Friday Night at the Races, originally uploaded by wxlimwx.

Friday night, playtime. First time at the races, attracted by the bright lights and glitter of another world, where middle aged men gather clutching precious slips of hope and scream themselves hoarse; tourists in a place of cigarettes swirls and thundering hooves, ecstatic winners and dejected losers clutching cans of stout. Two races later, we were 10 dollars poorer but richer in experience to know that while our hearts were aflutter for the brief 2 minute spells it took for the racehorses to go round the circuit, this is not a hobby that we should pick up.

Spiderman 3



Countdown to Spiderman 3. One more week to go. I really like this MV! It's really such a lovely song. I think most people will be able to identify with the boy(in the black spider suit) who plays the bit part as the spider who bites Peter Parker; feeling left out while you stand and look from behind the curtains as the rest of the play runs on and the star of the show is always someone else and everyone seems to be having more fun.

Hang in there, don't lose hope and maybe you will get to kiss the girl in the end!

The weekend is here, time to go out and play :)

more true for some people.

After a thrilling Champion's League semi-final in the wee hours of wednesday morning which ended happily - Rooney's 91st minute goal giving United a 3-2 lead to take to the San Siro - I climb out of bed reluctantly to get to work.

Reading up different graduation/commencement speeches to get ideas and I came to this one with a simple and meaningful message which I thought I'd share:

"Laugh. Laughter is important. It shows enjoyment of life and of others, it shows liveliness of spirit, it shows intelligence. It makes a bad day better. If you laugh, you are not a bore. If you take yourself too seriously, you may not find satisfaction in life. Laughter helps to heal, and research proves this statement to be true. Make sure you laugh every day. Remember, I don't want you to be dull.
You will come to understand that you are not the center of the universe and that your interests and priorities are not the most important for others with whom you are associated. Think, too, about others and their needs.
Life is a journey meant to be lived, not endured. Love the journey, and enjoy each step. Delight in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary. Savor the simple and marvel at the complicated. Live rather than exist. There is a song that I often hear on the radio and its lyrics seem appropriate for graduation. I have chosen some of the lines that Lee Ann Womack sings:

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted …
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean…
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin'…
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

I want all of you to have good lives. Thank you for a superb four years. Good luck, good health, success, and happiness. I wish you all good things. May those big dreams come true."

Somehow it's just not Prof Shih's style.

The song which made them famous. You can see how different they looked then when they were just starting out. Ah shin looking slightly gaudy in red, everyone looking less hip than they do now. But it's a brilliant song, one of their best. In hokkien, which you rarely get nowadays. Their sound was so much more raw then. So much more angsty too. Of course there's a motorbike in the MTV. If you are a rebel, you gotta ride a bike or something. One month and eight days more to go.

Nature is truly an awesome force. I stand outside in the sky garden, from a vantage point and watch as the ominous mass of storm clouds gather, blown together by the rising gale to form a dark behemoth, while all around in the distance, frightening luminous flashes of lightning hail down erratically across the landscape, followed closely by low angry rumbling. Everyone get indoors!

Was chatting with Abel this morning and the topic was photography and capturing beautiful skies and that got me looking at my roadtrip photos and reminiscing. What a fun time we had!Bayon Temple; The look on my face after 16 hours on a train from Penang to Bangkok and the 3 Marlenas.

More pictures, coming down the escalator with Junyuan at Siam Paragon, just love the action feel; crossing the busy Thai Cambodia Border; Sunrise at Angkor Wat with the beautiful sky; posing with the tomb raider tree with Lulu and finally catching an afternoon nap at one of the many ancient temples spread around angkor wat after waking up at 4am to catch the sunrise.

I can feel my wanderlust rising up again.

Yay. Read in the New Paper today, the movie I wanted to watch Eternal Summer 盛夏光年 with the theme song by Ah Shin, is coming to Singapore. Opens next thursday. With everyone having exams now, I just need to find someone to go with.

