back to singapore - the blue moon

the 18-hr direct flight journey was apprehnsively felt by marathon man when he stepped onto LAX. but what the heck! anyway he's heading home.

the check in was smooth. then he headed for the star alliance lounge. the security at the boarding entrance caused 2 long queues. the guard who checked the identities of the passengers kept repeating identical greeting when he was asking each passenger for their passports and plane tickets - hello, how are you, doing good.... you passport and ticket please.... excessive show of courtesy is a good thing, it makes every body's day easier.

the whole journey is chasing fell under the dark side of the earth. but the day was the 15th of the chinese 1st moon - the full moon played its crescendo with calm lights across the whole sky. the fluffy clouds displayed the eerily cosy whiteness, the ocean below reflected the scaly shining rays.

he watched five movies -"something about mary", "lymelife", "my one and only", "a love affair to remember", and the chinese movie "in the mood for love" - .花样年华.

and the moon, a big yellow ob with dark streaks appeared on marathon man's right-hand side window, when the plane landed in changi airport at 0614. suudenly, the song "blue moon" somehow popped up in marathon man's thots - the blues are always there if you have the peaceful mind to embrace it; for marathon man with so much worries, anxieties and fires, this blue moon brought back some perpective to his hectic life

dana point - the teethless hockey dudes

take the newport blvd, toward the ocean, turn left into pacific coast highway, you can a very wide view of the pacific ocean from an elevation, sloping down toward it.
the view is picturesque. passing by newport beach, laguna beach, marathon man's fren ah dennis, said, "if i got stuck in teh traffic, i rather be along the pch, than along the noisy highway. i won't mind take my time to take in all that's around me. don't you think so?"

"yep... i definitely agree. but today the traffic is good ha?"

"yep, but in summer time, you would many people coming to the beach, and you would have a problem in the traffic."

they drove all the way to dana point and took a few minute to get to the cliff top chart house restaurant beside green lantern rd.

it was a nice place and built right at the edge of the cliff overlooking the habor. they sat down at the bar. he order a Cadillac Margarita without salt. they spent 10 minutes at the bar, before all other fellows turned up. they adjourned to the table which was placed into a cove-shaped enclosure, with the end of enclosure looking into the habor through a wide and glass window.

they placed their dinner order. he picked the bronzed sword fish and a chopped salad.

they started their blaring....

"you know i sms gary when america won the ice hockey vs canada, in the winter olympics. and he said, i'm not happy..... "

"hey, you know what he should be happy man now that canada has won their match against russia." ah andy said.

"you know we will meet them again the final...."

"why you guys so crazy about ice hockey, i mean the olympics?"

"wow, you have to know that the price of the final is over $2000 per ticket.... we are very excited that we have won the match against canda, because they were really good, and we seldom had any luck against them."

"you guys played ice hockey?"

"you bet!" all of them pulled something out from their mouths and held it in their hands...... they were the false teeth.

the US - t party

declining on the bed, ogling at the tv, in the wee hours of the nite, eyes wide opened, was just a sitting duck. what could you do past the middle of the nite? jet-lag set in at the most awkward hours. the next day would feel the consequence of the restless nite.

the 2 bills had their says - hbo's maher the liberal democrat, and o'reilly form fox news, the channel that ceaslessly blaring out pro-gop, anti-democratic diatribes, made their days by talking about obama, o'reilly branded him a socialist and maher said he did not do enough to carry democratic(liberal) agenda.

american people, though a melting pot of the world races, most of them are very simple-minded, easily swayed by propaganda, from tv's for campaign's.

the latest in town is the T party - where they wanted to the gahmen to reduce tax, like the what the boston t-party did to the british in 1773. the t-party started last year, and became a cliche now in the fox-news program.

now if you think that the extremists in the closed societies like afghan and pakistan are extreme, there's a group of people in the US, the champion in human rights and freedom, that are as extreme in the outlook on life - personified by the guy who ramped his plane into the tax building whom the americans said WAS NOT a terrorist. how do you define one then?

to LA - starry, starry nite

the endless nite did give marathon man something to cherish. the sky outside the cabin window: the clouds below appeared shimmering white from some reflection of the moonlight. the big dipper showed up on the left side of the window as big as could seen anywhere on earth. the flickering lights from the airplane wing did its part to distract his nite-sky observation. but how would you imagine if suddenly the lights went off , or perhaps the wing dropped off? unimaginable! he'd better of to shun out the wing-light distraction and capture whatever the window view offered.

