Dugong in need of a holiday..

4th week of January - already in need of an extended break.....am so looking forward to the Chinese New Year break....visiting with family and frens, mahjong, goodies and more goodies..

Was watching the semi-finals of the ASEAN CHAMPIONSHIPs on the gym's TV on Tuesday...have to admit it did stir up some minor excitement in me while I was doing my shoulder presses...Malaysia 1 - Singapore 1.....not that I was surprised with the scoreline...but I'm really hoping Singapore makes it to the finals like last year, so we can re-live the Kallang ROAR for one last time before the National Stadium is torn down. I'm not sure who I'd rather have in the Finals facing Singapore...Thailand seems to be the more deserving team based on skill and overall performance but the PLAY-ACTING which that team dished out against Vietnam, it sure ranks way up there with some of the best we've seen each week in the English, Italian and Spanish leagues.

Oh well, whoever get's in, I'm 95% sure I'll be there in Kallang (hopefully I can get tickets)......would love to bring Terelle there to experience it.....this is how soccer should be watched....90+ minutes of live action, screaming fans all around with half-filled mouths of lukewarm currypuffs and keropok!!

DUGONG BACK HOME

Finally, after x2 16hours plane rides and 3 days of -2degrees weather, I'm back in 'real' sunny Singapore. It was by far the most mentally tiring and at-times, physically tiring business trip I have ever been on.

Cancelled flights due to bad weather, more cancelled flights due to airport closures, long hours walking around the airport terminals trying to get alternative flights, getting desperate enough to consider making 5hour long drives on ice-covered mountainous roads just to get to SAN ANTONIO. You name it, we thought about it.

Well, it all turned out well in the end...in fact very well. The entire meeting went on smoothly - and as I would have expected, you walk out of these annual kick-off meetings feeling totally recharged, energised and ready to conquer everything that stands in your way. Well, maybe it's just a handfull of us who feels that way, but what the heck. The best thing was to put faces to names of the great people you've been working with the past year over email and tele-conferences.

Thinking back, it was quite nice actually getting stuck in LA for over a day with the rest of my team. Like I said to them that morning, misery loves company. It would certainly have been different if we were stuck there alone but with 7 miserable souls in there together, it was quite nice spending the time cracking occasional silly jokes, passing each other pathetic looks and feeling sorry for one another.

Oh well, I'm back now in hot humid Singapore.....had wanted to just dash off the plane to get back into the heat but then i got sick of the heat after just an hour.

It's hot India next week, so there will be plenty of opportunities to bake.

Watch that Aerosol Spray!

After a tiring 15+ hour plane ride across the Pacific Ocean, we landed in sunny California......not....rather it was chilly 5degrees Los Angeles Airport which greeted us. What transpired after that was much much worse...we found out that all connecting flights to San Antonio has been cancelled for the day....due to the torrid weather out there this week...-2degrees and snowing. Total unpredictable weather for the state of Texas and hence the entire state is just not prepared for this kind of weather, unlike snow cities like Milwaukee or Chicago.

Airport's been closed and roads have also been closed.

That's the United Airlines counter we spent some hours trying to find us an alternate way into S.A

In the end, we even got our tickets changed from LA into Dallas (1am flight - 4 hours) and then from there we would attempt to drive into S.A which is another 5 hours drive. Madness but we were desperate. At the very end, after all the endless phone calls, we wound up cancelling all those elaborate plans and decided to put up in LA for the night. (Advice from above)
So off we trotted to the shuttle bus stop to take us to the nearby hotel, hoping the weather would clear up tomorrow, but in any case, we've got tickets into S.A on Thursday, but our flight out and home is on Friday evening - which makes me wonder why we're going to S.A in the first place. Sigh....it would still be nice to meet a couple of folks there.

That's some strange looking restaurant (I think) next to the LAX control tower. Nothing much to do during the "8 hours" we spent in the airport figuring out whats the best and smartest move.

Moral of the story, global warming is no joke...watch that aerosol spray....

"Land of the Free...and mega-size French Fries"

..I'm leaving....on a jetplane....don't know when I'll be back again (actually it's only 5 days)...

Will depart for the shores of the United States today....Texas to be exact....won't be seeing my two girls for the next couple of days...simply crushing to a man's spirit...

Here's a picture of me, with my freshly "lawned" scalp to help them think of me when I'm battling the cold in San Antonio!
Double Muakz!!

How Wonderful the GOD we have...

He has never failed to amaze me, with the wondrous ways He chooses to work. Just found out over the last 2 months, my mum has been attending church service every sunday and she's occasionally been able to coax my dad to go with her to visit the little church just outside their house.

Spent some time reflecting upon this fact yesterday and it occured to me that since I've been a Christian in Year 2000, it's been ingrained in me that I'm the first-generation Christian in the family and the salvation of my entire family falls upon my shoulder. I mean it makes perfect sense since I'm the only Christian in the family and it's up to me to spread the faith. Everyone knows the mechanics of that...but I guess the thing we've failed to realise is what God is trying to tell us right now...."Salvation is not up to us...it's always up to Him"....

The more I think about it, the more incredible this gets....it's been almost 7 years now that I've been a Christian...stagnant is probably the best word to desribe my spiritual life at this present moment...but yet, despite all that, God has miraculous led my parents to church...which was something I've never succeeded in the past (besides the rare occassions I've invited them to church to watch my drama and church musical). I've even been told by my mum that the fellow Christian brothers and sisters in that church are always so warm and welcoming towards my parents.

There really is no better way to usher in the new year, but to receive reaffirmation from God that He is in control in All ways and in everything. A timely reminder to me as well to go back to Church regularly and more important, renew and strengthen my relationship with Him. I feel so blessed to know that He's watching over my parents and my family. What a wondrous God we serve.....

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS 2007

Here's the full list of my resolutions - and the reason I'm publishing them here is so that I can be held accountable for it, when I review the list at the end of the year. Hence, my decision to keep the list short...kinda counter-productive to make a long list and end up not keeping them all.

1) Read at least 12 books => average of 1 per month
2) Run my first half-marathon (21 km)
3) Keep to my workout schedule (in order to meet resolution (2))
4) Pass my IPPT (yes......it's a sad fact but it's true)
5) Achieve my work-targets (too long to list them out here-but they are achievable)

Didn't take me too long to work out this list, but took me slightly longer to think up of more items to add to the list. At least I have 5 items which i'm 100% committed to achieve this year. Oh well, publish first...think later...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Here's wishing everyone a fantabulous NEW YEAR ahead and to get the ball-rolling, my first resolution this year (not that I do it every year) is to post at least one entry here in me blog every week....that will mean at least 52 entries in 2007 and if I complete all of that in January, I don't have to blog the rest of the months...nah...just kidding...

Stay tuned to see the rest of my resolutions.....