According to this, http://dna.imagini.net/friends/

I am An Easy Rider, a bit of the romantic with a taste of the exotic. You love the feeling of the sea breeze in your hair...sun on your skin...slip those shoes off..kick back...music, its the soundtrack to your world....when it comes to holidays, you will take experience over comfort etc etc etc

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

-- Tell me if it's accurate, from what you know of me :) Go try it too!

Ice cream after a japanese dinner by the river, feeling prematurely carefree.

I realize I have been leaving the office late, (not earlier than 8pm) everyday(including Saturday and Sunday) since last Thursday. Hopefully today will break the streak. We have got dinner plans. I am looking forward to a beach holiday, although when that will be, I don't know.

Lottery music. The soft tentative strumming of the guitar strings give way to the emotive vocals of Ben Gibbard. "And When I see you, I really see you upside down, but my brain knows better, it picks you up and turns you around ..." On a creaky 151 bus, the night breeze slinks in. The scene is set for reminiscing as the bus trudges along the tree lined avenues, and all the fond memories which flood back along the places, and you wonder how those times could have slipped so far away from you.

A shooting star streaked across the night sky at Ophir, promising to grant a wish to those who were looking hard enough. Often, it is as I am speeding down the highway on two wheels that my thoughts are the clearest - Keep looking forward and drink more orange juice!



Orange Juice. My favorite fruit drink. One orange will typically produce about 90 grams of juice, and when freshly squeezed, orange juice has a fruity(duh) and, according to some, pleasantly acidic taste. Besides water and sugar, it is an excellent source of Vitamin C.

Stealing time off for a picnic :)

It's been a week of non-stop whirlwind work with more to come tomorrow and sunday :s . I will just have to make the best of it and try and squeeze in some pockets of fun. Looking forward to Labour Day on the 1st of May.

Fucking long post, but you have just got to read it. I don't usually do politics, but with another pay rise for our already millionaire ministers, maybe everyone should just think about politics again and why it is so easy for the government to push through with the pay rise despite widespread resentment. This is David Marshall, not Chee Soon Juan or James Gomez so you can be sure the time spent reading will be worth it.

Just read this interview with David Marshall conducted in 1994 (the year before he died) for a college newspaper. Yet more than ten years on, Singapore still remains the same. Here’s a lot about what we spoke over lunch yesterday...

IN THE PAST, WHEN YOU WERE CHIEF MINISTER, YOUTHS PLAYED A POLITICALLY-ACTIVE ROLE. HOW HAS THE ROLE OF YOUTHS CHANGED AS COMPARED TO THE PAST?

The role of youths! Ha!
In my time, I tried to educate our people in an understanding of the dignity of human life and their right as fellow human beings, and youth was not only interested but excited about what I consider things that matter. Things of the spirit; the development of a human being to his true potential in accordance with his own personal genius in the context of equal rights of others.

Today, youth is interested in getting paper qualification and, as soon as possible, shovelling gold into their bank accounts. It’s a different world, even the law. Of course, there is this pragmatic development of our country. Ah, our rising expectations of a pragmatic character! It is a fantastic and almost a miraculous development in my lifetime.

When I was Chief Minister, there were men dying of starvation and because of ‘beri-beri’. I took my PA [personal assistant] and an Inspector of Police for night at midnight. For two hours, we toured Singapore and we estimated there were two ten thousand men sleeping on the pavements. No homes. Today - no unemployment, no homeless. I started this business of building homes for our people. Compare the puny work I achieved and the fantastic HDB homes that are available today for our people. I am deeply impressed and I take off my hat to this very able honest government. Dedicated! But I am seen as a critic and I am a critic.

I am frankly terrified by this massive control of the mass media, the press, the radio, television, antennae, [and] public meetings. You can’t write a letter to the Straits Times; if there is a shadow of criticism, it’s not published. And the Chinese press follows suit. It’s a very dangerous position because experience proves that no one group of human beings has got all the wisdom in the world. I mean… well, two of you are Chinese and one Indian [Ed: actually, the interviewers were one Chinese, one Jew and one Indian]. I don’t know much about Indian history but look at China. You had Confucian authoritarianism for more than 2500 years. What happened to China? She was a fossil. She had to reinvigorate herself with the Western ideology of communism. Another authoritarian ideology! And what was the result?

