Its almost 4am Sydney time. Its only 12 hours ago that I took the pictures above, as I waited to board SQ242 to Singapore from Sydney. I am tucked into bed with my MacBook Air on my lap, accessing the hotel’s free WiFi network; occasionally sipping freshly brewed tea. Alas, few parts of the past 12 hours have been this comfortable.
Yesterday started frantically for me. Half a day of work was spent briefing colleagues about handing over of my accounts for the next two weeks of my time away from work. I’m reluctant to call it a holiday cause in a sense it’s not. In my head, I have labelled it a “two week trip”. A holiday is where you visit a new country and get to relax and to not think about anything in particular. This trip is essential and purposeful, a meeting of the in-laws. Yes, yes, Meet The Fockers style. That is the sole purpose of this trip, to prepare for the next big change in my life. Marriage.
I wheeled my Samsonite up to King Street and remembered my body starting to warm up under my sweater. Winter is waning, I remembered thinking. I waited about 45 seconds in 3pm traffic and waved to a cab to enter the side street so I could load up away from traffic. He concurred and flashed a big smile and a big friendly, “Hi!” This is going to be a great cab ride I thought to myself. He was friendly and nice without being overbearing. We chatted about the airport and the trip and the conversation started to wane as I was focused on conserving the battery on my iPhone for the impeding 8 hour flight. The cab was getting exposure to the sun too and it heated up pretty quickly. I didn’t really mind it, bit of training for the tropical weather I put it down as.
28 dollars later, I was at Sydney’s T1, International Airport. I checked in within 30 seconds and enquired about the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme). The friendly Toll contractor told me sometimes its busy, sometimes its not. 5 minutes later, I saw the verdict for myself. Another 5 minutes later, I was out of the TRS area, couple of hundred bucks credited into my credit card. Its smart that they don’t do cash (unlike Singapore’s TRS which gives you cash in hand) to cut down on potential fraud. Nothing in the Duty Free area really interested me and Airport salespeople are generally unmotivated at the best of times, in my opinion.
Anyway, because there was no queue for the TRS and I allocated queue time for it, I was left with about 45 minutes of playtime. I tried to people watch but there was really, no one interesting in the airport. Couple of middle-aged travellers, another group of business travellers and that’s about it. What did catch my eye was this 30-something year old couple. They had matching “Australia” branded backpacks, Amazing Race style! I afforded a chuckle to myself.
Soon it was time to head to Gate 53 for boarding and that was when I used my MacBook Air as an external battery pack for the iPhone. It works pretty well actually! Expedia also provided free WiFi in Sydney airport and I think that has definitely generated a big ROI for them, awareness wise. Love it when companies are smart like that!
Ah Gate 53; was entertained by a large group of young Japanese girls. Loud. Loud, young Japanese girls. Nothing like those kimono-wearing soft spoken geishas you see on TV. LOUD. Remembered also this approximately 28 year old guy who had a 90s centre-parting hairstyle. Bespectacled. Buttoned up shirt and jeans. And talking to someone on the phone via handsfree. Seriously, who are you?
Anyway, 20 minutes after the Business Class people parked their bums on the satin sofas of SQ242, I moved into the queue. See if you time it right, the Business Class lane will accomodate Cattle Class and fast track you into your designated pen on the plane. A high majority of the people on the plane were Muslims, on their way back for the annual Ed ul-Fitr, the celebration at the end of the fasting Ramadan month. I am not sure if I’m used to domestic no frills flight or what but I found the food service on SQ242 extremely slow. My finished dinner took them probably 30-45 minutes to clear. You know how annoying this is when you have limited space on the plane already! But no dramas, the food was as good as airplane food gets and service not really lacking in any department in particular, maybe except speed.
