Independence From Any Political Parties

Ape is never good with words and always have difficulties articulating his thoughts. So ape sometime resort to others who closely matches with what ape's thoughts are.

"As civil servants, we stay out of the fray but we work within the political realities"

This statement is quoted from THINK HAPPINESS. Ape is happy to know that there are some people who understands the difference between politicians and civil servants.

Here's another one - Things we should all know – that the Civil Service is independent of any political party.

It's no surprise to ape that there are people who still think that civil service officers (or grassroots volunteers) will lose their job if PAP is voted out. Ape's reply to this to them is "Why worry if you are doing a good job? It's just a change of CEO."

Ha! I Found The Prince

Just found out that the Frog Prince is still in town and not in Paris as he claims!

He's been stalking my children! :p

No la, actually he really is out of town. I was just having a bit of fun with my mobile phone with camera features. It came as a surprise that under the Frame facility, Frog Prince actually made it into the features. Can't help it but to capture a couple of shots with it. Kinda cool, don't ya think?

Feeling So Guilty

Not too long ago, I just passed my Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT). Before that, I was thinking about keeping physically fit, not just for the yearly IPPT but also for my health's sake... thinking, like I did every year. True enough, I thought a lot about keeping fit for the last week or so but hardly did any exercise (if you consider a stroll in the park to be exercise in the first place). Not only that, I pampered myself with these:


Got both of these and quite a few other dishes at Chomp Chomp in Serangoon Gardens a couple fo days ago. The crab soup was delicious and guaranteed with roes at less than $10. Arrghhhh.... the cholesterol!!! Anyway, got quite guilty over it so the very next day, I headed straight to the gym for some workout.

I was quite surprised with myself when I managed to pull 4 STANDARD chin-ups... enough to pass my IPPT :p and even more surpising was that I managed to clock a better timing than my RT-IPPT when I attempted the 2.4km run on a threadmill. Ok, ok,,, these achievements are nothing to brag about but it is still my personal best sinc the last 4-5 years. Hmmmm... was it the crab soup? Anyway, I told myself to maintain this standard for at least a year and not only will I be able to pass my IPPT next year, I can even get a Silver Award!... or should I aim for a Gold Award? :p

Where Can He Hide?

It's been like 3 weeks since Mas Selamat escaped and still no sign of him. From what I read in the net or news, more than a thousand personnel have been mobilised to search for him. More than a thousand phone calls or emails were received by the police with possible sightings reported. However, there are simply no trace of his where abouts - perhaps the Home Team did find traces just that these were not publicised for fear of jeopardising their operation to hunt him down... perhaps. If Mas Selamat is still in Singapore and the Home Team really do have reliable traces or leads to his hiding place, I find it very hard to believe that they could not get him by now.

If his escaped had been planned and co-ordinated with accomplice, I believe he must have fled the country on 27 Feb 2008, the day he escaped the detention centre. How certain are the police when they say he acted alone? Assuming he is still in Singapore and unable to contact any of his accomplice, where can he hide? I don't know.

But I asked myself, if I were him, where will I hide? So I started to muse over this question. Where ever I may be hiding, the place has to be as far away from public view as possible. It should also be near sources of food and water... and near the coast as much as possible. Eventually, my thoughts led me to think of Choa Chu Kang Cemetery.

Firstly, it is not unusual to see anyone in a cemetery... even at night, especially in Chinese cemetery where punters are known to seek additional help for the spiritual world. Also, no one would take more than a glance at a stranger in a cemetery... especially if that stranger appears to be unkept. Who knows? The dilapidated stranger you saw may not be a human after all. Food is really not an issue, if one is not too choosy. There's bound to be some offering of food and drinks to the deceased. Well, if those are really not up to your taste, there's fruit trees among the forests surrounding the cemetery. Beyond the CCK cemetery to the western end is the sea. even if the Home Team were to comb the cemetery, chances are they may not be as enthusiastic about their searches compared to other places. Come on... cemetery gives everyone the creeps. He'll just need to bide his time and await for an opportunity to perhaps hijack a motorised boat from one of the kelongs near Serimbun or Kranji and off he goes... provided the Police Coast Guard failed to detect him.

Anyway, it's just my musings... there's still a lot of questions to be addressed... such as how could he get to CCK cemetery in the first place? How certain can he be that punters will not approach him and ask "Bang, you know which hantu gives good tips?" Or perhaps, he had been taken away by the pontianak hiding there... which is why the Home Team could not find him anywhere in this world...

To all the group troopers who are actually doing the work of searching - don't loose heart. We know you are putting in your best effort to look for him. Keep it up.

What's My Mood?

Many years ago, a group of us were receiving our training somewhere at the eastern side of this little red dot. On one particular morning, when we just stepped into our class. This statement was scribbled on the board - "I'm so happy I can lick my own ass!" No one knew who's the joker who wrote that but we were laughing and speculating how do this person lick his own behind?

However, this statement has been etched in my mind for may, many years. Whenever I am elated, "I'm so happy I can lick my own ass!" comes to mind...

