Finding myself in the lost world..

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Redang Dive Trip 21 to 24 Jun 07 - 25 dives clocked to date

[10:51 am]

Yay..I am back from my dive and this is the only time I am free to post up the pictures of my dive trip to Redang. The journey there was long and ardous, 9 hours of bus ride and 1 hour of wet and heart-dropping speedboat journey through storm-tossed seas to reach the resort..Redang Kalong.

Even though we were greeted on arrival by the rain (see picture below), the scenery under the water was splendid with average visibililty of 10-15m. The diversity of the marine life just blew me off, with many different types of the reef fishes congregating together at the many corals..

I am telling you, this will be my new annual dive spot from now on..forget Dayang and Aur..this place beats them hands-down!!!

Of course, our trip was not all about the diving..we managed to trek through the jungle to another bay where the movie "Summer Holiday" by Sammi Cheng and Richie Ren was shot..the sand there is definitely powdery and silky smooth and highly recommended for those sunset hand-in-hand walk by the beach.

I also made friends with two Malaysians in my dive group and since they are regulars to the dive resort, I figured I will see them again next year..haha..I am glad that I have not lost the diving edge..I learnt alot from the old-hands who taught me the finer art of de-fogging the mask with baby shampoo before the commencement of the dive, the art of deploying the sausage marker and the art of improving my buoyancy..sure was an eye-opening dive!!! Till next time!!

Rainy Arrival at the resort

Tanning in your sunray...

The dive resort..dining hall on the right, dive center at the middle, accomodation at the left and back of the resort..

5m 3 mins safety stop..hovering in the water..

Clownfish spotted at Sea Anemone garden while doing our safety stop

Another Species of Clownfish at 22.1m depth

Smile for the camera Mr Moray Eel..keeping clear of the sea urchin to the left..

Check out the diversity of the marine life!!!

Transparent Shrimps on Sea Anemone

Different types of shrimp hanging out together

The deadly Devil's Stinger warning us off..check out those poisonous dorsal spines..

Clownfish checking us out

Small crab spotted hiding under the corals during night dive

Juvenile Boxfish spotted during nightdive

Nothing beats a bottle or two of Hoegaarden after a day's worth of diving..

The crystal clear waters of Redang

Laguna Redang..one of the more luxurious resort on the island

Labels: Diving

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Thursday, June 28, 2007

Dinner date

[11:40 pm]

Met up with Chris today for dinner..on the premise of passing her the AutoCad texts (which I drove all the way down to NP to borrow during lunch-time) which she needed to aid her in her work.

Throughout our conversation, I have a picture of gal full of resilence, highly independent, extremely thrifty (even though she lives on a private property) and of course, very warm. The fact that she is a fellow chocolate and junk-food lover is definitely a plus-point. Now I know who I can call on whenever I am in the mood for char kway teow, kway chap..etc..haha

We took a short walk around Chijmes to pass time while waiting for the 1/2 price special at Menotti. The desserts at Menotti are just fascinating and I can feel that each of them were made with the passion typical of Italian culture. When I sunk my teeth into the Limoncio, the taste of lemon just exploded in my mouth..it was so refreshing!!! She let me taste her dessert, to which I can't remember the name, I can tell you that was just a godsend..at that point in time, I felt so blissful..the warm chocolate mixed with raspberries just brushed away whatever worries I had..

I sent her home after that and I can tell you, I had enjoyed her company tremendously...being with her and sharing our work-related problems sure made me forget a hard-day of work. Remember me mentioning about her standard of spoken English is typical of those convent-educated girl in my previous post? All I can say that my standard of conversational English has improved by a notch after conversing with her in Queen's England for the whole evening..haha..

Labels: Matters of the heart

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Sunday, June 24, 2007

Battery draining again..

[12:23 pm]

Back to work Monday and I am plunged into the abyss of work again..clearing email, writing agendas and going for meetings..

Luckily I am going for my weekly age course in the afternoon, else I would be dead by then..the stress level is building again and the battery is starting to drain itself away..

Oh well, till the next holiday..

Labels: Grumblings

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Sunday, June 17, 2007

Disasterous First BLIND Date

[12:54 am]

Well, the first blind date in my whole life went off with a tinge of salt. To summarise, all I can say is that there ain't any chemistry. I have to admit that she is an extremely good cook and that in the long run, she will make a good wife.But,that's besides the case.

In a relationship, I am looking for someone with whom I can really click with, i.e to say,there must be some chemistry..if there ain't any chemistry, forget about it man. The gal must be someone with at least some form of intellect, one who is independent enough to take care of herself. For this gal, she started by calling me everyday just to talk with me..once was enough, but everyday, wow..makes me wonder what will happen if we really got together man..haiz...