There must have been a million decent people who were transformed into vipers, vicious obscene vipers. I’m afraid of this control of the mass media.

And are youths the miasma of apathetic subservience to authority? But you say to yourselves, “Well, you know, what do we seek in life? We seek a rice bowl, full!” It is full and overflowing, in fact. They serve you your rice in a jade bowl with golden chopsticks; not that it makes much difference to the taste of the rice. But you’re empty! You’ve got technocratic skills and you are seeking more but internally you are empty. Money is your acid test of success.

I’ve got nothing against money. I’d like to have money myself! I’d like to have a house and a garden and dogs and a car and a chauffeur but, look, I’ve got a flat. I’ve got a swimming pool attached to the flat. I’ve not even got a car but I use taxis. I have a dignified way of life without being wealthy. I don’t see the necessity of owning a Mercedes-Benz and a swimming pool and a couple of mistresses. I think we’ve got our values all wrong.

You know $96,000 a month for a Prime Minister and $60,000 a month for a minister. What the hell do you do with all that money? You can’t eat it! What do you do with it? Your children don’t need all that money. My children have had the best of education. In fact, I’m very proud of them. One of them is a senior registrar to two major hospitals in Oxford. Another of them is a consultant in European law to the Securities and Investment Board in the United Kingdom. They’ve had their education. There are no complaints. I never earned $60,000 a month or $90,000 a month. When I was Chief Minister, I earned $8,000 a month. Look, what is happening today is we are encouraged to and are becoming worshippers of the Golden Calf

We have lost sight of the joy and excitement of public service, helping our fellow men. The joy and excitement of seeking and understanding of the joy of the miracle of the living the duty and the grandeur. We have lost taste for heroic action in the service of our people. We have become good bourgeois seeking comfort, security. It’s like seeking a crystal coffin and being fed by intravenous injections through pipes in the crystal coffin; crystal coffins stuck with certificates of your pragmatic abilities.

What has changed?

The self-confidence of our people has grown immensely, and that is good to see. Our pragmatic abilities have grown magnificently, and that is good to see. Very good to see! You are very able. You’re ambitious, and the government has heroic plans for the future. It hasn’t finished. I take off my hat to the pragmatic ability of our government but there is no soul in our conduct. It is a difficult thing to speak of because it is difficult to put in a computer, and the youth of Singapore is accustomed to computer fault. There is no longer the intellectual ferment, the passionate argument for a better civilisation. The emphasis on the rice bowl!

Tell me I’m wrong, come on.

THE PAP GOVERNMENT HAS INDEED DONE A GREAT DEAL FOR SINGAPORE. HOWEVER, THERE IS AN INCREASING DEGREE OF DISCONTENT GROWING AMONGST OUR YOUTHS AGAINST THEM. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS HAPPENING?

Our lives are empty. We don’t understand the joy of living is not in the gold coins. It is not in the bank account. The joy of living is in human relations. We are not in appreciation of this miracle of life. We are giving a lop-sided view, an unfairness to the government! We come out of a morass of imperial subjugation where people were dying of starvation and now?

You know, when I won a case once years ago, I was presented with a lovely porcelain Buddha with a big flowing belly and ears that reached to his shoulders and a chubby face.

I said to my client, “Look, you Chinese got a real feeling for aesthetics. How can you worship something so obscene?” He said, “Mr Marshall, try and understand. China is a land of starvation where millions of people die for lack of food, and to be able to eat that much, to be that fat, that is heaven!” Now, that is the attitude of our government: to be able to eat that much, that is heaven and you should be content.

So are youths not content? They are not anti. Our youths frankly, very honestly respect the pragmatic achievements of the government, and I’m grateful, but they feel empty. There isn’t this joy of living which youth expects and youth needs – to learn the joy of living. How do you teach it?

