How many children??

During refreshment time dring recent staff confrence, some of the colleagues was happy for a female colleage who was expecting and discussing away on the topic on planning and having children. Some have more and some have less...so how many is ideal?

My answer to the question: "depending on your character really...depending you are an Octopus mum or a Sea turtle mum type."....and they look back at me with a look of "Huh??"

You see, I saw this "most extreme" episode in animal channel. The most extreme caring mum in the animal kingdom...the number 1 mum - is Octopus. The poor mum after laying the eggs, have to stay in the hatch yard and non-stop blowing water towards the eggs. This is to increase the water flow and make the oxygen available for the eggs to develop and hatch properly. The mum don't eat at all for weeks...and finally when the egg are ready to hatched, the poor octopus mum is exhausted and died. So now you know, the little octopus never get to see their mum...who sacrifise every bit of her energy to make sure the develop well.

Mind you octopus are not low IQ animal. they are extremely smart and can solve maze puzzle and adapt well of the size of containment. But when it comes to child bearing..they are extremely stubborn and don't even want to eat to take care of the eggs.

On the other hand, there is the sea turtle, who lay the eggs and let the sun / sand to hatch the eggs. Many of the young one dunt even survive their journey from beach to sea and were eaten by birds.

So my point is you have to ask yourself whay is your attitude towards upbringing of your children. Are you an Octopus or you are more carefree??

I see from my children class that there are mums who travel all round S'pore just to send their child to a good tuition teacher, and many quit jobs and learn / study / coach their child.

Some willing to hire maids to let them take care of thier child...some would never.

I think only you are aware of your own attitude then you are ready to decide how many children you will plan to have. my wife is more towards a octopus...me more towards a sea turtle type...so we average out to have 2 children. :)

you??

There goes my new Nokia N80

I have always carry my mobile with me whenever I travel through the years. This recent trip GT2009, is my first time to check in the mobile into my lugguage...and look what happen to it. When i took out the phone from the side pouch, I almost could not recognise it was my mobile previously.

Screen smudged in the majority of central part, paint at the surface looks like they are attack by acid...really beyond my imagination of what can happen to a mobile. 惨不忍睹。

scretching my head hard on how this can happen...finally I figure out 1 possible theory is that there could be depressurisation in the lugguage area, causing my sun block spray to leak...then the chemical / solvent of the sun block spray corroded the paint and screen LCD.

so there goes my new (4 month old) phile...have to wait for another 20 months to get a new ones from singtel...also my 1st time a mobile did not last with me through its contract period.

So no choice have to buy a cheapo mobile just to tie over the next 20 months...no frills and limited functions but that suits my usage of mobile anyway....major headache is to re-key inmany of the students contact into the phone again.

So if I ask u who are u when u sms me, u should know somehow I have either lost your contact or still in the slow process of keying the numbers. be patient please. :)

GT2009 Batch 2 Version 2

Dear all, just arrived safely and exhausted at 11pm last night. GT2009 Krabi is really eventful and I personally enjoyed it to the fullest. Below are my recollection, but I will tend to tell more about our different experience compared to the 1st batch:

Day 1 : arrived at phuket custom and took us about 2o mins to clear (compared to 2 + hours?? in 1st batch). So no one is hungry and eat my bak kua bought. :(

It was drizzing on our way to Krabi, so we did not stop at the bridge, we go PangaBay resort to have dinner instead. Quite a smooth ride into Krabi after that. Received good news and bad news along thw way...Bad news 1st : Man Utd lost and good news is I won some prize in DnD :)

Day 2 : We went for ATV (All terrain vehicle) 1st, after 1 round in the farm yard...2 overturn vehicles (1 pinned down and 1 fly off), 2 lost control and crash into the side drain, and 1 non-stop screaming girl who has sore throat the next day.


Then we rush for the River rafting. Maybe I should say Mass rafting. There are like 30 raft about to go when we arrive and the saftey instructions are anyhow say and off we go!! In our raft we dun even have a paddle!!! The 2 guides in the raft do all the hardwork and we just sit back and enjoy the ride and splash water at each other for fun.

I still like the Bali experience abit more cos we are moreinvolved and more exclusive in the jungle...this one is really too many rafts along the way to enjoy the ride.

After that we decided to skip the elephant show and go for the hot spring pool instead. It turn out to be a very wise choice. it was abit drizzling and all of us enjoyed soaking in the various pools and playing in the main stream.




Went for another hot spring also...tempertaure is even higher, and we can only dare to soak our legs into the pool.

Evening time we shop at and eat Krabi town. Then on our way back to hotel...stop at the beach market and hunt for the waterproof pouch...finally found that store and we bought 10 pouches altogether!!

Then we gather in the room to play cards and drink coke / baileys till all bottles are empty.

Day 3 is the island hopping trip. we brought 9 loafs of bread with us and spent 1.5 hours snorkling at 2 different sites. Kabir went crazy seeing so many fishes around him. We use the bread as weapons, throwing them at each other, cos the fishes will then attack the bread and in turn bit us by mistake at times.





Weather is not too not, rather downcast instead so we do not have much sunburnt. We also chase the swamp of tiny fishes in Phiphi island / feed the monkeys+ eat water melon at monkey island and walked the shllow passage at low tide too.