So the next important thing is how to kill time on the plane. The 3-inched size screen is probably in dire need of upgrading in the SQ242. Resolution was probably 600×400 at best and sound quality was dismal to say the least. That made my watching of “Water For Elephants” forgettable during some parts but somehow my mind filled in the gaps and I really liked the movie. I tried to watch another one but was just too distracted by the quality of the entertainment unit that I gave up. Watching something longer than 20 minutes actually took effort. Singapore Airlines if you are reading this, please upgrade your entertainment system.
The flight went by pretty quickly actually in between attempts of yours truly on iPhone apps – Paper Bridge, Incredible Machine and Simple Physics. Paper Bridge makes me think that I have a very low IQ, I couldn’t even get past the first level! If anyone’s an expert in it, any tips is highly sought after from you.
The plane landed with a jolt and the obligatory side-to-side force which almost always conjures images of the plane skidding on its wing and breaking apart in my head. I did think of standing up at one point in the flight just to see what the flight attendants would do but thought, what does that achieve? Yeah, precisely. Nothing.
I shot out of the plane and onto the travelators, floating past the majority of SQ242′s passengers, eager to get out of the airport. I was first in the line at the immigration choke point, I mean, check point and stood in line with the Business Class people to get my luggage off the carousel. I picked my luggage up and walked past the pilots, still waiting for their luggage. Remember George Clooney in “Up In The Air” and his tip about following Asians in airport queues? Yeah, that.
Taxi stand was my next port and as I looked back at the queue just before I boarded the taxi and 3 Business Class passengers were in the second row of the maze-like queue. Rough estimates would be that they were 10 customers behind me. I know I might seem like I’m picking on them but I’m not intentionally doing that, good on you if you want to spend thousands of dollars on an evening flight in Business Class on a Friday night. But honestly, what is the point? Wouldn’t that money be better off spent somewhere else? Starving humans in East Africa would be a good place to start.
Anyway, maybe they did and I have overthought and misjudged them. All I know is I’m checked in now in my favourite hotel in Singapore and it is almost 5am Sydney time now. Time for some shut-eye and hope you had fun reading my blog. I had fun recalling events in the past few hours and will continue do so as I afford the time for this activity called blogging over the next two weeks.
Thanks for reading and if you have any protips on traveling feel free to leave a comment.
God bless.
Hello Blog!
A big thanks to Pam Song for encouraging me to start blogging again. My last post was in November and since then, many many things have happened. A lot of my time (and thought) have been spent at work and improving myself in my knowledge of both theoretical and practical elements of my work.
It’s been challenging at times but the company that I work for has always been open and extremely encouraging in my continued development. The people that I work for and work with have been extremely gracious and generous with both their words and actions. I have always been a firm believer that once you’re unhappy in your current job or career, you need to change it. We spend a substantial time at work and to be unhappy in your job is definitely most detrimental to both yourself and the company you’re working for – this will then feed a feedback cycle. The opposite is also true, the happier you are in your job (or any situation for that matter) the happier other people feel around you and the positive feedback cycle starts to manifest itself.
Spiritually, I have learnt the quiet power of prayer and how prayer needs to be the bedrock of your faith. Without prayer and indeed, focus, on God from a day-to-day basis, it is extremely easy, especially for young adults like myself, to lose sight of the spiritual ramifications of our actions. Everything in the world is shouting for us to forget about the spiritual realm, to focus on the now and the imminent; the foreseeable and the predictable. No rewards are given for actions done “in faith”, no accolades for speaking the future before inheriting it.
But the spiritual realm is the very thing that we need to think about, need to focus on and need to base our actions on. Without God, everything is meaningless.
Relationship wise, my now fiancée and myself are starting plans for a wedding early next year. We have set a date but pending the preparations, will start to slowly release the news to our friends and family. I proposed in February last year but the fiancée chose to slowly let the parents know. I did ask but only informally and never got a really definite answer. It’s tricky, its not like the movies where the guy meets the parents and asks for the hand of the daughter – movies like this do not reflect Asian family culture… at all.
Anyway, we’re now more set than ever to settle down in Sydney and doing all we can to work towards this goal.
