babies, stood up and said, "you can have the seat."
marathon man said, "thank you."
as their eyes met, something jerked the back of his mind; the lady's face seemed familiar - who could she be, where could he have met her?
the lady was also having somewhat the same reaction.
"ah...." both of them simultaneously blurted out.
at the same time, super quick rewinding in marathon man's mind did flash out the answer - they met in the mrt a few years ago. at the orchard rd station when she was stepping into the fully packed coach. though she was pregnant, nobody near her gave up his seat to her. marathon man, sitting a few seats away, stood up and waved at her to sit down. she did and said, "thank you. "
..........
"eh.... we met in the mrt? didn't we?"
"oh.... ya..."
"are these your kids?"
"yes, twins. they were still here when we met." she pointed to her tummy.
before she went out, she said to her kids, "say goodbye to uncle."
"good bye, uncle nanny"
......
now you know what's sixth sense, but do you know who had it?
scroll below..... for answer. unless you really have it.
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the twins had it.... and normally kids have it.
did you hear the voice? you may think it's not for normal people to hear voices. voices may not be just sound, it could be signs, it could be something you read, it could be somebody you meet, it could be a thot that goose-bums you, it could be a dream, it could be an incident.... it could be a moment, it could be anything that somehow impresses on you.
richard dawkins would probably be flipped out if he knows that experience is not restricted just to the 5 senses - there's something we call sixth sense.
what's it? i cannot relate it to you with normal language which originates from human's 5 senses... but here's it....
thanggam lrt station, where's this place? never heard of.
it's in a deserted location in punggol - actually near to lorong tanggam, in the jalan kayu area. you get out from the lrt, and walk across the bridge from the station to a hill, on a path that would lead you to lor tanggam. that's the 1st time marathon man stepped foot on this area, though he had made a couple of trips in jln kayu and some of its surroundings. he jogged down to senkang w ave, then up jln kayu, where he stumbled into a wanton noodle shop - heji. and attracted by its clean and decent decor, and its advert on the wall, he ordered a small($3.30) soup noodle. nice, but nothing special, though the noodle was the flat, tiny type, not that good of a bite, not that springy.
then he went into the jln tali lilin, jln tali piring, jln tong lee, jln tali payong, jal tali dulang, jln tali zapin, where he was fascinated by the serene setting of the place especially the houses further away from the tpe.
he came out to jln kayu, it was lunch time, alot of people patronizing the 2 prata shops - cafeela, and thasevi. he was not that crazy for prata. further more he was still quite full with the noodle. but his mind couldn't help to want to have it. he entered the restautrant, but couldn't find a seat.
as he was about to go away, a mother of two little babies, stood up and said, "you can have the seat."
marathon man said, "thank you."
as their eyes met, something jerked the back of his mind; the lady's face seemed familiar - who could she be, where could he have met her?
the lady was also having somewhat the same reaction.
"ah...." both of them simultaneously blurted out.
at the same time, super quick rewinding in marathon man's mind did flash out the answer - they met in the mrt a few years ago. at the orchard rd station when she was stepping into the fully packed coach. though she was pregnant, nobody near her gave up his seat to her. marathon man, sitting a few seats away, stood up and waved at her to sit down. she did and said, "thank you. "
..........
"eh.... we met in the mrt? didn't we?"
"oh.... ya..."
"are these your kids?"
"yes, twins. they were still here when we met." she pointed to her tummy.
before she went out, she said to her kids, "say goodbye to uncle."
"good bye, uncle nanny"
......
now you know what's sixth sense, but do you know who had it?
scroll below..... for answer. unless you really have it.
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the twins had it.... and normally kids have it.
Friday, November 27, 2009
sengkang riverside park - panic attack
after a nice beehoon, koytiaw, and mee breakfast at the punggol mrt terminal, marathon man started his morning jog. he turned left into punggol central, then punggol way, sengkang east rd, anchorvale st. hardly expected to see any exciting, new sites... thot that all hoohahs of punggol water project in the news recently were from the east of the mrt.... but there it was, the sengkang riverside park - a name he never heard off, poppep up right from the left side of anchorvale st. a piece of land, almost barren, beside the sungei punggol. looking at the entrance site map, this less-than-a-year-old park has 3 sites, the one that marathan man just landed was bounded by the anchorvale st, the east side of sungei punggol, then on the 2nd site was on the west side of sungei punggol, the third site was also at the west side of sungei punggol, but bounded by sengkang west way instead.
marathon man made it round the less-than-1-km track of the first site. he could not go any nearer to view the river, due to the bushes and mangroves growing on the river banks, blocking any access. but mid-way, thru some bushes, he saw a small, make-shift wooden hut built on the side of the river, not occupied. that's cool, whoever built it.
he crossed the river to the other side, the 2nd site of the park, where the visitor centre was located. there, half way he saw a couple of young chaps detoured into some uncharted bushes, next to the tpe. marathon man wanted to follow, but pulled back. this was probably due to the effect of aging - not taking as much risk as when he was younger - though his heart is still burning with a lot of things he wants to do.... well, maybe next time, when he gets better(after his bout of flu). there's some newly planted trees in the park, looked like fruit trees. there were 3 ponds in this site of the park. the ponds were almost surrounded by long reeds, and teemed with small cichlids. a family of 3, mother, father and a preschool kid were feeding the fish with a big loaf of bread... whenever a piece was thrown into the water, the fishes darted for it., some even popped out of the water, glided like a flying fish to get to the bread first. the fishes on the other end of the pond, at first were not affected by the commotion. but the fishes nearer to ground zero reacted to it by swimming towards it, led by the fishes nearer to it... before long, the fishes at the far-end also somehow swam towards ground zero.... although they might not know there's food for them - is that herd instinct?
he crossed the road to the thrid site of the park, where there were more fruit trees, accordingly there were durian and mago trees... he saw 4 crows kicking on two beer cans. apparently they had tasted beer and liked it so much, they wanted more. the floating island in the middle of sungei punggol was not yet completed. the foreign worker told marthon man, it would take another month.
sungei punggol, a river in the north east of singapore, carries a lot of dreams for many people - the punggol 21 project that the gahmen unvailed some 13 years back got a lot of people excited, living in hdb's in a garden setting with rivers, waterways, promenades, fruit ocrhards, parks, and many other cool activity-sites.... and the dreams faded away for a while due to slow developemnt in this area. but half year ago, it got revived by the gahmen again with the launching of the punggol 21+ master plan. looks like this time it's for real. a few big hdb projects can be seen here, some near completion, some half way done and some with site-plan put up... and the water project work is definitely going full force, by the activities carried out around the sungei punggol. all these are for the coming erection year, in two years' time.
looks like the gahmen, had a panic attach, suddenly realized they were far behind on their promises, had to do alot of catch-up - just like marathon man, just two days, afflicted with a panic attack, when he was shown a letter to exclude him from a money making deal, and may put him into a money losing situation.... because he did not do his due deligence in signing the document. he called up the lawyer, and got it signed. not that he wasn't aware that he needed to sign, but he was hesitating, but when the push came to shove, he thot it was too late to do it. but he did it anyway.... before he lost two days of his sleep over the matter...and got stressed flat-out.
panic attack motivates - but it also ages a person by years of his life... no fun.
marathon man made it round the less-than-1-km track of the first site. he could not go any nearer to view the river, due to the bushes and mangroves growing on the river banks, blocking any access. but mid-way, thru some bushes, he saw a small, make-shift wooden hut built on the side of the river, not occupied. that's cool, whoever built it.
he crossed the river to the other side, the 2nd site of the park, where the visitor centre was located. there, half way he saw a couple of young chaps detoured into some uncharted bushes, next to the tpe. marathon man wanted to follow, but pulled back. this was probably due to the effect of aging - not taking as much risk as when he was younger - though his heart is still burning with a lot of things he wants to do.... well, maybe next time, when he gets better(after his bout of flu). there's some newly planted trees in the park, looked like fruit trees. there were 3 ponds in this site of the park. the ponds were almost surrounded by long reeds, and teemed with small cichlids. a family of 3, mother, father and a preschool kid were feeding the fish with a big loaf of bread... whenever a piece was thrown into the water, the fishes darted for it., some even popped out of the water, glided like a flying fish to get to the bread first. the fishes on the other end of the pond, at first were not affected by the commotion. but the fishes nearer to ground zero reacted to it by swimming towards it, led by the fishes nearer to it... before long, the fishes at the far-end also somehow swam towards ground zero.... although they might not know there's food for them - is that herd instinct?
he crossed the road to the thrid site of the park, where there were more fruit trees, accordingly there were durian and mago trees... he saw 4 crows kicking on two beer cans. apparently they had tasted beer and liked it so much, they wanted more. the floating island in the middle of sungei punggol was not yet completed. the foreign worker told marthon man, it would take another month.
sungei punggol, a river in the north east of singapore, carries a lot of dreams for many people - the punggol 21 project that the gahmen unvailed some 13 years back got a lot of people excited, living in hdb's in a garden setting with rivers, waterways, promenades, fruit ocrhards, parks, and many other cool activity-sites.... and the dreams faded away for a while due to slow developemnt in this area. but half year ago, it got revived by the gahmen again with the launching of the punggol 21+ master plan. looks like this time it's for real. a few big hdb projects can be seen here, some near completion, some half way done and some with site-plan put up... and the water project work is definitely going full force, by the activities carried out around the sungei punggol. all these are for the coming erection year, in two years' time.
looks like the gahmen, had a panic attach, suddenly realized they were far behind on their promises, had to do alot of catch-up - just like marathon man, just two days, afflicted with a panic attack, when he was shown a letter to exclude him from a money making deal, and may put him into a money losing situation.... because he did not do his due deligence in signing the document. he called up the lawyer, and got it signed. not that he wasn't aware that he needed to sign, but he was hesitating, but when the push came to shove, he thot it was too late to do it. but he did it anyway.... before he lost two days of his sleep over the matter...and got stressed flat-out.
panic attack motivates - but it also ages a person by years of his life... no fun.
Monday, November 23, 2009
home - flu peaks
flu peaks.with a lot of sour eyes, running nose, itchy throat, sore throat, but no aching bones. the whole day locked at home, watching tv, and some exciting dvd's.... the excitement does do alot of help to ease the misery for sometime, but it wears off shortly after the excited moment is gone....watch race to dubai golf tournament - westwood plays like a robot, every shot hit fairway in regulation, hit green in regulation - boogie free round of 64, course record, and win by 5 strokes! like they say, when he's good, he's good.
the day before, play golf with golf kakis. weather overcast, some short spell of sun, slight drizzle halfway....
nite, pop a panadol, not sleep until after midnite. wake up at 5, sour eyes gone, running nose stop, itching throat soothed, throat still soar, but not as much... go back to office, to the familiar setting of that airconned room. the power nap sure help to hasten the recuperating process...
it's like gone thru a guantanamo bay prison torture and back....
the day before, play golf with golf kakis. weather overcast, some short spell of sun, slight drizzle halfway....
nite, pop a panadol, not sleep until after midnite. wake up at 5, sour eyes gone, running nose stop, itching throat soothed, throat still soar, but not as much... go back to office, to the familiar setting of that airconned room. the power nap sure help to hasten the recuperating process...
it's like gone thru a guantanamo bay prison torture and back....
