I got this in my office email:

My official interaction with the dance world in the form of MTV Pop Dance... Hahah, and I tot my coordination and memory is good, having done wushu and kickboxing and engaging in sports but I was wrong...

It's actually quite difficult to master the moves and then sometimes, you have to do it from the left, and the right and the hands and legs ended up all at the wrong places. And of course, you have to memorise different sets of movements and then link them up and at the same time, follow the beat of the dance tracks, but the killer is to be able to ,move with grace...

How to move with grace when one used to move with sey in front of the mirror in the gym while lifting weights is suddenly expected to twist and sashay in front of the mirror in the dance studio, you tell me? But I believe, Dennis-of-all-trade can do it... Think I still prefer hip hop though =x

Recently made an eerie discovery... Just look at the pictures below:

I remember when I was a kid, I was constantly baffled by the gender of 潘美辰... Years later, deja vu came in the form of 周杰伦... I mean not that I was baffled by Jay's gender (erm, not really anyway) but they really look damn alike, dun you think?

Even the strongest of men, the bravest of them all, who hath no fear of the foulest creatures from the deepest of hell succumb to temptation. The lure of the naked female form, coupled with promise of eternal wealth and power will make the greatest hero falter and fall.

Can you blame the poor man? A barbaric mercenary who is always on the move, killing monsters in the name of fame and glory is bound to feel horny at times...
The sweet promise of becoming a powerful king for as long as he lives, in return for his treasure (which was given to him by the way) and of course, all he has to do was to screw the demoness in the beautiful form of Angelina Jolie, for one night only. After all, she just wants love and a son but no commitment, so there...

Too hard to resist rite? I mean who cares if she is a demoness, as long as she doesn't reveal her true ugly form in the heat of passion, it's still a good deal, or is it? Well, after enjoying a few decades as king, the fruits of his one night stand comes back to haunt him. He managed to save his kingdom but lost his life.

A good movie to catch, with great CGI effects and at times, I couldn't even tell if the characters are real life or CGIs.

英雄难过美人关 This is one statement that is difficult to dispute. Are men really such lustful creatures with such a weak state of mind when it comes to temptation of the flesh? Sad to say, I'm afraid we are, regardless how much we wanna disagree... Those who insist they can are either enunchs or gay...

Adding to my repertoire of half-pail-water skills or maybe less than half pail, dance and most possibly guitar as well...

Think I can really be a Dennis-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none...

After nearly one month in this multi national company where there are people of diverse nationalities and cultures, sometimes it is unavoidable to have friction due to the different ways we decode a simple piece of information.
What's meant to be a joke from one party could be offensive to another. And what you think is perfectly normal could be seen as something not common from the other party's perspective, and most often than not, these came from emails. Since they do not have that personal touch and people at the receiving end can't see the sender's expression when they read the emails, misunderstanding come about hence.

An eg.
Employee 1: Hi, can you let me know when the expense claims get paid? Is it also on 23rd along with salary? Thanks

Employee 2: Hi, the funds should be in your bank accounts by tomorrow. As indicated in my previous mails, expenses received by the 11th of the month will get processed on the 15th for payment. However, it will usually take 2-3 days for inter-bank funds transfer.

Employee 1: Thanks Employee 2 I will learn to read my e mail better! Cheers

Employee 2: ... ...

There are more where that came from but of course not all are for public viewing but you get the picture.

Finally, after months of preparation for the MYG 35th Anniversary Celebration, the trainees and volunteers gave their heart and soul into performing for all the ex-volunteers whom had in one way or another touched and made an impact in the the lives of the trainees. It's a way of saying thanks and a chance to celebrate the reunion of a big family.

Personally, I am really touched and amazed at what our trainees can achieve with the right guidance and by sheer determination. Although I always tell the newer volunteers not to underestimate the potential of the trainees when they go about planning their weekly activities, I'm still constantly amazed at what they can do.

Who would expect the intellectually disabled to be able to perform kickboxing steps to the fast tempo of a dance track? Or to understand and act out characters in a skit?

Just as the lyrics of our theme song suggests, each of them can achieve great heights, in their own pace.

I Walk My Pace
It's not about the journey, or distance
Know where it leads, or what it takes
It's not about the fear and pain, or struggles ahead
Just remember the choice you made
The path that you walk your pace

It's not about the sound of loneliness
Just listen to your heart
It's not about the tears and troubles that's in your way
Just remember the joy we shared
And the time that we hold our hands

In a cold and dark, and quiet night
Our guiding star shines bright
If you feel my heart, share my wishes
In my dream I won't cry

In a strange and dark, and lonely world
My courage will soar high
If you walk with me, believe I can
In my pace, I'll be there

In our pace, we'll be there

It's a really nice song and I wish I can upload the it onto YouTube and share it with you guys but as the song is in a powerpoint presentation with pictures of the trainees in their weekly activities, it's not appropriate to make it available to all netizens. I'll try to load the audio version for you guys.

With all this talk about recycling the workforce, I wonder if this is indeed the best way.

So now, not only we get to retire later, we are expected to continue working after we retire. So effectively, we have to work till we can work no more, or we make it big, although I think most of us will have to work till we die...