Even my extremely good buddy who was with me just now empathised with me. All he said was; "Buddy, you deserved someone better." I have to agree with him man.

But on a hindsight, am I being too harsh on my critique?

Labels: Matters of the heart

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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Cupid striking

[9:02 pm]

Don't know why, but all of a sudden, Mr Cupid is throwing a lot of arrows at me. Mom's friend is introducing a tour guide to me, my friend introduced his colleague to me and after my previous post, another friend introduced her ex-colleague to me...guess they are getting worried for me..haha

I am shocked by the sudden turn of events. One of them just called me to chat with me..and I am still stunned by it...the sutured wound is hurting from so much chatting. This girl is a super friendly chap and we are meeting up this weekend.

Man, for the first time, people are complimenting that I look good..something which never happened when I was in university. Guess Mr Cupid himself is smiling on me and telling me that the time has come to move on..

Oh well, guess the tide is turning for me..haha

Labels: Matters of the heart

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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Tooth of Wisdom..

[7:14 pm]

I am going to work up an appetite this weekend after the sutures are taken out. Come to think of it, this is the second time in my life that I went for an oral surgery to remove a tooth, and it has not changed much.

The wisdom tooth extraction was akin to a storyline of out of Hannibal..two shots of anaesthetic on the lower right gums to numb it, a scalpel cut to expose the tooth, high-speed drilling to obliterate tooth, followed by the use of good old brute force to extract the big bad tooth with a big pair of forceps..could had been worse as the prof was about to saw the tooth into two pieces if the brute strength extraction fails..whewz..

Anyway, the wound has been stitched up and I am only able to take soft foods and no crustaceans for me for the whole of this week. Its a torture just to eat and drink..eating porridge on the first day of operation was a two hour-long endeavour and the chewing of food has to be done on the other side of the mouth to prevent from hurting the wound.

And 3rd day into the operation, sick from drinking cold milk, Milo, eating lukewarm porridge and munching bread. I forayed into Swedish meatballs from Ikea, only to be reminded of the stitched-up wound.Ouch.

Man, after this ordeal is over, I am going to gorge myself silly with the following food:

1. Fried Kway Teow from my favourite Serangoon Garden coffee-shop
2. Fried Hokkien Mee from a friend's stall in Chomp Chomp
3. Orh Luak or Oyster Omelette from Chomp Chomp
4. BBQ Stingray from Chomp Chomp
5. Ashton Steak which I have eyeballed for a while at a Serangoon Garden coffee-shop
6. Steak and Mushroom pie from Whitesands Shopping Centre
7. Sungei Road Laksa

And after taking all these food, I will wash it down with some Hoegaarden at Balaclava..yay..may the weekend come soonest!!!

Labels: Random Thots

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Monday, June 04, 2007

Frustrated..

[8:53 pm]

Feel like giving up everything..yet my stubborn side won't conceit defeat..

At this juncture in time, a phrase keeps running in my head; "A winner never quits, a quitter never wins"

I just want to get it over and done with..yet my replacement is not in sight, my move to the new appointment delayed, the pre-requisite course to climb up the ladder also held back..all in the name of "to hold the fort" till the environment stabilises. In actual fact, I am but someone of use to the boss, someone to do the work he is supposed to do but ain't doing just because he is on the retirement mode.

I keep telling myself that it's a good learning experience for me as whatever he tells me to do and I am not sure of, I can go find out and resolve it. What I need now is a shining light which can guide me through the current valley of darkness I am walking in..

And I thought that I can emerge into the sunlight after walking in the dark valley with a torchlight..only to walk into another abyss with no light, no nothing to guide me through.....

Labels: Grumblings

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Saturday, June 02, 2007

Day Trip to Kota Tinggi and Desaru

[6:37 pm]

After taking over a hundred shots with the D40x and seeing the photo qualities, all I can say is that its awesome!!!!

Well, while on leave yesterday, my friend and I made a day trip up north to Kota Tinggi and Desaru. Kota Tinggi has changed much since I last visited it as a toddler eons ago. It has morphed into a mini water theme park.

As for Desaru beach, this was my first visit there and if you ask me, if ECP is transplanted here, it would sure be an more interesting place and not too sleepy. While the beach was long, 25 km, to be exact, it was also dirty..I don't understand why beach-goers can be so irresponsible and throw stuff like disposable baby diapers and flourescent tubes, yes flourescent tubes there!! What if some of the kids visiting there steps on it?

This is what irks me..all it takes is some irresponsible idiot who cannot walk further to the bin and throw these stuff to spoils the rest of your day. So hopefully our dear neighbour do something about it and clean up the beach..

See pictures below, courtesy of my brand new Nikon D40x:

One of the many beach resorts fronting the beach.