I think you teach it through respect for the individual. That’s our tragedy. If you want to put it in a nutshell, our tragedy is that we emphasise the primacy of society as against respect for the individual. Mind you, both are right. I mean both sides have the liberty. Of course, there should be respect for the needs of society over the right of the individual but you must respect the individual too in seeking the expression of the needs of society. Here, we have no respect for the individual.

Cane them! Hang them! There are more than a hundred queuing up to be hanged, you know that? The joy of hanging people; flogging them, every stroke must break the skin. I don’t like it. I don’t believe it is a deterrent. I see no proof. Look, it seems to me logic! If every year we have more death sentences, how can you say death sentence is a deterrent? If it were, there should be less death sentences.

But you know I’m in a minority and my father had one saying which I’d like you to publish. It is a beauty. He was a true democratic heart although he didn’t know it. He used to say, “David, if ten men tell you your head is not on your shoulders, shake it and make sure. Don’t accept it. Just shake it and make sure!”

Well, I’ve shaken my head again and again and again and I still think I’m right. I know I’m in the dog-house.

The government doesn’t see I do respect them immensely. They don’t see I’m a genuine friend. They only see me as a critic and to be a critic is to be an enemy who must be erased and destroyed. There is no such thing as an honest critic to the PAP. It’s a blasphemy to criticise the emperor, spoilt son of heaven. [Lee] Kuan Yew says you mustn’t lampoon a Chinese gentleman. Oh, dear me! Ya, what happened? What happened to China?

In Europe, they institutionalised the court jester and the court jester had total immunity against any result from his public criticism of the kings and emperors and the courtyard. Open public criticism – that was his job! They tried to laugh it off but at least there was one person to prick the bubble of their overgrown egoism.

And which civilisation has progressed better for the development of humanity? The Western civilisation or the Chinese civilisation? You talk of Asian values. I only know two Asian values and, I wish someone would really pinpoint them instead of pontificating ponderously in humbug and hypocrisy.

Family values - I think we have more family cohesion in Asia than in Europe; more family warmth and I like that. I accept that there is a greater tradition of family warmth and family cohesion.

Two, we have a greater passion for education. My secretary – I asked her once what her background is. She said her mother is a washer-woman and, here is this lovely secretary doing a damn good job. She was educated. How her mother could save enough to give her the education?

So these are the only two values I know. Somebody tell me what other values that are Asian, which everybody talks and nobody mentions the exact parameters. And you know we use this concept of family cohesion to place on our youths the burden of caring for aging and ailing parents and grand-parents.The young have got their own lives to make. To carry in your own homes aging irritable ailing parents and grandparents can destroy the family life of the young.

But then, the alternative is for the government to pour so much mountains of gold into building homes for the aged. That’s sacrilege – gold is to be gathered and not to be spent. I want to see more crèches, more homes for the aged.

Our Prime Minister [Goh Chok Tong] talks about gracious living. Where is the gracious living?

So I am a bad boy, I’m ostracised. The Straits Times makes slimy remarks about me.

The [press are] running dogs of the PAP.

HAVE YOU EVER REGRETTED BECOMING A LAWYER?

No! I think it was a guardian angel that brought me there.

I suppose you know, you must have read that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. First, when I was young, I wanted to be a doctor. I thought medicine was the greatest profession in the world – helping heal and comfort the sick and the helpless. And as I grew into adolescence, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Not to practice but to do research: why the goodwill of the young?

All youths no matter what race, no matter what country, goodwill flows from their hearts. They want to help the world, but by the time you reach 30, your goodwill like good wine turns to vinegar – the vinegar of crabbed egoism.

I wanted to study the wise and whether these could be some antidote for this unhappy transformation of the goodwill of youths to the crabbed egoism but I didn’t have the money. Fortunately! I don’t know if I could have achieved anything that vast. I don’t know whether I have the intellectual ability to do first-class research into the mind and emotions of man.

I fell, by accident, into the right career at the right time and it has been wonderful.

Regret? I’m full of gratitude for having become a lawyer and, especially, a criminal lawyer; for having helped thousands of people terrified, helpless before the silly forces of society. They’ve looked into me as their protector. I have no regrets at all for having helped them; humanity, if you can understand this.