Thursday, November 19, 2009
office - habit
flu - not getting much sleep. and eating buah petai, for 3 days. run on the thread-mill. watch tv. taking conference call. sweating after 20 minutes. the morning seems so calm, and cool. but the mind is turbulent - too heaty.
staring at the small lizard on the wall two feet away. the little chap crawls a few steps, halts, waggles its tail a bit, head tilts to one side, tongue flips out and in a couple of times, waiting for any little bugs to fall within its foraging range, but nothing that looks like food appears. before the miunte ends, it wiggles away.
the day filled with meetings and conference calls. work is like - work. normal work, honest to goodness work. solid work, no non-sense work, hard work. when marathon man works, he really works. he works to fulfil his duty as an employee, he works for his living, and he works to fill up the time in his life.
no other things can be as fulfilling as a busy day of work. he talks and he listens, he plans and he decides, he reads and sends emails, attends meetings, conference calls, he deligates and he executes..... nothing is more meaningful as a good lunch time power nap. it freshens him up for more meetings, calls, listening, talking...... surf the net.... for the other half of the day.
then comes 5 - time to call it a working day.
20 miuntes back home, dinner, a sumptious dinner infront of the tv, with eyes glued to "the simpsons", and later "the nanny" back to back.... then .... reads emails, writes his memo..... bathes, gives thanks for
another day - another dollar!
and for the flu bug,
another prey - another fello!
staring at the small lizard on the wall two feet away. the little chap crawls a few steps, halts, waggles its tail a bit, head tilts to one side, tongue flips out and in a couple of times, waiting for any little bugs to fall within its foraging range, but nothing that looks like food appears. before the miunte ends, it wiggles away.
the day filled with meetings and conference calls. work is like - work. normal work, honest to goodness work. solid work, no non-sense work, hard work. when marathon man works, he really works. he works to fulfil his duty as an employee, he works for his living, and he works to fill up the time in his life.
no other things can be as fulfilling as a busy day of work. he talks and he listens, he plans and he decides, he reads and sends emails, attends meetings, conference calls, he deligates and he executes..... nothing is more meaningful as a good lunch time power nap. it freshens him up for more meetings, calls, listening, talking...... surf the net.... for the other half of the day.
then comes 5 - time to call it a working day.
20 miuntes back home, dinner, a sumptious dinner infront of the tv, with eyes glued to "the simpsons", and later "the nanny" back to back.... then .... reads emails, writes his memo..... bathes, gives thanks for
another day - another dollar!
and for the flu bug,
another prey - another fello!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
junction 8 - 2012
the end of the world - it seems, is no big deal. when you are prepared for it, nothing would scare you.
marathon man is not prepared.
he went to see 2012 in bishan junction 8, after an advanced booking one day ahead, when he did his jogging in bishan area. it was a hollywood big budget film - with alot of special cgi effects, and the same story line - that the disaster is going to strike, after some scientist makes some freak discovery, then a john doe somehow comes to figure out the scheme of things, and try his luck to salvage himself and the people around him....and all starts well ends well.... for these lucky people.
he watched the film with his galfren, ah maya.
after the show, she said, "i never thot that i caused so much trouble to the world..... i did not mean to say that the world would end on 21 dec 2012. my calander just says that's the end of a cycle where the star-positions in the sky would came back to the same as those 5126 years ago... why are people so clever to interpret things differently?"
marathon man said, "maya, you are a good astronomer, you are not a fortune teller. but people said the astrologer nostradamus did foretell that 2012 will be the end of the world, in his lost book. an astronomer and an astrologer both pointed to the same year as an eventful year, no wonder people were quick to conclude its the end of the world."
"if it's really the case, we ought to celebrate."
"what to celebrate?"
"celebrate we have the honor to witness this once in an earth-life-time event."
as they walked along the pasir ris park beach, the overcast sky opened up, myriads of sparkling lights streaked across the horizon. it's the leonid meteor shower..... ushering in the beggining of the end of the world!
marathon man is not prepared.
he went to see 2012 in bishan junction 8, after an advanced booking one day ahead, when he did his jogging in bishan area. it was a hollywood big budget film - with alot of special cgi effects, and the same story line - that the disaster is going to strike, after some scientist makes some freak discovery, then a john doe somehow comes to figure out the scheme of things, and try his luck to salvage himself and the people around him....and all starts well ends well.... for these lucky people.
he watched the film with his galfren, ah maya.
after the show, she said, "i never thot that i caused so much trouble to the world..... i did not mean to say that the world would end on 21 dec 2012. my calander just says that's the end of a cycle where the star-positions in the sky would came back to the same as those 5126 years ago... why are people so clever to interpret things differently?"
marathon man said, "maya, you are a good astronomer, you are not a fortune teller. but people said the astrologer nostradamus did foretell that 2012 will be the end of the world, in his lost book. an astronomer and an astrologer both pointed to the same year as an eventful year, no wonder people were quick to conclude its the end of the world."
"if it's really the case, we ought to celebrate."
"what to celebrate?"
"celebrate we have the honor to witness this once in an earth-life-time event."
as they walked along the pasir ris park beach, the overcast sky opened up, myriads of sparkling lights streaked across the horizon. it's the leonid meteor shower..... ushering in the beggining of the end of the world!
Monday, November 16, 2009
clementi - snacking
stop in clementi centre. enter a new mall, like any mall, a lot of food outlets. it also has a game arcade, with the latest game jubeat - hit on the litted button when the music is playing to a certain beat. jog in ave 4, the big field next to blk 310 is new to marathon man. go down across the old railway, where people planting small-time crops. no way thru to the jogging path. go across the bridge to the other end of clementi ave 6. go into clementi loop, an industrial area with a few big factory/warehouse/office structures. very quite in sunday evening. jog towards pie(tuas entrance), no way forward. turn back and find a way to the ulu-pandan connector jogging path. go across the canvass-covered bridge to sunset way makan hub.
as the sun sets, people start jogging. though marathon man, a regular jogger, jogs so much, still not enough to keep his weight down. mainly he snacks after dinner; anything from nuts to cereals, to fruits..... the way to keep a slim body, is to stop snack anytime of the day, everybody says.
his jogging buddy, ah kong said, "you eat too much."
"yes. after dinner, i still feel that i'm not full, though i have eaten one bowl of rice plus and a few portions of other food stuff. i yearn for for tit-bits to munch on.... especially after a busy day."
"it's called the food-for-good syndrome, when you have some sort of stress, or anxiety you wld be releasing a whole bunch of corticosteroids. you have relied food to keep your corticosteroids in check. and carbo stuff normally will induce a sudden blast of endorphins in your system that keep you satisfied and feeling good."
"i tried to cut down snacking, but it brings my mood down if i don't snack, especially when i am infront of the tv."
"ok. you can try eat only half full, and substitute the other half with snacks."
marathon man thot it's a good advice. and he would try it.
as the sun sets, people start jogging. though marathon man, a regular jogger, jogs so much, still not enough to keep his weight down. mainly he snacks after dinner; anything from nuts to cereals, to fruits..... the way to keep a slim body, is to stop snack anytime of the day, everybody says.
his jogging buddy, ah kong said, "you eat too much."
"yes. after dinner, i still feel that i'm not full, though i have eaten one bowl of rice plus and a few portions of other food stuff. i yearn for for tit-bits to munch on.... especially after a busy day."
"it's called the food-for-good syndrome, when you have some sort of stress, or anxiety you wld be releasing a whole bunch of corticosteroids. you have relied food to keep your corticosteroids in check. and carbo stuff normally will induce a sudden blast of endorphins in your system that keep you satisfied and feeling good."
"i tried to cut down snacking, but it brings my mood down if i don't snack, especially when i am infront of the tv."
"ok. you can try eat only half full, and substitute the other half with snacks."
marathon man thot it's a good advice. and he would try it.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
taiwan - white lie
when somebody puts his temper before reason, before professional conduct, he would hurt himself deep. as always, people like to be on top. and when their position is challenged, they would shout and yell, curse and swear to show that they are still on top.
marathon man was one of this kind, and so is his colleague. ah bee, a hardworking and honest southern taiwanese, whose mind is straight, too straight to have some filters to stop his feelings from pouring out unreservedly. he always leaves himself in total-nakedness, personality-wise, in the intercourse with his vendors. he used to be able to call his shots a few years ago, but for this one year or so, the vendor company changed its management team and also since the vendor is having some slack cut by ah bee's company because of capacity dependence on the vendor, he lost much of his clout over the vendor's representatives.
marathon man has told him not to take everything so personal, just do his part and let the rest of the things take care of themselves. in work or in life, some people are not born to be go-getters. unless you know exactly what you want, and you have the tenacity to get the things you want, you better measure yourself up and learn to work smart. by doing so, you still can get what you want, but with much less effort and with more respects from others.
marathon man went thru hard times in life and work, but he has learned much, since.
one time he was in taiwan, went vendor visiting with ah bee. during weekend, they went into the mountains in central taiwan, for the hot springs, for the wild foods and for good spas and for the fresh air. the air was super rejuvinating after the rain. the tall trees at the altitude cleansed the atmosphere, the surrounding was all very unworldly.
and marathon man met this gal. she was a tour guide leading a group of tourists. he was attracted by her healthy and joyous personality, and curious to learn more about the place from her while she was giving the tourists a guided tour. she noticed him. when she called it a day after sunset, she met up with him in a small, boutique tea-house near the hotel.
after ordering some local dishes and drinks for their dinner, he asked, "you like your job?"
"i do. but sometimes, some guests are too difficult to handle."
"how difficult?"
"like, they want my attention all the time. how can i give it to only one person and ignore the rest."
"did he get angry?"
"yes.... they even complained to my agency."
"so..."
"what i can do? i just do what i'm supposed to do, if somebody wants something unreasonable, i would have to put a stop on that."
"but you still like your job?"
"yes.... i used to be very brunt in putting down my guests unreasonable requests, but now i learned to be polite and diplomatic in handling such situations."
"how?"