But then, does this really help the economy? I dunno for sure but I have my doubts.

Sure, on a micro level, if I continue to work after retirement, I can still still bring home some bacon bits, if not the whole bacon so that I can ease the family's burden and of course I can keep myself occupied, but of course the 2nd reason is valid, provided I do not have to work just to make ends meet (keeping oneself occupied is different from occupied to make one's keep)

On the macro level, I dun really think it helps the economy much.

First of all, the average elderly, cannot think as fast or move as fast. Sure they have the experience but in most cases, they will not be able to continue working in the commercial world as they will be too expensive to hire.

True, they can take a paycut but most employers would rather use that money to employ someone younger who can pick things up faster and cost a fraction of the salary that the old folks are drawing. That's just make economic sense, right?


So then they will end up working as cleaners or in fast food restaurants. And they add a whole new different meaning to the term fast food. IT IS NO LONGER FAST!!!

The poor elders cannot handle multiple orders and special orders, they cannot move as fast as the 15-16 year olds and I have to wait like 15 minutes before I got my BK breakfast. So I ended up late for work. Multiply that to the other customers in queue whom subsequently got affected and that should roughly tell you how much productivity was lost in the process.


So my point is, the gahmen maybe should have some kinda welfare scheme for the elderly so that we can truly enjoy our golden years after sacrificing so many years of our youth contributing to the economy so that our dear ministers can continously have their pay revisions.


Anyways, back to my car servicing, it makes my blood boil! So it turns out that my exhuast pipe is the cause of the rubber linings wear and tear. And its not suppose to happen cuz the body kit should come with a BIGGER exhaust pipe, the bloody C&C people forgot to change the pipe when they fix the body kit!

And so I need my sales agent to give them the paperwork so that the technical staff can charge the cost to the correct party. At my expense lor, KNN I have to waste time and make another 2 trips at least before they can fix things up.


And if that's not enough, drivers seem to have this habit of stealing tire caps, those silver caps that you need to unscrew when you need to pump your tires. 3 out of my 4 caps got stolen, Not that it's a big deal but still ... CCB!!! And after looking around, I noticed that most cars parked in mutli storey carparks got victimised. My bro's Latio kanna too =(



p.s. Not really safe to park cars in multi storey carparks, although parking there helps to keep your car from the elements so you do not have to wash cars so often.


p.p.s C&C is not as good as they say it is, been distributors for the much acclaimed Mercs does not mean that their servive is more superior than other agents. Or maybe C&C-Mercs is of a different breed than C&C-Mitsubishi and C&C-Kia?

Always tot C&C is good but knn, it is not as good as they say it is.
Usually when people bring in their cars for servicing is to do routine checks and change engine oil. For me I actually have to prepare a list of defaults which they have to fix in addition to the routine stuff:

1) Rubber lining that fixed the body kit to the car is not done properly. My bumper is slowly dropping off.
2) Lousy paintwork. There were white spots on the car which the sales guy told me is wax not properly cleaned off. Si gin na bluff me, the area was actually not painted properly.
3) One door guard oso white white and again he told me wax but I wash car a few times still white white, definitely scratches.
4) Beige interior was dirty, most prob technician did not clean hands while handling the vehicle.
5) The MP3 player cannot be play songs from my MP3 player, although it is supposed to.
6) My old man complain aircon not cold when turned to lvl 1, but I think that's subjective.

Si agent said can call him anytime if got prob with the technician during servicing, then suddenly msg me he is in Hong Kong until Saturday... Si gin na...

TMD, they better get it all fixed up tmr... grrrr

Hahaha I mentioned abt photoshopping this pix in the previous post.
Little Imp got it done for me...

The original:
What we had in mind when we took the pix:

Hahah we are good, aren't we?

The best song, in my opinon from Jay's latest album, though some may like the cowboy song, I still like sad songs better:

Genting Trip Part 2
Finally, Blogger decided to let me post the pix, so here they are...
And so, as mentioned in Part 1, we arrived in the wee hours so we had an early breakfast at Macs. When day broke, we decided to go explore a bit while waiting for the rooms to be ready for check-in.
It's kinda misty in the morning but I'm told we were amongst the clouds. Eh, still cannot quite believe we were so high up leh...


Kian Wee, doing a Jackie Chan impersonation of 'WHO AM I?!?!?!!?'Mountain climbing? Need to photoshop the background though

After checking in and lunch, we dropped by the casino but it was not very impressive, kinda sleazy actually. Got bored real quick but that's probably cuz Lady Luck was quite smiling at us.
Since time was of a constraint, since we were there for only 2D1N, we decided to skip the theme.

So besides walking around, gorging ourselves with food, we tried bowling:

Hahah, Bernice got real pumped up after the first game cuz I taunted her with my score of 127 pins. She beat me in Game 2 by 9 pins, and my score was again over a 100 pins de lor while she got like 80 plus or so in Game 1. Never ever incur the wrath of a lady. They can achieve amazing things when pissed -_-'

Since the bowling alley and the snooker salon was next to each other, we continued our 恩怨 next door.
Judging from my smile, not too difficult to guess the winner bah... hiack hiack hiack. Actually Bernice was helping us to take some really 'sey' pix but I guess I should have tried to look more serious...

