QRA International website
Friday, October 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
7 Oct 2009 ; D Day ; PSLE first major exam for Junior
Andrew taking a rest
The day of reckoning has come, where my son Andrew will be taking the Primary School Leaving Examination or PSLE for short this morning. Although he is pretty confident of himself, having undergone literally thousands of hours of practice, studying and tuition for all 4 subjects, English, Math,Science and Chinese (Mother Tongue), I am nervous for him.
Like General Dwight Eisenhower, who was tormented on what day to activate the largest airborne, seaborne and landborne attack onto the shores of Normady, after the decision was made for 6th June 1944, all he could was sit tight, wait .. and pray for the optimum outcome. Of course, a major exam is in no way as stressful as what Eisenhower felt, as his decision meant that literally thousands and ultimately millions of soldiers would fight, die and be injured critically for the rest of their lives so that humanity and the future generations of people in more than 10 countries would have freedom to their own self - rule. I had, as the concerned father, run through the textbooks (what do I know now, after 30 + years of leaving Secondary school ?) and given my little input and discipline to junior as and when he slackened on the pace and got distracted. I had also to play friend,confidante, exercise buddy - we went for runs and cycles together and most importantly, motivator to reward him with sweets,drinks and snack food whenever he finished a test paper or had a long 4 - 6 hour tuition session.
The Caltex petrol station opposite our house has become a meeting point, or 'club' of sorts for the friends who hang out after the tuition is over to have a soft drink and snack (Old Chang Kee curry puff or fried sotong which my wife strongly disapproves of as it is deep fried and the vegetable oil is reused again and again). His pals, Aaaron, Glenn, Ava and Yi Fen will in the future years, look back to these days with fondness.
Andrew has been a very diligent, and since he has been under the tutelage of a Mrs. Florence Lim who is a tuition specialist for the last 3 years, his grades have been improving. It is impossible to compare the lives of myself and my peers who lived their primary school days in the 70s and now, as it is as different as living on earth and a living in a space station.
To put things in perspective, Andrew has posted reasonable grades, scoring As and Bs for most of his subjects in this year and including the preliminaries, its just that the points system award to students for their perfomance is based on the National Average of Singapore and one can score say 78 marks for Math and be graded with a 'B' because the paper was an easy one and everybody scored around 75, so the examiners draw up a normal distribution curve and rank the grades accordingly.He has been reminded time and again not to rush through each paper, read the questions properly, circle the ones he is not sure of and move on to the next question and come back to redo the difficult question after he has finished the paper. All this is well and good in theory. How is mood is for taking the exam and whether he will find the 'flow' is another totally different matter.
My other son, Noel is in Secondary 3 and he also has been burning the midnight oil this past 2 weeks. He is taking his final exams these 2 weeks and though they are not as major as the PSLE, this exam for Noel provides the foundation for his GCE 'O" Levels which are targetted for next year 2010. He has to prepare for 9 papers over 2 weeks.
After all that is said and done, and now the first of 4 'battles' over the next 7 days begins, I can only sit, wait and pray for a satisfactory outcome. Good Luck Andrew and Noel !
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
F1 Singapore 26-27 Sept 2009
Jensen Button's Brawn car ; taken using the Canon EOS 500
The world's most watched human circus came to Singapore last weekend,25th - 27th September. The F1 is the brainchild of Bernie Eccelstone and the various teams from mainly European car makers, spend hundreds of millions of EUROs to participate in it. Red Bull, Braun (formerly Honda), Philips,Force India are the non car manufacturing teams while the traditional top names are Maclaren Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Renault (they are going to be banned for 2 years for Crashgate last year) and Toyota are the more established car marques. The recent financial crisis led to Honda pulling out of the F1 this year and some famous names in the banking world like AIG and RBS are also pulling out for various reasons.