And this is exactly how I feel this evening... because I passed my IPPT! This means no more RT... no more burning 3 evenings every week for the next 4 weeks... no more dieting, no more training, no more... WAIT. I think I should just maintain my fitness and continue exercising regularly. For the sake of my health and not just for passing IPPT.

P/S I haven't figured out how can a person lick his own behind... do you think contortionist can do it?

Spot The Seahorses

A diving friend snapped some pictures of seahorse. Kinda cute.

Talking about seahorses... do you know that the eggs of seahorses are kept by the papa seahorses? That is, it is the papa seahorse that get pregnant... not the mama seahorse....

See if you can spot the seahorses. I could... ... but cannot now... ... hmmm, wonder where are the seahorses... ... keep a look out for the eyes... that's what my friend says...

And You Think Only Blondes Are Stupid?

I was reading Mr Brown's blog when I came across this. Couldn't help laughing, especially the reactions from the boy. Then I went into Youtube and did a search by typing "stupid"... guess what I found there. I am really surprised by the answers given by the Americans.

My Dear Daughter

Not too long ago, someone in CNA forum guessed that I must have a very well behave daughter. Well, I must admit she is and I certainly hope she can continue to be so.

Over the last 4 years, I hardly see my daughter. The reason is that wifey and I are weekend parents. That means, we'll fetch our daughter home over the weekend and comes Sunday night, we'll have to "deposit" her with my mother-in-law. Also, we make it a point to visit her (and my mother-in-law) at least once a week during the weekday. Do I really have a choice to do otherwise? We certainly hope that we can see her everyday and have her calling out to us, "Papa! Mommy! You're home! See what I draw!". However, we can't... both of us have to work. Can we fetch her home on a daily basis? Maybe... but I think travelling for 45mins on either direction between my M.I.L. everyday will be taxing on us and our daughter... not to mention traveling from my M.I.L's place to/from my workplace. Why don't I buy a car? Yeah, right... might as well suggest one of us quit our job. Or better still, go buy toto and pray that I'll strike the first prize. $500K will do - I do not expect to win the rolled up millions although I do not mind :P

To cut the long story short, wifey took a couple of "long weekend" leave recently such that the "weekend resort home" become "weekend cum Monday resort home". Instead of the usual practice of returning her (my daughter, not my wife) to my MIL on Sunday, we go there on Monday so that we can have more time with her (my daughter, not my MIL) and hear that "Papa! You're home! See what I draw!"... aaaaaah...bliss!

She can really be chatty if she wanted to and will take the initiative to play with us with her usual "SURPRISE!" She will attempt to hide...by covering her eyes and then shout surprise while removing her hands to look at you :=) (I think I'll need to teach her the story of 掩耳盗铃). Anyway, it is always fun playing with her.

Also, the honest truth is, she rarely makes me angry... frustrated perhaps but not angry. However, on a recent occasion, she got on the nerves of wifey. Now, try to understand that wifey is very, very pregnant now so she tends to be a bit more sensitive. So on that particular day, wifey was teaching Trix to spell "The" and "This". After several rounds of coaching and repetition, Trix still spell "This" like this "Theis". Wifey lost her temper and hit our daughter's hand with a cane! Ouch! To be exact... a candy cane :P ... (not so ouch). Tears welled up in our daughter's eyes and only then did that irresponsible papa who hides in the study room blogging, came out to the living room and save the day :p.

I could see from her eyes that the tears rolled not because of the pain from the candy cane (it's really a very small one) but more like somehow, she felt she has disappointed us or made us feel unhappy. That made me look at my daughter in a very different perspective and I really think she is quite capable of sensing when someone's emotion is really not quite right. In other words, she is quite understanding. On top of that, she isn't those who wails and screams nor shout (touch wood) - she just cry, trying hard to hold back her tears and look at you with pleading eyes and that look totally melts my heart... like this one, taken a couple of years ago...With that look, we continued to coach her for another hour or so with as much patient as we can muster. Finally, at the end of the day, when I asked her to spell "This", she wrote "T h i s" and then I asked her to spell "The", she wrote "T h e"... woohoo! So I tried again and asked her to spell "This", she wrote "T h e i s"... ... ... ... perhaps, she's not ready for "This" yet.

Maybe, I'll a different approach next time and teach her "This" and "That" instead of "This" and "The". But whatever the case may be, we still love you, Trixie!

Don't Ya Love Flowers?

Did I mention that I tried developing the green thumb? No, I'm not turning into the Incredible Hulk... the Incredible Sulk, maybe but certainly not the Hulk.

I tried planting my own flowers. Had wanted to do that years ago but my neighbour beats me to it. Now, his "lease" expired.. oh rather he gave up. So now, the sun facing corridor is made available and it's my turn now.

Here's the results of our efforts. Nice?

I'm actually quite fond of flowers. So in most overseas trips, I would snap pictures of flowers whenever the opportunity arises. I also realised that flowers are the most beautiful in their natural form... and not in a bouquet. Here's some of them that I took in my previous trip to Hokkaido. I promised someone out there that I would show these pictures to her... long long ago, sorry there. It really took me a long time to show these picures :p

I'll leave you to admire these flowers now. BTW, sorry for the bad layout... just can't get this blog to cooperate...