"like, yesterday, this uncle wants to stop in the middle of nowhere to buy mangoes.... i said to him, it's not wise to do that, because there's normally wild dogs in the area and they will come out in packs after whoever encroaching their territory. i was only telling a lie to discourage him."
"wow, this is truely a white lie, which was told to cool down the situation."
"i don't want to confront my guests, but i have to discourage his unreasonable demand, many a time i would be telling him it's for his benefit not to do it, though it may not be the case. and i'm so good at that now, i enjoy my job, without much worry of difficult guests."
they talked and talked, and finally marathon man said, "how about we adjourn to my room?"
"oh.... you don't want me to do that."
"why?"
"my father is the owner of the hotel."
marathon man was one of this kind, and so is his colleague. ah bee, a hardworking and honest southern taiwanese, whose mind is straight, too straight to have some filters to stop his feelings from pouring out unreservedly. he always leaves himself in total-nakedness, personality-wise, in the intercourse with his vendors. he used to be able to call his shots a few years ago, but for this one year or so, the vendor company changed its management team and also since the vendor is having some slack cut by ah bee's company because of capacity dependence on the vendor, he lost much of his clout over the vendor's representatives.
marathon man has told him not to take everything so personal, just do his part and let the rest of the things take care of themselves. in work or in life, some people are not born to be go-getters. unless you know exactly what you want, and you have the tenacity to get the things you want, you better measure yourself up and learn to work smart. by doing so, you still can get what you want, but with much less effort and with more respects from others.
marathon man went thru hard times in life and work, but he has learned much, since.
one time he was in taiwan, went vendor visiting with ah bee. during weekend, they went into the mountains in central taiwan, for the hot springs, for the wild foods and for good spas and for the fresh air. the air was super rejuvinating after the rain. the tall trees at the altitude cleansed the atmosphere, the surrounding was all very unworldly.
and marathon man met this gal. she was a tour guide leading a group of tourists. he was attracted by her healthy and joyous personality, and curious to learn more about the place from her while she was giving the tourists a guided tour. she noticed him. when she called it a day after sunset, she met up with him in a small, boutique tea-house near the hotel.
after ordering some local dishes and drinks for their dinner, he asked, "you like your job?"
"i do. but sometimes, some guests are too difficult to handle."
"how difficult?"
"like, they want my attention all the time. how can i give it to only one person and ignore the rest."
"did he get angry?"
"yes.... they even complained to my agency."
"so..."
"what i can do? i just do what i'm supposed to do, if somebody wants something unreasonable, i would have to put a stop on that."
"but you still like your job?"
"yes.... i used to be very brunt in putting down my guests unreasonable requests, but now i learned to be polite and diplomatic in handling such situations."
"how?"
"like, yesterday, this uncle wants to stop in the middle of nowhere to buy mangoes.... i said to him, it's not wise to do that, because there's normally wild dogs in the area and they will come out in packs after whoever encroaching their territory. i was only telling a lie to discourage him."
"wow, this is truely a white lie, which was told to cool down the situation."
"i don't want to confront my guests, but i have to discourage his unreasonable demand, many a time i would be telling him it's for his benefit not to do it, though it may not be the case. and i'm so good at that now, i enjoy my job, without much worry of difficult guests."
they talked and talked, and finally marathon man said, "how about we adjourn to my room?"
"oh.... you don't want me to do that."
"why?"
"my father is the owner of the hotel."
peach garden - old master
lunch with jerry, mw, jenifer, ahlian, and kris, at peach garden, occ. good food, started with some exquisite dim sums, then steamed grouper, abalone with kailan, lobster noodle. dessert was mango ice-cream in a semi-hollow dragon fruit - very nice.
jerry is big shot in a semicon subcontractor, a young guy in his 20's, son of the company's founder's brother. born in uk, raised in u.s., but able to speak mandarin. the founder of the company is here to attend the apec conference. so he follows.
chinese medicine, tcm was one of the lunch-talk topics. he said, "my chinese doctor is an old chap, 96 years old. still very strong. very good. when you visit him, you don't have to tell him anything, after the prognosis, he will tell you what's wrong with you. but you must take him seriously, listen to what he says and take the medicine he prescribes, else, he won't take you seriously also. the first time i visited him, he just treated me nonchalantly, gave me the medicine. then after a month of taking his medicine, went back to see him. this time he said, he's happy that i did take his medicine duly, and that my condition had improved. like i have passed his first test. from then on, he treats me like a friend, and i place my total trust in him..... he plays golf 3 times a week, looks like a 70-year old. pity that he does not have any students that can inherit his medical skill."
adrian said, "well, china has a lot of masters, like your doctor, they are old, and do not have any disciples. soon enough, these masters' skill will disappear when they pass away. why can't we have an organization to call up all these people and retire them from their works if they are still working, to ask them to pass on to the younger generation their respective skills."
marathon man said, "good idea. i know of a master also, who is very good in his trade. we should ask him to retire and go teach the youth his skills."
"what's he good at, and who is he?"
"he's good at empire-building, and he's non other than our mm lee."
jerry is big shot in a semicon subcontractor, a young guy in his 20's, son of the company's founder's brother. born in uk, raised in u.s., but able to speak mandarin. the founder of the company is here to attend the apec conference. so he follows.
chinese medicine, tcm was one of the lunch-talk topics. he said, "my chinese doctor is an old chap, 96 years old. still very strong. very good. when you visit him, you don't have to tell him anything, after the prognosis, he will tell you what's wrong with you. but you must take him seriously, listen to what he says and take the medicine he prescribes, else, he won't take you seriously also. the first time i visited him, he just treated me nonchalantly, gave me the medicine. then after a month of taking his medicine, went back to see him. this time he said, he's happy that i did take his medicine duly, and that my condition had improved. like i have passed his first test. from then on, he treats me like a friend, and i place my total trust in him..... he plays golf 3 times a week, looks like a 70-year old. pity that he does not have any students that can inherit his medical skill."
adrian said, "well, china has a lot of masters, like your doctor, they are old, and do not have any disciples. soon enough, these masters' skill will disappear when they pass away. why can't we have an organization to call up all these people and retire them from their works if they are still working, to ask them to pass on to the younger generation their respective skills."
marathon man said, "good idea. i know of a master also, who is very good in his trade. we should ask him to retire and go teach the youth his skills."
"what's he good at, and who is he?"
"he's good at empire-building, and he's non other than our mm lee."
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
rcc - mp's & ministers and dpm
bishan-toa payoh grc golf in rcc - palm course - marathon man was in the same flight with terry, nat and francis. they had a good time in not losing so many balls in the water. hit a birdie and a few pars. shook the dpm's hand, and marathon man had the honor of winning the lucky draw and shook josephine's hand. she's a tall gal, with more shape than you can think of for any mp and any average lady ceo. perhaps lili neo can fight with her.
the bishan-toapayoh mayor, zainudin and the mp hri kumar also present. the education minister, dr ng eng hen also here tonite. but francis asked, "dr ng also here ah? where?"
nat said, " i just ate it."
"what?"
"they serve chicken, don't care whether its hainan chick or english hen....i like it."
the nite ended with bishan-toapayoh big band playing the sarisamba by juiter hujnet.
the bishan-toapayoh mayor, zainudin and the mp hri kumar also present. the education minister, dr ng eng hen also here tonite. but francis asked, "dr ng also here ah? where?"
nat said, " i just ate it."
"what?"
"they serve chicken, don't care whether its hainan chick or english hen....i like it."
the nite ended with bishan-toapayoh big band playing the sarisamba by juiter hujnet.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
springleaf - the little boy
happiness is not what you are here for.
if there's any nice surprise you want to have, you can jog. not along the same track that you used to jog regularly, but go places, all over singapore. surprises come in places that you never thot would exist in singapore but actually exist right here. and most of them are so intrinsically nice, in a sense that they remind you of beautiful things, beautiful moments and beautiful places that only exist in paradise that captures your primordial, nature-loving mindset.
and one of such places is springleaf estate. marathon man had jogged here quite a few times before. it was a nice place, with a lot of types of houses and varieties of trees and garden plants in the estate that made him feel like roaming in a big garden. but this time, as he had vaguely expected, there was something new to greet him - the canal that's extended from lower seletar reservoir towards upper thomson road. it was there before, but only in its unkempt form. now with the abc water project, it had put on a new face, with its body of water widened, and the banks nicely re-inforced with gravels tightly packed in chicken wires.
there were quite a few people fishing in the canal, some fly-fishing and some wait-fishing, some with live baits, some with lures.
he approached a fishing boy, and asked him, "is there any fish?"
"so far, for the last 3 hours i hv been here, no. but i think i should at least catch one today."
"then why you still here? you could change position."
"do you think that i came here to fish?"
"well, that's obvious, isn't it. if not, why brought your fishing line and cast it into the canal?"
"i just go thru the motion of fishing, but actually i just want to pass time."
"pass time? well, but you are fishing to pass time!?"
"but fishing is not what i came here for."
"ok..... somehow sounds logical."
"let me ask you, what are you here for?"
"i jog."
"no. i don't mean here, as in where you are, next to the canal. but here, in this world, why you exist in this world?"
"well..... i think i have no say on that; i do not have a choice to exist somewhere else."
"ok, since you already exist, then what are you looking for in your life?"
"i guess happiness."
"do you really think happiness is so important?"
"hmmm..... i think so, and many people think so, too."
"let me ask you, do you condemn people for looking for happiness?"
"why should i?"
"like those robbers who feel happy after robbing a bank, or those drug addicts after having their shots.... they, like you are after happiness."
"ah, but they do it by hurting others."
"ok... so happiness is conditional?"
"you can say that."
"so if something is conditional, meaning it's not absolute, like truth supposed is, do you think is worth for you to pursue?"
"i just think that, life without happiness is not worth living. like so many other people, they are struggling day and nite to scratch a living, i don't think they are happy. and i don't want to be like them."
"maybe they are not happy. but as i said, it doesn't matter. because, maybe, they are here not going after happiness..."
"then what are they going after? even though they are very poor, they still have the right to go after happiness, as long as they feel contented with what they have. as long as they feel they have enough to live by."
"look, the canal is here, because there's water. but water doesn't exist for the sake of making a canal look like a canal..... and men are here not because of happiness, but they are here because there's something else that exists...."
"ok, ok.....i'm afraid you lost me.... anyway, i am happy to see how beautiful this place has become, and i think it has made my day, at least for today....."
the boy said, "your days are always made whether you are happy or otherwise.... time passes regardless. if you are in this world to pass time, like i am now here, then don't be too particular about the state of your mind, just like i couldn't care-less whether i caught a fish or not..... but do you want something more out of your life?"
"are you trying to preach me on something? you are only a boy. preaching to me about life is like you're teaching a duck how to swim."
