Happy Holidays: X'mas lunches

Subhas Anandan

The name Subhas Anandan should not be new to most Singaporeans, especially those who read the newspapers especially Wanbao and Shinmin. If you have not heard of his name, you will definitely recognise his face, thick beard and hair, looking almost fierce.

He is a well known criminal lawyer taking on the most infamous cases, of murders, rapes etc.

I used to have an unfavourable impression of him, that he is out for publicity.

But after reading his book and completing it over 2 nights, I only have admiration and respect for the man.

He was framed by some policemen in his younger days and it probably became a personal crusade for him that every accused person deserved a fair and proper trial. The first half of the book relates his life and what a life it was, of mischief, firm friendships, standing up to bullies, authority, personal defeat and standing up. It makes for engaging reading!

In the second part, he shares some personal thoughts on some of the sensational cases he has represented. He is very candid and forthright, offering comments where legal practices can be improved in Singapore.

Let me know if you wish to borrow the book. Better still, buy it!

Terrorists

While news on the Mumbai attacks flood the tv channels and newspapers, I can't help but think how on earth can one human being engage in such terroristic activity with such strong faith and determination? To achieve their own idealistic state, they threaten, hurt and kill the same kind, many of whom are defenceless and helpless. Total disregard of the law and humans, they bring blood and sorrows to the world. Frankly, I don't know how they (the terrorists) can sleep in peace. Maybe they don't, maybe they are not looking for that in their lives? But what do they really want? If taking Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to justify their inhumane acts, probably many of them don't have enough to eat and to live? Being a terrorist, they have the "power" to strike fear, the "authority" over the people and the sense they belong somewhere? Or is it purely for some psychotic reason which they get their pleasure from inflicting fear to the world.

In this Mumbai attack, if not for the loss of our people, I think many of us are still quite ignorant about the impact of terrorism. And somehow, it makes me more aware that this can really happen to anyone of us anywhere. As much as I do not wish to see this in Singapore, we cannot be complacent cos' we never will know when and will never know what they are thinking. The least we can do is to be more alert and observant.

Bodhi Tree at Nanyang House

Nanyang House is a three storey building with a rooftop terrace on a small hill in the NTU grounds. It houses the club rooms (now reduced to cabinets) of the various CCAs. Being an active member of the NTUBS, Nanyang House was a place I spent many happy and meaningful hours making friends, organising activities and simply having a lot of fun.

One little known fact is that amongst the many trees planted around Nanyang House, there is a Bodhi Tree that is a 'descendent' from the one in India under which the Buddha gained enlightenment.

Today the Alumni held its annual gathering and also took the opportunity to unveil a new plaque for the tree. Owing to the occasion, I was able to meet up with some of my very old comrades from NTUBS. Like the tree, we have also grown up!

Year End Function @ Night Safari

Was in the committee organising the annual office get together. The theme was Safari Night and the location was, of course, at Night Safari. Staff was encouraged to dress up according to the theme. One of the divisions decided to arrive with an add-on tail, which I understand was self-made! Their boss led the way with a leopard print shirt and a extra long tail. Admirably leading by example!
Being in the organising committee, I was warned not to go just in my typical office shirt and pants. So I rummaged through my army stuff at home and used a few items, namely the brown t-shirt, the camou-scarf and the GoreTexx boots. Found the farmer's hat in one of the cabinets at home. The Chairman of the commitee gamely dressed as a zebra! Here we are participating in a game during the dinner.

The spread was sumptuous. I had to stop myself from eating too much.

Arrogrant sportsman

Sunday Times two days ago featured an article by one of the columnists who admitted to being called an arrogant sportsman. Apparently, before he agrees to play badminton with anyone, he will check whether that person is "any good".

As far as badminton is concerned, I agree with the writer. Having played badminton for the past 8 years, the most enjoyable play is when players of around the same standard are pitted against each other.

But having said this, the story should not end there. When I started playing 8 years ago at my present company, I was a bad player. The uncles, some patiently, showed me the basics and which are the important areas to look out for. For example, the proper grip, getting the basic clearing stroke right, not jumping.

