We wondered why calls placed to your mobile phone weren't answered.
We wondered why calls to your shop went dead.
And we wondered why visits to your shop left us disappointed.

And then, we found out that you have passed on. It wasn't easy for us. It wasn't easy for us to find out through Bryan's blog that you have left, and it certainly isn't easy for us to come to fact that you have, indeed, left this world.

The memories are still vivid. We still remember the small, dingy office that you sat in when we first met you to ask for a suitable date for our wedding. The next time we tried to find out, you were gone. Disappeared from that dingy office in a dingy building.

Then, we found you again. This time, you've started your own business. This time around, we wanted to ask you to see our house and to give us pointers on feng shui. You would always kindly oblige to our requests to weekend meetings. You taught us many things that we need to note when we eventually moved in and you would always accede to our countless phone calls to seek advice.

王师傅, you have touched us in more ways than one. Rest in peace. You'll always be remembered by Sherryl and me.

Just a week ago, I took MC because of a flu virus. Today, I'm on MC again, but this time, it's because I suffered a freak accident.

I was walking past my camp's water dispenser when I slipped due to the wet corridor floor caused by the heavy rain that splattered inwards. I caught myself while I was slipping but my left arm hit the water collection plate hanging on the dispenser. The plate dislodged itself from the dispenser and fell on my feet. At one end of the plate was a tube which allowed water to flow out. The tube drilled through my shoe and sock, leaving a clean hole in both. At the same time, it also ripped off the skin on the second toe of my right feet.

I quickly limped back to my office which was about 10 metres away. I sat down and took off the shoe and sock, and blood started to flow continuously no matter how I tried to stem it with tissue. My colleague ran to get a first aid box while I was stemming it. My colleague came back with the first aid box and a few other colleagues, who tried to use iodine to stop the blood flow but it just kept flowing till the floor of the office was just stained with puddles of blood. In the end, he wrapped up my feet with gauze and I limped to the car park where another colleague was waiting with his car.

We went to the nearest camp medical centre where I was immediately attended to by the camp medical officer and some medics. The medic, thinking that I was in pain/shock, decided to give me a painkiller, not knowing that I was allergic to aspirin. The camp medical officer cleaned up the wound but as the medical centre did not have the necessary stitches, he referred me to NUH. He cleaned up the wound again and changed the dressing before I boarded the army ambulance to NUH.

Upon reaching NUH, the nurses at the Triage station again cleaned up the wound while the medic was attending to my registration. I waited for about 20 minutes before the doctor called me in. He prodded at the wound while trying to determine how to best treat it. He then decided that I needed to do an X-ray to see if any bones were fractured. So, I went back to the X-ray room for an X-ray. I waited for another half an hour before my name was called for me to go to the Observation Bay where I was to be stitched up. By then, the aspirin kicked in and my eyelids started to swell badly. I asked the nurse if it was possible for me to be given antihistamine to reduce the swell, and she said that she will inform the doctor.

After lying down for another 20 minutes, the doctor came. He said that he will give me local anaesthetic before stitching me up. Boy, that was the most painful part of the whole incident. Up to that point, I did not feel pain, much to the disbelief of the people who had attended to me. Then after a minute or so, the doctor started to stitch me up. All in all, I was given 4 stitches. The nurse then came back and gave me a jab of antihistamine and told me that I needed to be observed for an hour or so.

After an hour of drowsiness, due to the aspirin and antihistamine, I asked to be discharged and I went home with my MC, medicine and doctor's letter.

That ended my eventful day, which I certainly do not wish to relive because of the pain when I was given the shots of local anaesthetic and stitching. I wonder if will hurt as much when the stitches are removed.

Here's what is left of my shoe.



Time to get a new pair.

Is he right?


Taken at:
Ximending, Taipei, 11 Mar 2008, 1630

And we are back from the land of smelly tofu. Sorry, had wanted to get down to blogging this but I had to go back to work almost immediately (make that 6 hours) after touching down.

DAY 1 (08 Mar)
• Depart from SIN to TPE via 3K521/Jetstar at 1300. ETA at TPE is 1740.
• The plane got there exactly on time. Reached TPE at 1740. Temperature was a frost-biting 13 degrees celsius.
• Met up with our driver who will send us straight to the hotel for NT$1300, instead of taking Freego Bus.
• Reached Rainbow Hotel, or rather the junction near the hotel, in slightly under 45 minutes. Driver tried to psycho us to call him directly on our return trip to airport instead of going through hotel. Price quoted was NT$1000.
• Initial plan was to grab a quick dinner, and then followed by a walk around Ximending. But it was really early (8pm-ish) after a bowl of steaming Ah Zhong Mian Xian. Decided to make a rush for Shilin Night Market to see if there's anything worthy to buy.
• Bought the EasyCard for MRT travel at NT$500.
• The girls went crazy upon seeing the prices of heeled boots at Shilin.
• Returned to Ximending for some roadside snacks, such as 葱抓饼, and 糖葫芦.