"a boy i am, but it's me, or your younger you that would inherit all that matters."
"and what's all that matters?"
"never mind."
"why never mind?"
"no matter."
"come-on....... i just want to know whether there's fish..... now you are talking cock!..... ok.... chow."
"wait a minute, before you go - take this riddle and solve it, in your own time - why is Solomon doing odd matter?"
if there's any nice surprise you want to have, you can jog. not along the same track that you used to jog regularly, but go places, all over singapore. surprises come in places that you never thot would exist in singapore but actually exist right here. and most of them are so intrinsically nice, in a sense that they remind you of beautiful things, beautiful moments and beautiful places that only exist in paradise that captures your primordial, nature-loving mindset.
and one of such places is springleaf estate. marathon man had jogged here quite a few times before. it was a nice place, with a lot of types of houses and varieties of trees and garden plants in the estate that made him feel like roaming in a big garden. but this time, as he had vaguely expected, there was something new to greet him - the canal that's extended from lower seletar reservoir towards upper thomson road. it was there before, but only in its unkempt form. now with the abc water project, it had put on a new face, with its body of water widened, and the banks nicely re-inforced with gravels tightly packed in chicken wires.
there were quite a few people fishing in the canal, some fly-fishing and some wait-fishing, some with live baits, some with lures.
he approached a fishing boy, and asked him, "is there any fish?"
"so far, for the last 3 hours i hv been here, no. but i think i should at least catch one today."
"then why you still here? you could change position."
"do you think that i came here to fish?"
"well, that's obvious, isn't it. if not, why brought your fishing line and cast it into the canal?"
"i just go thru the motion of fishing, but actually i just want to pass time."
"pass time? well, but you are fishing to pass time!?"
"but fishing is not what i came here for."
"ok..... somehow sounds logical."
"let me ask you, what are you here for?"
"i jog."
"no. i don't mean here, as in where you are, next to the canal. but here, in this world, why you exist in this world?"
"well..... i think i have no say on that; i do not have a choice to exist somewhere else."
"ok, since you already exist, then what are you looking for in your life?"
"i guess happiness."
"do you really think happiness is so important?"
"hmmm..... i think so, and many people think so, too."
"let me ask you, do you condemn people for looking for happiness?"
"why should i?"
"like those robbers who feel happy after robbing a bank, or those drug addicts after having their shots.... they, like you are after happiness."
"ah, but they do it by hurting others."
"ok... so happiness is conditional?"
"you can say that."
"so if something is conditional, meaning it's not absolute, like truth supposed is, do you think is worth for you to pursue?"
"i just think that, life without happiness is not worth living. like so many other people, they are struggling day and nite to scratch a living, i don't think they are happy. and i don't want to be like them."
"maybe they are not happy. but as i said, it doesn't matter. because, maybe, they are here not going after happiness..."
"then what are they going after? even though they are very poor, they still have the right to go after happiness, as long as they feel contented with what they have. as long as they feel they have enough to live by."
"look, the canal is here, because there's water. but water doesn't exist for the sake of making a canal look like a canal..... and men are here not because of happiness, but they are here because there's something else that exists...."
"ok, ok.....i'm afraid you lost me.... anyway, i am happy to see how beautiful this place has become, and i think it has made my day, at least for today....."
the boy said, "your days are always made whether you are happy or otherwise.... time passes regardless. if you are in this world to pass time, like i am now here, then don't be too particular about the state of your mind, just like i couldn't care-less whether i caught a fish or not..... but do you want something more out of your life?"
"are you trying to preach me on something? you are only a boy. preaching to me about life is like you're teaching a duck how to swim."
"a boy i am, but it's me, or your younger you that would inherit all that matters."
"and what's all that matters?"
"never mind."
"why never mind?"
"no matter."
"come-on....... i just want to know whether there's fish..... now you are talking cock!..... ok.... chow."
"wait a minute, before you go - take this riddle and solve it, in your own time - why is Solomon doing odd matter?"
Thursday, November 5, 2009
taman permata - semi-glass house
it rained the whole day. for the past week or so, it rained most of the days. rainy season is here. and it's good. if nothing else, for the coolness it brings during the nites.
marathon man played the 9-hole yesterday. the course was a like a paddy field, clogged up with water and mud, with ponds of water here and there. some of the sand bunkers were soaked in water, the ones remained dry had a layer of yellowish silt on top, making the surfaces very hard.
the sky was getting dark earlier these days. at the 6th hole, it was so dark that he lost two balls when he got to the green. the nite birds started cookooing, the insects creaked, the bats swarmed the sky, the monkies went back to the trees for their rest, the moon sow the ground with silvery rays placidly.
it was a happy nite.
and a happy day.... he jogged in thomson ridge, jln pelatina, taman permata.... when he was absorbed in appreciating the different housing alterations in this area; you have the bali type, the modern-minimalistic sytle, the europian-chunky-like-a-boulder, archaic look, the simple, down-to-earth, kiasu maximum-built-up-area design.... one of the houses in taman permata particularly caught his attention - a simple two-story terrace house, nothing unusual excpet there was NO front wall in the 2nd floor. the whole front wall was replaced with a sliding glass door, with the door slided to one side, and the curtain pulled to one side, the whole of the 2nd floor was exposed to marathon man's view, right thru to the back of it, and the back was also having the same see-thru sliding door design as the front. marathon man could see the whole of 2nd floor; it was a split-level big room, with a big couch in the front, and a bed at the back, some closets... a table.... an an opague, enlcosed wc - quite a view to behold.
the owner was in the front of the house, mending the flowers. marathon man approached him, "hi, uncle, your house is new, you just rebuilt it?"
"yes. how is it?"
"very good, i like it, especially the window-display theme of the 2nd floor. how much did you spend?"
"$300k, redo the floor, kitchen, the whole of 2nd floors."
"was the design from you?"
"yes. i like the idea of a house with alot of light, ample air flow, and watery...." he pointed to a small water fall in one corner of the front lawn.
"how long to rebuild?"
"oh.... 1 year lah." he said, "it was not that simple, you know. i had to deal with the architect to finalize the design and plan, and asked for quotes from the contractors. then supervised the work..... must be very attentive to what the contractor was doing.... but after all this time, when i saw the completed project, and the moment i moved in, every effort that i had spent did not go to waste..... young man, if there's anything that a man must go thru to prove to himself he could hold up to be a man, is to undertake a "housing project".... ie build his own house, or rebuild his house. of course not everybody can afford that."
"hmm... for a guy like myself, i guess the next best thing than to build my own house, is to build other people's houses - be a construction worker."
marathon man played the 9-hole yesterday. the course was a like a paddy field, clogged up with water and mud, with ponds of water here and there. some of the sand bunkers were soaked in water, the ones remained dry had a layer of yellowish silt on top, making the surfaces very hard.
the sky was getting dark earlier these days. at the 6th hole, it was so dark that he lost two balls when he got to the green. the nite birds started cookooing, the insects creaked, the bats swarmed the sky, the monkies went back to the trees for their rest, the moon sow the ground with silvery rays placidly.
it was a happy nite.
and a happy day.... he jogged in thomson ridge, jln pelatina, taman permata.... when he was absorbed in appreciating the different housing alterations in this area; you have the bali type, the modern-minimalistic sytle, the europian-chunky-like-a-boulder, archaic look, the simple, down-to-earth, kiasu maximum-built-up-area design.... one of the houses in taman permata particularly caught his attention - a simple two-story terrace house, nothing unusual excpet there was NO front wall in the 2nd floor. the whole front wall was replaced with a sliding glass door, with the door slided to one side, and the curtain pulled to one side, the whole of the 2nd floor was exposed to marathon man's view, right thru to the back of it, and the back was also having the same see-thru sliding door design as the front. marathon man could see the whole of 2nd floor; it was a split-level big room, with a big couch in the front, and a bed at the back, some closets... a table.... an an opague, enlcosed wc - quite a view to behold.
the owner was in the front of the house, mending the flowers. marathon man approached him, "hi, uncle, your house is new, you just rebuilt it?"
"yes. how is it?"
"very good, i like it, especially the window-display theme of the 2nd floor. how much did you spend?"
"$300k, redo the floor, kitchen, the whole of 2nd floors."
"was the design from you?"
"yes. i like the idea of a house with alot of light, ample air flow, and watery...." he pointed to a small water fall in one corner of the front lawn.
"how long to rebuild?"
"oh.... 1 year lah." he said, "it was not that simple, you know. i had to deal with the architect to finalize the design and plan, and asked for quotes from the contractors. then supervised the work..... must be very attentive to what the contractor was doing.... but after all this time, when i saw the completed project, and the moment i moved in, every effort that i had spent did not go to waste..... young man, if there's anything that a man must go thru to prove to himself he could hold up to be a man, is to undertake a "housing project".... ie build his own house, or rebuild his house. of course not everybody can afford that."
"hmm... for a guy like myself, i guess the next best thing than to build my own house, is to build other people's houses - be a construction worker."
Monday, November 2, 2009
malacca - waiting
wake up this morning to the waiting for the toilet that his galfren is using. life is a waiting....
waiting for what?
waiting to be your own boss, waiting to control your your life.... waiting to write a book, waiting to invent something, waiting to discover a new theory..... waiting to be acknowledged in the public.... waiting to attain spiritual enlightenment..... waiting to be the number 1 in watever....
marathon man is waiting for the sun to shine and cast its rays onto the wall of his house thru the small rectangular window of his bathroom..... he likes to see the golden patch on the wall, it moves amid very slowly.... if you can wait, you would be able to see the patch descending lower and lower.
but marathon man cannott wait to do his running... after he spent 2 days in the world heritage place - malacca.
after putting on the right attire, he darts from into the street in no time... the wind gushes at him when the traffic passes him by.....
for many years he had not visited malacca. he was looking for the row of hawkers near the seaside, and the smallest round-about at the end of the road infront of the hawker centre. he could not find them. had they already been demolished and replaced with somethying else. it was during the nite when he hanged around the city, so he could not be sure where he actually was. they could be still there, somewhere else.
he headed to the portugese settlement, after hearing some of it from the tv programs, that the food there was one of a kind, that the place still retained its past disposition and aura. but what a dispointment when he arrived at a concrete hawker centre after following the map and the road signs that clearly stated where the portugese settlement was. there was a lot of touting from different stalls. he settled at stall number 10. he ordered fried(dry) crab, ikan bakar, and kangkong - all supposed to be prepared in portugese way, but marathon man would not know as the dishes were more or less the same as what he had eaten in normal restaurants... and he could not tell what the portugese way of cooking was like.
malacca like some malaysian cities, is a one-way-street town. you have to know the exact routes and directions if you want to get from point a to b. looking at the map will not bring you there, because, it does not show the traffic directions.
the next day, he went around downtown along the river. from jonker street, to get to the red-house(that's what the locals call the area around a'formosa, studhuys, st paul's hill)..... it took him 15 minutes to realise that it'd be better to park on the bank opposite the red-house, than to cross the malacca river to park near the red-house. he just had to walk across the bridge after parking.
in jonker's walk, there was this lady chinese caligrapher doing her stuff with people surrounding her. she wrote elegant chinese with the chinese brush. but she had no right hand, her left arm was totally missing. she tied the brush to the end of her right arm, but boy, every stroke of her brush on the paper was so delicate and accurate, it exuded the poise of a dancer from the tang dynasty.
the tourist sites in red house still the same as many years ago when he was there. but what the st paul's hill overlooked was a different scene, with many new houses on the left side and the city was no longer the same one many years ago.
he went around the city, stopped by some street to check out the durians. he noticed though it's still in season, not many fruit stalls selling the king of the fruits, even along the way when he detoured into muar from the north-south hi-way.
he asked the durian uncle, "why not much durians this time?"
