Category: Diary

For the first time, I foresee that I have hit the exercise target. In actual fact, I have only clocked in 4 hours so far but since I am heading to Mount Kinabalu for the last week of March, I am almost certain that it will surpass the 10 hours mark. Also nothing to worry about in the habitual category. However, for the first time, I missed my home cook meal target.

I put half of my savings into fixed deposit and it is definitely not hitting the 3% target. Perhaps I need to rethink the strategy. As for public performance, my guitarist and I have set a new date in June. To be fair, when I first set this quarterly target, I have not consulted him. Hopefully I get to perform at least an open-mic this coming June. Some of you may be curious over what “extraordinary project” I have partaken. I have picked up oil painting as a new hobby and it is extraordinary to me because I have always wanted to do that. My dream is to paint a nice oil painting in canvas for my mother because she has so much faith in my painting talent even way before I think I can paint.

March is not over as yet I know but I don’t foresee anything I do from now (written on March 23) till I depart for my Mount Kinabalu trip will make a difference. My scorecard has quite a number of red indicators. Time to call for action.

Life :: Traveling Budget Utilised :: Half-yearly :: S$2,000 :: S$3,000 :: n/a :: n/a
Life :: No. of Extraordinary Projects :: Quarterly :: 1 :: 2 :: 1 ::5
Health :: Exercise Hours :: Monthly :: 8 :: 10 :: 4+ :: 10
Health :: No. of Home Cooked Meals :: Monthly :: 15 :: 20 :: 11 :: 0
Money :: Return of Total Savings :: Quarterly :: 3% p.a. :: 5% p.a. :: Missed :: 0
Hobby :: No. of Public Performance :: Quarterly :: 1 :: 2 :: 0 :: 0
Hobby :: No. of Books Published :: Yearly :: 1 :: 2 :: n/a :: n/a
Habit :: No. of Hangover :: Monthly :: 2 :: 0 :: 0 :: 10
Habit :: No. of Gaming Hours :: Monthly:: 40 :: 30 :: 16 :: 10

Time is a peculiar thing. It is like a storeroom or a common bedroom. Regardless how much space we have, we always manage to fill it up in no time. Like my 120GB disk space that has grown to 360GB and now more than 600GB over a couple of years. But yet, my disks are now close to full packed with the pictures I have taken, videos I am working on, songs I have recorded, games I have installed, and etc. And like my disk space, my time is so filled up with actions that one day, my buddy RC joked that I am busier than him – who is working and I am not.

And because of all these activities that occupied all my free time, my preparation to my next week’s expedition to Mount Kinabalu was closed to non-existence. I have lots of stuffs to buy and if that is not enough, my Canon camera has (once again) broken down on me in the second most untimely fashion. The most untimely fashion would have been having it to break down on me after I proudly plant the little Singapore flag on top of the mountain of course.

Two nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I needed to renew my road tax before my trip. Guess what? I have not even renewed my car insurance (it is a prerequisite here)! I searched through my pile of junk mails and could not find the renewal notice. Called up the car insurance company and they referred me back to the agent I got the insurance from. I did not know that it was through an agency (I bought the car with the insurance as a package). No wonder I missed their mail. Called up my insurance agent and she gave me a quotation. If I had more time, I would have shopped around for new car insurance like I always do. So I asked for a discount and she said she would email to the car insurance company for one. Sweet. I did not know that it was as simple as that.

To cut the long story short, I got a 10% discount on premium and in return, I nearly missed all the operating hours of outlets that renew road tax (the agency is from Potong Pasir and where on earth is Pontong Pasir?!). I ended up renewing my road tax at a vehicle inspection center at Ayer Rajah. I knew that all those days of lunching with Mark at his out-of-nowhere client place that reads “Ayer Rajah” will pay off one day. I knew the way to the inspection center at the back of my head.

