What Come May

Visited Pulau Ubin for the second time. The little advenutre started at Changi Jetty. The little island feels very much like Tekong with the undulating terrain. Cycling wasnt much a pleasant experience since it rained 2 hours before and the tracks were very much flooded. Nonetheless, it was a nice trip with great company.

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Cheryl’s Back to the 80’s themed birthday party was absoutely fantastic. Didnt manage to stay long enough to get drunk. Although I didnt play the role of the bartender as promised, I managed to whip up four B52s. The flaming one is specially made for Cheryl. 

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This would be the second and hopefully the last time I am coming back to Rasa Sentosa Shangri-la hotel for a wedding dinner. Well, the wedding dinner was nicely done up although there were minor hiccups with the photo montage and the sound systems (Hiccups on such things wont happen if army chaps were to do it). I was also pleasantly surprised when Ben started playing the guitar. And my, he could sing too. Looks like I have to hit the KTV more often..

It has been a busy weekend. Love’s in the air. A marathon of three weddings in a row. I can know of two reasons why. Firstly, couples want their weddings to be of a one time memorable experience, even the dates and 20 July 2007 seems to the perfect choice. Secondly, its reasonable all would want to avoid the unauspicious month of August (the hungry ghost festival month). Anyway, going to go Jap for dinner tonight. Imagine having the same ten course three times.

Wedding #1(FRIDAY): Tingyou and Crissa at  Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort.

The lovely couple pronounced husband and wife at St Theresa Church.

Fellow ‘Brothers’ of Tingyou’s Bride Snatch Entourage.

Flanked by colleagues, Liang Heok and Sea Fang.

Wedding #2 (Saturday Noon): Jimmo and Yuliana at Sheraton Towers Singapore

Jimmo (NTU coursemate) and his indonesian bride. What is the person besides Juliana trying to do?

Wedding Ceremony at Church of St’s Mary. Couple pictured together with fellow coursemates.

Wedding Luncheon at Sheraton Towers.

Wedding #3 (Saturday Evening): Alan and Denise at Swissotel Merchant Court.

Couple pictured with Mindef colleagues.

Me with Big boss’ secretary aka Godma.

The DR ladies in matching pink.

Fellow staff officers, Raymond and Muthu.

AJI TEI KYOTO SABO

All in one restaurant where you can enjoy a full japanese meal, complete with authentic Japanese deserts. The cosy restaurant serves a wide variety of traditional and popular deserts from Kyoto.It is observable that most diners order the tasty treats after they have their mains. The must-have desert is the macha sundae anmitsu (the desert featured in the central photo below). I was told that all their ingredients are imported from Japan. My family and I most certainly enjoyed the meal. The more popular outlet is at Bugis Junction 01-88-09 (around the corner after TCC) and the other can be found at Takashimaya department store B210-2.

Ambience                  8/10

Food                         8/10

Service                     8.5/10

Dining Experience      8.5/10

Price                        Fair

Did some shopping after that. Got myself the Nightlife Esprit eau de toilette (summer edition) to add to my cologne collection. A nice conclusion to a Sunday evening before hell breaks loose again on Monday.

Cant get enough of Indian Pale Ale.

Dont understand why I have trouble sleeping lately. It shouldnt be the case particularly when I am feeling so tired. How I long a deep slumber that lasts more than 6 hrs? Anyway, my heartfelt thanks to Aeron who called to check how I was doing when I didnt replied his SMS and my sincere apologies at the same time for not able to attend your grandma’s wake.

Last year, I was entrusted with the task of updating my primary schoolmates contact list. I have been procrastinating on this till three weeks ago, I decided to take it seriously to contact all our lost classmates. So far, the returns have been encouraging. Well Kaifa, if you are reading this, it looks like we would have a good reunion gathering at the end of the year.

My social scene is once again alive with 4 weddings, 2 promotion dinners, 1 theme birthday party this month (i.e I am going to be broke.)

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Dinner at Sushi Tei, Holland Village with Cheryl, Linda and Munling in June.

Yet another enjoyable night catching up with my coursemates at Brewerkz. When else can you can two pints of my favourite beer for 7 bucks?

I just finsihed reading this book "The Art of Possibility" by Ben Zander and is immediately inspired. For the last few months, I have been physcially, emotionally and spirtually weakened, lost in a sea of neverending tasks. I saw myself far from being a cool headed character that I want to be. Instead, I have become more a typical Singaporean "complaint king". Anyway, I find comfort in Zander’s "The Art of Possibility" which offers much wisdom and new perspectives. A must read, and here’s an extract just to share.

"Lighten up" Says Zander, "and you lighten up those around you" This is not to suggest that you shouldn’t take your work seriously (you should), or even that you shouldnt take yourself seriously (that may depend on time and place), but for absolute certainty we must all get over ourselves. There is perhaps no better way to "get over ourselves" than the use of humour. From birth we are concerned about measurement and worried about perceived scarcity of love, attention, food, etc. that seems to be the way of the world. Zander calls this "calculating self," and in this environment of scarcity, competition, and comparision "the self needs to be taken very seriously indeed." No matter how successful and confident we may become as adults, our "calculating self" (concerned with measurement and worried about scarcity) is weak and see itself at risk of losing everything. No wonder the calculating self is concerned with "looking out for number one" and takes itself so g-damn seriously.

The goal, then, is to move away from the calculating self, the self that lives in a world of scarcity, exaggerated threats and deficiencies, and move toward a healthier attitude of sufficiency, wholeness, and possibilities. Getting over ourselves — and humour is a great vehicle for this–allows us to see the "creative nature of the world and ourselves." When we understand what an infant can’t — that we can not control the world, that we can not impose our will on people’s hearts–we begin to get over ourselves. When we learn to lighten up we see ourselves as permeable not vulnerable, says Zander, and we stay open to the unknown and to new influences , new ideas. Rather than trying to resist and fight the river of life we move with a harmonious fluidity and grace, learning to join rather than resist the flow. Humour is a wonderful way to remind everyone around us — no matter how hard the work gets — that  our true self is not obsessed with childish demands, entitlements, and calculations but is instead supportive, confident, helpful, and even inspiring.

Its the season of classmates gathering again. Spent a rather pleasant evening catching up with my OCS platoon mates at the newly renovated HIVE youth hostel. Kudos to Spenz for organising the gathering.

Really need a drink tonight. Glad to have my coursesmates for company.Thanks guys.