"oh.... all go to singapore."
his durian addiction kicked in, so he bought and ate a couple on the spot.... not the best, but can-do lah!
he had his lunch in the ole sayang peranakan restaurant. very crowded and noisy with a bunch of youngsters blabberring and laughing-out-loud as if they owned the restaurant. the food - quite good, as he was already very hungry, but the sambal balachan was super SALTISH.
he left malacca after lunch, and had his dinner in jb, the bamboo house, famous for its oven-baked herbal chicken - the price was 14rm, a raise of 1rm when he was here a few months ago, and no more ta-pau.
he rolled into singpore check-point when the lights were all up. little did he realize that the moon had become round again. the trip to the ancient malay sultanate will bring another waiting period before he would be back again.
waiting for what?
waiting to be your own boss, waiting to control your your life.... waiting to write a book, waiting to invent something, waiting to discover a new theory..... waiting to be acknowledged in the public.... waiting to attain spiritual enlightenment..... waiting to be the number 1 in watever....
marathon man is waiting for the sun to shine and cast its rays onto the wall of his house thru the small rectangular window of his bathroom..... he likes to see the golden patch on the wall, it moves amid very slowly.... if you can wait, you would be able to see the patch descending lower and lower.
but marathon man cannott wait to do his running... after he spent 2 days in the world heritage place - malacca.
after putting on the right attire, he darts from into the street in no time... the wind gushes at him when the traffic passes him by.....
for many years he had not visited malacca. he was looking for the row of hawkers near the seaside, and the smallest round-about at the end of the road infront of the hawker centre. he could not find them. had they already been demolished and replaced with somethying else. it was during the nite when he hanged around the city, so he could not be sure where he actually was. they could be still there, somewhere else.
he headed to the portugese settlement, after hearing some of it from the tv programs, that the food there was one of a kind, that the place still retained its past disposition and aura. but what a dispointment when he arrived at a concrete hawker centre after following the map and the road signs that clearly stated where the portugese settlement was. there was a lot of touting from different stalls. he settled at stall number 10. he ordered fried(dry) crab, ikan bakar, and kangkong - all supposed to be prepared in portugese way, but marathon man would not know as the dishes were more or less the same as what he had eaten in normal restaurants... and he could not tell what the portugese way of cooking was like.
malacca like some malaysian cities, is a one-way-street town. you have to know the exact routes and directions if you want to get from point a to b. looking at the map will not bring you there, because, it does not show the traffic directions.
the next day, he went around downtown along the river. from jonker street, to get to the red-house(that's what the locals call the area around a'formosa, studhuys, st paul's hill)..... it took him 15 minutes to realise that it'd be better to park on the bank opposite the red-house, than to cross the malacca river to park near the red-house. he just had to walk across the bridge after parking.
in jonker's walk, there was this lady chinese caligrapher doing her stuff with people surrounding her. she wrote elegant chinese with the chinese brush. but she had no right hand, her left arm was totally missing. she tied the brush to the end of her right arm, but boy, every stroke of her brush on the paper was so delicate and accurate, it exuded the poise of a dancer from the tang dynasty.
the tourist sites in red house still the same as many years ago when he was there. but what the st paul's hill overlooked was a different scene, with many new houses on the left side and the city was no longer the same one many years ago.
he went around the city, stopped by some street to check out the durians. he noticed though it's still in season, not many fruit stalls selling the king of the fruits, even along the way when he detoured into muar from the north-south hi-way.
he asked the durian uncle, "why not much durians this time?"
"oh.... all go to singapore."
his durian addiction kicked in, so he bought and ate a couple on the spot.... not the best, but can-do lah!
he had his lunch in the ole sayang peranakan restaurant. very crowded and noisy with a bunch of youngsters blabberring and laughing-out-loud as if they owned the restaurant. the food - quite good, as he was already very hungry, but the sambal balachan was super SALTISH.
he left malacca after lunch, and had his dinner in jb, the bamboo house, famous for its oven-baked herbal chicken - the price was 14rm, a raise of 1rm when he was here a few months ago, and no more ta-pau.
he rolled into singpore check-point when the lights were all up. little did he realize that the moon had become round again. the trip to the ancient malay sultanate will bring another waiting period before he would be back again.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
dairy farm - eroticism
jog in dairy farm crescent, pakis road, suasa rd,chestnut drive, st joseph church - oldest church in sg(?) - big hall, and the compound very spacious. chestnut terrace, chestnut gardens, cashew crescent, cashew link, chestnut ave, to chenghua park - come up to the northface100 run water station. ask the youngster who mends the station, "how many people running?"
"27, next year you can join also. but it's going to be 200 km."
marathon man takes a cup of water, and continues his journey going thru the underpass to hillview park. he meets a group of students doing tracking with their teachers.
he remembers how he was exhilarated when his teacher brought the whole kindergarten class for outing, in the nearby hills. there he played with his class mates.... and what was more fun for the gals and boys than to study one another productive organs.... a few boys and a a few gals would find an obscure place and started lifting up their pants and skirts, and discovering the differences between their little kookoos and pokpoks.... and in doing so, taking in much pleasure.
sexuality is not influenced by the genetic factors so much as it's more exposed to the effects from the surroundings. take for example, if a boy, when he is exposed to sexual nuances from small, he will be sexually active when he's an adult, no matter how his parents sexuality levels are. that's marathon man's theory.
now that marathon man is a man, he still thinks that sex is not that sacrosanct. sex is actually like child play, should be fun and should be carried out whenever and wherever deemed fit between a couple, a group of people.... like what he used to do when he was a kid.
but alas, the world is not a children's world. in an adult world, everything is possessive. you like a gal, you compete to get her to be yours.... and then, get stuck with her. she would not want to share you with others, neither would you like to share her with others. and gal-boy relation become very strict and has to toe many rules..... you cannot show interest in a suzy, lucie and poolsy whenever and wherever you like, unlike the monkeys in the reservoir, you see the male monkeys mount on whichever females they come across.... you see dogs in heat simply satisfy themselves with whichever partners they can lay their dicks on.....
the world is wrapped in a cocoon of civilized code of ethics... for the good of the society, apparently. and that leaves a lot of voyeurism and imaginations for people like marathon man to always trying to break these codes and get the kicks out of doing it - like the ancient romans and greeks, and the french before the revolution.... they were the masters of eroticism.
"27, next year you can join also. but it's going to be 200 km."
marathon man takes a cup of water, and continues his journey going thru the underpass to hillview park. he meets a group of students doing tracking with their teachers.
he remembers how he was exhilarated when his teacher brought the whole kindergarten class for outing, in the nearby hills. there he played with his class mates.... and what was more fun for the gals and boys than to study one another productive organs.... a few boys and a a few gals would find an obscure place and started lifting up their pants and skirts, and discovering the differences between their little kookoos and pokpoks.... and in doing so, taking in much pleasure.
sexuality is not influenced by the genetic factors so much as it's more exposed to the effects from the surroundings. take for example, if a boy, when he is exposed to sexual nuances from small, he will be sexually active when he's an adult, no matter how his parents sexuality levels are. that's marathon man's theory.
now that marathon man is a man, he still thinks that sex is not that sacrosanct. sex is actually like child play, should be fun and should be carried out whenever and wherever deemed fit between a couple, a group of people.... like what he used to do when he was a kid.
but alas, the world is not a children's world. in an adult world, everything is possessive. you like a gal, you compete to get her to be yours.... and then, get stuck with her. she would not want to share you with others, neither would you like to share her with others. and gal-boy relation become very strict and has to toe many rules..... you cannot show interest in a suzy, lucie and poolsy whenever and wherever you like, unlike the monkeys in the reservoir, you see the male monkeys mount on whichever females they come across.... you see dogs in heat simply satisfy themselves with whichever partners they can lay their dicks on.....
the world is wrapped in a cocoon of civilized code of ethics... for the good of the society, apparently. and that leaves a lot of voyeurism and imaginations for people like marathon man to always trying to break these codes and get the kicks out of doing it - like the ancient romans and greeks, and the french before the revolution.... they were the masters of eroticism.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
T3, expo, sunbird, seabreeze, angin laut - bipolar
bipolar disorder - for days, you are high, then boomz, you hit the clift and fall deep into the abyss of depression.
everybody has mood swings, it's like a wave, it's characterised by the amplitude and the frequency.
for marathon man the amplitude rocks thru the roof, and the frequency seems getting higher and higher theses days. the low mood is preceeded by sever insomnia, and the next day, though almost worn out from the restless nite before, still feels the rampant heartbeats, and the urge to 'cheong'(go forward).... then fear sets in, fear of losing control of oneself, fear of going crazy, fear of not going to get rest, fear of getting the michael jackson syndrome...... then only after some hectic activties like another orund of golf, another round of running about, another round of bedxercise , or diy discharge.... then real tireness sets in, and the mood goes low, and lower, until the whole being just withdraws to itself, totally, and that's the time peacefulness comes, and self control regained, amid total shackness of the body which the spirit has to endure..... and drowsiness sets in nicely, and if this happens in the sun-down hours, and no other outside disturbances or worries racks the mind, a better nite of sleep would be enough to get the engine going again.... and the cycle repeats.
one thing about this disorder, is the heart runs wild, sometimes it pulpitates, sometime it's races very fast, sometimes it just gives you the feeling that, you are in cloud nine, though you know there's no reason for that at all.... the body juices that trigger the cloud-nine feeling earlier on do not know how to turn themselves off.... you need something to let the heart take its rest - and that something is panadol... it lets the heart take a breather, though the juices may still run high.... once the heart beats settle, the juices would turn themselves off - or the other round? remember, NO HIGH ENERGY FOOD, especially sugar, or caffeine type of food, no SALT.... just plain water and plain starch and protein, not even fruits. or just take bread and water - to let the body waste into total exhaustion....
