Dept Dinner @ 10.10.08

Erm...sorry for the long delay in between posts....Jus lazy :p

In any case, our engineering department organized a looooong overdue gathering, in part to celebrate Hari Raya for our Muslim colleagues, and also well, just a gathering. Its too bad some of our colleagues could not come, because at the last minute it was decided the company would pay for it! LOL. Tooooooooooooooo bad....wahahahaha

Anyway enough of my rambling, here are some pics. Forgive the standard of the photography...blame the admin girls and our resident professional draftsman for that...not so pro with a camera apparently. HAHA... *joking

This is our resident draftsman apparently too hungry to think properly.

Nurazman, Project Engineer, and his "mysterious" friend...hmm

Lannie, admin extraordinaire, and her sweet other half....erm, who's the third party?!?!

Ahh...its valli and her sweet other half...LOL. Another admin extraordinaire...hee

Erm...me and the wife :p. And Jeffrey trying to siam out of the way unsuccessfully

The super electric man trying hard not to electrocute our poor draftsman

Too busy for the camera...apparently. HAHA

Ahh...now he noticed...heee...Our resident naval architect from Myanmar, AUNG! <3 cheers<

Its Josef Stalin! Err..Francis I mean...hee, draftsman and Chew MF from M'sia....international community we have huh?

And no, Stalin is not Russian.

Chew rushing off for his 30th round...haha

Serious discussion on .... dunno what

A group photo from the friendly waiter...

Where we ate...in case that;s still a mystery.

Everyone busy tucking in to the delicious food...ignoring the camera.

The two sweetie pies

A moment together for the two lovebirds

Chew and his two partners-in-crime

Lannie smiling for the camera while her bf looks at other girls....:p

Chilling out after dinner....I'm not there cos I'm still pigging out....wahahhahaha Oops.

Bowling was on the schedule after dinner, checkout the pics below, unfortunately wifey couldn play cos Asher is in the way...haha.

Awaiting the start eagerly....

Our local champion extraordinaire trying out some new moves...

Picking their weapon of choice...

The contender from the Phillipines making his move...

Now the malaysian one.

and apparently the pins are still standing. Was there glue on them?

Our representative from India!

Valli cheering wildy after watching her ball strike something at last

Choosing from the weapon tray...

Watching the world go past.....lalalalala....and the pins go standing on......

Our man from Myanmar making his move

wow...real flexibility there

BT with the 15-pounder. No I do not mean our ED.

Our dictator from India called stalin patiently waiting his turn to execute somebody...err I mean pins.

the pretty girl waiting her turn...and posing while she's at it.

Nurazman having a good laugh at someone...while Hasan checks out for his weapon

Discussing tactics now...

More photos of Lannie and Valli. LOL

Valli strangling Satesh. Err...I mean hugging. Heee

Hi My name is Ngoh. Jeffrey R. Ngoh. The R's for fun.

Me giving some tips to Siva on how to fire the cannon.

Well, overall it was a pretty fun outing.

Another one should be organized soon, and this should build up camaraderie nicely. After all, with no weapons to shoot with, only an unbreakable wall will do, right?

Next up, the other gathering I been meaning to write about but just too lazy to do about.

LOL

Till later.

Cheers

Winfield

Update

I think KK is a pig, judging by the way he eats and charges everything to the client.

I must be careful the next time I find a marine warranty surveyor.

LOL.

If I ever need one, that is.

WAHAHAHAHAHA

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On other things, Monday today seemed...normal.

Yes, pretty normal, given the things everything are now.

So, not really much to update. LOL.

Anyway, I met up with my long time friend over the weekend, and he was basically ranting at me about his family, his bro, his relatives, blah blah blah. Maybe it was the 2 rounds of star wars: the clone wars cartoon I watched with him, but this just popped up during our discussion (correction: his ranting).

LOL.

Yoda (sorry, I just love the little green alien who talks backwards) once said;

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. And Hate....leads to suffering."

Or in another part of the cartoon, fear was replaced by envy.

So....what's the dark side like anyway?

LOL.

It must be pretty enjoyable.

Just like the devil says, you get the stadium, you get the audience, you get the kit, you get everything. (<-- Listen to Hotel California by The Eagles if you don't get this one)

Except the ball.

Wahahahhahahahahaha.

So why do people envy?

Because they fear?

Or is it the other way around?

Or ... whatever.

So if you hate someone, does it mean you fear that person?