Day and Night

Day and Night are as natural as Sun and Moon

While dawn signals the start of day and end of night
Dusk announces the beginning of night and end of day

Some enjoy the warmth from the sun
Other appreciates the tranquility of the moon

In day, we see the forever changing clouds
At night, we visualize the permanent constellations

Day shows us the colours of the mountains and flowers
Night gives us the sounds of waves and crickets

Day and Night are as natural as Sun and Moon
Why should we welcome one with open arms and shun the other

No Sex Please...On SIA's A380

After reading this article, I can't help musing about all the possibilities and questions SIA may need to fend off...

"Eh! Why I cannot have sex har? Double bed there and privacy maintained right?"

"Erm, sorry sir, Singapore is still a conservative society that values the conventional family unit AND place for sex. Sex at 30000 feet above the air is 'unconservative'. SIA, being Singapore's national air carrier would like to followsuit. Thus, I regret to inform you that the rules are still no sex in the A380"

"But we're doing it in private, right? Not that we'll keep banging against the door or what!?! So why ban it? You won't really know if we're doing it in the first place!"

"What you REALLY do in private, we don't really want to know. Our aircrew will not intrude into your privacy."

"So is it can or cannot? Your rules say cannot and then you don't really want to enforce?"

"It is better to accept the untidiness and ambiguity. We shall see how this matter evolve eventually."

"Ok lar...anything you say lar. Anyway, I'm booking a ticket for myself and my partner. You have my details here in my passport. My partner's name is John Smith..."

"... ... ... ..."

(All names and conversational exchanges are purely fictional)

Some Interesting Links

Got the following from Flo (Thanks, Flo). It's for those who lives through and remembers the 60s. Most of it relating to America, and some were international news... sit back and enjoy the music, if not the visuals

http://moreoldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm



This other made me laugh non-stop. Actually, there's more, like Samurai and Moscow. I first saw it in Mr Brown's blog. Those who put in the subtitles must be damn eng or very creative!

My loony bun is fine Benny Lava

Angel and Devil In A Night

No stories today...just sidetrack a bit into REAL life events...

Went to watch a play yesterday (Friday night)...hmmm, the last time when I watch a play was like....2 decades ago?!?! Anyway, it was called Real Men, Fake Orgasm by Chong Tze Chien, starring Chua Enlai and Claudio Girardi. It's a play about gays. Before you start to have any funny ideas about me, I went to the play with my pregnant wife. I'm not one who know how to appreciate a play (but I do appreciate the importance of foreplay very much) but then hor, I think I can understand abit la...

These two guys seemed to be lock in some kind of prison and everything about them are fake, or rather, a fiction of their imagination. They drew and imagine everything about them. Then they sort of escape and went to lead a life that is as normal as they think they can be but...

In the beginning of each scene (after they escaped the prison), it always show them to be normal like casual friends but...

It even showed them trying to lead normal gay life, although not with each other but...

There is always this "but" feeling in the whole play so I don't kind of like it but...

Anyway, that's so much for the earlier part of the night. The main focus was that I met my wife for dinner, near her workplace and we took a leisurely stroll to watch the play and simply enjoy the night until about 9:30p.m. Well, it's about being able to enjoy the little niceties of life and sharing it with that someone you love. We walk leisurely, we talk about mundane topics and it was so lovely but...

I had to leave (with her permission of course) and insisted she take a cab home but she wanted to take the train instead...well, we took the train together and I alight at Outram while she continued towards home.

So what is so special that I can't bring my wife there? In fact, I bring my wife to almost anywhere but...

it was STAG NIGHT, for a friend of ours! Well, what do people do in stag night? *Hooooooowl* Well, I don't think I want to place details of the event here...people can see you know. Of course I have nothing to worry about... just not so good if my friend's fiancée reads this.

I haven't been to a pub or disco for...decades? Ok, ok...haven't been to these places for the sole purpose of letting our hair down and binge. Also, for the first time, felt what's it like to be in a smoke free disco and I like it but...

Well, you see, I'm a smoker. I really do enjoy being in disco where you don't get choked by cigarettes smokes or smoked until you dunno if that girl in short min-skirts is pretty ugly. However, I have to consistently squeeze myself all the way outside to get smoke and then squeeze myself back in to get a drink. So, all through the night, besides getting the groom-to-be to behave like a monkey, I'm squeezing in and out of the place. I certainly won't mind the squeezing part if the place is packed with babes but...

Who says there's more women than men in Singapore? Also, I had realised that I could still hold my liquor relatively well. Given the number of years I abstained from alcohol, I thought I would start practising 黯然消魂掌 after a glass or two but...

well, let's just say I managed to drink more then that. Could still manage to take a cab back after that and remembered to charge my handphone and bath after I got home...just like last time when I was younger but...

the signs of age reveals itself this morning in the form of seven monkeys marching around my bed, clashing cymbals, blowing trumpet and howling like...monkeys - I had terrible hangover...