cause cold
nostalgia
chills me to the bones
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Sep 7 1980
Likes: Arsenal, Technopop, The Cataracs, Adele, Pedro Almodovar, Sodagreen

Quotes:
"If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages."
"A football team is like a beautiful woman. When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful."
"If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all."
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Le Grove
Newsnow - Arsenal
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 @ 5:24 PM
At the crossroads!

Time flies and I feel I'm at the crossroads again.


There is such a thing as mid-life crisis as
frequently talked about.
It's no exactly a crisis for me but more than
a crossroads. Been given a choice
to make a decision is a good
things, but fear is always
in the background.
Always!!

Still, in the end, I feel I will come stick the
original 'decision'. The turbulence
of late 20s does play in my
mind. Taking the easy
path is usually not
inside me.

Whenever, I thought of people who endures
of pain and adhere to their vision
and principle, Arsene Wenger
springs to mind.

There were bad times for the club. It wasn't
easy. Funding the new stadium move
without a rich benefactor is never
going to busy. To do it with
all the resources of the
club is commendable.

There were hype-up desperation about finishing
trophy-less and that a club like Arsenal
should not go without trophy for
so long. Still, he stands firm &
work things around.

To persist in the face of great difficulty and
to sacrifice one's reputation for the
sake of the club is remarkable.

The club has one of the best finish in years,
hope that it continue to be so till
then end of the season.

_________________________________________________________

Finally, close my biggest deal in my 22 months sales
career. Quite thankful for those who has
helped make it possible.

I always sales is less stressful than research. 22 months
in the job, I still feel the same way.

Research has taught me alot of things, but it was
journey laced with much challenges and
uncertainties. Perhaps it is precisely
of those difficult moments that
really makes me appreciate
those times.

Still, it's end of year soon, one my favorite 2 months.
Loads of catch-up and shopping since I haven't
done much this year.

I do really miss ECP, bustling shopping malls & disco
quite a bit.
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Monday, September 23, 2013 @ 11:42 PM
Getting rusty!!
It has been ages since I last posted and my blog
seem to be getting rusty too! It took a
refreshes for me to get it started
again!

Time flies. I am already 20 months into my jobs and
21 months is coming in. I still have
people asking me why I choose
to do his job instead of
others.

I doesn't have any regrets. This was something very different
from my previous job; the tempo is opposite. As
for the stress level, postgrad is definitely
more stressful especially when you
have no results for 2 years.

It still feels rather surrealistic when I reflect on my life
2 years ago and now. I have never thought
that I will do sales after I graduate, but
sales was not something foreign to
me, so it wasn't difficult for me.

I appreciate those postgraduate days and feel rather
proud that i could survive such a turbulent
period of my life. Whether it is the
stress or my gene, I did lose
quite a lot of hairs. But the
thinking skills I picked
up from this stint was
sth I will always be
grateful.

The 20 months of being in Life Tech has being
quite an enjoyable one. Never a day
gone by without smiling, without
me cracking a joke. I am ever
grateful for the managers that
have supported me always.
Thinking about their
support made me
feel rather
touched.

I always feel as colleagues it is important to support one
another, grow together and celebrate good
times together. When you have no one
to celebrate your accomplishment
with, it is no longer meaningful.

________________________________________________________

On the second week of Sep, my group of friends
went to Universal studio after talking abt
gg together during our Legoland trip.

DL manage to get us tickets at a competitive price.
It has been quite a while since I took roller
coaster and I was apprehensive about
hurting my neck after spending years
nursing it back to health.

But it is quite painful to sit outside and see them enjoying
the ride, so I took all the rides with them. My neck
pass the BIG test.

It has always been a lot of laughter when our group gathers.
There were difficult times for the group but I am
glad that we are still one big happy group,
enjoying each other company.

We spent a large part of the times queuing and by the
end of the days we were rather exhausted by
the waiting & queuing.

It has been like 7 years and the laughter
have thankfully never stop!

__________________________________________________________

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Wednesday, May 01, 2013 @ 8:40 PM
Hello 2013

It is May and this is my first blog for 2013

The first 3 months of 2013 was so busy that I
was wondering whether I can cope.