he did the star-gazing for around 20 minutes, and at one point he saw a shooting stars, dropped toward the earth, but just for a split second, it disappeared just right there and then before his eyes.

he went to watch some more tv docu.

then asked the stewardess to help flatten out his seat, so he could try to shut his eyes lying down.

he did that for about an hour, nothing like sleeping, as the mind and the heart couldn't take on the resting mode. perhaps due to the cabin pressure.

when he opened his eyes, the window outside was starry, with a pitch dark sky. much darker than the one 1 hour ago, where the moonlight played prominently on the scene.

now, seemed the moon hid itself somewhere.

the most prominent constellation out there was the scorpio, with it's head raring right up toward the "sky". star dust spread across a big strip of the sky which we call milky way. everything that hanged there represented everything that a man could dream of.... a speckle of those lights there boggled the mind and intimidated the ego.

suddenly, a voice came from behind. he was taken aback by the stewardess asking him whether he wanted some chocolate.

"oh.... nice..." he took a piece.

"you are gazing at the stars ha? anything interesting?"

"ya... quite amazing. up here, 39000 ft high, you can really see the sky is all around us, you see many stars down at the horizon.... which you normally won't get to see on ground level."

"ya... i like watching the stars myself when i'm off-duty. and i always wonder whether nature has a mind of its own."

"you mean there's a GOD?"

"maybe, but i mean, whether things like earth, stars.... anything in the universe has a say in what they want to be."

"a star is star only at the moment you see it. when time passes by, there won;t be the star......"

"you mean anything is only anything for that moment of time you recognise it?"

"yes. nothing is anything when anything is nothing."

"you sound very philosophical. we can continue our discussion when you arrive in LA.... here's my number....."

the 14-hr non-stop flight from singapore to LA was supposed to be a non-event, sleepless drugery, and this time, it begged to differ.

poh huat - bougainvillea

the grass is drying out. feb 2010 has been a dry month. last nite, though it rained. that's good.

this morning, the air is exceptionally cool and fresh.

the sun threw its rays placidly on the earth. birds talking and trees and shrubs and grass greening away silently. it's a good morning. it's a good, good morning.

there's a some heart-burn feeling that disturbs the blood pressure. he wants to go out and jog it away.

he goes to serangoon area, poh huat road, fragrance road... and in tani road he sees a magnificent bougainvillea tree, the whole tree is covered with bright crimson flowers(rather leaflets). and he goes into realty park, a small housing estate, and by then his has stabilised his blood pressure and call it a jog for today.

woods - swinging is the word

Pastor Tan publicly apologised for demeaning another religion, Mr Toyoda apologised for the screwed up the car recalls, Tiger did it last Friday for cheating his wife.

Some public apology is imperative, like pastor Tan. But he needed not to do anything after the apology. In fact he should refrain from doing what he did before. Some public apology is a must and also apology alone is not enough, the apologiser MUST do something to rectify the situation, like Mr Toyoda. After he apologized, he had to work on improving Toyota's quality control. Some public apology is not needed, nor anything needed to be done to appease the public, like the Tiger Woods' case.

He did nothing wrong vis a vis the public, and the public did not demand any apology from him. But the press did. Howevr we must discern that the press is not just the public, though the press always thinks that they ARE the public. They demanded apology from Woods, with the vested hatred against him because he didn't treat them well; in other words - he didn't patronize to their egoistic psyche.

The Tiger Woods case demonstrated once more, the press is not that impartial! They look after first and foremost their own welfare.

marathon man apologize once. and the apology was not accepted whole heartedly because maybe she did not think marathon man was sincere in his apology, or she already had given up hope in him.

anyway, he had done his part; an imperative part indeed. though she didn't show her acceptance, at least she got the victor's feeling that, "see, you know you did wrong, now trying to make it up. i would not be that easy to appease."

after so many years, the trust still not exactly there yet, though, things have become better.

donald trump called up woods, "no need public apology. just do whatever you think is best, and let GOD take care of the consequences. what are yo afraid of? loosing your wife? then if she doesn't love you anymore, what good is there to retain her? loosing your children? that's the zist of the problem. you have to use whatever you have to convince your wife to settle this amicably."

woods said, "i live on advices from my sponsers. and they said, i should apologize."

"no need to live on anybody's advice. you are rich enough to retire any time and be a very happy man, without these sponsers."

"no so.... no so rich that i can afford a divorce...."

"why not?"