So I tried to do the same when I play with my collegues. Those who bother to listen and can understand have progressed. Some have bad habits too ingrained and their progress is slow.

To share the most important lessons in badminton for me;

1) Footwork is critical
2) Get the basic clearing stroke right (shuttle should reach baseline everytime)
3) Don't jump (unless you are advanced)
4) In doubles, there is an optimal way to position. Square (left-right) in defense and front-back in attack.
5) Don't hit to the player. Find space.

Office sports event at HortPark

Organised with my "ECA" committee of colleagues this annual fitness event. Staff can choose to run or participate in taiji. One of our directors sportingly led the warm up session. Very thankful to him and happy that there are still some normal beings amongst the higher echelon in our society. Turnout was not too bad and hopefully this will lead to even better participation in future events. Because ultimately, the point of organising events is for people to participate.

Major official event

Sending Keong off - More photos

Keong haggling (successfully) to get his excess baggage charge waived...classic keong at work.

Keong with niece.
Keong with KC at Ya Kun. He won't be eating Kaya and lo-ti for a long time.

The Pek-Kio lunch kakis

Sending Keong off

Like M said, it was almost unreal that we actually said our goodbyes to Keong, as he embarks on another highlight of his career on a sought after overseas posting.

His family was also seeing him off, so we stayed in the background until he had completed his gooodbyes with his parents and siblings.

Ko and Angela (below) had to leave early so they took individual shots with Keong.

KC also rushed down from his place at Loyang. We had a final group photo before Keong cleared customs.
送君千里，终须一别！

The retro days

Keong's Farewell Lunch

This was one of Keong's many farewell lunches/ dinners thrown for him. The farewell had to be a lunch because M (the organiser) could not find a time when keong was free in the evening for a dinner gathering. But anyway, Keong was so happy we remembered him that he brought his own camera along; normally he would just ke-poh others' photos.


Keong is going to be seconded on an overseas posting. With his immense charm, intelligence and diplomatic wit, he should not only survive but thrive. Our hopes are that he returns with an ang-moh wife. haha!

My delivery-man friend

G's wedding dinner

My third wedding dinner attended in September, must be a good month probably as it was in the eighth lunar month. Also my 2nd emcee assignment in the same month. The groom G is my friend in my reservist unit and the guys here are all from the same unit. And like most weddings, the 'army' table got called up to be the yum seng party.
And the red 'bomb' keeps on coming. Another wedding this Thursday, also an army friend.
Congrats again to all the 天下有情人！

At work - listening to a speech

One of the rare moments when I am captured in the office. Normally I will be doing the taking of photos.

WY and his baby Chloe

Met WY, his wife for dinner last week with wife. Also, this was the first time I saw baby Chloe after I visited her at the hospital. Almost two months all and she has grown quite a bit. Very well behaved in public but a total pampered girl at home, according to the father.

Happy Children's Day!

Visiting WM's place

Because WM looks like a minor HK celebrity, I have to respect his need for confidentiality and not reveal where his place is. He would only agree to stating that it is in a "high class residential estate".

M, KS and I were the only invitees from office which goes to show how much he valued the Pek-Kio All-You-Can-Eat. The gifts that we bought for WM were also from Pek Kio's Lucky Minimart! haha...
As I am not allowed to show too much of his abode, this group photo is all I can share on the internet.

Coastal Cleanup

LAST Saturday was World Coastal Clean-up Day. In a nutshell, people around the world who are concerned about the environment especially around the coast/ beach, gather to clean up the beaches. In Singapore, the impact is not really to clean up because the cleaners are doing a darned good job anyway, but to get people closer to the environment, and realise for ourselves that we can do our little part and also that despite all the best efforts of the contracted cleaners, there is still a fair amount of litter to clean up.
My colleagues excited at finding a dead fish!

My personal experience in that one hour plus exercise was that it is not the big pieces of litter that is the problem, but the small pieces of rubbish like scraps of paper, bits of styroforam and the worst culprit of all, cigarette butts. I easily picked up close to a hundred.