Back to the preparation to Mount Kinabalu, since our mountaineering buddy Tong Kiat is not going to get himself a camera, I have to find one to replace my Canon camera. Since an easy-to-use budget camera has been in Cynthia’s wish list for as long as … we are together? … it is a high time to get one. The catch is that I have less than an hour to research for one. To be fair, I have been looking out for a camera for Cynthia. Weeks ago, my buddy Mark and his buddy F have bought a Canon PowerShot G7 and a Nikon D80 respectively. How envious I was (too expensive for the poor me)! On the next day, my buddy Kwang Fei – after accompanying us for that camera shopping trip – has bought a Canon PowerShot G7 as well. A few days later, another friend of mine from my ex-company has gotten himself a DSLR. What has the world become? Everyone needs a camera these days?

Since I vow not to buy another Canon product (and I do keep my words!), since my buddy AT has been telling me how good Fijifilm is, I made a decision after placing a call to AT. Okay, I wa sold. He pointed me to one of the shops in AMK Hub that runs a promotion on Fijifilm cameras. From S$499, I got it down to S$490. I took the offer to Sim Lim (that initially quoted me the same with no free gifts) and they matched it for S$485 and then S$480. Had the negotiation process been shorten by a mere 15 minutes, SingPost at Orchard would still be open and I would not have to drive to Ayer Rajah to renew my road tax. Sigh.

Getting gears for Mount Kinabalu can be really scary. There I was inside this pretty nice shop selling items for outdoor activities and the only thing I can afford inside is a freeze dried package of food (serves two) selling at S$18. The jacket is like S$800. The cheapest pair of pants is like S$98. A pair of scandals that they have casually packed inside the brown paper boxes chucked at the back of the shop is selling at S$185 a pair. S$185 for a pair of scandals?! Even a hat is like S$100 each. I am telling you, outdoor activities are not cheap hobbies. They are for the riches.

Tong Kiat, Cynthia and I walked from shops to shops and in the end gotten something cheap and basic. We still have stuffs we need to buy but we were too tired to continue. I do hope that when the time comes, we will be able to summon the stamina we need and conquer that mountain. The best set of people who has the highest chance to reach the top of the mountain are the Singapore shoppers who can spend the whole day Saturday and Sunday “trekking” Orchard. I am not kidding you.

5-year has passed. I am 5 years older and have gained 5 kg of muscles. Ever since I have started jogging, I have pushed my timing record from 24 mins (for 4.5 km) to 21 mins and somehow, no matter how hard I tried, I could not pass the 21 mins mark. 5 years ago I could complete 4.5 km in 17 mins. My friends they told me that as we get older, we take longer to complete the circuit. But I don’t want to get to that state! I kept pushing myself and regardless if it was a hot sun or a breezy day, I was tired or I was energized, I felt as though I was flying or I felt extremely heavy, my record was always 21 minutes.

Today, I felt good, I have widen my steps, and by the time I have completed 4.5 km, the timing was 20 minutes! I have gained that 1 min and it is 1 min closer to the 17 mins record. I still have a long way to go but I am hopeful.

Gosh, I feel good! I wish that the 17 mins record will soon be a reality.

This is possibly the shortest of my blog so far. Some mood I am in.

Ever since leaving the local website design company I had a short stint with – which I am grateful to have known a big group of friends whom we still keep in touch and meet often – my teams were usually small with just the two of us. Today, two of them whom I enjoyed working with immensely and whom I have not met nor chatted with for a long time popped me a message within 5 minutes of each other (I don’t think they know each other). At the same time, my sister in Hong Kong popped me a message saying that she has more or less decided to take up one of offers in Singapore. I think she will stay temporary at my place very soon. While all these MSN messages were flying around, a dear friend of mine who shares one of my many hobbies and his girlfriend was viewing one of the units on the same tower a few floors below me. They happen to like the place. What if, what if …

Some kinds of surprises I have in one day.

