come - and not

emailed said he could not come because his passport was due in feb 2012, less than 6 months validity, the SIA counter in LA did not let him check in. he was stunned. asked, "is that a joke?"

"no sir, look here what the system says.... passport expire within 6 months, cannot check in."she turned the screen to him.

so he cancelled his journey. and blamed the travel dept not checking out his passport validity before buying the ticket for him.

those were the years - my fren

which movie one teenager watched 3 times, the other said, he's goin to watch again, and the third one said, he's going to download it from the net..... it's not any fantasy movie like the harry potter, or any sci-fi like avatar, not some epic like titanic.... not even a western movie

they went to watch the movie tonite. only a few people in the cinema, perhaps, it's been shown for some time now.

about a few classmates. together they went after the same gal in the class... funny, exaggerated, but very touching and somewhat reminiscence of his teenage years....

- "you are the apple of my eye (那些年 我們一起追的女孩)" - and you know it!

world resorts - the wynners

wynners, or loosers? if you did not attend the concert in world resorts, sentosa, you would never found out. he wanted to know, so he went.

after taking almost 15 minutes to get into the car park and find a slot, they found their way to the compass ballroom.

the concert started before 8.30pm. the 5 looked not much older than what he saw them in their old movies, clips, especially for ah b. they belted out different genres in diff languages/dialects.

obviously for most, the highlight of 2.5-hr gag was join-in-the-beat-session, when they invited the crowd to come forward to near the stage to boogie with them.

also ah b brot her 7-year-old daughter, very smart and possessed a sense of entertainment business, reminded him of the gal who sang in the chinese olympics.

they were the wynners, for over 30 years, they can still come back as an intact group with the ballroom almost booked out, that's something few bands in the world could have done so.

the looser, the sound system was not good, too much mid tone. not enough treble and bass..... crowdy... like in the busy market.

pulau semakau landfill - bird watching

joined the nature society of singapore(nss) to go pulau semakau landfill. the group went for bird watching, but he went to take pictures.
azmi was the leader, gerard the bird expert(a poly lecturer) and ee ling, another keen and experienced bird watcher, and angmoh couple, a pair of gal frens and a lone ranger uncle.

it was a very hot day. the island is not for touristsor anyone who wants to pop in for a visit, only for people belonging to a couple of public societies(like nss)with pre-arrangements. that's why he had to join nss to come to semakau. the landfill island has 1/4 of the planned cells dumped already, by another 34 years, all cells will be filled up and singapore will need another landfill.

there's a tar-mac road leadng from the terminal to the other end of the island. they walked for about more than half of the dsitance of the whole road, then it was time to go back, at about 1pm.

they managed to spot the following birds:
Common myna
scaly breasted munia
brahminy kite
paddyfield pippit
blue-tailed bee eater
pied imperial pigeon (4)
common sandpiper
little ringed plover
whimbrelmarsh sandpiper
greenshank
black shouldered kite
changeble hawk eagle (pale morph)
brown shrike
Great-billed heron
Olive-backed sunbird
Black-naped oriole
Pacific swallow
Barn swallow
Spotted dove
Lesser coucal

they also detoured into the jungle trail, where tons of mosquitoes swarmed on them, sticking their proboscis into any exposed skin, even onto the clothes. at the end of the trail, they came to the shore with a beach which was cover with sea water from the high-tide of the day.

bird watching takes patience, and physical strength and tenacity to lug along tripods, bag-pack, and binoculars, and a pair of sharp eyes to spot the birds 100m away, need to remember the birds they have spotted, and recognise the birds' calls. but the joy is when the bird watcher spots a new bird he has not seen before.

he's no bird watcher - perhaps bird watching for him is, no need to force himself to learn anything more about nature, or get any clearer view of it.... just to get nearer to it.

tender - no bid

the alarm sounded amidst a meeting. got the the mrt and stopped at raffles place station and walked to republic plaza. met the group of 7 and talked about strategy in a coffee shop across the rd. another member turned up later. moved on to open the tender box at the 39th floor, republic plaza, the property agent's office, at 3.30pm.

the agent went thru their marketing effort, then invited the chairman to use the key he held to open the tender box, a big envelop was fished out. and 4 other small red packets from the agent. the big envelop contained the mandatory valuation report at the time of opening the tender, and there's NO BID.

macro is not good, nobody wants to tender for big projects.....

Taiwan trip - ok

went to teh airport at 1.20am, the plane arrived a little later and waited for 30 minutes for him to come out.

taiwan trip was ok, he said.