April arrived and things are well under
control. With the iPad I think
my work efficiency has been
improved tremendously.

I seldom work past office hours nowadays
because I can do most of my work
while waiting for customers.

I was quite skeptical that iPad can do most
of my work; I was forced to embrace
it and it has improved my quality
of work life tremendously.

It has been 15 months of work at Life
Technologies and everyday time
still move as fast.

But life is definitely less stressful than in research.
Research is tough but the quality of training
is awesome, but I can't imagine
another 5 years of time there.

Whenever I think about my life now, there is new
feeling of serenity & happiness that temporarily
displaces the day to day hecticness.

But still I am forever grateful to the lessons learnt
there & relived that I have a very supportive
& patient boss who seem to believe
in me.

_____________________________________________________

While 2012 is about adapting, 2013 will be quite
different altogether.

Post-PhD I feel that I am getting closer to
where I would like to be in life.

I feel my creativity is coming back. It has
eluded me for really very long while
I was "struggling to make ends
meet" in research.

My health has also improve quite a lot. I
guess it has been about 6 months since
I last caught a flu, which is quite
a record in recent years.

Personally, I would like to be more
adventurous in many aspects of
my life.

Things are slowly shaping up ...

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Saturday, December 29, 2012 @ 10:12 PM
Goodbye 2012
Goodbye 2012!

2012 was a super duper busy year.

I always frown when people said "Busy
is good". I have never agree and
still have not.

I think being busy is not always productive.
Of course, the plus side is that one
will not actually get bored.

But being purely busy is a zero sum game.
I have never like being busy because
in the past all my breakthrough
occurred when I was relaxed.

For the past few years, I was like
a relegation threaten soccer
team, just trying to make
sure that I got my
postgrad degree.

It was no fun because you can't be yourself.
But 'escaping relegation' is always a
very pleasurable thing. I know I
don't have to live like a dog
anymore. Arsene Wenger
once said "If you live
like a dog, then
what is the
point."

I totally agree. After my convocation, I told
myself I am going to quit living like
a dog. I don't wanna be
surrounded by fear
anymore.

It is time for more breakthrough!

_______________________________________________


I have a soft spot for Puma and I chance upon some
of the black label design shoes by chance. Isn't
them beautiful.

I like the second best and the concept for the
third one was cool. I saw the third one
at Wisma but I just couldn't bear
to part with $200 plus because
it is quite a simple construct.

I guess some thing are meant to be enjoy and
not to be owned. After all watching your
pair of shoes get 'old' isn't really a
wondrous experience. Well,
what a sour grape!


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Sunday, November 25, 2012 @ 1:51 PM
Marching into December
Marching into December

2012 is coming to an end. I always like December
if I have a generally good or OK year.

During postgrad days, I does not always like
December, in fact, with the end of
each day, I was moving to my
project deadline with nothing
to show. But then, it is
really testing oneself
to the limit.

This year, I am really looking forward to
celebrating December. I have more
spare time &  not much to
worry about.

The perfect thing is I have money to shop
as well, this is really quite a good year.
On a scale of 1-10, I would
give it at least an 8.

Next year, will be quite different so watch
this page!

_______________________________________________

Mid of November was army reservist. Some like
it and some dread it. I am pretty neutral
about it or rather I try to be positive
about the whole thing.

It is just that I find it a bit disruptive to my
work.

3 weeks really pass by very fast, when I was
on hospitalisation leave, the 3 weeks
were gone just like that. 


Seriously, Me Time is just so addictive. Sometimes,
I have so many ideas which I love to
execute, tt is why I really enjoy
whatever time I have for
myself.

At the end of every year, my resolution is
to eventually to have more ME
TIME. Things haven't work
according to plan but
hopefully I am in
the right direction.

The good thing about reservist is that I get to
meet new people. Some of them are
quite interesting or fun to chat 
with.

When it comes to meeting people, I like to
meet people who are fun & humorous.
Nothing beats laughter. Meeting
pple with intention aka
'networking' is to me
a bad social habit,
a really bad
one.