DAY 2 (09 Mar)
• Woke up at 0700. Showered and went down for hotel breakfast. Damn appalled at the layout of the restaurant and especially at the Singaporeans there.
• Had a quick and unsatisfying breakfast before leaving for Xin Beitou, where the Taipei hot springs are. The other places with hot springs are at Yangmingshan and Wulai.
• Temperature has risen slightly to 17 degrees.
• Walked to the hot spring museum upon reaching Xin Beitou MRT Station. Approximately 10 to 15 minutes walk.
• After browsing and familiarising ourselves with the history of the Beitou region, we set off for Hell's Valley, where the spring water was said to be always above 90 degrees celsius.
• Got lost along the way when we missed the turn to Hell's Valley. Ended up in some residential area. Finally found the place with some help from the staff from Lotus Spa.
• Took some photos at Hell's Valley with the rising steam as backdrop.
• Went back to Xin Beitou and decided to try out the Taiwanese version of KFC. Finger-licking good, and the taste is definitely better than Singapore's.
• Took the MRT to Zhongxiao Dunhua Station for the dessert shop supposedly opened by Jacky Wu's sister. We ordered some weird dessert concoction. I had papaya boiled with white fungus and lotus seeds. Wife had soya bean with pearls and lily bulbs while cousin had almond jelly with fruits. Also ordered some side dishes - mango seafood rolls, apple pie and 甜不甩, which was rice ball cooked and coated with ginger water and sprinkled with peanuts.
• Proceeded to Taipei 101 after that. Waited damn long for the shuttle bus when it was so much easier to have just walked across.
• Bought tickets to the Observatory for NT$400 per pax. The ticket allowed access to the 89th floor, the 88th floor and the 91st floor (Outdoor Observatory). The wind was literally howling on the 91st floor, and it was frigging cold.
• Set off for the famous wholesale market at Wufenpu (Houshanpi MRT Station). Again, girls went crazy at the number of shops selling cheap clothes.
• Crossed over to Raohe Night Market after shopping for.. more shopping.
• Finally decided that it was too troublesome to walk back to Houshanpi MRT Station and hopped onto a taxi back to hotel.

DAY 3 (10 MAR)
• Raining the night before, and the rain continued through the day. Decided to have breakfast at hotel again, but this time, we went down later and it was less crowded.
• Initial plan was to go to Jiufen but ruined by the rain. Changed plan to go CKS Memorial Hall instead.
• Chen Shuibian, the Taiwan president had changed the name from 中正纪念堂 to 自有广场. Took some photos but saw nothing really interesting.
• Since it was still raining, decided to stay dry by walking around at Taipei City Underground Mall. Shoes for ladies were going really cheap - NT$200 for 1 pair, buy 2 pairs for NT$300.
• Ended up at the adjacent Taipei Underground Mall.
• Had Macs for lunch after returning to hotel to dump some stuff. Good stuff at Macs!
• Hopped on to Danshui after lunch. View out of the station was absolutely stunning. Coupled with the man who was playing 月亮代表我的心, the entire place had a relaxed feel.
• Walked around 淡水老街 for the rest of the afternoon, and had the 30cm ice-cream. Ended our walk with the famed 阿给 and 鱼丸汤. Wasn't really filling, so we went on to have 甜不辣.
• Returned to hotel to dump even more stuff, before heading off to the Shilin Night Market for dinner. Had the giant chicken fillet, which taste so much better than the Singapore's version, and also oyster omelette.
• Since we were in the vicinity, thought we might as well go over for more shopping at the other Shilin Market.

DAY 4 (11 MAR)
• Went over to Wulai, the other place with hot springs. Took the MRT to Xindian MRT Station, and transferred to the Xindian Bus Company bus which took us to Wulai for NT$40. Journey by bus took around 30 minutes.
• Took the mini train across to the 80m-high waterfall. Snapped plenty of photos.
• Walked Wulai 老街 and had wild boar sausage. Yummy!
• Returned to Ximending, and spent the rest of the day there.