AIG pulled out of Renault because of the Crashgate incident last year when Nelson Piquet Jr., purposely crashed under no pressure in Singapore, enabling his team-mate Fernando Alonso to win the GP. After 1 year of investigation, they found that Nelson was acting under instructions from the team boss, Flavio Briatore and Manager Pat Symonds. Both were subsequentlly barred,Flavio for life in the sport and Symonds for 2 years. RBS pulled out mainly due to the Financial Crisis which engulfed most Western banks with toxic assets.
The F1 is typically the pinnacle in car performance and the drivers have to be subjected to many Gs (acceleration due to gravity) - similar to what fighter pilots experience - in their quest to finish on the podium or top 3. I am not a fan, but I am slowly developing an interest what with the many scandals, in and out of the circuit,with their twists and turns, crashes and clashes of egos, make the most thrilling bestseller novel seem like a boring textbook.
Friends from Germany, Meike and Florian came specially for the races
My friends from Germany, Meike Pucher and her boyfriend, Florian flew all the way to Asia to watch the F1 and after the race, managed to watch a live performance by the Backstreet Boys. The F1 Singapore management, I must add, did a tremendous job in arranging ample seating and viewing for the 80,000 foriegn fans and probably 200,000 local fans. The international acts came from top headliners like Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt, Jacky Cheung, Pussycat Dolls, Damage, Backstreet Boys, among many others.
Lewis Hamilton's Maclaren Mercedes racing to Pole Position
To get a taste of the sound, imagine a fighter jet flying about 100 feet about you.It is a high pithced whining sound which, if without earplugs, can cause serious auditory damage to your hearing. That is how loud the sound is ! I booked 4 tickets at the Singapore Cricket Club on Saturday 26th Sept. and they had a very nice corner where the cars all sped past, and it was great for photo taking. The band at the Bar was in full flight when we got there, and belting out rock and roll numbers loud enough to drown out the cars. As a new member of the Cricket Club, I was quite taken by the fact that the expatriates really know how to enjoy the races and have a jolly time with alcohol acting as a barrier breaking salve for the stressed executives and expatriates working here. By the 3rd glass of beer, most of us at the bar were watching the proceedings from the large screen with the close -ups shots at every turn, driver's helmet and of course the crashes.
Red Bull in Full Flight
So, as the only night race for the moment, Singapore is attracting the world's sports fans for the next 2 years. We will be hosting the inaugaral Youth Olympics in 2010, so we might see the next Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt in Singapore soon. I look forward to that opportunity.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Parasites - We can do without them
The Predator Hunter
In the animal kingdom there are the predators, the prey and the producers. Let me elaborate, the producers are the naturally occuring tress, plants, grasses and ferns in our ecosystem which produce the basic food from the Sun, carbon dioxide and water. The very act of photosynthesis to produce oxygen for all other living things survival is already a tremendous miracle in itself. The Sun provides the basic building blocks of energy - heat and the trees and plants take it from there on. So they produce food for themselves, flowers and fruits for reproduction and invertedly also food other insects and animals.
So the food chain begins, insects take the nectar or birds and other animals eat the fruit or the leaves. Larger animals eat the smaller insects and animals until at the top of the food chain is the predator, normally a carnivore like the lion, tiger or eagle.So Man has been very successful in tapping on the basic food chain and making themselves the kings ot the food chain.
Then there are the unwanted creatues, for some reason, still around after many milleniums, the scavengers and the parasites. I can think of the use of the scavengers when the rotting carcass of the dead animal is left in the African savanna, many many vultures and hyenas attack it for their source of food. And the unseen microorganisms of flesh eating bacteria which ultimately make the dead carcass into nothing more than some dried bones.
The worst are the parasites, they pretend to be symbiotic on the larger animals bodies like the leech, the flatworm and the hookworm draining the host human of essential food and nutrients and ultimately drawing so much nutrient that the human either takes painful medicine to kill the parasite or dies from the parasite although that would be bad for the parasite as it would lose its hosts nutrients and ultimately need to find another host or die a natural death.