"i cannot stomach the idea that whatever i earned, i have to split half to the woman who is the mother of my 2 kids but not wanting to be my wife. if i did so, i will eat my heart out."

"come on. cut yoruself some slack. just take it like taking an expansive lesson. learn from it, so next time, you are protected."

"how?"

"don't get married, improve your swing. be a swinging golfer cum playboy."

- woods should apologise for apologising, because his 1st apology was uncalled for, or some press people said, his 1st apology was not sincere. either way, he has to apologise again.

what can he do?

no problem, A PAW LOGIC is what tiger believes in, anyway.

esplanade - talking greek

the IR in sentosa opened in CNY amidst a lot of huha. there were people lying down infront of the entrance, obviosuly too tired. maybe they were foreign workers went in and had a good time, but had to come out to rest before going in again......

the IR in marina bay(pond) is alomost ready now. marathon man checked the new building out just this afternoon when he was jogging in the esplanade area. the place was a far cry from what it was a few years ago, before the F1, before the IR started to build, before the floating stage....

the sky line looking from the esplanade also changed drastically, the IR, the Sail, and a couple of tall buildings make the marina looked more like a pond.

the chingay 2010 was held here, at the Promenade between Pit Building and Singapore Flyer last nite.

there were many canoeing actitivties in the kallang river. the tanjung rhu new garden was still wip.

marathon ran by the old stadium, and wondered when they were going to tear it down and build the new sports complaex in its place. talk is cheap, but all the gahmen could do was to ask the people to be patient. the younger minister's part in the buggled project showed these young chaps were far less effiecient in their works when they deal in the publci sector. they were good as individual performer, but failed at managing the country. the desert oasis palace made quite an eye-sore.

he crossed the bridge across the kallang river, followed the path along the river, in tanjung rhu, all the way to dakota, then guillermard road. the kallang river petered into a big longkang beside city plaza. marathon man gave up tracing it's source further up, instead turned to geylang serai, and ended up in joo chiat road.

there was a shop in joo chiat rd, with a sale/rent sign. he called the agent. he said the asking price was 1.68 mil. land area 1600sqft, could be built into a 5-story building.

"are you an agent?"

"no."

"you buy for investment or own use?"

"not for me lah. my fren interested."

"what business your fren has in mind?"

"karaoke."

"cannot. hard to get license in joo chiat rd now, after residents complained too many ktv here."

"ktv is good entertainment, why complained?"

"ktv with vietnam gals is too good an entertainment for some people. geylang already become china chicken coop, a vietnam meat market in joo chiat...."

"since they don't want little vietnam in joo chiat rd, my fren can employ gals from other country. not from philippines who has conquered luncky plaza, indonesia who has taken up city plaza and thailand, who has occupied golden mile."

"no... not from any place you expected."

"from where?"

"greece."

game - are you game?

reward for the emailer, also the replier and the forwarder.

what should we reward them? and how?


first he registers to the emailpoint website

whenever he sends an email or forward, or reply an email, a advert will automatically attached to the email. credit points will be earned by how many people he sends the email to.

so simple.

toyota - toyoda

memories, you recall them to live on. you cannot live without depending on your memories.

but toyata would not want to recall anything if that's at all possible.

the JIT model is not quality frendly. why?

when everything has to be right on the dot, something has to give. else you would have a lot of interruptions due to a small delay in some stations because quality issues are bound to pop up due to in-efficiencies and process variations, else you would have a perpectual machine, runs by itself without external energy sources.

you may recall, many years ago, japanese goods were inferior, like what chinese goods are being held up as today. then, they learnt and improved, and as the days went by, they were getting better at it, and so much so, they finally reached the plataeu of the quality game.

and now, the flag bearer of japanese quality has crumbled. can they rise again?

they did not give a detailed report of what went wrong, and no detailed corrective actions, just big words from mr toyoda, the recall-master to the customers, and also big promotion efforts to blind-sight the consumers into buying toyota's again.

marathon man asked him, "why toyota like that one, so lousy?"

"ah so ka..... i want to expand, but may be too fast ne... i must apologise to my customers ne... go to US ne..."

"how are you going to gain their confidence back?"

"oh.... ah so ka.... not so easy ne.... first i must apologize, then cut the prices, then give them longer warranty ne... and also we are going to change our JIT model to JIC model ne."

"we know JIT is the cock-sure Just In Time model, what's JIC"

"oh, it's the Just In Case model ne, whereby for every car toyota produces, there would be a spare one built, just in case there's another massive recall, toyota will replace the defective one with a new car, one-for-one ne."