Evening time sine it was drizzling abit so we skip the sunset watch and rush to hotel for our badly needed shower. Dinner is in the beach zhi-cha stall. Then we all go crazy about t shirt shopping...bought at least 8-10 each for the girls and I bought 6 jerseys and 2 t shirts for the whole family. Also bought mango sticky rice...which we all tried very hard to finish teh whole thing by playing ZZMM.


Day 3 is totally redesign from last group. We went Para-sailings on the beach 1st, then to Go-karting, then to shooting range for live rifle shooting, then for the local Hokkian mee with baileys. (the guide Naring are now hooked with baileys now i think).


After check out, we headed for teh Karon Viewpoint, still have time for 2 hour massage (shopping in town for those still have energy). Finally b4 reaching the airport, we still manage to squeezt time to visit the local market nearby for mango shopping.


I really enjoyed this trip myself...hope the est of the 8 members feel the same way too!!

GT 2009 Krabi

It was tuesday evening midnight and I noticed that SH log onto her MSN...and I knew the Krabi GT2009 group has touchdown and returned home.

Then received a sms from Christof saying they are back safely and really enjoyed the great trip.

The next day started to see many many pictures / videos being uploaded in facebook. All happy faces / comments...shiokness...so I guess GT 2009 to krabi for the 29 stududents / staff is a success.

then for the last 2 days started talking to them, some on the phone / MSN too...to gather more tips / reminders / funny stories along the trip.

Tips: - 1st night arrival is late...custom is slow so will be hungry!! Action : bough Bak Kua along with me already!!

Tips : Snorkeling V V shiok but too short, 15 mins only. Action : withh try to extend for min 45 mins and get plaent plenty of bread for the hungry fishes!!

Tips : There is a transparent zip-log bag available - BUY IT!! and can bring camera into teh sea n take videos/photos when snorkling!!! Action : NOTED!! will buy on 2nd evening!!

Tips: Last day activities abit boring - just shopping..Action: will check w local guide..maybe can go Go-cart / more beach activities !!!

Funny stories - PP got a blueblack eye when rafting...dun believe me look closer into her during DND.

Funny stories - the Ah-Kua all swaming round Christof and all ignore edgar in the street....hahahha he sure wish he bring along whitening cream to patong beach.

Funny stories - Student M like thailand so much that he throw away his boarding pass in phuket airport...almost not coming home. Too bad PL force him to back track to look for his pass.

Can't wait to embark on the journey myself tomolo. While I am going through hopefully the improved version of GT2009 part 2, pls if you can tell me / us more stories / feeling on yout graduation tour. I have plan it for soooo long and it is indeed very fullfilling to hear that all of you enjoyed the trip so much.

Hope that when I am back next wed...the comments area are swell w yout funny stories....hahahahah, then i can tell your jouniors next year.

Mind map assignment

It's semester break and it's rather quiet in the office, so it's the perfect chance to spend these 1-2 days to do some mind maps as assignment. Need to do at least 10-15 manual ones instead of the computer version so might as well get started with it.

Updated the 2 CL3361 mindmaps, there are quite afew mistakes in the old version, where I have not been following the proper mapping rules. Now after re-doing, they are closer to more acceptable level.

Spent a couple of hours on this chinese mindmap on 金庸小说。 Always wanted to do this for a long long time but only until now I have the leisure time to enjoy and engross 2 hours of my time with the writing and abit of drawing. Still can remember 80% of the content off hand...not bad considered I last reading was years ago.

Yes what's said it's true...drawing actually makes you concentrate yet relax and I didn't yawn even once from 3-5pm without help of coffee...which really is a miracle.

Hopefully I will get 8 done by end of wednesday....Then that leaves only the videoing of lesson for my very very last part of assignment. :)

Trading Cards

I was once engaged in the collection of trading cards about 12 years ago, while I was still working in OUB centre. At that time the only type of football cards available in the market was Man United own trading cards. That was the era of Cantona / Schimichael / Beckham / Giggs / Keane.

The whole series not only consist of the current squad, but also the reserves/promising youth players. Inaddition, there was awhole section of United Legend like Best, Law and Charlton and many more. I followed for 2 seasons and then stopped when I was posted to China.

Back then there is no such thing as the internet and the card collecting / trading community in S'pore was not well published and communicated.

12 yrs later...and my son is towards 12...he ticked me off about the new trading cards available on the EPL. It was called match Attax and it features all 18 teams from the EPL. It started last year and grow stronger this season. So i spend a initial lump sum to purchase the cards from 7-11, then stared to look in the web for sites / people who do trading / selling of individual cards that I miss.

After 2 months, I think I now finally have a collection of 98% of the cards published. I still do not have the primiership trophy card / Sign Fabregas signed card / and afew special edition cards which features not so famous / skilled players yet command a high price.

I also bought the last season Man Utd full set of cards for collection sake.

Also created in the gift folder on BEST Premiership selection this season.

Think my son also enjoy seeing the selection grow thicker week by week and arrival of some of the rare cards in the mailbox. (Of course he has no idea the $$ I fork out to secure the cards).

Soon will be the release of the EXTRAS - cos in Jan players swtich club and there will be updates and new printed cards. Smart way to get more $$ from the collectors. There are collectors who spend thousands on the cards and arrange and resell he individual cards to many other samller time collector like students to earn a decent profit out of it. If I am retrenched I may consider doing that too....hahahahahah.