So it is with our human relationships with our family, friends and acquantences. Do you know who you are in the socio-economic food chain. Are you a producer, predator, prey, scavenger or worst of all parasite ?? Some elaboration :
a) Predator - Similar to the hunter, where the person hunts and seeks out business or money from either ventures or companies, equities, assets,properties and from these, will be able to make a living, sometimes very good living out of his predatory skills.
The ever dependable Tree or Producer
b) Producer - Similar to a farmer, whereby he or she is working in a company, or is managing a family fulltime, such as a homemaker. He or she works in improving his career,buys long term security like insurance and is viewed as an asset to his or her company for his work experience and skillsets and views.
c) Prey - These are the customers of predators, they can be small business owners, on the one hand either selling out their businesses, or making profits for the predators. They can feed on smaller prey ie. buying or merging with similar or smaller sized companies and developing into a larger entity.
The prey can also feed on the producers so the prey-producer is the typical small business man and housewife
combination where the prey brings back the small money (catches from his business deals) and the producer grows that throught long term assets purchase and for the next generation. Periodically the prey will rely on the producer for food, ie. when his business is near failure or needing cashflow to fund it.
Hyenas and Vultures - Scavengers
d) Scavenger - These troll around looking for gems in the garbage, so they make off after the predator has made his meal, ie. when the big business deal has been sealed and there are many small deals which need tying up. A subcontractor comes to mind. Sometimes small business owners fall into that category.
Bloody Leeches - Parasites !
e) Parasite - These are the worst kind. These people feed on the kindness of the producer, prey, predator and practically anything. They are called the 'hangers on' who ask for free meals and think that the cushy jobs are owed to them. They have a deluded sense of self-worth and end up a) making the most noise without producing anything worthwhile or b) stay quiet and suck the goodwill and money out of the kind host.
The world would be a better place without the parasites, but they seem to be a resilient lot.
Reflect a little today, which ones are you ?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Patrick Swayze - Farewell
One of the action and romance actors of the 80s and early 90s, Patrick Swayze passed away on Monday 14th September. He was 57, an age where most people are beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labour and retire and hopefully live for another 25 to 30 years. Given modern day healthcare advancement and life expectancy,living till over 80 and even 90 years of age is possible and probable if one takes care of one's health,eating right and exercising regularly. Unfortunately for diseases like pancreatic cancer and leukaemia, the survival rate beyond 5 years upon late stage detection is still quite low.
Point Break
According to newspaper reports,Patrick had discovered that he had late stage pancreatic cancer in January 2008 and sought aggressive treatment to counter in. He once commented that even drinking water had a feeling of 'acid dropping into your gullet' to describe the pain and discomfort.
The one film which defined the genre of action films in my mind was Point Break where he played the bad guy Bodhi. Bodhi and his gang of surfer dudes lived by the beach and enjoyed a debaucherous lifestyle of parties, sex and alcohol. There was no need for drugs because they always got an adrenalin 'high' from surfing and skydiving - and robbing banks during the off season when there were no strong winds, normally in autumn.
To supplement their income, they robbed banks, using masks form the past American Presidents, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Ford. Their motto early in the film was to steal just enough to finance their surfing lifestyle and when the winter came, they would all take a break and work day jobs.So they timed their heists to under 60 seconds, taking only what was at the tellers' booths and not bothering to break into the vault where the big money was as it would compromise their getaway.
In comes Johnny Utah, the top rookie from FBI put on the case to catch these part-time bank robbers and played by Keanu Reeves, it was a case of one-upmanship against each, Johnny the new guy tried to infiltrate the gang and in the process win the heart of Bodhi's girl and then finally join in the gang for their robberies. So their are skydiving antics, surfing competitions, beach football - all Brokeback mountain stuff where male bonding and macho ideals are displayed.
Bodhi found out Johnny was an FBI agent and the kidnapped his girl and forced Johnny to join in on one of their heists, it went horribly wrong from there. They had 2 gang members killed in the heist and during the getaway, Johnny's police mate was killed. Bodhi managed to escape into the desert.