I hope this little update appeases the blog-gods and I hope to start reviving the blog to reflect a more personal angle to my life – and to go back to my roots of compiling my blogs as an autobiography in the future 
Please leave a comment if you’re still reading this blog; if not do give me a Tweet and say hello.
Much love,
God bless.
Filed under: RanDom
Hello Internet,
I had problems playing my Call of Duty: Black Ops for the past weekend but I’ve since found a workaround for it.
My problem was it kept displaying File Write Error “Call of Duty: BlackOps couldn’t write a file. The hard drive is probably full” when my hard drive wasn’t full at all.
It is definitely a Windows 7 administration “problem”. After much anxiety and countless hours of tinkering with the game and Windows, I am pleased to let you know that I’ve managed to access the game today!
What I did was create a separate Windows 7 login account as a Basic User (do it in your UAC – Control Panel > User Accounts).
Login to the Basic account you’ve just created and launch the Steam Application by right clicking and then selecting “Run As Administrator”. I was prompted to enter the admin password and then it began… [UPDATE: Go to the Steam folder (e.g. E:\Steam\SteamApps\common\call of duty black ops) and just double click on BlackOps - It took about 20 seconds to load on my computer]
Now back to the game!
Leave comments and I’ll try to help as much as I can.
Cheers!
Life this past year I must admit has been busy and hectic. At times I’ve felt like giving up but being young and full of ambition, I knew that’s not an option.
I’ve always made choices and stuck with it no matter what the circumstances are. Be it family, love, relationships, friendships, work, activity, games, shopping – anything and everything for that matter. If I’ve made up my mind, nothing can change it – I will pummel through. I might be wrong but I will still pummel through. It might be tough but I will pummel. Some call it pride, I call it stubbornness and true strength.
Don’t get me wrong, I will cry at the drop of a hat and when I see things which touch my heart, no doubt I will show emotion. I think emotion and having a strong will is two entirely different things.
Anyway, so this past year have seen a lot of pummeling, a lot of what-ifs and a lot of I-don’t-have-no-choice. But you know what, at the end of that, it all paid off.
I read somewhere that Gen Y-ers start their career pretty late – I am one of those.
I just don’t see the point of rushing everything – life is meant to be enjoyed at this age (and at any age for that matter). I am glad I have spent this amount of time in a “not-real” job – I don’t think I would have it any other way if my life were to repeat again. The things I’ve learnt – the people I’ve met – the stories I’ve heard – the dresses I’ve seen – the pride, the humility, the hurt, the joy – meeting people this way has opened my senses to a whole new way of thin-slicing situations and people.
Without this experience, I don’t think I would be who I am today.
A job is a job. A career is the same. They may come quick and they may fade quick. Money. That too will come and go. But the only thing that we constantly have to treasure and keep are relationships. When you’re out of a job, out of money and diseased – what remains? Who remains is the question.
Nothing else matters when you have nothing – but that hand rested upon yours, crossed over your shoulders. You know that at the end another human will get you your heart’s needs.
The world is a social place and we have to understand that everything revolves around people. The finance industry is made up of people. If you take the humans out, the stock market will collapse.
The super important and essential part of our lives is relationships with people – and this is the key message for me for the past few years. The ability to build relationships – to learn and to refine my approaches. All this is crucial. I do not regret a single minute.
But now I look forward to start my career and in my new role in an equally new and exciting industry.
Thanks for reading and I hope to journal again soon.
Love y’all!
God bless!
Went downstairs to get some breakfast today – not the usual Saturday morning bacon & eggs though – inspired by Clipper Cafe’s (Glebe Point Road) amazing (and not to mention uber healthy) avocado spread, I went and got myself some avocado and ham; avoiding all fatty products altogether.
