ground to cover

First order of business:

I want to be the bigger person and apologize to Leon and Agnes. I am sorry for not attending your ROM. I know that these are just words and it probably doesn’t mean much. If only you guys could read what my heart is and has been saying. I’m disappointed with myself and there’s nothing I can do to turn back the hands of time. That really hurts so bad. I had a shitty day at work on Friday and Saturday morning wasn’t any better. I’ve said this over and over again to friends and some close colleagues. This job is taking too much away from me and from the 16th of July, I’ll start making amends. Missing your ROM is the icing on the fucking cake. I hope that someday you guys and the family will be able to forget and forgive. I love you guys and I wish you both the very best.

This was noel's apology for not attending our ROM.

I have more or less gotten over it,although I must admit I was pretty pissed with everyone that day. It was my special day and seems like my family was hell bent on ruining it for me. Ironically the only people that came out smelling roses that day were Leo and Lynn.

I guess what I needed was not an apology but an explaination but none seems forthcoming. It has been over a week and no one has even bothered to explain.

But the thing that really took the cake was THERE WAS NO VIDEOGRAPHER! A wedding comes only once in a lifetime. And that moment has come and gone for me, and I do not have a proper video record of it. Sure Leo and Yew Kwang took videos of the ceremony, but that does not in anyway discount the fact there was no one there doing a proper video of the solemnisation. The thing was that it seems that everyone knew about the video guy being anable to make it, but no one even bothered to mention it to the bride and groom! I only got to find out about it mere minutes before the ceremony was to commence! needless to say Agnes and myself were fuming mad. It really spoilt everything for us. Someone promised us something and failed to deliver. No one has even bothered to apologise for it or even mentioned it since then.

Like I told some people,"With family like this, who needs enemies?"

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We be going to Malacca on Friday. it is gonna be a welcome break for Agnes and myself. We have had little time for ourselves in recent months, what with all the wedding and flat stuff. Agnes has been busy with her school stuff as well.
So the malacca trip will be a welcome respite for us from everything. We will be back on Sunday. So I do hope that it will be time well spent. Malacca being malacca, is not exactly the most cosmopolitan state in Malaysia, so we should be able to squeeze in quality time. Sure we will do shopping and sightseeing, but I am sure we will also find time to just enjoy one anothers company and our life together.

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Got my hands on the solemnisation pictures from yenling. leo also sent me a batch of the stills he took. I have alaready edited YL pictures, have yet to upload them though. Then I have to get to work on Leo's pictures.Problem is he sent them to me via email, so it is gonna be a drag to save those pictures to my hard drive one by one by bloody one, and then get around to editting them.

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Sent Sunny for his servicing. Once more he came through unscath. considering his history for defects and malfunctions, it is a wonder he is always getting a clean bill of health each time he goes in. But it also saves me a bundle not having to overhaul or replace any major parts each time Sunny gets serviced.

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Speaking of Sunny,
Agnes did mention the other day that it may not be feasible to maintain a car next time when we are living together. An abrupt about turn to all those times when she was against me scrapping or upgrading. I guess she did not realise how much of an expense upkeeping car is on the wallet. Road taxes,inspections,serving,insurance, petrol, parking etc...
But Sunny still has some legs in him and I will probably look to keep him around as long as pssible. he is still an integral part of our lives, and will only be rid of him if it became surplus to requirements or if we were financially strapped to be unable to maintain Sunny any longer.

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We are planning to open a joint account soon, agnes and me. Not that I am against it, but it is the logistics that gets me. Most banks work on office hours, so we will probably have to take time off or leave to get it done. Then there is the issue of what bank to choose to entrust our hard earned funds. Normally I would go for the DBS/POSB monolith, but I think one of the smaller more personable banks should be better able to manage our monies. OCBC,OUB...

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Then there is the issue of taking up a renovation and furnishing loan. Anyone who knows me knows that I dun buy anything on installments or loan. I would normally pay cold hard cash upfront for goods and services. But in the case of our new home, I am leaning towards getting a loan from RHB and maybe even a furnishing loan. It would be less painful in my view to pay for it on an installment basis rather than utillising our hard earn savings in a one off. A couple with just a few thousand in their saving accounts is not exactly a secure position to be in. But that is just my point of view.

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3 things I want to do:

**Take Holy Communion everyday**
It was constituted to be something that all believers do to remember the Lord's flesh and blood sacrifice, but somehow it has become a mere ritual and many believers are implored to search their soul's for sin. When in fact the opposite is true. The blood justifies the beleiver and the flesh heals us of all our lack.
I intend to live long and be healthy,secure in my place in God's love. And the Lord's Supper is key to realising divine health,grace and favour.

** Tithe regularly **
Much like the previous item, it is something that has been miscontrued by the modern church. Tithing gets a bad rap because of the aggressive tactics used by some churches to fund their operations and projects. But tithing is actually giving back to God a part of what is already his. In actual fact all we possess belongs to God, but out of the whole we only give a tenth or 'the first fruits of our harvest'. And then the other 90% is blessed. In that it means that the 90% we have left goes further and accomplishes much more than what the 100% would have done. Even better news is that the 90% also multiplies and prospers. Meaning that whatever we spend it on or choose to invest our money on can and will prosper and multiply back in a bountiful harvest.