The ending of this film was a classic in my opinion, where, Johnny chased him all the way to Indonesia - 2 years later where Bodhi was waiting for the 'once in 50 years wave'.It was a massive typhoon and everyone was running away from the beach to safety, for their lives. Only 1 guy - Bodhi - was going in the opposite direction. Johnny followed him.
Too Wong Foo
They fought on the beach, and Johnny Utah handcuffed Bodhi. Bodhi finally convinced Utah to let him go to attempt the Ultimate Wave, a 200 foot monster. He told Johnny "thanks" and surfed into the wave. He did not want to die in an enclosed place like the prison where he would get 20 years at least, preferring to kill himself attempting the ultimate challenge and adrenalin rush.
" Get him when he comes back " Another cop told Johnny
"He ain't coming back" - Johnny Utah.
Bodhi swam towards the Big One and killed himself with the wave.
What a way to go.
Thats how I will remember Bodhi aka Patrick Swaze.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
My New Ride
My New Ride
As requested by Kannan, here is my new 'ride' (don't really know all these American slangs,I guess it means my car). So tounge-in-cheek, here it is. I bought it 2nd hand from this Michael Shoe something. He claims he was injured during motorcycling and was heartbroken when he couldn't drive it at 300kmh here - the speed limit in Singapore is 90km, well sometimes you can cheat and do 110 km but after than "No panchan". The cops or Uncle Sam will give you and ticket and a greeting "Have a Nice Day !".
The car comes with it the entire crew of Italians from Felari and I cannot leave my house until they change the tyres, and the Lollipop Man raises his er, Lollipop. Apparently he was on vacation last year at Singapore's F1 and Felari had a whole bunch of problems.
As Requested by Kannan
The KERS is a pain in the butt, I don't know about all these gizmos. The steering wheel you must disconnect - I live in a bad neighbourhood so must keep it in the house and fix it in only when I use it. Oh, its a tight squeeze in the driver's compartment and I am still figuring out how to send the wife to work. The Boys love it and you should see the looks I get when I drive it to the supermarket !
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
My visit to Molineux (20 years ago)
Me outside Wolves home ground Molineux
In June 1987 I went on a tour to Europe, I was considered lucky because at that time, who had any money to spend without having worked a day in his / her life ? Thanks to my supportive parents,they paid the then princely sum of S$ 2,500 for an all expenses paid trip of 28 days in Europe on a Tracks tour group. To cut a long story short, the visit to England was the last leg of it and by that time - 28 days into the tour, I had made many firm friends, who are all lawyers by the way.
My group of 5, 4 guys and a girl, extended our visit for another 1 week in England, and I suggested that we visit Molineux as well as Old Trafford and Everton (yes Kannan, I went to Merseyside too). The visits to the grounds on a typical Saturday were a complete eye-opener and changed my perception of English football forever.
Molineux, the stadium of Wolverhampton Wanderers is located in the city center of Wolverhampton. The city is in my opinion, one of the greyest and ugliest I had seen in my life what with the poverty and poor town planning. The factories and commerce which had been the bedrock of English industry in the Midlands had left maybe in the 70s and what was left was a grey and crumbling city. There were plenty of migrant people of Indian, Sikh, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and one would not be faulted if he or she thought that they had stepped into an Indian city.
This is in the 80s ; before even more migration from the former colonies set in. I cannot imagine how it is like 22 years later.
Ki Keong says, "come on support Wolves !"
However, Molineux was new then and we went in by the side entrance and managed to get ourselves onto the pitch. We had a great time pretending to be players and running around and kicking and basically having a great time. It was a pity Wolves were playing 'away' that week else I might have had a chance to watch them.
Clockwise top left, Peter Chow, Chong Ki Keong, Simon Tan and Me
A booming voice shouted " Hey ! what the hell are you doing ?" It turned out that we were intruding into private property and no one was allowed on the pitch. The groundsman had a shock when he saw 5 Asian students and he then changed his tune and let us continue taking our pictures and that was the end of my visit to Wolves home ground 20 years ago.
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