- from JIT to JIC, two extremes. remember, any extreme is not good.

country club - nite golf

9-holer : the freedom you experience as a 9-holer is the same as that experinced as a jogger. you can do it alone!

marathon man did a 9-hole today. ang-paws for the changing-room service people, and also the other service people. not many golfers showed up. the course was practically empty except for a flight of a couple in front of him.

he played the best 9-hole in his life so far - his driver surprising was near perfect, straight and quite far. his fairway wood did not misfire, not much chance to play his irons except the short ones, and no complaint, his chips were alright, and the putting, the most he took was 2 putts......

after the shower, when he was about to leave, he met his fren ah lim, "happy new year, ah lim."

"happy new year to you also. how's your game today?"

"good, but played 9-hole only. how's yours?

"good also.... i was playing with ah david, ah alan and ah andrew, and all went under 90."

"wow, that's a good year to start with."

"sure, this is tiger's year. don't forget he's still number one, though he's still not yet out of the woods, and is loosing big time in his nite golf."

changi business park - novelty and familiarity

bedok river, the jade-clear water that flowed along bedok garden has a name after all, he found out. he could have been here for more times than he could count, but he only thot it was just a big longkang.

he started his jog from the end of upper east coast road, went into eastwood estate and taman bedok, then cross the bridge onto the boulevard beside laguna golf country club, then crossing xilin ave onto changi south ave 3, the changi business park. he stepped onto this area for the first time.

singapore is small in many aspects to many people, but to marathon man it's big..... he's a feet-on man, his feet has done him a lot of running in this red dot, and yet, many a times, the places he stepped on was new to him. how do you explain if singapore is small then, by his due diligence of more than 20 years of treading on this piece of land, he should not have surprise himself with any more new places by now.

this business park was very quiet, today's still off-day, nobody came to office. only people like marathon man was still hard at doing his jogging business, come rain or shine, come christmas or cny....

the area had a lot of empty space, amidst the buildings like standard chartered bank, medtronics, avaplas..... and fringed by the left-over forest, beside the tanah merah golf country club. he went all the way in to reach pie, and turned out from changi court condo into upper changi rd east.....

the day of the jogger is made, not by how long a distance he's run, rather by how much novelty and familiarities he finds from his journey.

familiarity and novelty - the two main ingredients that's needed for an excited life.

rifles range - constructor

the fragrance of pandan fleetingly entered marathon man's nostrils. there's the wild, tall pandan plants stood around him, giving out a reinvigorating scent that jocked him from exhaustion to alertness. the jungle was a unpredictable place. nicely so. the small stream, flowing with clear water, though, there's not been any rain for the past 2 weeks. and what made marathon man wonder were the darting movements on the surface of water, which were actually small, light-colored fishes. small fries, some adults. marathon man wondered how they got here. water flowed from higher elevation, but the sources up in the higher areas would be even lesser in flow rate and volume, even trickles in some cases, and less likely to be the original breeding grounds for these little creatures, they must come from the lower waters. if so how could the brace against gravity to swim upstream? fish are like sperm, they swim upstream to propagate.

marathon man started his jog at end of rifles range rd, near bukit timah road. he was was hesitating whether to continue his jog into the forest lest the wild dogs that he encountered the last time he jogged here, many years ago. his lethargy new-year mind(with so much goodies and a few late nite activities) didn't bother so much, he kept heading into the forest. on the way he met some joggers, and that put him a t ease with what he was going into. anyway, everything turned out fine. all his memories of wild dogs roaming in the open at one section of the journey did not materialize. in fact he was trying hard to recognize the place where the wild dogs roamed the last time he did his jog here. but nowhere in all his journey resemble that place. did he take a different route, or did the place changed so much, the old open space had disappeared? that would remain a mystery that time and space cast upon one's coconut size brain ever so often in life.

he was surprised to find out that the distance from the military supply base to the tree-top walk was less than 3km. he remembered it was much longer. again, his memory might have failed again. anyway, that was good news for him. he needed to finish the jog asap, and be back for a new year party later in the day.

he finished his jog in venus drive, before which he was fortunate to have take in the wild pandan fragrance in the forest trail, and more fortune befell him with the sighting of the fishes swimming happily along the small stream with water as clear as crystal.

seemingly, you need to be that much receptive to the blessings of your surroundings to appreciate the creator's message to mankind - that be kind to your environment, not that you are are worth all these tributes from mother nature, whoever you are, you better be a constructor than a destructor - take what ingredients you find and make good use of them.