I quite detest that because I believe that
when you are ready you will meet
the right people that will guide
you along. It might seem

to the 'networker' as
pretty naive, but
it works.

In the end, I always believe, "It's gonna
come from the heart if you want
things to work up"

_______________________________________________

Near work place, the star vista finally opens. When I
was doing postgrad, I always look at the 
development near Bonua Vista MRT,
& I wonder how comes buildings
are built faster than my proj
progresses.

I told myself I must submit my thesis before the building
beside Star Vista was completed. Quite happy,
I manage to do it.

I don't quite like the design of the building, it has
a really unique design, but it has a very
overbearing feel to it which it makes
it entirely unlovable.

The open concept of the building is good though, I bet
it's really save the landlord a lot of electrical bills.
Most of it are F&B as will be the trend going
forward.

My favourite stall is Awfully chocolate.


                                              

The must try is the ice-cream. I first tried it with Wilson and
then a week later, I shared a pint with Sishan
& Junli.
The ice-cream is really good stuff, the best I have
in Singapore. The chocolate is so rich,
your taste buds will be happily
stimulated.

The truffles look nice too, but I haven't got to try it.

Awfully chocolate have gone a long way since their
signature chocolate cake. I am impressed
by the ice-cream & the pastry, good
stuff.

The franchise model should be quite profitable
for the owner but rental is always the
chief thing when starting a
business.

Luckily, the internet has gaven people
with small capital a fighting chance.
Internet has democratized the business
world, it is very liberating for
entrepreneur.

________________________________________________

Looking forward to the end of reservist & the
beginning of shopping!!!

Have a good December, reader! 


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Sunday, October 28, 2012 @ 12:19 PM
Halloween 2012
Halloween 2012

I was at Junwei's place for Mahjong and we
talked about going for some Halloween
event and in the end we chose
the one at Siloso.

Junwei, Yijun and Huimin have some madeup
while the three of us didn't really prepare
us.

It is actually quite fun, dressing up for the event
but I am finding it very difficult to multi-task
even further.

There were 4 trails in all, but the queue were
simply too long & I manage to only
go to two of them.

The trail wasn't really very scary but the event itself
was quite fun. The volunteers really did a
good job, some of them were really
very entertaining.

I met up with a few of my colleagues after that
& we over to Zouk just to look at the
'parade' there. The concept is quite
different and the crowd is
older.

Overall, a very fun night and an end to a
long weekend. Weekend is always
appreciated. It will be even
better if we have 4 day
week if not more
public holidays.

We can slot  in more public holidays in those
barren month like June/July and March/April.

We can have a holiday for racial harmony day,
national defense day, Qingming festival. So,
that is 3.

_____________________________________________________

The thing next to look forward to is the end of
reservist. It will be December by then.

This year has been a really hectic year
for me. It is nice working in a new
environment and getting to know
more people.
One of the best thing this year was really to take
up dancing lesson. It is really quite an
eye opener to the creativity world.

It's quite amazing to see my instructor choreographing
our move. Although, it has just being a mere
3 months, I have continued practicing
myself.

Sometime, I am in awe of my instructor who has
so much passion in dancing and has
immense charisma.

In the next few years, I hope my life will gradually
morph into one where aesthetics predominate,
I guess that is where I really want to
be in.

Meanwhile, I really need plenty of rest,
one week of uninterrupted rest will
go a long way!!



back to top?
Saturday, August 18, 2012 @ 3:54 PM
Looking forward!!!

It has been really ages since I last blogged.
The last 3 months have been really
busy.

Still, I find this job quite a breath of fresh
air, it is quite fun but I wasn't
getting enough sleep until
the past 2 weeks.

Though postgrad days were really quite
meaningful, it was painfully tough.

The disappointments were immense and
by the end of it, I was quite numbed
to it, but I wasn't quite numbed
to the stress.

I could rewind those moments when I finally
cleared my thesis defense. It was so
sweet that I can hardly forget
that sensation.

At that precise moment, I felt liked a tortoise
with its shell being removed.

The timing was perfect also as I got a job.