Time passes me by and without realizing it, it is the month of March. A good portion of this rather short month I was holidaying with Cynthia in Melbourne. Barely made it for the home cooked meals measurement, I yet again have failed the exercise index with a downward trend. If only I can find a way to quantify all the walking and hiking in Melbourne, I could have made it. I guess the take home message for me is to emphasis on training this March. Besides, my friends and I am heading to Mount Kinabalu at the end of the month.

Looking ahead, I am most likely to fail two of the three quarterly measurements. Oh well, I have a month to think about it.

(click here to see the color coding system).

Avid readers of my site may have already known that my sister Lora (the lady in pink on the right) who currently lives in Hong Kong has been dating my buddy Benny (the dude behind the two lovely ladies) whom is the very first Singaporean I befriended with when I made Singapore my home back in 1995. The lady in red on the left is of course my “boss” Cynthia as now I am her personal driver, butler, cook, and etc. No price in guessing why my sister is in Singapore this week. Think “V”.

I always love to take my friends and families to Mumtaz Mahal, a Northern Indian cuisine at Far East Plaza (Orchard). The boss of the restaurant is so friendly that he always greets me personally and we always shake hands like good old friends. I don’t order from the menu; I just ask the boss for recommendation. The food is delicious. I first fell in love with Northern Indian food back in UK and Mumtaz Mahal can easily the best Northern Indian restaurant I have been to so far. Give their Tandoori chicken a try and you won’t regret it. Their home made mango ice-cream is mouth watering. What I find interesting is that after we finish the home made ice-cream, they always serve us complimentary mango ice-cream (different texture from their homemade one but is also delicious). Oh, one more thing: don’t forget to wrap up the entire meal with a cup of Masala tea as well!

It is time to tally up the score and see how I am doing in the month of January based on the targets I have set at the beginning of the year. I know, some friends of mine are a bit concerned over how well this tool is going to help me in reaching my goals. One friend of mine feels that it is not the scorecard but because I have more will power this year to accomplish what I set out to do. Whilst it is true that I need the will power to get things done, having a easy-to-remember scorecard helps me to stay focus day after day.

Scorecard results are often visually presented by the “traffic light system” (green is good, yellow is average, and red is bad). There are thousands and one ways to compute and present scores. I am a simple man. If I miss the target, I get a zero. If I hit the target, I get a 5 (hence nothing in between 0 and 5). If I reach the stretched target and beyond, I get a 10. Anything in between the target and stretched target I proportionate the score. As for the “traffic light system”, I use the 5-band descriptors and 3-colour coding system (click here to see). This is commonly used in places such as Metacritic.com.

I have made some minor revision to the original scorecard. Since I am not pursuing a career at present, I drop that measurement. In time to come, I believe “net revenue generated” may be a better replacement. Also, based on my current financial situation, I revised down the traveling budget. As for the “home cooked food” measurement, getting a percentage is tedious as at times we do cook lunch during weekends (original measurement was targeted at dinner time). So I opt for a number instead. Besides, it is a lot easier to count this way. I have also revised down my “return on total saving” target because in reality, it is pretty hard to hit that 5% to 8% given how unsound my financial management is.

Lesson learnt from the operation perspective is that data collection at times can be a challenge. Sometimes I forgot if I have already registered the progress. One easy way to solve it is that each time I write down a piece of information, put a simple descriptor to it. For instance, I may have … +1 pasta, +1 pork, +1 fish, +1 beef … for my “home cooked food” measurement. And I may have … +0.5 jog, +0.75 swim, +0.5 dumbbells … for my “exercise hours”. It saves me a lot of time that way.

In the month of January, I have missed my “exercise hour” by 2 hours. I don’t think it is a big issue. And all thanks to the New Year celebration or otherwise, I would have zero hangover. “Gaming hour” is a surprise to me because I really did not think I can achieve that stretched target … given the fact that I did buy World Of Warcraft’s Expansion. Pretty amazing will power there.