Consolidating our rubbish.

It was an insightful time for me personally. My only regret was that the organising committee was unable to persuade more people from the office to join in the experience.

Ah Bo at Chinese Orchestra

This is a loooooooooooong overdue post. Took the photo using my VGA phone again... :p no 5-pixel like WM's. Anyway, this was taken during one of the Chinese Orchestra rehearsals for the PS21 Award Ceremony.

He was trying to pretend that he knew how to play that... but I think he looked the part.... Haha!

Farewell Tre@t 2 for WM

We can sense that WM wasn't too pleased about the "Eat All U Can" at Pek Kio. So in order not to offend the scholar-to-be, KS decided to take the initiative and give WM another treat (on behalf of us)! It was a more "extravagant" treat at Far East Plaza, "Man Jia Le", one of my favourite lunch places cos I like the maggie mee there. Hehe!

Oh yes, back to WM... I think this time round, he was much more satisfied abt the lovely treat. Look how happy he was!

(Pardon for the blur photo as it was taken using my VGA hp)

After LASIK

Here I am, two days after surgery, blogging at my parents' place, where I have stayed for recovery since Wednesday. More details of my LASIK experience can be read at my family blog "Liew Family Life".

My first handstand

Another challenge. Coach taught us to perform handstands last week. None of us could do it properly. There were two main difficulties. First, balancing oneself upside down is new to the body and brain, so instinctively the brain instructs the body to reverse by sending fear signals, at least that was how I felt. Second, our untrained arms and core muscles are not strong enough to sustain the handstand position too long.

Like David Lim said, you need to set yourself a stretched target, challenge yourself a little.

All you can eat farewell lunch

On the day when the few of us colleagues were treating TW for a farewell dinner (TW earned a scholarship to do a masters in engineering at Stanford), WM sneakily came up to me and said he was also going for studies. That's a modest way of saying that he picked up a scholarship as well and to top if off, he is going to Oxford. But he said he did not wish to publicise the fact he is one of the latest to hop on what I call the F-2-S scheme (Farmer to Scholar) scheme. I realised later the rest of our lunch kakis were all in the loop about it but were all 'sworn' to secrecy. I then realised he told me because the rest of them took the secrecy part too seriously and no one took the initiative to organise a farewell for WM.

The problem was after treating TW to dinner at The Merchant Court, the prospects of another hotel buffet were not optimistic. But how could we neglect our lunch kaki WM who has entertained us continually with his 'chut patterns', for example, claiming to forget to bring along his car keys when deciding who to drive out for lunch, stopping to re-tie shoelaces in the middle of a badminton game when he is losing, and always having a prior appointment when there was a gathering.

So it was our time to get even. We organised a eat-all-you-can but at Pek Kio Food Centre. Was he pleased? Take a look at the photos below but I think he was happy his friends, albeit only four, did not forget him.




As it turned out, WM couldn't eat so much anyway, so we were all very happy.

Awards night

Received an award from Minister of State on behalf of my organisation last Friday. The dinner cum awards presentation was more than 3 hours long! The event was held at Suntec Ballroom and the three course dinner was the modern fusion western style food with fantastic names. Tasted merely normal.

Reading "A Mountain to Climb"

Mr David Lim, the leader of the 1st Singapore Mount Everest Expedition, was a guest speaker at our compant's Retreat. Participants of the retreat were given David's book "A Mountain to Climb" to read before his talk.

Like David mentioned early in his book, most people do not understand mountaineering, and I suppose I was also one of the guilty ones who took the Expedition very lightly and viewed it as another one of those wayang things people do to gain attention.

The book is very well written and engaging, and there are many revealing stories on team dynamics which I found to be very true and insightful.

I had a brief chat with David after his talk and I only had time to ask him two questions.