DAY 5 (12 MAR)
• Day to return to Singapore. Packed the night before, and trying to stuff everything into the bags that we had brought, but to no avail. Had to buy 2 new bags.
• Spent the morning taking Neoprints and eating 阿宗面线 again.
• Feeling damn bored, so ended at the arcade shooting hoops for prizes.
• Left for Taoyuan Int'l Airport at 1500.
• Depart TPE for SIN via 3K522/Jetstar at 1825.
• Touched down at SIN at 2245.

Photos Galore can be found at my wife's Multiply account.

Feeling quite bored tonight, so decide to post 2 photos that I took using my wife's P&S. This was taken on 7 Feb 2008 at the Esplanade, where there were fireworks to celebrate CNY.

I believe Sentosa prides itself as Singapore's Island Resort. After my encounter today, I think it should be called Singapore's Overcrowded Island Resort.

It's 初三 of CNY today, and with nowhere to go since we have done our house visiting the past 2 days (come on, CNY in Singapore only exists for 2 days and it's back to slogging after), the wife and me decided to visit Sentosa. Boy, was it a bad experience.

1. Parking at Vivocity and Harbourfront was horrendous. We had lunch at Vivocity and we were forced to park almost at the top level. We got off the lift (Lobby N) at the third storey and was promptly turned away and was redirected to take the lift down to the second floor. The reason was that it was very packed with people who were heading to Sentosa. Harbourfront wasn't any better off. We parked at Level 7A carpark for dinner after exiting from Sentosa.

2. Since we had a car, we thought that we might as well drive into Sentosa and given that certain carparks in Sentosa were free, we thought that might be better than chalking up the charges at Vivocity. Heck, wrong again for us. Beach Carpark and all the others on the main 'touristy' part of the island were full, and we were redirected to park at god-forsaken Sentosa Cove. I think it's a good 6 to 7km away from civilisation (see map below).



3. Then it was the everlasting wait for the beloved Sentosa shuttle service. From Sentosa Cove, we waited a good 20 minutes for the shuttle, and on the way back from Imbiah Lookout to Beach Station to transfer to Sentosa Cove, we waited for 40 minutes for the Blue Line shuttle! And the journey took more than what it would have taken because of the countless jams, no thanks to the one-laned roads in Sentosa.

4. Imbiah Station was literally barricaded (think NDP), and that prevented people from entering the station from the Tourism Academy side.

5. The crowd was thronging, and it was endless. The Sentosa Cove carpark filled up pretty quickly, and by the time we left, there were cars which were parked illegally. At the Sentosa Flowers 2008 exhibition, people were nudging left, right and centre. I think I could smell the hair of the person standing right in front of me at the escalator up the Imbiah Lookout. Flowers were trodden, and people blocked every route I wanted to take.

Don't bite off more than you can chew, Sentosa Leisure Group. The island is in a mess because of the many construction work going on, and the Sentosa Express and shuttle bus services aren't enough to support the crowds.

It's been a long while since I'd gone overseas for a holiday, the last one being the trip to Ho Chi Minh in November 2006.

Anyway, I'm off to Taipei this coming March. It'll be the first trip for both of us in a year, and it'll be our first trip in which we did our own booking for flights and hotel. We will be flying via Jetstar Asia, and staying at Rainbow Hotel. The hotel booking left me flustered for a moment, as Asiarooms informed me via sms that there are no rooms available. Desperate, I decided that I was going to book East Dragon Hotel. imatraveller, however, told me that I should call up Rainbow Hotel in Taiwan and book through them instead.

And so I did. Called them directly, left my name and booking. And the price they quoted was much cheaper than what Asiarooms was charging me.

With that, all the bookings are done. Smelly tofu, here I come. :D

The time's here again to bade a fond farewell to the current year, and welcome with open arms, the new one. It's also time to take check of what I've done or been doing the past one year, and make some resolutions for the next.

Jan '07
Started renovations for my new place, including purchasing of furniture, electrical appliances, etc. Big hole in the pocket, almost $30k.

Mar '07
Completion of renovations. Prepare to move in by Apr '07.

Jun '07
Held customary wedding at Hotel Rendezvous. Another big hole - $17k.

Jul '07
GST increased to 7%. Cursed and swore at the people who took the opportunity to raise their prices even though they were not GST-registered.

Aug '07
Left Pulau Ubin and moved to Sentosa.

Oct '07
Left Sentosa and moved to remote part of Singapore.


What's on for '08
- Perform well in new job, hopefully well enough to command a good increment and stability in the job
- Go Taiwan for holiday, something which we had not been able to do this year due to major financial commitments
- Get my first car
- Our little one

"Dashing through the sand
With a bomb strapped to my back
I have a nasty plan
For a christmas in iraq~"

Have a great Christmas, and a wonderful 2008 ahead!
- Delon