Kian Wee joined us for dinner in the evening, and we ended up in the KTV, with Valencia. It was super cheap leh... We paid like SGD 20 plus (same price as in SG on a Sat) but we got 4 jugs of beer, tibits, fries and nuggets as well.

Me with Val, the potato singer... heheh

KW, Bernice and Little Imp
Brother Lim1 and Brother Lim2
The Superstar wannabe, really got 'feel' leh

All in all, we had a good time...
Next trip: Zhuhai -> Macau -> Hongkong in Feb 08

Wanna load the pix of the Genting trip but somehow Blogger dun allow me to post the pix.
Farnie though but I can post these -_-

Presenting the bunch of dudes that are holy and innocent... Hahaha... Whenever I tell people I was from Holy Innocents' High School, the response I got was 'You ah beng where got holy? And definitely not innocent lor...' KNN!!!

These were taken during our gathering weeks ago but I only got the pix recently...
It feels kinda weird to learn that one of us is gonna be a father soon...
Hahah, I can still remember the days when we were so crazy over basketball that we were at the courts almost everyday...

Danny again, me, KK and Andy

p.s. Will try to post the Genting pix once Blogger lets me. Dunno if its becuz of the size of the pix or wat... anyways...

Trip to Genting (Part 1)
Spent the weekend in the land which is supposedly to be truly Asia.

It was an almost all expense paid for trip (well transport, food and accomodation included but gambling chips are not though, sigh...) by Ah Geok.

Well not her literally... The former WITS team (comprises exisiting staff and alumni) won some money during the last FY for our suggestions and projects, so the branch decided to organise a short trip for everyone, instead of the usual dinners and lunches...

The whole gang met up at Golden Mile Complex (also known informerly as Little Thailand, for obvious reason) at 10.30pm on Friday night for a 7 hour coach ride to Genting. As its gonna be a long overnight ride, those who were shortsighted decided to cast image to the wind and turned up in all our geeky specs. Erm should have taken a pic of that...

Well so anyways, we had fun although the service of the resort staff left us baffled. Ok, this may sound as if I'm in the 'Oh-I-think-I'm-more-superior-than-you' group of Singaporeans that some of our neighbouring countries often complain about, but really, compared to some other resorts I went to, the service standard really sucked. Here's a recollection of the sequence of events which made our trip a little unpleasant.

Incident no. 1:
We reached Genting at around 5.30am, give or take, but we could only check in at 12pm, which was fine since this was the arrangement when we booked the package. But then, the rooms were not ready then and by the time everyone got their room, it was already 3.00pm! And mind you, the hotel that we stayed in is supposed to be a 5 Star. How can 5-star hotels allow this to happen leh?
We later realised that '5 Star' simply refers to a brand name (much like Hainan chicken rice, Punggol nasi lemak or Katong laksa) and it does not relate to the service level nor standard. Our coach is called 5-Star-something, but its the worst coach some of us had so far.
The coaches that we saw throughout the journey must have so many stars that they dun even bother naming...

Incident no. 2:
The service staff would make ideal civil servants as they seem to be following on what's written in their SOPs right down to the full stop. Any slight variations and they are stumped, confused and dunno how to handle...

Upon arrival, since we could not check into our rooms and it was much too early, we decided to have breakfast at McDonalds. It must have been the first time that the service staff encounter such a big crowd at 6am, as they could not even handle our orders properly. Food was not readily available but that's still ok. When the food was finally ready, they can't even remember who ordered what and went all over the place. We were the first customers there but were among the last to get our food =(

Then during dinner, we were at this Kenny Roger's outlet and we ordered 5 quarter chicken meals, which allowed us to have 15 side dishes in total. So we asked for everything on the side dish menu which had about 12 items, to be served seperately so that all 5 of us could share.
The waiter smiled sheepishly and said ok, then went on to ask which 3 side dish we would like for the first meal. WTF??? So ok, thinking that he probably dun quite understand English, we proceeded to point out one by one the specific 3 side dishes that we want for each of the quarter chicken meal.
And it did not come as a surprise that the bugger mixed up the orders and gave us whatever he fancied. KNN!!! How not to be tulan you tell me...

Incident no. 3:
We were at this bowling alley and as Bernice dun really wanna bowl, we wanted to pay for only 3 games but rent 4 pairs of shoes, just in case the couple wanna share a game. When we proceeded to pay, the staff adamantly insisted that one game to one pair of shoe -_-
So ok maybe it's not normal for people to rent shoes without playing but still, the way the counter staff said it just pissed us off.

General observation, the service staff dun really smile a lot. Most of the time, they looked like they are bored to death or probably they just lost their salary at the casino. There's only one housekeeping staff who smiled and wished us good morning. And that's when we were checking out.

Kauz... I really dunno wat 'truly Asia' means, not the level of service standard, I hope...

But oh well, it did not dampen our mood as we were determined to have fun. More on the happy stuff in the next post, with pictures.

Finally survived through my first monthly nightmare without major screw-ups.