Thank God.

dubai city tour - shop till you drop

deira, jumeira, the creek, souks, sheraton hotel, ..... all familiar names that reminded him of his younger years when he was living in dubai in an apartment shared with his colleague beside the creek. those busy days did not leave much memories except the food, the desert, the work and his colleagues. dubai then was just about 10 years into its city development phase from a mere fishing village. but the pace was already noticeably rushing, though tall buildings were not that many, but the desert along the creek had already turned into a small city, with bustling activities, mainly manned by foreigners from pakistan, india, and other arab countries.

now getting down from the plane, the airport impressed on him that it's just like in a busy bazaar, the shopping area was crowded with people from all over the world. though compared with the old airport, it had definitely made improvement in big strides, you would take 20 minutes to find a toilet, and when you find it, it's also like a bazaar, overcrowded with people wanting to empty their bladders.

they checked into a 3-star hotel downtown, past midnite. the room was 2 floors above a filipino bar, which played deafening music until 3am. though they were 2 floors above, they could still feel the thumping beats of the bass. the extremely tired body did not have a good rest for the first nite.

the next morning, city tour.

toured the creek, came down at the gold souk, to buy some spices, and went to the market to buy some dates and golden guava. visited the seaside, drove by burj al arab, stopped over in front of the atlantis, and ended in the dubai mall, next to burj kalifah, for the desert safari.

after the desert safari, they asked the driver to drop them at city center mall, and continued their shopping, since they still could find what they wanted with the right prices. after an hour tour around the modern mall, they took metro back to al rigga station, near their hotel. they met some tour members who bot some cheap souvenirs from some shop nearby, 4 of them took out their last ounce of energy to check it out, walking one km to and indian shop where they sold everything from souvenirs to clothes to electrical appliances, food.... and they got what they wanted finally at the RIGHT prices.

when the reached the hotel, it's already past midnite.

- shopping in the malls of dubai cost a few times more than shopping in roadside shops for the same items. knowing this little secret before hand, your balls will not drop, instead the prices will.....

camel ride - bob of arabia

after the desert ride, they queued up for the camel ride. after that, they adjourned to a desert camp for some snack, some entertainment and the big feast came.

everybody had a good bite of the mutton kebab, grilled chicken, beans, nan....

during the camel ride, an angmoh wanted to cut queue, bob, one of the tour group members confronted him. though the bedouin camel-herd was not happy that bob did what he did, questioning his way of wanting to give in to the angmoh after the angmoh apparently trying to offer him something to cut the queue, bob stood his ground. the angmoh stood aside.

also there's another incident involving another angmoh, a big angmoh, who when trying to mount the camel, did not get a proper mount. when the camel stood up, he could not hang on to the grip, fell down from the camel. the camel did not care, continued to make its first stride, with the fallen angmoh on its way.

bob, jumped out and pulled the angmoh away, just before the camel's hoof landed on his big body. the angmoh thanked him profusely.

tonite, the stars did not show up in the arabian sky as he had witnessed them many years ago when he worked in this very desert, probably due to the sandy dust kicked up by the tourists in the camp site. but one star did rise from the east, magnificent and bright.... he is:

- bob(aka our former president ong teng cheong)of arabia, who saved the day.


                                                                    bob .....

dubai desert safari ride - whose turn is it, tonite?

they arranged the desert safari on their own for us$45/pax, instead of going thru the tour agency for euro75. they met the land cruiser driver, hassan, a pakistani at the dubai mall at 3.30pm. they drove out of the city towards the desert along the hatta-oman highway for about 45 minutes and pulled over at a shop to wait for the other 2 cars from the same tour group, before starting the desert safari ride. he refilled his stomach with ample water, like a camel before the arid journey into the desert.

they drove a short distance into the desert and pulled over for a last assembly before starting off for the roller-coastal ride. they had a few pictures, and then vroom they screeched off into the dunes.

it was stomach-churning right from the start; the 4-wheel-drive, 6-litre monster dipped from the peaks and rose from the troughs of the dunes..... just before it tipped over, hassan with his superb handling of the wheel, jerked it back into course and up it went for another roll.

the convoy weaved thru the dunes like big bugs going for a forage outing in the desert. they saw a couple of vehicles turned turtle, or stuck in the sand.

half way thru, the phone rang! and all eyes turned to the phone resting on the storage cavity next to hassan. he reached out for the phone, amidst a tight turn.... all shouted...."hassan.... watch out!" he squeezed hard the gas, whiffed the wheel to the left, the car roared up onto another peak. everyone let out a good sigh of relief. all this happened, while he spoke into his handphone, "ok...ok.... ahajskakaks....kskslslkakswasc..."

"hassan, who was that?"

"my second wife.... she wanted to know whose turn's it, tonite."