today is the day.
to get totally exhausted he go airport, take sky train from t1 to t3, quite many shops in 2nd and 3rd floor, and 4th also. take mrt to expo - electronic sales, very crowded. buy uncle choo popiah, the skin is bean-cud skin, heated up in a heater, then put turnip and blue cabbage, raw, then 4 types of sources, ketchap, green and yellow mustand,and chilli, then some chicken floss, then turnip and cabbage again, wrap, with both endd open, then cut into 6 pieces..... look good, but the bite is soggy, and no taste - a let-down.
jog in sunbird places, and jalan laut angin and seabreeze rd.... until the sun go down.... until he has paced his heart into proper rhythm...
the heart is part of a large feedback system whose dynamics are nonlinear, nonstationary, and multiscale. as mathematicians well know, even simple nonlinear rules can lead to complex behavior - what fractals do - and the rules governing the heart are hardly simple. it’s an incredibly complicated system. consequently, the healthy heartbeat is one of the most complex
signals in nature.
heart beat dictates the mood swing, or the other round, like day comes first before nite, or the other way round..... marathon man wonders. and the wondering heart always tends to move out of sync......
everybody has mood swings, it's like a wave, it's characterised by the amplitude and the frequency.
for marathon man the amplitude rocks thru the roof, and the frequency seems getting higher and higher theses days. the low mood is preceeded by sever insomnia, and the next day, though almost worn out from the restless nite before, still feels the rampant heartbeats, and the urge to 'cheong'(go forward).... then fear sets in, fear of losing control of oneself, fear of going crazy, fear of not going to get rest, fear of getting the michael jackson syndrome...... then only after some hectic activties like another orund of golf, another round of running about, another round of bedxercise , or diy discharge.... then real tireness sets in, and the mood goes low, and lower, until the whole being just withdraws to itself, totally, and that's the time peacefulness comes, and self control regained, amid total shackness of the body which the spirit has to endure..... and drowsiness sets in nicely, and if this happens in the sun-down hours, and no other outside disturbances or worries racks the mind, a better nite of sleep would be enough to get the engine going again.... and the cycle repeats.
one thing about this disorder, is the heart runs wild, sometimes it pulpitates, sometime it's races very fast, sometimes it just gives you the feeling that, you are in cloud nine, though you know there's no reason for that at all.... the body juices that trigger the cloud-nine feeling earlier on do not know how to turn themselves off.... you need something to let the heart take its rest - and that something is panadol... it lets the heart take a breather, though the juices may still run high.... once the heart beats settle, the juices would turn themselves off - or the other round? remember, NO HIGH ENERGY FOOD, especially sugar, or caffeine type of food, no SALT.... just plain water and plain starch and protein, not even fruits. or just take bread and water - to let the body waste into total exhaustion....
today is the day.
to get totally exhausted he go airport, take sky train from t1 to t3, quite many shops in 2nd and 3rd floor, and 4th also. take mrt to expo - electronic sales, very crowded. buy uncle choo popiah, the skin is bean-cud skin, heated up in a heater, then put turnip and blue cabbage, raw, then 4 types of sources, ketchap, green and yellow mustand,and chilli, then some chicken floss, then turnip and cabbage again, wrap, with both endd open, then cut into 6 pieces..... look good, but the bite is soggy, and no taste - a let-down.
jog in sunbird places, and jalan laut angin and seabreeze rd.... until the sun go down.... until he has paced his heart into proper rhythm...
the heart is part of a large feedback system whose dynamics are nonlinear, nonstationary, and multiscale. as mathematicians well know, even simple nonlinear rules can lead to complex behavior - what fractals do - and the rules governing the heart are hardly simple. it’s an incredibly complicated system. consequently, the healthy heartbeat is one of the most complex
signals in nature.
heart beat dictates the mood swing, or the other round, like day comes first before nite, or the other way round..... marathon man wonders. and the wondering heart always tends to move out of sync......
Saturday, October 24, 2009
kallang river - the singapore gardener
go st michael's church. church is small but very active, alot of filipinoes, and also locals and chinese brothers and sisters. very nice grotoes. the whole building is compact but cozy.
the surrounding streets are bit congested but nice, with landed houses in jalan manis, jln taman, st francis rd, jln semerbak and not so few new projects of condos in the area.
kallang river lies beside. jog along kallang river all the way to boon keng road, nicely surprised to see the abc water project completed in kolam ayer - turns out to be very good - kallang river has become a river again, at least for this section; the river banks are no longer concrete retainers, grass grows on the sloped banks, and water plants sprouting out from the plastic rectangular pots in the river, taller-than-human-height plants line the path next to the river.... people fishing, and sitting on chairs along the river banks, chatting, kids running about. meet an old man, not friendly. ask him what fish he caught, he says - see for yourself. meet a malay boy - 6 years old, ask him got fish or not, he says - got. big ones? yes..... where? there - they are small lohans.
river vista is near finish, a good hdb project.
and now, the gahmen is doing up the bishan park - turning the lokang into another river which would be part of the kallang river upgrading project.
all these water and park projects are good for singapore.
we can discount the gahmen for all its mediocracy in other projects and endeavors, and its unfairness in dishing out justice..... one thing marathon cannot deny is gahmen's role in gardenizing this little red hot, making it greener and wetter and more marathonable.
now we know : a gardener is worth more than 1 mm, 1pm, 2 sm's, 93 mp's.... 1000 grass-root leaders and 5 million scratching-a-living creatures!
the surrounding streets are bit congested but nice, with landed houses in jalan manis, jln taman, st francis rd, jln semerbak and not so few new projects of condos in the area.
kallang river lies beside. jog along kallang river all the way to boon keng road, nicely surprised to see the abc water project completed in kolam ayer - turns out to be very good - kallang river has become a river again, at least for this section; the river banks are no longer concrete retainers, grass grows on the sloped banks, and water plants sprouting out from the plastic rectangular pots in the river, taller-than-human-height plants line the path next to the river.... people fishing, and sitting on chairs along the river banks, chatting, kids running about. meet an old man, not friendly. ask him what fish he caught, he says - see for yourself. meet a malay boy - 6 years old, ask him got fish or not, he says - got. big ones? yes..... where? there - they are small lohans.
river vista is near finish, a good hdb project.
and now, the gahmen is doing up the bishan park - turning the lokang into another river which would be part of the kallang river upgrading project.
all these water and park projects are good for singapore.
we can discount the gahmen for all its mediocracy in other projects and endeavors, and its unfairness in dishing out justice..... one thing marathon cannot deny is gahmen's role in gardenizing this little red hot, making it greener and wetter and more marathonable.
now we know : a gardener is worth more than 1 mm, 1pm, 2 sm's, 93 mp's.... 1000 grass-root leaders and 5 million scratching-a-living creatures!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
portsdown road - freak and serendipity
freak accident happens.
this morning marathon man was squatting down to pick up an apple-seed from the kitchen floor, when he stood up there was a big impact on the back of his head.... he hit the edge of the marble counter. at once, his morning sleepiness dissipated, and his hand reached to the back of his head.... not feeling any pain. but something inside was building up. he quickly grapped a piece of table cloth, dispensed some ice-cubes from the freezer, wrapped them in the cloth and put it on the spot where it was hit. the ice stayed on the head until the coldness of it hurt at the place where it was placed.
the rest of the day, he sustained the injury with not much of any obvious outter sign, but who knows what would happen later on.
anyway, he set out to do what he's supposed to do - he started his jogging from fusionopolis, the turqois building with a middle-eastern facade that houses the a-star hq. he went up nepal park, where he found all houses were under renovation, nearly completed, but un-occupied. he checked out biopolis. the place was a modern design in layout, other than the functional buildings, there were boutiqued plaza's and playground for the people working here, and some mid-rise housing blocks, newly completed.... he entered the food court in matrix block, to use the loo. he went on to woking road, whitchurch road where the colonial buildings stood without alterations, and without any recent touch-ups. some of these building were not occupied, esp near the railway. he passed by colbar - he met a couple taking wedding pictures, he moved closer to them.... and was surprised to find out that they were the same couple that he met in changi coastal boardwalk. he made a wave to the couple.... "hi.... how's the shooting going?"
"going fine.... we meet again. what a co-incident. you jog everywhere?" the man said.
"ya.... and for me to meet the same strangers in different places is really some thing that's against great odds."
"just like how i met my future wife.... i am an avid jogger myself, and like you i put my feet all over singapore. and one time i was been confronted by a loose dog from a terrace house with its gate open. just when the dog was about to sink its teeth into me, a lady came out and stopped its advance. and lo and behold, that was my future wife...."
he left the couple and continued to jln hang jebat. the place seemed familiar to marathon man, as he was sure that he did come here before, but it baffled his memory that he was here at any time before. probably it was because of the new portsdown ave cutting this area into 2 , confusing his sense of orientation. he strutted across the railway to an empty, abandoned field, the one he always sees when driving along queensway near mei chin rd. now finally he was stepping on it, and it was like a dream come true - it's dream-like, but this dream was not something that glamorous or romantic, or that meant a lot. nevertheless a dream it had been... it's just something you always wanted to find out what's it like if you are there.... and here marathon man was - serendipity like freak accidents happens at times when you least expect it - like how marathon man hit his head this morning, and how the couple came to meet each other.
this morning marathon man was squatting down to pick up an apple-seed from the kitchen floor, when he stood up there was a big impact on the back of his head.... he hit the edge of the marble counter. at once, his morning sleepiness dissipated, and his hand reached to the back of his head.... not feeling any pain. but something inside was building up. he quickly grapped a piece of table cloth, dispensed some ice-cubes from the freezer, wrapped them in the cloth and put it on the spot where it was hit. the ice stayed on the head until the coldness of it hurt at the place where it was placed.
the rest of the day, he sustained the injury with not much of any obvious outter sign, but who knows what would happen later on.
anyway, he set out to do what he's supposed to do - he started his jogging from fusionopolis, the turqois building with a middle-eastern facade that houses the a-star hq. he went up nepal park, where he found all houses were under renovation, nearly completed, but un-occupied. he checked out biopolis. the place was a modern design in layout, other than the functional buildings, there were boutiqued plaza's and playground for the people working here, and some mid-rise housing blocks, newly completed.... he entered the food court in matrix block, to use the loo. he went on to woking road, whitchurch road where the colonial buildings stood without alterations, and without any recent touch-ups. some of these building were not occupied, esp near the railway. he passed by colbar - he met a couple taking wedding pictures, he moved closer to them.... and was surprised to find out that they were the same couple that he met in changi coastal boardwalk. he made a wave to the couple.... "hi.... how's the shooting going?"