Or vice versa, if you fear that person, do you hate that person?

I guess so, judging by the logic of Yoda.

Well, life's short enough already, as I was telling my bro.

Forgive and forget, because you never know when you want that person's help in return.

Life goes round in a big circle. Sometimes so big, people don't realize it.

Jeez

Anyway, that ended well. Ravi has "seen the light".

Hopefully.

Tata for now.

Back from the dead...

Hello Everyone.

Christ, I sound cheesy.

Haha.

Well, just some updates, to whomever's interested...I presume nobody.

In any case, here we go.

Let's start from the most recent, i.e: Today. Because, frankly, that's all I can remember right now...unless I start looking into my photo storage...<rumbles>

Ok, so today was a rainy day. It was wet, and it was cold.

But then again, you do not click this link to read about me talking about the damn weather, or do you? LOL.

So, basically this week wasn't much in the office...missed the DP-1 trial for a project vessel I was handling, shucks...been waiting 2 years for that. Guess its on the next boat. On the other hand, I got to attend the bollard pull trial after they had time to spool the wire rope overnight. She was excellent in performance, pulling at one point up to 8 tons past her maximum rated pull, and achieving her rated pull at only 90% engine power.

For the uninitiated, a bollard pull trial means the vessel hooks her rope to a fixed bollard (or a concrete post) together with a dynamometer and measure the maximum pull in tonnes using her maximum power.

See this video here:

That was this week...or rather, what has passed so far.

Last week, we had this idea to go to Leisure Mall in Kallang to go take a walk...so wifey called her mom and she jumped at the idea. Grandma was dragged along as well, so it was really cool. Haha...coincidentally, the mall was having their official opening party, so it was a little more crowded than usual. For lunch, we went to Huang Jia Restaurant, which came highly recommended by KK, and so it was.

His recommendations rarely go wrong, and that was surely the case here. Check out the pics!

Hover your mouse over the pics for my short and sweet comments. LOL

Cheers for now...

Oh, btw, we got our anniversary presents, a new pair of wedding bands...I can foresee now in 20 years, I'll probably have 20 rings on me fingers....wow.

LOL.

Tata.

More later...when I sort out me photos from the phone.

Malaysia Boleh! Or is it......?

A frank discourse by a bumiputra of Malaysia .

LEE KUAN YEW : AT 85, THE FIRE STILL BURNS - BY AHMAD MUSTAPHA.

The writer is a nephew of Dr Mahathir. Excellent one! By Ahmad Mustapha.

Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore 's founding father, has always been very direct in his comments. This was the man who outsmarted the communists in Singapore (with the innocent help of Malaya then and the willing help of the British) and who later outwitted the British and outpaced Malaysia in all spheres.

Singapore practices corrupt-free meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one of the most unwieldy cabinets. Not only that, brain wise it was below par not even good for the kampong. With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore, with no natural resources could outstrip Malaysia in every aspect of development. Malaysia , on the other hand, was too much

preoccupied with its Malayness and the illusory 'Ketuanan Melayu' and was also more interested in useless mega iconic development rather than real social and economic development. 

Whenever Kuan Yew utters anything that deemed to be a slight on Malaysia , voices were raised admonishing him. Malaysia would never dare to face reality. That Singapore had shown that it could survive was a slap on those who believed that Singapore would fold up once it left Malaysia . Therefore, it was natural that these doomsayers would try to rationalise their utterances to be in their favour to combat on whatever Kuan Yew commented. Its political jealousy. Singapore achieved its development status without any fanfare. But here in Malaysia , a development that was deceptive was proclaimed as having achieved development status. It was trumpeted as an

achievement that befits first world status. This was self delusion. Malaysians are led to believe into a make believe world, a dream world. The leaders who themselves tend to believe in their own fabricated world did not realise the people were not taken in by this kind of illusion. 

Lee Kuan Yew believed in calling a spade a spade. I was there in Singapore when the People's Action Party won the elections in 1959. He was forthright in his briefing to party members as to what was expected of them and what Singapore would face in the future. Ideologically, I did not agree with him. We in the University of Malaya Socialist Club had a different interpretation of socialist reconstruction. But he was a pragmatist and wanted to bring development and welfare to the Singaporeans. Well! He succeeded.