Looking ahead, I have a Melbourne trip planned for this Chinese New Year so my half-yearly “traveling budget” target is settled. I have planned out something “extraordinary” to do in Q2 (2nd quarter) and Q4. Now I need to scrach my head to think of what to do in Q1. Chucked half of my saving into a 2.65% fixed deposit. It is a far cry from the yearly “return on saving” target. Time to do some readings and talk to my friends who are good at managing their money. As for the quarterly “public performance” target, I have more or less memorised 5 of my songs. One of which has reached the “gold” standard (consistently able to perform with minor not-too-noticeable mistakes) while the rest are at “silver standard (noticeable mistakes at times). Once they reach the “platinum” standard, I am ready to perform. Hopefully that will be before end of March (Cynthia keeps asking me to book the venue and Jason keeps offering to jam with me on stage!). Last but not the least, I still do wish to publish a book or two. Somehow, the two books that are supposed to be collaborated with two of my friends kind of slowed down a bit. However, I have already drawn out the character map for a story that I wish to write on my own. Now I need to plan out the events. I have 3 so far and target to have at least 12.

Decisions in life are often made with a blink of thought. For instance, I bought my pair of dumbbells without much thought about what to do with it except that one routine I know of. Or over the dining table having a lovely company of Cynthia and my buddy Tong Kiat, I suddenly announced that I want to gain 15 kg. Why 15 kg? That was my consultant instinct to pluck a number from the air. Interestingly, based on my height – according to Cynthia – 15 kg is about right. Tong Kiat shook his head in disbelief. Not because of 15 kg but rather … I am taller than him. Sigh. Men are the competitive species.

15 kg is the goal. But how to reach there is the question. Searching the Internet high and low, I have uncovered a whole new dimension called … Body Building. You know, before this week, I look at those “muscle men” thinking that they have nothing but muscles (men are the competitive …). Now, I do appreciate the kind of hard work and discipline that goes into each of those muscle that by the way, each muscle has a name. And each named muscle has a certain routine that designed to make them grow bigger and stronger.

After hours of of sieving through tons of advertisement and not too useful articles, I have found a couple of good sites that explain and illustrate how to gain muscles using dumbbells. One site has listed a seemingly unending list of routines to train different kinds of muscle. Excellent! Let my ritual begins!

Lifting dumbbells is actually pretty fun. I mean, it is fun to exercise. Looking back at all those hours spent in the corporate world, my body was so conditioned to sit for hours, feeling tired and drained after a long day at work, and only wanted to be a coach potato watching TV programs when I returned home. Compares to now, gosh, I am so full of energy! Even at night! Grrr!

I was used to puzzle over how Cynthia can spent hours reading about the different kinds of exercise from the Internet and the books and was used to think that exercise is like common sense. You just need to move your body. Now, I think differently.

And I shall close off this blog with my buddy Benny’s advice (in his exact words) on training with dumbbells (he knows how over-enthusiastic I can become):

Start small and work your way up. During my NS days, lots of guys (myself included) suffered serious muscle tearing in attempts to out-do one another. Ironically when that happens, your muscles will swell by 25%. After that, any endeavour to feed yourself or even wipe your a*s will be an achievement in itself. Generally, it takes 3 weeks minimum for the pain and swelling to lessen/go away. ~ Ouch.

Related Readings: BodyBuilding.com, Building-Muscle101.com.

Woke up relatively late this morning because I had a rather long night trying to figure out why I cannot convert my two-days worth of work into a decent DVD format. I still owe my brother-in-law a video edit of his engagement that took place two years ago and I am determined to get it done before the end of this month. You may be able to see some of the clips in YouTube later on.

Wanted to submit a music review blog that has been in my mind for ages before heading to town for a lunch appointment but I have lost track of time in front of my computer (don’t we all love Internet?) and therefore, I have to do it another day.