** Read the Bible more**
It is something that I ought to do more of. I used to do much better at this in the pre IT days. but with the advent of the internet I suffer from data overload. But the problem is that much of the information I receive each day is rubbish and not really as applicable as I have been lead to believe. I think there is no way that I can be a good husband to my wife without a strong foundation in the Word.

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Looks like my business plans will be put on the backburner for the time being until all the various distractions that we have been burdened with have been resolved. The school work, the flat mainly.

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I am just hopeless at doing more than one thing well at any one time.

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Things to buy:

- a new all-in-one printer.My current HP one is buggered. so I cant print anything. so i have to resort to printing documents at the office or getting agnes to print it over at her end.

- probably may more tha just the above,but my mind is a blank as i am writing this.

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Chris Benoit passes

It is just one of those times when you are just left speechless..



Chris benoit was scheduled to be in Singapore later this month for some promotional stuff for the upcoming Summerslam Tour. I was planing to pop by for a look-see if schedules allowed. But sadly all that is not meant to be...

It is tragic when someone as talented and dedicated as Chris dies before his time. But the circumstances behind all that happened makes it even harder to swallow. So many questions with no answers.



Apparently the story was that he killed his wife Nancy on saturday, then his 7 year old kid on Sunday, and then hanged himself on Monday. How could someone that many held up upon a pedestal be capable of such acts? 3 lives lost for seemingly no reason. Until many of the questions surrounding the events of the last few days are answered, we will have a hard time putting it behind us.




But above all things, and despite all the negative press,the thing that stood out most about Chris Benoit was his selflessness,dedication and professionalism towards his craft. It was what made him such a well respected figure amongst his legions of fans and colleagues. He made every match he was in worth watching. Like the old cliche, he gave 110% everytime he was out there. Even outside the ring, his professionalism was of a kind few could match. He was one who walked the walk and talked the talk (sort of). He nary turned down a fan appearance or request. he was a great teacher and taught above anything to those around him the respect of the business that we know as 'sports entertainment'. many may deride professional wrestling as fake and planeed etc. But in my humble opinion these guys do things that even the so-called 'real' athletes would find it hard to match up to. Their bodies undergo the most gruelling schedule in all of sports or etertainment. Little wonder the number of injuries and deaths related to sports entertainment.



Chris Benoit has had some of the best matches of recent times with all of the major superstars of the Attitude era. Even his tenure in WCW and ECW comes up for notable mention. All these tribute videos merely scratch the surface about what Chris Benoit the wrestle was all about. The crowning moment of his career would definitely be his winning the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 20. It was one the most memorable Wrestkemania moments when Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero hugged mid-ring as confetti rained down.



It now remains for me to choose between remembering how Chris Benoit choose to take 2 innocent lives and then commit suicide. A sad ending to what has surely been one of the most distinguished careers to ever set foot in the squared circle.

Or...

To remember the man whose dedication to his craft was both an inspiration to his peers and made sure every fan in attendance went home satisfied.

For me I choose the latter...for now.


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wedding pictures

The first batch of wedding pictures are up. You can see a selection on the Link bar on the left.
There is a HTML and a Flash Flickr Badge for you guys to view random pictures.

For those of you who wanna see more you can either click the links or go to the Wedding Blog...
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Big Chick

Once upon a time a boy who lived on a farm found an egg. Apparently it had fallen out of its nest. The boy brought it home and placed in one of the nest in the chicken coop outside of his house, together with all the chicken eggs.

Very soon all the eggs started to hatch.One by one. Until there was only one that had yet to hatch. All the hens gathered around and speculated amongst themselves as to why the egg had yet to hatch.

"perhaps mother hen failed to sit on it properly", one said.

Another offered this,"It is too big. Bigger eggs take longer to hatch. That's why that one has yet to hatch."

The wisest of all the hens surmised that perhaps that egg was not fated to hatch. It was a bad egg. And everyone knew bad eggs never hatched..ever. Upon hearing those words all the other hen's nodded in agreement, as the Old Wise Hen has never been known to be wrong.

One by one all the hens left the coop. Except for poor mother hen. She still held out in hope that some way, somehow that the egg would hatch. Days turned into a week, and then something started to happen...

The egg started to hatch! Out of that big egg came the oddest little chick anyone had ever seen. It was different from all the other chicks that lived in the coop. It was somewhat bigger than any chick. And it lacked the nice yellow feathers that any normal chick has. All the other hens gossiped amongst themselves regarding the matter. Mother hen and her chick hence became a topic of discussion everywhere they went.

A few months passed, and Big Chick grew even bigger and even stronger. Very soon he found himself popular amongst the other chicks. But being big than most, he was most aware of the extra danger he was in. He would indeed make a tasty morsel for snakes. Ever so often snakes and their kind would come and take one of his brethren away. So the entire chicken community lived in fear of the day that they would be the one to end up a meal for a hungry snake.