"going fine.... we meet again. what a co-incident. you jog everywhere?" the man said.
"ya.... and for me to meet the same strangers in different places is really some thing that's against great odds."
"just like how i met my future wife.... i am an avid jogger myself, and like you i put my feet all over singapore. and one time i was been confronted by a loose dog from a terrace house with its gate open. just when the dog was about to sink its teeth into me, a lady came out and stopped its advance. and lo and behold, that was my future wife...."
he left the couple and continued to jln hang jebat. the place seemed familiar to marathon man, as he was sure that he did come here before, but it baffled his memory that he was here at any time before. probably it was because of the new portsdown ave cutting this area into 2 , confusing his sense of orientation. he strutted across the railway to an empty, abandoned field, the one he always sees when driving along queensway near mei chin rd. now finally he was stepping on it, and it was like a dream come true - it's dream-like, but this dream was not something that glamorous or romantic, or that meant a lot. nevertheless a dream it had been... it's just something you always wanted to find out what's it like if you are there.... and here marathon man was - serendipity like freak accidents happens at times when you least expect it - like how marathon man hit his head this morning, and how the couple came to meet each other.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
changi village - sunset
after the big glass of home-made water-chestnut water from the changi village hawker centre, walking the coastal boardwalk would be the nicest thing to do.
no change from the last time marathon man was here. only thing was it's after 6. the sky was clear, the sun was fierce....until 6.30pm, when it tilted much nearer to the horizon. the sunset walk did not mean so much unless it's at 6.45 when the sun burned orange.... as it dived into the clouds. there's a tinge of orangeness spreading across the sky where the sun hid... the section of the waves originating from the direction of sun caught on the orangeness..... just after 1 min, the sun appeared fiercely orange from the bottom of the clouds...much bigger. you could see it continueing gliding down with every wink of your eyes... the colours of the clouds across the sky intensified and covered a wider space.... the sun continued on its path... 3 minutes later it lost itself into the clouds for the day....
twilight hour arrived.... the sea was calm... some people carried on with their fishing and crab-catching activties along the kelong walk. a small boat came near the shore, casting crab nets. a wedding couple and their photograper making their way home after a whole day's shoot.... and the world kept turning.
marathon man asked a neatly dressed guy who just arrived and started preparing his catch of the day, "are you staying overnight?"
"no, just for 3 to 4 hours."
"why you like fishing?"
"well, it's keeping me occupied."
"why at this hour?"
"it's dinner time for the fish."
"hah.... how you know?"
"nature says twilight is the time for dinner."
"never heard of that."
"me neither. but i thot, if twilight zone is so mysterious..... what's all these mysteries about? it's about survival? all levels of existence from all dimensions will find it their best time to show their being part of the universe in the twilight hour... and for the creatures in our dimension.... we eat to exist."
marathon man was already ready to replenish his life enegry, he walked back to the village....the diffused blue-sky lasted until around 7.20.... when lights from the shipyard and ubin, and the surrounding governemnt chalets made the waters shimmering, and nite fell eerily in changi..... the tree that was chopped down by the british during wwii because it was too tall a target for the enemies to aim at.
no change from the last time marathon man was here. only thing was it's after 6. the sky was clear, the sun was fierce....until 6.30pm, when it tilted much nearer to the horizon. the sunset walk did not mean so much unless it's at 6.45 when the sun burned orange.... as it dived into the clouds. there's a tinge of orangeness spreading across the sky where the sun hid... the section of the waves originating from the direction of sun caught on the orangeness..... just after 1 min, the sun appeared fiercely orange from the bottom of the clouds...much bigger. you could see it continueing gliding down with every wink of your eyes... the colours of the clouds across the sky intensified and covered a wider space.... the sun continued on its path... 3 minutes later it lost itself into the clouds for the day....
twilight hour arrived.... the sea was calm... some people carried on with their fishing and crab-catching activties along the kelong walk. a small boat came near the shore, casting crab nets. a wedding couple and their photograper making their way home after a whole day's shoot.... and the world kept turning.
marathon man asked a neatly dressed guy who just arrived and started preparing his catch of the day, "are you staying overnight?"
"no, just for 3 to 4 hours."
"why you like fishing?"
"well, it's keeping me occupied."
"why at this hour?"
"it's dinner time for the fish."
"hah.... how you know?"
"nature says twilight is the time for dinner."
"never heard of that."
"me neither. but i thot, if twilight zone is so mysterious..... what's all these mysteries about? it's about survival? all levels of existence from all dimensions will find it their best time to show their being part of the universe in the twilight hour... and for the creatures in our dimension.... we eat to exist."
marathon man was already ready to replenish his life enegry, he walked back to the village....the diffused blue-sky lasted until around 7.20.... when lights from the shipyard and ubin, and the surrounding governemnt chalets made the waters shimmering, and nite fell eerily in changi..... the tree that was chopped down by the british during wwii because it was too tall a target for the enemies to aim at.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
mount emily - faith
the two minars were fighting, pecking on each other while perching on the branch... then dropped down from the branch.... flapping their wings frantically, still trying to wrestle the other from the air....making lots of chirpings... landed on the floor... continued jumping on each other.... making more noises... finally broke up and took flights in different directions.... but not any higher before they landed on the ground again in different spots 10 feet apart, strutting back and forth, chirping meekly.... walked towards each other... like nothing ever happened.
marathon man always wonders birds enjoy the most freedom in the natural world -literally, the sky is the limit for these little creatures, the best of any form of lives on earth.
now, they have adapted themselves well to city life, what else is in their way for moving into another rung in the ladder of evolution.
the FLU!
have you ever wonder what's the purpose of microbes, bacteria, virus?
what actually is their role in the story of evolution? ultimately in the whole existence of lives - the meaning of life?
you see all organisms whether big or small are made of some basic living units.... the most fundamnetal of these might be in the scale of a virus. so we are a combination of virus, bacteria. then why would we be harmed by any virus or bacterial?
life is like : one form's existence has to depend on another's. big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimps. and virus eats what? they eat everything else.... it so ironic, that the smallest has all others for their feast! are we canabalising on one another for sruvival, or are we actually helping one another to survive?
it's not so much how one form of life is more important than the others, ie YOU are no different from the VIRUS. but life as a whole makes part of the universe. imagine a universe without life..... and imagine a universe with life, be it just virus..... but ah, life evolves, even from as little as virus.... and nobody knows when evolution will stop. no matter how many times it wipes itself out, only a mere strain of virus survive the apocalypse, veaolution would carry on. (R U SURE you need that to survive?)
and in that sense, matter evolves.... from the first fundamental particles to the first protons, to the elements..... to the gasses, to the stars, the galaxies.... and to life....
is GOD the final desitination?
or the spirit evolves parallely along the matter/life evolution, in what we call re-incarnation?
or no matter how life or spirit evolves, GODhood is never reachable, but with a leap of faith, you can be with GOD?
marathon man seemed to catch a glipmse of the mystery of all things as he watched the two birds, tumbling down from the tree branch.... while mating... and they were the same ones that had a dig at each other just a minute ago.... only mount emily at twilight time could induce such neo-scientific and heretic thots...... and where's your faith gone?
marathon man always wonders birds enjoy the most freedom in the natural world -literally, the sky is the limit for these little creatures, the best of any form of lives on earth.
now, they have adapted themselves well to city life, what else is in their way for moving into another rung in the ladder of evolution.
the FLU!
have you ever wonder what's the purpose of microbes, bacteria, virus?
what actually is their role in the story of evolution? ultimately in the whole existence of lives - the meaning of life?
you see all organisms whether big or small are made of some basic living units.... the most fundamnetal of these might be in the scale of a virus. so we are a combination of virus, bacteria. then why would we be harmed by any virus or bacterial?
life is like : one form's existence has to depend on another's. big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimps. and virus eats what? they eat everything else.... it so ironic, that the smallest has all others for their feast! are we canabalising on one another for sruvival, or are we actually helping one another to survive?
it's not so much how one form of life is more important than the others, ie YOU are no different from the VIRUS. but life as a whole makes part of the universe. imagine a universe without life..... and imagine a universe with life, be it just virus..... but ah, life evolves, even from as little as virus.... and nobody knows when evolution will stop. no matter how many times it wipes itself out, only a mere strain of virus survive the apocalypse, veaolution would carry on. (R U SURE you need that to survive?)
and in that sense, matter evolves.... from the first fundamental particles to the first protons, to the elements..... to the gasses, to the stars, the galaxies.... and to life....
is GOD the final desitination?
or the spirit evolves parallely along the matter/life evolution, in what we call re-incarnation?
or no matter how life or spirit evolves, GODhood is never reachable, but with a leap of faith, you can be with GOD?
marathon man seemed to catch a glipmse of the mystery of all things as he watched the two birds, tumbling down from the tree branch.... while mating... and they were the same ones that had a dig at each other just a minute ago.... only mount emily at twilight time could induce such neo-scientific and heretic thots...... and where's your faith gone?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
merchant court - goals
golf tournament at rcc for the suppliers, then concluded with a dinner at merchant court, a good idea to motivate the suppliers and to tell them that their supports were appreciated, and to give then the theme message all the suppliers that, they have to always hang on to their necks and walk on their toes and cut each others' throats in order to get business from the host - their customer.
the dinner started with the ceo of the company giving his take on the world economy and the company's forcast for the coming year - optimistic as ever from him - that's one thing about him that amazes marathon man. not a man of substance, but a man of great entertainment value.... what a ceo supposed to be - chief entertianment officer.
the dinner was interposed with speeches from his liutenants, the coo, talking about what he would expect from the suppliers, the procument vp, talking about her way of partnership with them....
many people toasted to one another.
and marathon man toasted to a lady opposite him, whom he just came know - the sales manager of his competitor.
"cheers..... to a good year ahead," he said.
"cheers. a good year ahead.... you really need it. for me i do well whether the year is good or bad...!" she said.
then as the dinner progressed, she got a bit tipsy....
at one point she stood up and said, "well, well, well, the year is drawing to an end, and look, what have i achieved..... the sales quota of course for the company.... what about for myself? i could not find myself a decent boy fren.... i can handle quota of millions, but when it comes to the quota of ONE good guy for myself, i suck! any suggesteion from you super salesmen?"
the whole table of men were taken aback, though saleamen are not supposed to faze at any situation.