____________________________________________

Was @ Zirca a few weeks back and I thought, it
was pretty fun.

Pal Yijun did not really like it so much, but I
thought the dance floor was
awesome, it was not tt
big, but it is well
defined, a beautiful
rectangle.

I didn't really take a look at the DJ, but quite like the
music that was played at the sister club, Rebel
. It is not for everyone
though.

It is great that I do no longer need to work on
Sunday morning, so I could club
if I need to on Sat.

Digressing a bit, I got quite good memories
of learning hip hop at Celine Jessandra.

The young instructors there are very passionate
and joyful. I do feel quite inspired by them.

Nikon advertising "I am" have been around for
quite a while. It must at least been a
year, but it still feels as fresh
and captivating as ever.

The person who thought of this is really quite
a genius. It is simple but make the viewers
feel part of it.






______________________________________________________

The 2012/2013 BPL will kick off this Saturday. There have
been changes during the off-season and Arsenal
looks in better shape than when they
started off a year ago.

A year ago, Arsenal started the campaign without
signing replacement for Cesc Fabregas &
Samir Nasri. After the 8-2 drubbing
by Man Utd, a few players
were signed to give the
club that extra
push.

Seriously, the last minute signing was really not
bad! Mikel Arteta is a great signing with
a monstrous winning mentality. Per
Mertesacker added the much
needed organisation to the
defence.

This off season, it is the staying and leaving
saga of Robin Van Persie that dragged
through the whole summer.

Wenger's loyalty to his players is unquestionable.
Sometime, I felt that the players do take
him for granted.

RVP has been injured on and off over the 8
years at Arsenal. After a wonderful season
in which he surprisingly was not injured,
he think that he is bigger than the club.

I find it quite a big coincidence that on his last year of his contract,
he finally did the "impossible" and remains
injured free for sustained period, something
he has not really done so in the past.

There was further bullshit from him when he said
that it was not about money but ambition.
The contract from Man Utd only proves
that money is definitely part of
the equation.

I am glad that at least Arsenal is sensible enough to sell
him away at 22.5 million and not to give
him a bumper contract. Who knows
he will be injured again.

At least this time, Arsenal has at least signed
the replacement before the departure
of Van Persie. Oliver Giroud,
Lukas Podolski & Santi
Carzola has joined the
club and they are
classy signing.

I expect Giroud and Podolski to make important
contribution for the 2012/2013 season.

Arsenal is fortunate to have Wenger who always
put the club before himself. In the soccer
world, he is the brainy and classy one.




__________________________________________________________

2012 has been good so fast. It is a relatively stress-free year
& yet I felt that I have accomplished quite a lot in
this year.

I like challenges but after years of being under stressed,
I really need that break, and this year is really
cool. I have been efficient and enjoying
the process.

After 5 years of postgrad, I would prefer to go for
project that has a short maturation period, preferably,
one to two years.

This, I learnt, from the 5 years of heartpain, where
everything is like for the future. Sometimes,
the future just never arrive. I am quite
forturnate, that my postgraduate
was completed on time. It is
quite close, but no more
long term project for
me after this.

It might sounds evil, but everytime I heard my
fellow customers complaint about their
experiments, I would really think,
thank goodness, I no longer
have to go through all
this again.

Sales is easier than doing research; most things are.
For quite a couple of jobs, the range of emotions
could not quite match that of research.
Research is 90% frustration and
10% relief. So, I am actually
enjoying my 8 months in
Sales.

There is no experiment planning, no dealing with
big unexpected changes, finding resources
to do the experiment, reading loads
of papers and writing manuscript.
So it is good, really good!

At the essence of its all, although it is a difficult
5 years for me, I am glad to have the chance
to do it. I am especially blessed to have
a boss who believed in me and who
doesn't micro-manage me. He
gives  me a lot of freedom to
manage the project, and
for that, I am
grateful.

I think, I will always regret if I never did research.
It is always the one thing I wanted to, but in
which I knew I wouldn't do for my whole
life.

The future is really quite exciting. I felt more
confident and in control.

________________________________________________


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