no body invents, or creates(except the creator) - they only construct!

malaysia - the 7 wonders

THE 7 WONDERS OF MALAYSIA



1. The CROOEKD BRIDGE

2. The UNSINKABLE submarine

3. The jet engine that flies by itself

4. The BAKUN dam

5. The PORT KLANG FREE ZONE

6. The MAVERICK

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suggested 7th wonder candidates

- Re-appearance of SODOM

- The unshakable Mongolia shadow

- Perwaja steel mill

- ......

gallery by the straits again - out of africa

"my inlaws used to live in zambia. then they moved back to england when all their kids schooled back in england and stayed put there. my father inlaw told me stories of their life in zambia...... one story struck me most. in those days as now, i supposed, safety was the utmost concern of the white men there.... my inlaws were no exception. they have to keep a team of security people, the locals, to protect them. and they demand quite alot, and my inlaws had to give in else, somebody else would hire them away.....

but one thing so funny thou, somehow they got by with a somewhat unglamorous practice... their frens told them to grow marijuana in a big field. after the harvest, and drying, they would distribute them to the security people, the workers and all those they employed, as a form of annual BONUS for their royalty and their hard work.... and strangely, that worked pretty well..."

the ang-moh md was obviously getting into his talking train after a glass...

and he said, "they called the the practice - HIGH performer bonus and they meant it literally. obviously our company is not the first one to think of that... only difference is, my inlaws treated every worker as high performer, whereas our company only rewards those in the HIGH ranks"

he's definitely a bit too HIGH...

nanshan building, puding rd, hsinchu, taiwan - meeting

he stopped, and said, "i have taken refuge in the LORD, you know?"

"have you? that's good. how?"

"i was from a missionary school when i was young. now that i need Him, HE is here for me. look! i even brought along the bible with me." he unzipped the side-pocket of his bag....," not one but two...." showing them two chinese bibles. he opened up a page, and read from it....

but we did not dwell on the subject, and quickly turned back to another another question, "ok, abe it's good you have some religious belief to be rest your shoulder on. so going forward, you should not ........"

and the meeting went on and on.....

tunmen street, old hotel - make more money

ambassador hotel is in chunghwa road,2nd section, walk to the right, turn right, hitting tungmen street, all the way to the round-about, cross it to the other section of tungmen street, there you find moonlight hotel, the hotel that marathon man stayed when he first landed himself in the small little town called hsinchu..... and now a pretty-big-size city beyond his recognition. many more shops, many more people, and people are no more as simple as hill-billies of those bygone days, there're youngsters spotting the latest japanese fashions, the working people with 3-pieces, the ladies with top-of-the-brand attires...

what can make people and scenes change more than the self-motivation of wanting to make more money?

taiwan - sanity

again, sanity is a very delicate balance of one's disposition of outside stimulus.
the balance can be tilted in both ways, you can become a megalomaniac, or a maniac.

and sadly..... both ends are not conducive for a happy life.

and baeh did not become neither. he has learnt to take life easy , to take work easy.

instead he has become a hyper, laughs alot, like a laughing bag, acts out what he thinks infront of everybody, like he would not hesitate to show you what he learnt in his danding classes. he loves to show people how he could dance the steps that he just learnt from the dancing school. he likes to brag about how many houses he bought, how much money he has.... as if it's now his time to show the world he had finally made it! as the world owe him its ears to listen to what he had done to his life.

good or bad?

the shrink will have to decide.

bayan tree - wondering

The bayan tree is not a tree. It's a small forest.

Its multi-trunks, tendril-like air-roots that dangle like vertical beat-curtain from its branches, the parasitic vegetation that twines around its sturdy trunks and branches, the adjacent non-related greens that make up the fringe of the forest, that take advantage of its shade,the canopy makes a perfect roaming and dwelling ground for the the butterflies and other insects.....the birds that perch on it and the various tiny living faunas and floras that make use of its existence to constitute a mini self-sustained eco-system.

And now you put a meditating mind under it.....

it will wonder.....

