Farewell to a truly wonderful Lady

Terri (in wheelchair) was 95 this year

My aunty Terri passed away last Friday 13th August 2010, on the day of her 95th birthday. She was a wonderful lady who lived her life first as a teacher and then during her retirement years, enjoyed them doing by singing in the St. Andrew's Cathedral choir (at least for close to 20 years), touring the world, spending alot of quality time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren in Australia. Married for 73 years to my eldest uncle Paul (who is 96 this year), she was his soulmate and confidante.I recall her shrill voice calling me during the old days in her bungalow in Pasir Panjang, and made it a point to remember my wedding anniversary and birthday every year including this year 2010 without fail !

We had some very lovely memories of celebrating my uncle Paul's and her birthdays when I was a young boy and teenager. Although, my cousins Ruth,Shanta and Elizabeth were easily 15 or more years older, we were always welcome to their house and enjoying family and fellowship, singing Christian hymns and songs with prayers and praise. She always gave me advice on family and spousal matters and was truly a special person.

Friends are the 'external family' which we choose

Wing Sun, Andrew, Noel and Yen Sun in Egypt

This post is dedicated to all the friends, long time and new ones, I salute you. As I have experienced in the past 10 days from my mother's hospitalisation, at the end of the day, its the love from your family and close friends that matter. Life is very complex, as we come into this world with nothing and although people want to hoard up the riches on earth, all the riches on this earth will not be able to heal your body or your soul.

The family is one of the institutions which has been around for thousands of years. Unfortunately, divorces are more commonplace and families are being broken apart due to the complexities of modern day life. This is a sad facet of our developed world.

When we are sick and need nourishment, we turn to God, family and friends in that order. Sometimes, unfortunately, our family may not be able to provide the emotional or even the financial support and that is where the friends can come in and keep our spirits up.

True friends stand by you in good times and bad and in times of crisis, that is where we will know who our true friends are. Choose them wisely.

Charity Begins at Home

National Day Run at MacRitchie

My mud soaked Kayanos 16

This year's National Day falls on a Monday and I have been especially challenged this year. The reason is personal with my parents not in good health, so I had for the last 10 days or so been running back and forth to visit my Mum, who had an operation, in hospital. So some of the more pressing work commitments as well as personal time for my running had been set aside for my family.

Today's run at Macritchie was prompted by my almost 3 week layoff from running. I had caught the 'flu virus about 2 weeks ago, recovered after one week, decided to take things easy for another week, and then this last week I had to make all the arrangements for my Mother,checking her in, and then ensuring that after the operation was over, the family could see her as often as possible. I am thankful to supportive company staff and to my wife, who made chicken soups and helped supervise the cooked food for the last 4 days now.

With the Singapore Bay Run about a month away, I need to step up my game and take my training up a notch, clocking about 50 km per week for 1 month to be ready for the 21K half marathon which I have run consecutively (except 2006) for 5 years now. The Singapore Bay Run Half Marathon is 12 September 2010.

2006 was the year when I had my collapse and I was struggling to get back to fitness for the rest of the year. Since 2006 I have run 1 more marathon (in 2007) and done 3 half marathons, a treadmill race (came in 3rd) and a 25K run (in May 2010). A good comeback, to use the term, and I hope to top this by running 1 or maybe 2 marathons before year's end.

The run at Macritchie started at 6.00 pm sharp, it was bright and sunny when I started, on a fast clip and was determined to set a decent time. At the startpoint, the route traverses into the jungle and I overtook the walkers and some slower runners.
My pace was even and I was feeling strong given that I had full rest this long weekend. At the top of the first hill (there are 4), I noticed that the ground was very muddy. So here I was running at a fast pace (to me) and swerving left and right to avoid the other oncoming walkers and runners and also avoiding the muddy portions which covered the entire width of the trail ! Too late,
my 3rd encounter and my left foot plonked deep into the mudbath, due to my strong momentum I managed to pull out the soggy shoe and continued my run with my left leg caked in mud. (See picture).

Coming down the second hill, it was slippery and people were blocking the pathway, instead of calling out "excuse me", which is the norm, I had no time but to clap loudly and the youngish woman jumped (yes jumped) out of my way. I could almost visualise a nasty accident where I was barreling down the hill at a fast pace and slamming straight into the woman. Nasty accident avoided !

The rest of the route was quite refreshing and the reservoir area probably had rained in the late morning judging from the many muddy sections along the route. I was going at about 5 minutes 30 secs per km pace and was only overtaken at the Lornie road section by a couple of young runners in their 20s (I have come to accept that I am no more a spring chicken) who looked like they from some running club judging from their uniform orange T shirts.

Hitting the 3 hills on Lornie Road and back to the start point, I was feeling pretty ecstatic that I was finishing my first 5 K run in 3 weeks in a pretty decent time of 27 minutes 20 seconds.

- Onward Mr. Mark !

- Majulah Singapura !

Ship on top of Tower ?

Marina Bay Sands with Sky Tower in the morning sunlight

For those of us who have seen the latest end of the world movie, '2012' would have surely recalled that there were huge 'arks' which were high technology seaships mounted on top of the Himalayan mountains made by the Chinese (who else could mass produce such high technology in such short a time ?).