I went down to the last aisle of the minimart and saw an elderly lady about 5 feet tall staring at the cold storage section. The section where they sell butter, milk and bacon. She had a basket in her hands and she was wearing an old lady’s cardigan with a longish straight skirt. She had socks on complete with black shoes for walking. She could hobble but mobility, I could tell, was not her forte.
I turned right after I saw her and picked up a fresh avocado. Wanted to pick up some cold ham so I stood next to her looking for stuff. She must have felt uncomfortable cause she moved a little when I approached. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to say hello but only managed a smile. And its one of those indirect smiles too. Hmmm… I should’ve said hello but what would I have said?
Arggh… Old people are my weakness I tell you. If you put an old person in front of me and asked me to donate a million thousand dollars, I would probably do it. Its an automatic thing I guess, they seem so helpless. I think I’ve mentioned it in this blog before but that’s the fact and frailty of human life isn’t it? You have your strongest years in your youth and slowly deteriorate into being a weak, slow and helpless human.
In a western country like Australia, you often see old people being neglected and left to fend themselves. It’s a very saddening fact and often I think of ways to combat this on a bigger level. Not sure what kinda support I would get but it is a fact that even if a ministry or organization is set up for our senior citizens, it wouldn’t be a business of high return. And then of course there would be surmounting medical bills etc but old people do not want to be sick! Who does right???
Aging. Getting old.
It’s a natural thing. Terrible, debilitating and sometimes even humiliating. But again everyone goes through it.
I guess that’s my only comfort. That everyone will get old. Everyone will experience forgetting stuff as memories slip away. Every single human will try their very best to get the perfect hair dye to hide the greys. That you and I will need crutches one day; will need people to help us on and off buses and help us learn to use this thing called the Internet. And how to use ATMs…
And people will forget what you and I used to do. Forget that we used to drive manual cars. Forget how the Japs invaded Malaya. Forget that we used petrol for fuel. Forget that Richard Nixon was president. Forget that we saw the first African American become president. Forget when bicycles were used instead of cars. Forget that we were there when 9/11 happened. Forget that to get clothes; it had to be tailored. Forget that we were there when Sadam Hussein was executed.
That’s the only comfort I have. That my turn will come. So I don’t have to feel that bad for senior citizens I guess.
Ah… So sad. I nearly burst into tears thinking of the old lady and what potentially could be her day-to-day life at the minimart today. Thank God she didn’t select only the Home Brand products. This old lady had class and obviously wasn’t on a mere below the poverty line government pension. That’s my other comfort today – even though she was alone, found it hard to walk and does her shopping on a Saturday morning; she was trudging along just fine. Despite her soft voice and her trembling hands; she was fine.
She even had time to dye her hair brown – greys hairs absorb the colour better I heard her say in the silence.
God bless!
Filed under: Thoughts
I’ve had this idea of writing what it means to be an orphan few weeks back. I have no intention of offending anyone or whatever through this post; just wanna flesh out my ideas and see what other people might think about it.
I imagine a child going home after school and having no one to talk to about their day. No one to talk to about the conversation they had with the kid who sits next to them in class. Yes, there’s my guardian or grandparents or older sibling but no one really wants to hear that Jason got a new pencil case. Even if I told someone, what would they do? Parents instinctively provide the best for their children and want to setup their seeds to succeed in life. But not auntie, or grandpa or my guardian or the caretaker of the orphanage.
I’ve been to a few orphanages when I was younger, one in Sabah and one in KL, but the latter only to pick people up. You’ve seen the street children of India and the AIDS orphans of Africa. All these lives; no one to say, hey you know what? I’ll get you an even nicer pencil case than Jason’s. Nothing.
I guess for those of us who actually have parents or people who REALLY took care of us, we are blessed. Sometimes they call us Generation Y, sometimes they call us middle-class homes. Other times they call us spoilt brats – but for all the things we have we think of the things that we don’t have and how others go through life without it. I’m sure they cope and they find other outlets but the fact of the matter is its not natural and very real for some people; this emptiness – the void of a parental voice/guidance – genuine in love and generosity.
