Here's My Story

The monthly actuarial magazine I receive from the institute has a section on a survey conducted a month ago, Any member can ask for a survey to be done. It gives members "an opportunity to express their opinions on a mixture of serious and not-so-serious issues". While I usually enjoy reading the results and opinion, it is more enjoyable to read the comments by the participants that are published. Examples: Question: Imagine you are waiting to be served in a bank. Suddenly, an armed robber enters the bank, fires a shot and the bullet hits you in the arm. How would you describe this event? Choice of response: Lucky Unlucky An unfortunate random occurrence that has nothing to do with luck Comments: "Typical bank - not enough tellers. If they were properly staffed, I would have been out of there before the robber arrived." "I'd describe it as 'chk chk boom - ouch' to the press of course." "Any time I have to be served at a ba...

Such a cool dude!

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I watched Avatar recent. It is a good movie but truth be told, I expected it to be great, not merely good. I wasn't exactly wowed by it. Maybe I was caught up in the hype and so had high expectation? *shrug* I watched the 3-D version. Again, nothing to shout about. It didn't seem to do much difference to me. In retrospect, I wouldn't have paid S$5 to watch it in 3-D and wearing uncomfortable 3-D glasses in front of my own glasses. The first encounter between the two main characters reminded me too much of Pocahontas, especially with the theme on respecting nature, give thanks to the animal killed for food etc. I wouldn't have blinked my eyes if Neytiri burst out singing "Colours of the Wind", especially callimg Jake Sully a "baby" when it comes to understanding the forest and stuff. It would have fitted the scene perfectly, with her running up tree trunks and jumping around while pointing to the lovely flora and fauna around. Yah, I'm just ...

That was how long I slept on Friday and Saturday night. It is rather shocking to me because I usually need about 7.5 hours only. Even if I tried sleeping beyond that, at about the 8th hour mark, I would start getting headache which is a sign for me to wake up. But not these nights. There was no headache. I could have slept on longer if not because it was lunch time. Perhaps on Friday night, I was compensating the lack of sleep during the weekdays, especially Wednesday night (if I recall the day correctly) when I couldn't sleep till past 2am. Whereas on Saturday night, maybe I was tired out doing house chores: mopped and sweep the house, cleaned bathrooms and kitchen sink, spring cleaning half of my room (the other half was done earlier) and ironing 8 pairs of clothings. I normally don't do all these within a day. Still, I did it in a relaxing manner i.e. did a bit, watched tv a bit, did a bit, surfed net a bit, did a bit etc. Strange. Even weirder is the dream I had l...

I've yet to successfully buy the right office pants. The first time I tried, I managed to get hold of pants with the right waist size. I tried them on and it felt just right. However, to my dismay, after having bought them and actually wearing them to office, I find them to be tight. I figured the difference are the items I put in my pockets. So the second time I went shopping for a pair of pants, I purposely tried them on with belt and items in my pocket. Although the size is one size larger than I asked for, it seems fine at that time. But now I regret. It seems a bit large for me. Haiz. Maybe I should get them tailored. But it apparently costs at least 50% more. Hmmm.

Eating out is expensive in Australia. Almost every meal was cooked at home. It is simply way cheaper. Here are some pictures of the yummy food I had during the 15 days trip to Canberra: Japanese meal! :) It was held in celebration of my sister's birthday. Only thing missing from this picture is the delicious teriyaki (unconventionally cooked I must say) by my bro-in-law. It was DIY for anyone wants sushi rolls, except that I made a few for the birthday girl of course. It was definitely a great success.

Please refer to the failed exam . I failed again :( Since I failed twice, I now "qualify" to receive detailed feedback for each attempt for a charge of US$150. Gah.

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  Although it already existed when I was studying in Canberra, it was only during my recent trip that I visited Cockington Green. Its main attraction is its miniature buildings of which most of them are modeled on actual buildings. I almost never visit any place on my own. Rather spend time with loved ones, wherever they are. This time, however, my dad was keen to visit Cockington Green as it is highly recommended by a Chinese newspapers in Malaysia. So my sister drove her toddler sons, my dad and youngest sister there while I took a short bus ride there. We brought some food in case we were hungry, of which we were 100% certain the boys would be hehe. Here are some photos of buildings taken from places with names starting with B and C:

Last weekend was a long weekend here in Singapore as well as Malaysia. Ban took the opportunity to come down to Singapore :) Thursday After collecting supplement, buying movie tickets, soya milk and pears, I went to the Budget Terminal to meet Ban. Since I had some time, I took the train route i.e. MRT train to Tanah Merah, transfered to the train to Changi Airport and then finally tranferred to the free shuttle bus to the Budget Terminal. Luckily his flight was not late. In fact, it was a little early.