A New Chapter begins ;)

heyhey, I'm with Outward Bound School now ;) I'll be leaving to Japan with Huixian from the 24th of this month to the 6th of April, for my Sports Chanbara Training. Huixian and I will be there to view the cherry blossoms, which I've been told, only lasts for ten days a year! The trip is gonna hurt me pocket something fierce, but I'm working hard for it. I'll be slogging all the way till the 22nd, to get the moolah we anticipate we'll require for the food and travel and sports and training and food and snacks and food ;) Argh... hehheh... I eat too much...

Attachments went swell with a good letter of reference from Infinsys Technologies ;) ...how did I end up the OB way? ...with much prodding from Wifey and Ilija, i guess ;) had to go for 4 interviews before getting offered the OBS Instructor job. It was an interesting process, including a 3 day, two night endurance camp on Pulau Ubin. Those crazy days felt like a weird parallel of Survivor ;) All in all, it was a challenging experience.

Attachments came to an early end, supervisor agreed to release me, as my ol company needed help at the IT Exhibition at Suntec City from Wed till Sun. twas interestingly manic as usual, dabbled with the Microsoft product line again, the XBOX 360 launch this time, met old friends and long-lost loyal customers. Will slog till the 22nd, then pack, then it's off to Japan for two weeks for Sports Chanbara training, then back on the 6th, for wife's 2nd Degree Honours graduation ceremony on the 7th, then rest... then onward with me Outward Bound life.

Till my next update, have a great time, and keep smiling ;)

Plodding up Mt. Ophir

Jus got back with me missus and some friends, from a short weekend trekking trip to Mount Ophir ;) twas a nostalgic back to nature feeling, fresh air, cool weather, ahh... wat's life without the great outdoors! All in, our party of 7, consisted of me wife and I, Ilija from germany, Wilson the army regular, Chris, Qingzhu and his girlfren.

We'd set off on friday nite via railway to Segamat, Malaysia. Tis a great way to travel to malaysia really, though the airconditioning in the train car was a little too cold. As a tip, the train tickets are considerably cheap and hassle free, and is a viable alternative to coach or air fares. While shivering, we managed to catch our 40 winks in between hopping out at checkpoints, to stretch our frozen appendages.

Now the funny thing about weather forecasts is though they strive to be accurate, they rarely are. The trip was almost aborted on Thursday, due to the forecast for scattered thunderstorms throughout the entire weekend. Eventually, it hinged on Ilija's decision and the fact that this was his only opportunity to trek through a primary rainforest in these parts with us... and so, with hope and a quiet prayer, we went on with the expedition ;)

Hello hello...

Allo-bonjour-good'ay-howdy-ohaiyo-g'mornin folks! How's the going? Work? Life? Am finally on me final semester. Could it be the light at the end of the tunnel? I think not... there's still plenty of academic journeys calling out. Yes, as most of you who do know me, would say, I took the scenic route in education, and the bumpy road in life ;) but it made me the man I am today, appreciative and wiser, and if not for the many trials, most of us might never have met, and forged the ties that have sustained us to this day, eh? Meantime, hang loose, doodes and doodettes, c'ya around!

COMEX comes to an end...

its been a hectic weekend at Comex 2005, twas running a combi section for ATF and Microsoft (Ingram Micro)... bartered XBOXes, games, software, wireless desktops, and laser / optical mice, for brain cells, over 4 days, till I lost me voice ;) ...twas some feat indeed, gunning down unsuspecting hardcore singaporean bargain-hunters with techno-jargon and crazy-speak, till they handed over their hearts and their cash, eheheh... of course, it helps to speak heavily accented indian / french / brit / american / arab english, for even the most discerning shopper could not hold out against the carefully balanced, heady dose of verbal bombardment that all began with a seemingly unarming word, "yves, vell, basically..."

dragged wifey in tow this time ;) she was supposed to shadow me, but due to manpower shortage, she had to man the CD / DVD multimedia section, her first stint in tech-gadgetdry retail, but she was awesome... and thanks to her, I actually got mm-mmmingly great food to eat from the food fair... lil sis-in-law, HB, cut class to help out at the fair... she was assigned to assist with Xbox sales, and true to form, this protege of mine did well (except for the crazy part abt telling a pushy customer that the fair was over, "so noooo discount for yooou, understaaand?" )... she's almost ready for the service industry.

Meetin the honorable Shirai Sensei...

If there could be a word to summarise the experience, the word would be jolly kewl... Sensei has taught us much and shown us more, by example, what leading a life as a gentleman truly means ;) It's been inspiring, and the whole experience truly humbling...

Our club fared well at the 1st Singapore Sports Chanbara Tournament 2005... we all learnt a great deal and improved tremendously in the past week training under Shirai sensei. All in all, we've got lots to do to bring up the overall training standard in Singapore, if we are to compete in the international tournament in Japan, this year end.

There's a saying which states, "it reflects poorly to have both the weakest and strongest amongst one's ranks, for it shows an underlying lack of unison; for instead of flaunting superiority, the strong should assist the weak... for indeed does the true strength of an army lie in each of its members' fighting spirit."