Great Eastern Women 10K

Women! Help X out Cervical Cancer!

The Great Eastern Women 10K which was initiated in 2006, is back and registration has begun.

On this 26th October 2008, thousands of like-minded women are expected to gather at the Padang to take part in the 5km fun run or to challenge themselves over the gruelling 10km competitive run at the iconic Great Eastern Women 10K. more...

Hahaha!!! I am of course going for the 5km Fun Run...my objective is to support the X out Cervical Cancer as well as Breast Cancer Foundation.......Join me!

Can you find the man?

I got this interesting exercise via email from a friend. Look at the picture below and find the man, yes! There is a man among the beans.


Doctors have concluded that if you find the man within 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people.

If you find the man within 3 secs to 1 min, the right half of your brain is developed normally.

If you find the man within 1 - 3 mins, then the right half of your brain ins functioning slowly and you need more protein.

And if you have not found the man in more than 3 mins, the advice is look for more of this type of exercise to make this part of your brain stronger, and yes the man is really there!

Hmm....I took about 3 secs to 1 min.

Opposition would ruin Singapore

Yes, that's what MM Lee said at an International Forum. (Report)

It says - Lee, 84, warned Singapore voters against putting the opposition at the helm of government "in a moment of fickleness or just sheer madness" when they get "bored" at some point in the future.

'Bored'? Yes, Singaporeans are bored with the government having to decide everything for them. The government is helping them to manage money (CPF, CPF Life, Means Testing, etc), life (take only public transport otherwise incur ERP, have more babies, etc). Hence, one has nothing much to do and will turn bored.

"When you are Singapore and your existence depends on performance -- extraordinary performance, better than your competitors -- but that performance disappears because the system on which it is based is eroded, then you've lost everything."

Haha! Exactly! I cannot help but was reminded of the extraordinary performance of our security officers at The Budget Terminal which lead to a 61-year old retiree boarding a plane using his son's passport :)

Singapore's small opposition has only two seats in a parliament dominated by the People's Action Party which has been elected since 1959.

Please be reminded that PAP was once an Opposition too before it took power in 1959. Everyone must start somewhere, the same for everything or as a matter of fact any Political Party. If the people of Singapore back then had not taken the first step to vote for this opposition, would PAP had come this far?

Isn't Singapore a city of possibility? What happen to this slogan that was used for last year's National Day?

He said one ingredient for a country's success is putting able leaders in government.

If we can have able leaders in Opposition why can't we have them in government? And if these 'able leaders' were not put to the test, on the job, how would one know if they are capable a not? I would like to stress again, Singapore is a city of possibilities...

Overheard this conversation between two stall-holders while selling 'hammer' newsletter two weeks ago:

Stall-holder 1, " To date, the government of Singapore has done a not too bad job BUT its the way they force policies onto us that I buay tahan!"

Stall-holder 2, " Yes, for example the GST. They want to impose they impose, never thought of us!"

Because of the above, it is important for Singapore to have a robust ‘check and balance’ system to ensure that our system make decisions that should be thoroughly debated on. Hence , voting in of Opposition parties is essential!

Ok, our fault again...

Passport blunders leave S'poreans stranded
By Jessica Lim

SINGAPOREANS are a negligent lot when it comes to passports, travel agents told The Straits Times on Wednesday.

It is not common for travellers to make a mad dash to the airport with the wrong passport, some said, but added that,more often, they show up at the airport with expired passports or without the required visas.

Some forget their passports altogether.

Travel agencies contacted by The Straits Times say they make it a practice to call travellers before their flights with reminders to pack their passports and check that everything is in order.

Despite this, one in 10 will goof up every month.

At least one travel agency, Hong Thai Travel, has briefed its employees to be more vigilant about passports following an incident on Monday in which a 61-year-old retiree cleared all checks at Changi Airport's Budget Terminal after having mistakenly taken his son's passport.

He realised the error during his flight to Ho Chi Minh City.

Upon arrival and informing the Vietnamese authorities, he was immediately put on a return flight here.

Agents said passengers without travel papers in order inconvenience others. Some cause flight delays; a number miss their flights altogether.

Errmmmm...yes, its again our fault, Singaporeans, you are careless, negligent!

To the 61 year old retiree; its your fault that you got through all four security barriers and eventually reached Vietnam using your son's passport.

Of course, its his fault for not checking his passport but allowing him to go through every security check-point also his fault?

When Mas Selamat escaped, Singaporeans, you were complacent and now of course you are negligent.

So it seems that any blunder that is made embarrassing enough for the country, the blame will be shifted to us, the people of the country.

Ahhhhhhh!!! Like that also can?

Yes, Dad managed to get through check-in counter, security check, immigration clearance and board a plane, by using son's passport!!!

This has to be the greatest joke! We are made laughing-stock again and people are laughing at us...OMG! I can imagine the look the Vietnamese custom officers had on their faces when the Singaporean man informed them about the mistake upon reaching Vietnam.