"i have been working all my life selling million of dollars of product..... in my sober self...... now is the time that i would like to sell the good points about me.... listen ye...... to your princess of the sales world...... "
the guys were jazzed up by her out-of-whack behaviour.... encouraging her to drink more, and talk more.
marathon man, watched all these with discernment, said to her, "helena..... you drank too much..... here drink some juice."
"hahaha.... why you so good to me? are you impressed with my sales talk?"
"helena.... cool it."
"let her... drink.." david was not impressed with the fun being interupted. and the rest supported him, "ya.... buzz off, and let her have some fun...."
she turned silence, apparently the booze effect subsided and she was tired.
marathon man went over to her, "you need a lift?"
"ya, i think so...." she was glad that someone did ask her.
they left the dinner before the last dish was served.
he sent her to her home, before she went in, she said, "i'm sorry to have made myself a fool infront of you guys.... but thank you for your ...care...."
"don't mention it, though we r competitors in the market, we shoud not just live by the market.... we must remember we live in a society.... and that means we need to help each others when help is needed."
"that's my problem..... i fight for every sales, i fight for everything in my life, as if i' am standing on the edge of the rooftop, constantly fighting back the fear of falling from it. but wat actually i am fearing for? i have made some money, i'm healthy...... so let's enjoy what's good for now. and let tomorrow takes care of itself."
instead of entering the house, she entered his car, and they drove off to an off-site sales meeting. for that nite, the sales meeting would have only one goal - score as many goals as they like.
the dinner started with the ceo of the company giving his take on the world economy and the company's forcast for the coming year - optimistic as ever from him - that's one thing about him that amazes marathon man. not a man of substance, but a man of great entertainment value.... what a ceo supposed to be - chief entertianment officer.
the dinner was interposed with speeches from his liutenants, the coo, talking about what he would expect from the suppliers, the procument vp, talking about her way of partnership with them....
many people toasted to one another.
and marathon man toasted to a lady opposite him, whom he just came know - the sales manager of his competitor.
"cheers..... to a good year ahead," he said.
"cheers. a good year ahead.... you really need it. for me i do well whether the year is good or bad...!" she said.
then as the dinner progressed, she got a bit tipsy....
at one point she stood up and said, "well, well, well, the year is drawing to an end, and look, what have i achieved..... the sales quota of course for the company.... what about for myself? i could not find myself a decent boy fren.... i can handle quota of millions, but when it comes to the quota of ONE good guy for myself, i suck! any suggesteion from you super salesmen?"
the whole table of men were taken aback, though saleamen are not supposed to faze at any situation.
"i have been working all my life selling million of dollars of product..... in my sober self...... now is the time that i would like to sell the good points about me.... listen ye...... to your princess of the sales world...... "
the guys were jazzed up by her out-of-whack behaviour.... encouraging her to drink more, and talk more.
marathon man, watched all these with discernment, said to her, "helena..... you drank too much..... here drink some juice."
"hahaha.... why you so good to me? are you impressed with my sales talk?"
"helena.... cool it."
"let her... drink.." david was not impressed with the fun being interupted. and the rest supported him, "ya.... buzz off, and let her have some fun...."
she turned silence, apparently the booze effect subsided and she was tired.
marathon man went over to her, "you need a lift?"
"ya, i think so...." she was glad that someone did ask her.
they left the dinner before the last dish was served.
he sent her to her home, before she went in, she said, "i'm sorry to have made myself a fool infront of you guys.... but thank you for your ...care...."
"don't mention it, though we r competitors in the market, we shoud not just live by the market.... we must remember we live in a society.... and that means we need to help each others when help is needed."
"that's my problem..... i fight for every sales, i fight for everything in my life, as if i' am standing on the edge of the rooftop, constantly fighting back the fear of falling from it. but wat actually i am fearing for? i have made some money, i'm healthy...... so let's enjoy what's good for now. and let tomorrow takes care of itself."
instead of entering the house, she entered his car, and they drove off to an off-site sales meeting. for that nite, the sales meeting would have only one goal - score as many goals as they like.
Monday, October 12, 2009
serangoon - durian fiesta
eating durian had to wait for the mp.
it was 7pm, marathon man and her galfren arrived at serangoon cc, and took a loft to the level-6, the sky level. there were already 70 people there. marathon man headed to the counter where a few big baskets of durian were lying about. one of the red-shirt grass-root leaders told him, "take a seat first, we have to wait for the mp to come before start eating."
the view from the sky-level was 180 degree, though could not see buildings from orchard road any other signature buildings from the surrouding, nevertheless, it was a goo dview of the neighborhood flats and streets.
this morning he was jogging from poh huat road, park villas rise, park villas green, park viallas terrace, jalan ariff, jalan tani, florence rd, lim ah pin rd, joo hong rd, florence rd again, simon lane, da silva lane, kang choo bin road, parry road, glasgow rd, flower road, palm grove ave, jensen rd, highland rd.... came out to kovan mrt, saw the serangoon cc durian fiesta banner. took down the number, call in, and there were still tickets left. he bot the tickets in the afternoon, $15/person, bot 1 each for him an s galfren.
at 7.30pm the mp come and sat next to marathon man table. without any speech or much ado, teh grass-root lady offered the mp 2 d24 duirans. and the durian fiesta began!
grassroot-leaders serve every table with pre-opened durians.... but every time it was the same type of furain the d24 - firmer, big seed and thick meat. pale yellow in color, only a handful seeds in a distorted petite shell.
the creamy pulp jaded the taste bud and the tasting thots, after they opened the 5th durian. then he asked teh grassroot leader, "got maoshanwang or not?"
"yes."
"can get us one?"
"ok."
then came the maoshanwang - sysmtrical in an oblong shape, slightly bigger than d24, each compartment consists of 5 or more small seeds, but each seed was wrapped with chunks of golden yellow meat, not as frim as the d24, but sweeter.
he also asked for xo, but the guy said, "717 only has maoshan and d24."
after a few rounds of chomping, the mp stood up and walked to each table to talk to the eaters. she came to marathon man's table and asked his galfren,"where are you from?"
she said, "sembawang."
"hah.... sembawang, how come you are here?"she was surprised why some outsider came to her constituency and ate her durians.
she said, "my boy fren jogged this morning and saw the banner about teh durian fiesta, and he's a durian lover... "
"oh.... come take a picture."
mp take picture with her.
like the oppo constituencies are getting lift upgrade, the not-pro pap guy like marathon man also can eat the pap mp's durian. why not? eating mp's durian is like paying gahmen taxes, you do it, whether you are in the pap or oppo ward. anyway there's no free lunch, as they said - you pay for what you eat. so eat as much as you can.
in fact, serangoon cc holds a durian fiesta every year. this year they held it in oct, because accordingly the durian is better during this month.
how about a durian eating contest? say within 10 minutes, how much durian can one eat, weighing the durian before and after the eating to find out how much is eaten. eat the normal durian in the qualifying rounds, but the maoshan in the finals. bet it will be not only be an attraction for the locals, a good way for pap to rally the people, it would be an interesting way of getting the tourists to appreciate the stinky fruit. and there wld be one for the locals and one for all natinals, the singapore open durian eating competition. germany has its oktoberfest, singapore should have its DurianOK.fest. who say beers and durian cannot mix?
while the malaysians and indons are claiming laksa is their dish, we singaporeans apart from, bak-chor-mee-mai-terkua, and meesiam-maihum as our national dishes can also claim as the number-1 durian-eating nation.
it was 7pm, marathon man and her galfren arrived at serangoon cc, and took a loft to the level-6, the sky level. there were already 70 people there. marathon man headed to the counter where a few big baskets of durian were lying about. one of the red-shirt grass-root leaders told him, "take a seat first, we have to wait for the mp to come before start eating."
the view from the sky-level was 180 degree, though could not see buildings from orchard road any other signature buildings from the surrouding, nevertheless, it was a goo dview of the neighborhood flats and streets.
this morning he was jogging from poh huat road, park villas rise, park villas green, park viallas terrace, jalan ariff, jalan tani, florence rd, lim ah pin rd, joo hong rd, florence rd again, simon lane, da silva lane, kang choo bin road, parry road, glasgow rd, flower road, palm grove ave, jensen rd, highland rd.... came out to kovan mrt, saw the serangoon cc durian fiesta banner. took down the number, call in, and there were still tickets left. he bot the tickets in the afternoon, $15/person, bot 1 each for him an s galfren.
at 7.30pm the mp come and sat next to marathon man table. without any speech or much ado, teh grass-root lady offered the mp 2 d24 duirans. and the durian fiesta began!
grassroot-leaders serve every table with pre-opened durians.... but every time it was the same type of furain the d24 - firmer, big seed and thick meat. pale yellow in color, only a handful seeds in a distorted petite shell.
the creamy pulp jaded the taste bud and the tasting thots, after they opened the 5th durian. then he asked teh grassroot leader, "got maoshanwang or not?"
"yes."
"can get us one?"
"ok."
then came the maoshanwang - sysmtrical in an oblong shape, slightly bigger than d24, each compartment consists of 5 or more small seeds, but each seed was wrapped with chunks of golden yellow meat, not as frim as the d24, but sweeter.
he also asked for xo, but the guy said, "717 only has maoshan and d24."
after a few rounds of chomping, the mp stood up and walked to each table to talk to the eaters. she came to marathon man's table and asked his galfren,"where are you from?"
she said, "sembawang."
"hah.... sembawang, how come you are here?"she was surprised why some outsider came to her constituency and ate her durians.
she said, "my boy fren jogged this morning and saw the banner about teh durian fiesta, and he's a durian lover... "
"oh.... come take a picture."
mp take picture with her.
like the oppo constituencies are getting lift upgrade, the not-pro pap guy like marathon man also can eat the pap mp's durian. why not? eating mp's durian is like paying gahmen taxes, you do it, whether you are in the pap or oppo ward. anyway there's no free lunch, as they said - you pay for what you eat. so eat as much as you can.
in fact, serangoon cc holds a durian fiesta every year. this year they held it in oct, because accordingly the durian is better during this month.
how about a durian eating contest? say within 10 minutes, how much durian can one eat, weighing the durian before and after the eating to find out how much is eaten. eat the normal durian in the qualifying rounds, but the maoshan in the finals. bet it will be not only be an attraction for the locals, a good way for pap to rally the people, it would be an interesting way of getting the tourists to appreciate the stinky fruit. and there wld be one for the locals and one for all natinals, the singapore open durian eating competition. germany has its oktoberfest, singapore should have its DurianOK.fest. who say beers and durian cannot mix?
while the malaysians and indons are claiming laksa is their dish, we singaporeans apart from, bak-chor-mee-mai-terkua, and meesiam-maihum as our national dishes can also claim as the number-1 durian-eating nation.
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