If you ever become a criminal lawyer, never look down upon your client. He may be a murderer or he may be a thief; he is a fellow human being. You must try and respect your client no matter what he has done. It is very important in your own self-respect in your work, and to help who is helpless in seeking help.

Look, at the age of 86, I can say in all earnestness, the thing that matters most in bringing human satisfaction is human relations. To be able to care for your fellow human beings, to be able to give! Never mind about receiving.

Even today, my friends say, “Oh, David, stop it! Why do you have to keep making public noises that annoy the government? Live in dignity and retirement. They’ll respect you and you’ll have the honours.”

Ha, honours! I want to fight till I’m dead!

What matters most in life is the right of human beings to live fully in the context of their own genius. In one word, perhaps, to fight for human justice. I once said humanity’s cry for human justice reverberates down the corridors of the centuries, and it is still crying for human justice.

DO YOU HAVE ANY MESSAGE IN GENERAL?

Recognise there is a lot of satisfaction in public service, foreign service, judicial service. A great deal of satisfaction in public service, even honorary public service in committees. [If] you are totally engrossed in self-promotion, at the end of the day, you’ll find it’s dead seafood.

Try and give up yourselves to others.

I am so alien to this worship of the Golden Calf and the draconian attitude; the brutal attitude towards our fellow citizens. Here I ask people and, no doubt, if I ask you, “We’re all in favour so long as it’s not me having my bottoms cut! Yes, whip ‘em!”

Try to put yourself in the other man’s shoes.

And, of course, what have I got to say?

You, the young – you’ve got a fantastic, absolutely fantastic potential before you; economic expansion, heroic plans that the government has for the future not only the present. You are so lucky! No unemployment! Great potential even beyond your capacity to fulfill.

It’s an exciting country, Singapore. It’s a lovely country. And you have to make your own space for your own spiritual and intellectual needs and have the courage. Have the courage to serve your fellow men with integrity.

I’ll put it in one nutshell: have the courage to live, don’t be afraid!

You know, I’m told I’m fool-hardy and always criticising, although I have such a gracious life. But fool-hardy or no, this is me; I am prepared to take what you give.

On a whim I checked the link this morning to see if it still worked and it did. Charlie Brown's Heartbreak, my first blog set up with the Ong Bak's help. (I think if I am not wrong, she convinced me that I needed to start a blog). Reading through the posts now, I kinda think my writing was better then, or it could be that I have become lazier now. haha. There are some posts which make me cringe and go, "yucks did i write that?"

I like this entry:

April 2004
"You wonder if her memories are in black and white, the way they come back to you as you drive along the highway which separates the trees, the fateless lovers, their branches are fingers, struggling vainly to touch each other.

Days spent in the library,poring over silent notes. The linoleum carpet smell becomes too familiar. Toiling for what? A future without you.

Groups of doomed flies gathered around the dim light panels along the pathway outside the library much to the glee of Mr lizard and his greedy sticky tongue, slithered up alongside. Mr lizard was upside down, or you could say the world was upside down to him and the flies were hovering upside down, the frantic flapping of their oval wings in the wrong direction.

I can never be Robert Capa, I can never make your dreams come true; I am only me. I can only listen to your dreams, wondering if that will ever be enough. But I guess I should be lucky; what if I was born 50 years before you, in a house down the street? I will be playing chess on the stone tables under the void deck, as you pass me by. Would I even know you? Or would our eyes meet for an instance, in a sudden surge of deja vu, and then you walk on......


I know.Emo shit.

I woke up at 3am and now I can't sleep. Was at railmall today with Wanxin and Nerine after Katong's game with Khalsa was postponed due to lightning. We were having Kaya Toast at this place called Ah Mei's (I know, the name's funny) and there was this hot mama, I wanted to tell them that in future it would be really cool if my wife can be like her when she started speaking singlish like Zoe Tay......