How could this happen? (Read report)

I was like what WKS said, flabbergasted, when I read the report. Just about 2 weeks ago, two detainees made an attempt to escape while being lock-up at Subordinate Court.

To me, its the 5th time mistakes as such had happened.

1st mistake: Took Leng Ho's escape.

2nd: Tan Chor Jin, escaped using fake passport

3rd: Escape of Mas Selamat, who is still not found.

4th: Attempted escape by two detainees.

5th: Case of passport mix-up at Budget Terminal.

What could have caused this mistake?

Budget Terminal; budget expenses hence duty officers have to work long hours therefore are not able to stay alert while on duty? But all of them????

From the officer at the check-in counter to the Police officer at the passenger restricted area and of course the Immigration officer who instead of finding out what was wrong, signaled the passenger to the manual clearance queue and lastly the immigration officer who check and allowed him to board the plane. All of them were tired?

This mistake brought about fear in the people of Singapore. With this type of world-class security, we can still make mistakes like that. If someone holding onto a wrong passport can leave the country, I suppose whoever is holding onto a fake passport can enter as well.

Or what if the above officers could had actually let in a terrorist who had got ill intentions, remember 911? This thought is indeed fearsome!

I understand 'To err is human', but 5 times?

Related Link: WKS 's reply

What's going to become of our children?

I made a trip to JB yesterday with my parents for as usual seafood and foot reflexology :) We made our way there by a private-operated bus from Queen Street. The whole journey was a breeze until we reached the former 'Woodlands Point'. The lane on our left was forming a queue so long that the drivers were coming out from their vehicles for toilet breaks as well as a quick puff. That lane is for the trucks, trucks that were probably making deliveries of food, etc. Fortunately the buses were travelling in a bus lane hence not affected at all.

When it was time for dinner, we headed to Taman Tebrau Pasar for makan. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, besides the usual Chinese Nationals walking around to sell pirated DVDs, this time I saw something different.

There were groups of students in 3s, consisting of mainly gals walking around from table to table in their school uniforms. One of them will carry a donation tin and another held onto a plate of 'Rojak' while the third one looked on.

I wondered what was going on but it does not take me too long to find out, soon they were at our table. The children were raising money for the less fortunate children in Malaysia. That explains the donation tin but what about the plate of 'Rojak'?

The 3rd girl who had nothing on her hands went on to explain that, I can make any amount of donation I want to, in return I will have that plate of 'Rojak' her friend is holding onto. In other words, its for me to judge how much that plate of 'Rojak' its worth and I can donate accordingly.

I was amazed by the childrens' creativity. I had seen many donation drives organised by schools in Singapore but nothing like this type of creativity. Guess what? The 'Rojak' were made by the students themselves. I can see that they had a made-shift stall and 2 students were making 'Rojak' and one can see that people are queuing up to buy it. All sales proceeds will be donated.

On top of that, paper plates were used instead of styrofoam. The students will then collect the used plates and put them into a box, labelled ' To recycle, please do not throw'.

I gave the girls a RM$10 note which is about S$4.20... normally when I make coins donations in Singapore it will not exceed a dollar. But this time its different I can feel their sincerity. The 'Rojak' of course did not taste excellent in fact is was a bit wet which I suppose the girls had been carrying it with them for quite a while. But who cares!

When we see Singapore students going onto the streets to ask for donations were they made to do so or they wanted to do so? Why students who participated in such donation drive were not involved in coming up with ideas on how to get people to donate? Were they not given the chance to do so? They just had to do as they were told to? Or this was the best idea that they can come up with?

I do see some students coming up with balloons for children in exchange for a donation other than the usual stickers. But balloons are only for children...in this case, its 'Rojak', which is suitable for people of all ages. I have to say its an excellent idea!

Our students nowadays are confined to only studies and more studies as Singapore had become quite a 'paper-oriented' society. Parents are loading children with more work and activities such as tuition, speech & drama classes, ballet, piano, taek-wondo, judo, swimming, computer classes and the latest I heard was yoga classes too. I can understand that as parents they want to give the best to their children. However, as children they still need to play.

Long gone were the days where children were playing games such as hop-scotch, zero-point, five- stones marbles, playgrounds, catching, hide-and-seek, etc. I missed the days where we would eat 'ding-dang' candy and the boys will catch spiders and climb trees. I bet our children nowadays will never get to experience anything as such.

I remembered having read an article on Straits Times Forum.. The lady who wrote in was hoping that the playgrounds like the ones she saw during her childhood days will be preserved and not replaced (eg: Those with the dragon head). Even finding a picture of this playground on the internet took me quite some time and I still cannot find it :(

The other day I happened to be waiting for a friend at theplayground near my place, I was saddened by what I heard....

"Mummy, its boring and hot here, can we go home so that I can switch on the air-con in the room and carry on with my online game?", a boy who looks barely 7 years old said this to his mum.