Big Chick did all the things chickens do. He definitely walked like one. He ate like one. He even ate like one. All in all Big Chick was a chicken in every way. But Big Chick was not happy. He always felt different from all the other chicks. He may have lived like a chicken but he sure did not feel like he fit in.

How Big Chick longed to be like the eagle he saw soaring high above the farm. Free to roam the world and not having to stay on the farm. How he longed to be able to fly high,high above the clouds and look down upon the world beneath. But he knew that chicken do not fly far, let alone as high as the eagle.

But everywhere he went and everyone he told, told him that being an eagle was not a good thing and that he should forget about trying to be like an eagle. Eagles fly too high and build their nests up in cliffs. Not things that any self-respecting chicken would do.

But still Big Chick did not feel like being a chicken much. It was not much fun being on the ground, not being able to fly and nothing really interesting ever happens except the odd snake attack or two.

One day Big Chick decided to run away from the farm. He did not know where he was going to but any place but the farm would do. So Big Chick walked...and walked,in a chicken sort of way. A shadow cast on the ground caught his eye. It was the eagle again. So Big Chick decided there and then to go to where the eagles lived and to see for himself what life as an eagle was like.

Up the mountain Little Chick climbed. As fast as his little legs could take him. By midday, Little Chick was nearly at the top of the mountain. Now he was closer to the eagles above,than the farm, which lay below like a mere speck. For the first time Little Chick realised that his world was so much bigger than the world he once knew down on the farm.

By now Little Chick was at the highest point of the mountain. He could now see for the first time the eagles up close. To his amazement,despite all that he had been told about them, eagles were not so bad after all. They seemed just like any of the other birds he had seen. Yet at the same time the eagles had a certain air about them. A certain dignity, confidence and maybe even a sense of knowing not apparent amongst any of the chickens he met before.

Little Chick had always longed to be like an eagle. There was no way back now. He could never bring himself to go back to the farm. It was his destiny to be an eagle. Even if realising that dream meant he could never be a chicken ever again.
Little Chick stood at the edge of the cliff. Far down he could still see the farm and the fields where he had spent all his days up to this point. Little Chick spread his wings. He had seen how the eagles made flying seem so effortless. Now even up close flying seemed even easier said than done. He flapped his wings hard but nothing seemed to happen.

Just then he felt a strange yet almost familiar presence. He turned around, and saw the biggest bird he has ever seen. It was an eagle. They look so much bigger, so much more stronger up close. His first emotion was fear. But soon that fear gave way to peace. This eagle seemed so far removed from anything that he had been lead to believe. Eagle's were supposed to be bad. No chicken had ever encountered an eagle and lived to tell the tale. Little Chick thought it best to say something. But before he could speak, the eagle started to speak...

"To fly you need to learn to let go,little one. To learn to let go of your fear of falling. To spread your wings and let the winds carry you to where you need to go."

To this Little Chick replied," But how will I know where I need to go?"

The eagle said in a most reassuring tone," To know where you need to go,first you need to know where you are and where you came from."

Little Chick was perplexed at the words the eagle had spoken. Yet in his heart he knew that everything that the kind eagle spoke was true. He had always known this yet everything he was told since that day he came out of his egg was at odds. How could he,a chicken ever be like an eagle? Even if he did not let his fear grip him there was still the little fact that he was a chicken. Chicken's do not fly, at least chicken's do not the way eagles do.

The eagle sensing Little Chick's apprehension proceeded to speak once more.

"For the longest time I have watched you from above. Acting like a chicken.Living as one of them. But you always knew that you were meant to fly. That is the only reason you are here now.If you cannot believe in your ability, you can still believe in me. I once thought as you do now. I saw eagles fly above from my nest. But look at me now. .."

With that the eagle walked up to next to where Little Chick was. Little Chick was now closer to an eagle than he ever thought he would be this morning. The eagle stood at the cliff edge and spread his wings wide. And just like that the eagle leaped off the cliff and was up and away. Little Chick peered over the ledge to see that the eagle he had spoken to was now ascending up towards the clouds. And then he was a mere speck as he flew out of his sight.

Little Chick felt courage swell up within. He spread his wings. And waited for the right wind to come. And when a strong enough back wind came, Little Chick left off the ledge with all the strength he could muster....

Up and up and up the winds lifted him. He did not even have to flap his wings. Little Chick was flying!
Little Chick allowed the wind to carry him to where he needed to go. Down below Little Chick spied the farm where he had once lived. That life now seems so far away...

Down below, a young saw Little Chick soaring above and thought to himself," How I wish I could soar like that eagle..."
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Transformers!!

The Transformers live action movie is coming out soon. Meanwhile there is still stuff to whet our appetites until then:


The Touch by Stan Bush (gotta love that name)


user video of Dare by Mr Bush-ey


Retro remix video...cool eh?

and of course the good old Transformers theme song...



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