Singapore has one such ship looking 'vessel', the sky tower observation deck looks like one of those ark like ships. So Singapore is all ready for the next 'wave' ? Some of my worldwide colleagues who were here recently for training commented on the similarities, but its only the overactive imagination of some people, who have had too much liquor to drink.

The Mayan calendar ends at 2012,its not the end of the world.

Toyota Harrier

Sporty Looking but a little underpowered

I have owned 2 Toyota Harriers (aka Lexus 300) since 2005. The car is an SUV made in Japan unlike many other Japanese models which are made in Thailand and China. The first one from 2005 - 2009 was a revelation to me, it gave me and my family a roomy drive and was able to fit in up to 6 people also for short trips to family dinners on the weekend. Ever reliable, it was easy to handle, though one has to get used to the large capacity of the car chassis and turning radius. I had absolutely no technical problems on the first car, thanks to Toyota's fine reliability program.

The recent brouhaha (news which makes people react with shock and horror) over some models of the Toyota namely Prius and Lexus 300 GL in the USA where the accelerator does not decouple,leading to several horrendous accidents and deaths has somewhat tarnished Toyota's good name but the Harrier has been spared any of this malfunctions, thankfully.


I have owned 2x Harriers for 5 years now

This second Harrier was purchased in June 2009 and I am pleased with the improved sporty looks, metallic and walnut finish drive console and 3 saparate dial diaplys for speed, RPM and fuel / engine heating displays. Acceleration gives me the feeling that it is a little underpowered, but the 3 litre version (RX 300) is too expensive (S$ 200,000 or RM 450,000) and in my opinion a waste of fuel. Also the carbon footprint of that car is probably 30% more than this car. This car gives me a 9.5 km per litre consumption, not bad for an SUV.

I know the environmentalists will be aghast at my purchase, as the carbon footrpint of this car is frankly, quite horrendous. More and more new car sales in the West are normally Smart cars, or battery powered hybrid cars. So somewhere down the line, I have to contend myself with either walking or running to the supermarket. The recent weather changes have made me sit up and speculate that all our attempts at urban 'development' will ultimately spell the end of the mother Earth as we know it. We are creating our own 'and of the world' scenario by time and again ignoring the warning signs of our sick Earth. The solution is out there but people like me and other urbanites with more than 1 car are part of the problem.

The car was inexpensive to purchase in August 2009 - as the local economy was coming out of the World's worst financial crisis. This for the world's top selling car marque, but the spiralling COE prices have made the new car selling price over S$ 130,000 now (RM 300,000). I am glad that I purchased it at that time last year and will hope to continue driving this car but only for must travel reasons.

45th National Day ; My wishes and concerns

Live our Dreams, Fly our Flag

This year, 2010, marks the 45th year of Independance for Singapore from its neighbour Malaysia. Formerly a part of the Malayan peninsula, Singapore's early history was fraught with tensions due to political, racial and economic reasons. But with the strong leadership of the PAP government and a supportive electorate, it has weathered the many uncertain times over the last 45 years and recently ridden out 3 major crises (1997-99 Asian Financial), 2003 SARS and 2008-ongoing with amazing speed and resoluteness.

As a Singaporean, I am grateful for many things, racial and religious harmony for one. A united people based on a meritocratic society offering each and every able citizen equal oportunities in work, business and play. A fast paced, shopping and food paradise which is the envy of many countries world-wide. Recently, an article which stood out was this, the Macau casino boss Stanley Ho sent his private jet to Singapore to buy durians and gave some to his pal, Li Kar Shing. Even tycoons favour the flavours of the hoi polloi (ordinary people). How fortunate.

My 5 wishes this National Day is this ;

1. let us all move towards being a more gracious and caring society.

2. Lets not judge people in materialistic terms (that is how much people are worth) ; rather how much good a certain person has done on a weekly,monthly and yearly basis. That should be the benchmark rather than where one lives,how much is his net worth and what car he / she drives.

3. let us all be good parents and role models for the next generation, transmitting the best values for them and inculcating in their minds the values of hard work, thrift and compassion for their fellow citizens or new migrants.

4. Lets accept the foreign migrants into our society and teach them our 'Singapore way' of striving for the best with total transparency and accountability of our actions.

5. Lets face our ageing society head on and be prepared to work as long as necessary to enjoy the excellent quality of life which can be offered here provided we have the means.

My 6 worries for this National Day is this :

1. The casinos are likely to undermine our social fabric as they will lead more people downward the debt spiral and hence only reinforce the gambling culture. The 'get rich quick' mentality will only prevail leading to higher expectations of quick returns for less effort. This attitude is quite worrisome.

2. The rising costs of housing,cars and general foodstuff will continue unabated. That means a hyperinflation worry

3. Structural unemployment means that more and more of our PMETs will be facing new challenges in either lowering their job expectations downwards and move to another field but in a lower capacity or moving overseas to continue pursuing their careers in their fields but in foreign country.This is especially true for people who are 40 years of age and above.

4. Housing costs are pushing people out of the inner city, and ordinary Singaporeans are being priced out of the private property market.

5. Global warming, leading to massive weather changes, as a result flooding in Singapore and other parts of Asia, as well. This may be only the start of other natural disasters to come.

6. SARS has hit, a H1N1 virus mutation has happened and our medical defences have been up to the mark, but for how long ?

Happy 45th Birthday Singapore.