But of course, there’s always the flipside of the coin – there are some of us who CHOOSE not to talk to our parents. Too involved we say; too meddly. Too sad I say.
I don’t know; life is a tightrope of balance I guess and only when we visit the extremes we will find it easier to adjust the balancing bar.
God bless!
Filed under: RanDom
For all the sciencey types!
If the emebedding doesn’t work – Go directly there 
http://www.wimp.com/largehadron/
God bless!
Filed under: Movies
One of the recent movies I really wanted to catch was “Ponyo”.
An opportunity arose from the folks at Treeet and I took it. Thanks Treeet!
Here‘s the official review from yours truly. What did you guys think of the movie?
God bless!
Filed under: Thoughts
As we ‘graduate’ into more mature adults, we all have internal conversations which kick in and help us navigate through situations we have been through. In babies & toddlers it includes basic physical functions like smiling, laughing, crying and hunger and aversion to pain and all that jazz.
As young adults, we have these too and most of the times when we’ve made up our minds, we don’t change it; we fight to the very end believing what we think is right.
We can’t see it ourselves though and if we are not careful and not have mentors or guides to smack us back into the right way of thinking, we will continue down this spiral of thought which we think is right but might not be right…
What is “right” anyway? I guess that’s the other ‘grey’ area. I will have different standards from you and you from the next person we meet. The ultimate escalation of this is played out in wars between countries. No one wants to budge and the one who ‘wins’ takes all the credit and fame and fortune. But sometimes the ‘losing’ country wins. Just because you are the loudest or the crudest or the most aggresive doesn’t make you the winner.
From an outsider’s point of view you will look extremely foolish, messed up in your thoughts and ultimately, wrong.
But back to my point of where differing people have differing standards. No two person has the exact same standards and this will only lead to conflict.
The thing here is to resolve a conflict with both parties THINKING that they have won. That’s the ideal isn’t it? In Chinese, there’s this saying which goes something like “leading the person down the stage”; loosely deciphered, it means to let the person realize their own foolishness and come down from their lofty stage of being, in their eyes, right.
Conversations from last night come to mind. The classic example of men vs women shopping. Men go straight to the shop they want to purchase stuff from where as girls get distracted. A friend commented that this is because men were evolutionarily hunters and women, gatherers. Men had to focus on the hunt and gauge if they had the skill and experience enough to bring down prey. Women on the other hand had to fling their choices far and wide just because of the nature of the greens.
With that story in mind, a lot of guys I’ve met along life are just that; they are hunters. They have an opinion and they stick to it tooth and nail. Females tend to congregate (crowd-source to the futurists) and comfort each other and give each other ideas.
I just have to say, the time and era for we as humans to just stick to a single way of thinking and a certain narrow mindedness is truly and thoroughly over. If we as humans (or specifically men) cannot take feedback and differing opinions in our stride, it will only cause a lot of hurt and pain to the ones closest to us. Of course, we are not called to be, termed in the loosest of ways, sissies, I’m just encouraging all of us to take inventory of our thought patterns, words and ultimately actions and continue to strive to be the best we can be.
And that sometimes may be ENTIRELY different from what we think we OUGHT to be thinking/saying/doing.
This is why, I cannot cannot cannot stress enough to have mentors and guides in our lives to put us in our place and to encourage us when we are down. These mentors ideally believe in you and will run with your ideas but when they see something going askew, they have the courage to pull us back on path. This is what modern society lacks.
With the advent of Google and Twitter where we can hear from the GREATS directly, we sometimes forget that only a person who truly cares for you speak what they really think. And usually one little “No, I don’t need to hear from you” can turn them completely off.
I guess I’ve flushed out all I want to or have to say about this topic. I find that it’s both sad & dangerous if our next generation (or even MY generation) runs fast but blindlessly and end up at the end of their lives disillusioned, disappointed and worst still, full of despair and bitterness.
Gah… Comments?
God bless!
