Top of the 'World'

One of my favourite lyrics goes "I'm on the top of the world lookin down on creation....". Able to recall the name of the song?

I've got this habit of having to visit the Observation Deck of the tallest building in whichever city I visited if possible. That's basically because I enjoyed the feelings of being at the top of the world (well, almost) and looking down on the activities going on below. Not only do you get to admire the splendid view from atop but you'd also get to observe how the local authorities do their city plannings....

I've visited the following in the course of my previous trips (in chronological order) :
1. Effiel Tower - 2004
2. Taipei 101 - 2006
3. Oriental Pearl Tower - 2008
4. Stratosphere Las Vegas - 2008
5. Petronas Tower - 2009
6. Baiyoke Sky - 2009

I resolved to continue adding to the above listing......

Close Brush with H1N1

An email was circulated XXX-wide about this foreign visitor to our premises for a meeting. He was subsequently confirmed a victim of H1N1. The 13 XXX staff in the same meeting room as that guy was immediately given Home Quarantine 'Orders' by MOH I think....

It so happened that me and 2 other colleagues had been in the same XXX shuttle bus as one of the 13 staff involved on the same day after their meeting. That makes us 3 a 'Secondary' contact. The first thought coming into my mind was, "Wow! H1N1 IS HERE!!"

It had never crossed my mind what I would do if I were to come into contact with it but now that I've been in potential contact, I'm kinda in a lost of my next steps.... I've lost my usual self for the rest of the day. When I got home, I got Zarah to buy Dettol and disinfect the necessary places, especially my chair, table, lappy, etc... I also informed my siblings to stay away from here IF they are not comfortable about me being a 'Secondary' contact. At the same time, I'm also keeping track of my body conditions for any unusual signs and ring 993 if yes.

I'd be going to Bangkok this weekend and am supposed to serve a XXX-mandated 3-days quarantine when I return, using my own AL!!! This is the part that got me mad.... I mean.... I've book this trip B4 MOH added Thailand to the list of 'affected countries'. Why penalised me for planning ahead? It would be more appropriate if XXX can impose the AL portion on staff who deliberately booked tours to 'affected countries' AFTER that country had been listed. For those like me, record the quarantined days as MC....

Good idea?

135mins.......

What can you do in 135mins? Sleep? Watch a movie? Travel from CCK to Tampines by 67? I spend 135mins in TF STC, attending a 'special' 2hr (extended to 2hr 15mins) class by Jo and ZJ.

Its not my first time attending Jo's nor ZJ's class.... But today is different. Somehow, the 'fans' of both instructors turned up and turned the class into an ultra high energy session! Both of them, by themselves, lifted the energy high enough in previous sessions. Today's session is simply out of this world. Members shouted without prompting at every opportunity, most of the tracks selected by Jo & ZJ were 'all-time' favourites.

Not sure about the others, but I gave my 110% for the first 90mins, thereafter, i was only able to maintain at 75% due to fatigue and the heat in the studio. For the first time in my participation of 2hr classes, my shorts was dripping sweat and threatening to drop!! It was getting dangerous as I slipped a few times on the wet floor as my sweat was all over. To prevent further trouble, I skipped a track to do some damage control work 'squeezing' the sweat off the ends of my shorts in a bid to lighten it (prevents dropping) and to reduce the sweat collected in the ends (prevents dripping).

On return to the studio, I stood at the back near the door.... OMG! I fell in love with this location instantly!! I should have stood here earlier.... The studio door is wide open for ventilation purposes (cooler air), the space is aplenty (quite some members had 'bitten the dust') and the fan is blowing right in my face! However, this location also has its drawbacks.... Its far from the stage (can barely see the instructors), sound not loud enough (easily remedied) and its easy for me to drop out of class for a quick skive (option exercised several times) .....

Overall, I would rate the class today (in terms of energy) as superior to the Mega Combat, to any 2hrs classes so far and even to Sue's classes.