Brother and sister woke up early this sunday morning to get changed for Easter service at Shangri La. After sleeping most of the day through,I went for their church concert last night where all three of them were performing and it was Boring with the capital 'B'. I left after 45 mins. Well at least I made an appearance to give my support and I guess some people get it, some don't and you look at them, they were really happy and blissful to be singing all those boring hymns. I'll have to hand it to them. To each his own.

I should be sleeping in this Good Friday morning, but my stomach woke me up, I am bloated with air, guess the food poisoning's still around :S Managed to transfer the remaining photos from the camera to the computer.


Night Safari last night, we had an incredible time!(most incredible for me) I totally left all the work-stress behind( but it's starting to creep in now). It must have been more than 10 years since my one and only time there, I think that was when Aunty Doreen was visiting from the States. We had free passes this time so we saved quite alot of money but considering the fun we had, it would have been worthwhile even if we had paid.


Alot of the animals were sleeping, the Tiger was curled up like a pussy cat and I think it was irritated by us voyeurs. We discovered that some people are afraid of Bats, while some people can't tell a monkey from a squirrel.

The highlight of our excursion was the animal show (1030pm), which we were almost late for. We ran most of the way from the Bat exhibit and you can see I was certainly dressed in the best running attire. But we got there in the nick of time, in fact they closed the gates after we got in. Why the animal show was the highlight,will be explained by the photo below.


Thanks to the 2 ladies who enthusiastically raised up up my hands when there was a call for macho men, I was called up on stage to have the python coil around me. I have coiled pythons around my neck before, most recently the bright green Ikea python which lives in the car but this python was 3 metres in length, it was really heavy! I was afraid my shoulder would not hold, but luckily it did. It could easily have constricted me if it so desired to. The python's body was dry and smooth, kinda like those JPG leather wallets, contrary to popular misperception of snakes being wet and slimy. For my efforts I was rewarded with a Ben and Jerry's Voucher, which we happily converted for an overdose of sugar.

Chase those Blues away!

It's probably very rare, but I was feeling pretty stressed over work last night. Thank god for friends like Ong Bak and Nerine. Nerine completed her thesis yesterday so the terrible trio were out on a celebratory, chill-out, chit-chat, catch up, gossip, and for me, de-stress session.

Ong Bak with her Erdinger which I had difficulty lifting given my injured shoulder.

After driving around for awhile in circles, we finally decided on Liquid Kitchen at Bukit Timah and we had a wonderful time. It was really a simple event with drinks and jokes but somehow I guess we are really comfortable with each other, there is no need for us to thread carefully or to impress in each other's presence. They are pretty much my buddies in skirts (or with tits - does it sound obscene this way?) If you are reading in, Nerine and Wanxin, I know I will never be able to say this in person verbally (it's probably more likely that we'd say to each other "you suck") , but I really appreciate and value our friendship. Thank you for just being who you are. Ok I think I feel a little weird now, I' m gonna get back to my work.

Feeling horrible today, sore shoulder and now upset stomach, I think i was poisoned by the YIH Western food yesterday. Jos said the fries looked as if they were refried leftovers and the salad tasted funny. I am never eating from that place again. I've been watching Mayday MVs and I suddenly have the urge to do up a flag to bring to the concert in June haa.

I saw him coming, but I (rashly) assumed through speed, I would be able to evade his wild lunge. It all happened too fast, I pushed the ball past him, opened up my stride to accelerate and the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air. He was a huge brutish player, of course it was a foul and we got a free kick but it was little consolation for I had landed hard and awkwardly on the muddy ground, my shoulder popping out, and that sharp acute pain that I am very familiar with sending cold sweat down my face. I am now more determined than ever to bulk up. My mummy is such a caring mum, she made me an ice pack to ease the swell. Thanks mum!

Anyone has got the mp3 of 'Fade' by Concave Scream? I really want to listen to it again. And I can't seem to find the Erratic Album(that's like released in 1996) , or th mp3 online. Like I was telling Kenny that day, Concave Scream will finally find commercial success now because the teens who listened to their songs in the nineties have finally grown up, started work and are now able to pay top dollar for their CDs and concerts. Now if only they will reprint the CD.

Saturday Morning
Sleepless....