......yet not beyond the canopy of the bayan tree

seberang jaya - mother

repeating the same anecdote, or telling the same story again and again, is not so uncommon to everybody who wants to dwell in the past. and who doesn't? even our mm lee, the tough guy who sneers at people's slowness in responding to any future challenges, often brings up his old-time gangster story.

beyond this stage - no more old-time stories.... only dear memories to hold on to.

ate in macalister dimsum center. then went over to butterworth, to seberang jaya to visit his mother - an old lady; not able to stand and walk, only able to sit-up on the bed, very hard at hearing(had to talk very loud into her ears), her pupils showed dis-focused attention, facial expression benign and quite blank, wrinkles and speckles spread all over her face, mouth slackingly hanging in there.... all the signs of a 92-year old, who had experienced the restrictions for ladies in the feudal system, the tribulations of the jap occupation, the uncertainties of china modern historical upheaval, the camaradarie of commune times, the remotelness of sailing away from her motherland to another far-way place, the not-so-cosiness of her relationship with her other half, the early departure of him, the bringing up of her 3 young kids(some how), the event that turned ugly on her second son, the happiness of knowing the all her kids got married and bore her grand kids..... and the ever-motherness of her love to the kids and her grand kids and more so to her 2nd son and his family.... knowing deep inside..... nothing matters that much any more....except she still wanted to hold the ang-pow that he and his wife gave to her.

if money can stir up an old mother's heart - she still has the instinct to live on!

penang - halal tausapiah

dawn


bird's eye view from penang hill


kekloksi temple


penang hill tramp


mid-way, penang hill


penang hill, here we come


the old penang


the not-so-old behind the old


mingood hotel


the ferry

Ate in bukit jambul - laksa, char koay teow and wanton noodle. went Kek lock see, a new buddha of mercy statue.

Penang hill, 700 plus m. Journey took 28 min. Still the rustic penang hill. Traffic jam along the road, but not so serious. Went by bayan lepas, green lane, batu lachang, stopped over in Alma mater.

Then looked for himhiang selling tausapiah, passing by scotland rd, gurney dr, packed with traffic, wanted to eat in hawker center, but no carpark. Found him hian in burma rd. but was already closed after 5pm, and closed the next day, since it's sunday.

Ate in ching shan kopitiam opposite him hiang. The service boy did not understand Mandarin for bottled water, so use hand language. Still could not understand, but when told in english 'mineral water', he nodded. But brought a 1-litter big bottle, which baffled him. His daughter said, "you gestured a big one just now, what!"

"I did not. I just gestured a bottle, since he did not understand what i said" he was quite agitated that even his daughter could not understand him.

They had Bakuteh. Totally disappointed that all they got was claypot full of soup and pork-belly slices and beancurd and beancurd sticks... But no bakut(pork rib or pork bones. he confronted the seller who said, that's how they prepared the stuff.

And prawn noodle came a mini bowl costing 5 rgt with a few added strand of kailan and a few pieces of pig intestine.

in the airport - looked for himhiang again - no himhiang. asked the sales lady for himhiang.

she said, they only sell halal tausapiah!

bishan cny market - luck

half asleep, half awake - that's the state of mind that may not afford you to carry on with your life happily. why?

if you are in your sleep, you live in your dream - sometimes happy, sometimes fearful

if you are awake, you live in reality, and you can assert your will power to face any problem.

but if you are half asleep, half awake, you do not have a reference of how to live your life; you would not know for sure whether you are dreaming or living in reality, so you would not know whether whatever you exeprience is worth anything to dwell on..... you are a confused bundle of nerve.

a confused guy is one who lives aimlessly, who lets his animal instinct control him, who flips from a good guy to a bad one and vice versa, at any moment....

there's a lunar new year make-shift market at the empty compound next to junction 8, bishan.

marathon man was looking at the lime pot plants.

he asked the seller, "this plant i bought last year, it's not bringing me any special luck. which plant do you recommend, this year?"

"the dragon ball kumquat will do well this year."

"sure or not, good luck will come hah? why?"

"this is the tiger year, dragon should pair with tiger very nicely... like the chinese saying 'crouching tiger, hidden dragon'."

"ok lah, give me two pots."

- weakling needs luck..... you may say. but who don't?

tampines - cool

can you live under constant stress?

ie, can you live with a problem that lasts forever, or can you live day in and day out with one problem after another. in other words, can you be a politician?

looks like the politicians are immune to problems. they have insulated themselves from problems. how they do it?

marathon man's politician fren, ah mabok smiled when he told in a tampines function the people, "you don't complain about me not building enough houses. sekali, i build many more, and the housing market crashes, everybody will cry father cry mother."

some people cannot really the way mabok smile, they threw eggs on him and hit his face right on.

he smiled wider, "hehehe.... got eggs! i like that. my diet is free eggs..."

now that's cool..... politically cool.