Should I now switch from Sunday VVO to STC instead?

WTF is wrong with him????

I found it getting increasing hard to get along with Hero recently.....

He :
1. is easily agitated
2. nag for the TINIEST of reasons
3. does things in his own 'unique' way
4. keep switching channels when watching TV, causing much displeasure to 'co-watchers'
5. other misc. which I do not wish to mention here.....

Case Study 1 :
Some time back, the stove was spoilt due to a blocked/damaged vent. The repairman suggested replacing it for safety reason which I agreed. He recommended us a brand new stove for $360 which is already rather cheap as compared to those retail shops. However, when told of the price after the purchase, Hero flew into a rage and keep scolding and nagging about us having been cheated by that guy. He'd still be at it today if reminded.....

Case Study 2 :
My sister was asking him for her old report card so that she could register her soon to be Primary One daughter in her old school, CHIJ Bukit Timah. Hero got agitated again... scolding her for intending to put her daughter in a school thats about 15mins bus-ride away rather than in the numerous (3 actually) primary schools around our vicinity. Oh, did I ever mention before that my sister currently stays about 5mins walk from us? She's be moving to her new place near the CCK MRT soon but thats still about 15mins from her preferring school. I simply could not see the reason for him to get angry over a report card or where my sister is sending her daughter for schooling.

Case Study 3 :
My sister once wanted to replace her main door for a fire-proofed one and she got the contractor to replace our's too. When she brought the contractor over to do a site-survey, he screamed at him about 'cheating' us and all those stories.... My sister ended up having to apologise to that poor fellow who got scolded for nothing, and we STILL didn't get the door changed.

Can anyone please teach me how to get along with him?

PS : He's now still nagging away in Hokkien to Zarah..... :s

On my hands now....

1. Evaluation of a Data Loss Prevention Software
2. Evaluation of a Log Co-Relation Software
3. Evaluation of a Desktop Firewall Software
4. Setting up a Test Network for my team
5. Management of Vulnerability Scannings
6. Management of SecureAge
7. Exercise Mer****
8. Disaster Recovery Planning Exercise
9. Monthly Generation of Server Compliance Report (AV)
10. Monthly Generation of USB Insertion Report
11. Monthly Generation of File Decryption Report

There also other misc. tasks which may come my way whenever possible..... I feel so much better now that I'd doing things.... REAL THINGS.....

Mega Combat 2009

Last Saturday was the annual Mega Combat, an event held at the Fountain of Wealth at Suntec City whereby participants come together for an hour of 'Sauna Combat'. Reason being we're all used to BC-ing under the air-con, now moved outdoors surely will feel the heat. I was sweating like hell even before the conclusion of the Warm-Up Track....

This year's Event-Tee is f**king fugly!! Purple in colour with the usual sponsors' logos at the back. The front were some 3 lines of MS-Word 'designed' wordings with differing font sizes, full stop! There weren't even any effort to try and design some Word-Art for the Tee..... And I've not even mentioned they scrapped the buffet dinner too.

Budget must be damn tight after spending money to invite Andrea Fonseka and Roland Kickinger aka Kick-Kin-Joe (kick banana). One's simply a vase while the other's a 200lbs slab of beefcake. Both are BC noobs!!

4 of us, Shaw, Alan, Garion and myself took abit of pains to become 'Xmas Tree' for the event. We put on the Arm-Band and Mongkol (badminton racket) that Shaw had bought for us during a recent trip to Bangkok.... You should have seen Sue's eyes when she saw us take out the 'rackets' and put in on!! :p

Here's some pics to enjoy....

:)

Red Bombs

Weddings, otherwise commonly known as "Red Bombs" in Singapore. This is due to the traditional wedding invitation being in red and the custom of giving a red packet when attending one......I've gotten 2 bombs so far this yr and they're on the coming Friday & Saturday.

I was scratching my head over the existing 'market rate' for the bombs when MF sent me something handy....

Wonder if its accurate enough to follow....