Alex – Cynthia’s colleague – is a man with passion over many things. He is an avid guitar collector, photographer, and now into listening to music in vinyl record format (i.e. turntable) just to name a few. During lunch, Alex shared with me that Vinyl is the in-thing nowadays. Knowing his passion of collecting guitars, I told him that I am looking into getting a Maton acoustic guitar (S$1,500+) for my open-mic and he countered suggested models that are like 2-3 times more expensive if I want a first-hand. To him, he loves collecting vintage guitars that are second-hand but in mint condition. If I hang out with him more often, I may just be convinced that a Gibson J-45 – classified under Legends Series – is the way to go.

After an eye-opening lunch (I now even have an idea of which camera to get for Cynthia), I paid my Honda service engineer Michael a visit. Michael is a cool dude. He is so cool that one time I even got him something from BreadTalk. He looked at the circular-irregular-yet-at-times-single-directional faint scratches on the bonnet and he asked me to wait while he tried something out. 5 minutes later, he came back with my car and the scratches were gone! Amazing. In the end, his thinks that a cat did that to my car. Come to think of it, it is highly likely as I do see one around once in a while.

And since the showroom was just downstairs, it was time to pay a visit to my Honda sales engineer William who sold me the car. William was excited to show me all the wonderful enhancements that can be done to my car (with the exact price tags). He tried to tempt me with a noise insulation package like he did before and I tried to tell him that since I feel as though I am driving a sport car, noise issue is secondary. Then he tried to tempt me with a new suspension system. I kept asking if it is legal and he kept avoiding my question. Okay, I got that. And the surround sound system, “in-vehicle” entertainment system … as well as the Michelin PP2 tyres that are – hold your breathe – used by the Evolution! Impressive. All these things he tempted me with are not even sold via him. William is definitely someone significant according to the book “Tipping Point” as he has the knowledge and he knows who can help.

Lots of small talks between two people having nothing much to do in a lazy afternoon. I bid William farewell, took a drive down the road to visit the LG Electronics customer service center, and collected my S$50 shopping voucher as I have bought a DVD Recorder recently.

There was still time to kill before my dinner appointment so I headed to Bras Basah Complex to check out the art equipment as my current interest is oil painting. It is equally eye-opening to step into an art shop as there are so many items that I have no idea what they are used for including a shelf full of white female hands. Feeling confused, I have decided to pay a visit to …

… The National Library. I didn’t take long to locate the Fine Art section and the library has a good collection of books on oil painting for beginners. Just exactly the stuffs I need. I browsed the books and before I knew it, I had a stack full of books that I wanted to borrow. I have no clue how many books I can borrow so I lugged them all to the customer service counter and made an inquiry. Guess what? For this month only, we can borrow 8 books instead of 4! Now, I am really “oil painting for beginners” overdosed.

When the clock struck six, I drove to Esplanade as it is a flat S$4 parking charge after six (somehow they didn’t charge me at all when I exited). Still have an hour to kill, I took a stroll to Raffle City shopping mall to hunt for … my new home phone. Cynthia has a strict specification: speaker phone with mute button and cordless. I gave the exact specification to the salesman (with a added budget constraint) and somehow I was the one who found the phone. Entered a lucky draw and if I win, I get to take Cynthia to Switzerland for a holiday. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Now, you must be thinking, how do the people in the picture relate to this blog? Well, I met up with my friends from my previous workplace and before I continue writing this blog, they held me at gunpoint that if I post their picture in my website, I have to mention the time stamp of the picture taken – which is … ahem … very late of course as they are the hardworking people of Company XYZ and no less.

I always enjoy Andy, Andersen, and Gigi’s company. I may not be a big fan of corporate life but I always treasure the opportunity to meet some good people. After our meal and drinks at Harry’s, we headed to Haagen Dazs and indulged ourselves with some high quality ice-cream (still remember someone once told me that since she is going to get fat eating ice-cream, may as well eat the best and the most expensive brand). Good time we had.

Ah … what an eventful day … what a long day too.