  

Malaysia was so much embroiled in racial politics and due to the fear of losing political power, all actions taken by the main party in power was never targeted towards bringing wealth to all Wealth was distributed to the chosen few only. They were the cronies and the backers of the party leadership to perpetuate their own selfish ends. Seeing the efficiency and the progress achieved by Singapore caused the Malaysian leadership to suffer from an inferiority complex. That Malaysia should suffer from this complex was of its own making.

In a recent interview, Kuan Yew said that Malaysia could have done better if only it treated its minority Chinese and Indian population fairly. Instead they were completely marginalised and many of the best brains left the country in drove. He added that Singapore was a standing indictment to what Malaysia could have done differently. He just hit the nail right there on the head Malaysia recently celebrated its 50th year of independence with a bagful of uncertainties. The racial divide has become more acute. The number of Malay graduates unemployed is on

the increase. And this aspect can be very explosive. But sad to see that no positive actions have been taken to address these social ills.

Various excuses were given by Malaysian leaders why Singapore had far outstripped Malaysia in all aspects of social and economic advancement. Singapore was small, they rationalised and therefore easy to manage. Singapore was not a state but merely an island.

There was one other aspect that Malaysia practises and that is to politicise all aspects of life. All government organs and machinery were 'UMNO-ised'. This was to ensure that the party will remain in power. Thus there was this misconception by the instruments of government as to what national interest is and what UMNO vested interest is. UMNO vested interest only benefited a few and not the whole nation. But due to the UMNO-isation of the various

instruments of government, the country under the present administration had equated UMNO vested interest as being that of national interest. Thus development became an avenue of making money and not for the benefit of the people. The fight against corruption took a back seat. Transparency was put on hold. And the instruments of government took it to be of national interest to cater to the vested interest of UMNO. Enforcement of various enactments and laws was selective. Thus a 'palace' in Kelang, APs cronies and close-one-eye umno MPs could exist without proper procedure. Corruption infested all govt departments, the worse is the police and lately even in the judiciary.

Singapore did not politicise its instruments of government. If ever politicisation took place, it is guided by national interest. To be efficient and to be the best in the region was of paramount importance. Thus all the elements like corruption, lackadaisical attitude towards work and other black elements, which would retard such an aim, were eliminated.

Singapore naturally had placed the right priority in it's pursuit to achieve what is best for its people. This is the major difference between these two independent countries. Malaysia in its various attempts to cover up its failures embarked on several diversions. It wanted its citizens to be proud that the country had the tallest twin-tower in the world, although the structure

was designed and built by foreigners. Its now a white-elephant wasting away. It achieved in sending a man into space at an exorbitant price. For what purpose? These are what the Malays of old would say 'menang sorak' (hollow victories).

It should be realised that administering a country can be likened to managing a corporate entity. If the management is efficient and dedicated and know what they are doing, the company will prosper. The reverse will be if the management is poor and bad. The company will go bust. 

There are five countries around this region. There is Malaysia , and then Indonesia . To the east there is the Philippines and then there is that small enclave called the Sultanate of Brunei. All these four countries have abundance of natural resources but none can lay claim to have used all these resources to benefit the people. Poverty was rampant and independence had not brought in any significant benefits to the people. But tiny Singapore without any resources at all managed to bring development to its citizens. It had one of the best public MRT transport systems and airlines in the world and it is a very clean city state. Their universities, health care, ports are among the best in the world.

It is impossible to compare what Singapore has achieved to what all these four countries had so far achieved. It was actually poor management and corruption, and nothing more. Everything is done for the vested interest of the few.

Malaysia , Indonesia and the Philippines and the Sultanate of Brunei need good management teams. They would not be able to do this on their own steam. I would advise that they call on Kuan Yew to show them what good governance is. Why look East to Japan when it is just next door across the causeway?

Interesting, ain't it?

Cheers

Update...about bloody time now ain't it!

I've been meaning to blog lately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm serious.

Ok, I guess this scroll down to see the answer trick is getting real lame.

Promise this time is the last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did say it was the last.

Haha

Anyways, pending the lack of photos, I cant really describe anything. Words can't really say much you know, especially when it comes to food. haha.

Oh, before that...Wifey did pamper me with an early anniversary present...

More about that another time....

And.....................................thats the end.

 

Haha

 

tata

Holiday Photos

Ya know, I just realized that I havent actually done anything about my holiday photos that I took in Europe...haha...

Then again, when you're talking about 20GB and literally thoussands of photos, I think I have a fair excuse for tardiness...

Hehe

Cheers