First, the decision to leave out a member of his team Kim after Kim had, on the very last training climb, displayed a uncharacteristic agressiveness and assaulted another team member. This was ironical because Kim was very popular with the rest of the team. Khoo Swee Chiow however was left on the team despite Swee being not a team player and was chastised more than once for selfish behaviour. When asked, David said that the Expedition was called the SINGAPORE expedition and the goal was clear, and that was to send someone up to the summit. David likened Swee as a Diego Maradona -- when there is only 5 mins left in the match, and you need a match winner, you send Diego Maradona in, regardless of whether he is a team player. So he says it is up to the leader to decide whether the benefits of having such a star player outweighs the negativeness or toxicity he brings to the team.

Second, I asked him whether he had any regrets on not summiting himself; only Swee and another person Edwin eventually reached Everest summit. David replied that as the team leader, he had to consider who had the best prospects of summiting and he chose the team based on this. Furthermore, he had torn his cartilage (via sever coughing) so physically, he just was not suitable. He jokingly said that he is thankful (on hindsight) that he never went up because then he did not have to think about climbing down. This may sound strange but after reading his book, I realised that not only were there dangers climbing up, descending was equally if not more dangerous, because it was easy to slip and the climber would have been very very exhausted by then and could make a mistake easily.

The difficulties in climbing Everest is beyond physical strength and endurance which are given requirements. The question mark is whether the climber can aclimatise in those altitudes -- Mt Everest is 8850m above sea level. So the climber has to get to, say 5000m and stay for a few days to adjust, then to 6000m or so until one can endure going up to 8000m. Even then, one cannot stay long at the summit, at most an hour and you have to descend.

The second difficulty is logistics, moving the tons of food and equipment and bringing these up and setting camps and different altitudes, by climbing! So the sequence is like, you bring extra equipment from base camp (BC) and move it to higher ground at Camp 1 then you return to BC. Then you bring more equipment and food to C1 and take some to C2 then you return to BC. So this shuttling of equipment goes on until enough equipment, especially oxygen tanks, is stocked at the last camp before the push for the summit is done.

The final obstacle is the weather which can mean the difference between a successful climb or simply death. David mentions in the book that many bodies are left untouched on Everest because it is just too difficult and tricky to retrieve a body at those altitudes and the uncertainly of the ice and snow.

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The point about team dynamics touched a chord in me. In national service, you see similar types of behaviour especially those individuals who will stop at nothing to do a little less, and if possible, to do nothing at all. They think nothing of taking advantage of others as long as they themselves are not inconvenienced. In the past, I used to wonder how in the world can such people exist but I have come to realise that this is just the way they are. But there is a silver lining in this. It lets you know more clearly which are the people whom you can count on as a friend and reciprocate in return the friendship.

My National Day shirt

Very happy to have bought this shirt that proudly declares my love for my country.

National Day - Some remarks

I am sure if the organisers had a choice, they would have postponed this year's National Day Parade; but of course they could not. Coming right after the Beijing Olympics opening extravaganza, our little celebration paled in comparison, in scale, complexity, colour, pompousness and almost everything else.

After watching the Chinese PLA soldiers march with the olympic flag for the flag raising, their soldiers tall, erect, mean and really soldierly looking, our own SAF boys looked like, well, boys. Especially the item where our SAF MPs brandished their rifles during the precision drill in their 'so-cool' shades, they almost looked like a concert item in the JC. So that's why we need a 3G army, its probably the only edge we have.

That's where our SAF's pride came in to prove the point, the Black Knights in their predominantly red and white F-16Ds. I can see them strutting their stuff from the comfort of my home. Dana didn't like the noise the jet engines emitted and barked after the planes.

The fly boys got creative this year, creating a heart shape. I think it was dedicated to their wives (I think I heard the commentator say), which would include Zoe Tay because her husband is one of the pilots.
The parade commander was impressive this year, and remembered to command the guard of honour to fire THREE rounds of blanks.

I also liked the fact that the organisers included "We Are Singapore" in the song list. Its my all time favourite.

Congratulations to WY and wife

I don't how he did it I but WY's wish came true for his baby girl to be born on 8/8/08. A few days ago, he invited me to have steamboat dinner on 7/8/08 with his wife saying having steamboat dinner a day before will induce the baby to be born the day after (the steamboat). Well, it worked!

Congratulations to the proud parents!

This is baby Chloe :)