BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY

RUSSEL

Great fun, good food..what a lovely birthday at pasir ris chalets.
For individual pics please go to www.edwardsimon.net :)

two pics

Just had to post this pic of my nephew, Michael aka Bobling

This is my mums balcony and Mr.Machado from Machado Pond,Gardening and Puppy Services constructed a pond for her. The picture does not do it justice, rather cosy little corner for me mum.

Aunty Visits

My Aunty Ann dropped by, singapore for a little holiday. She is my dads older sister and it was great having her here. She is a fount of information on my family history, and her stories filled in lots of little gaps that existed. I now know that i have many more cousins than i ever thought i did, some with surnames that sound more then a little familiar! Cheers! Aunt from down under!

Sentosa II

Just thought i would add some assorted pictures of the folks who went to sentosa yesterday.

The Building.

It was impulsive, but i had that sudden rush that forces me to do things without thinking without planning, that thing which some people say I am famous for, that "lets go...now" kind of thing. It started with a phone call to Mark/Aaron "Dude, lets go to sentosa, I want to take pictures of The Building before they knock it down" As always, they were game. A quick post in the forum a couple of hurried calls and we were set, 12 people on a quick trip to sentosa. At midnight I called Sherwin and told him the numbers, he was game to. And so at 830 this morning we met at tampines mrt for the long haul to sentosa. Two trains, a bus and an hour later we were there, the dark clouds seemed to be gathering only over Sentosa...ominous rumbling could be heard in the distance and yes once we purchased the tickets...the deluge began. go figure. En route to our designated shelter we were or I was anyway very very disappointed to find The Building under total reconstruction, a fresh coat of paint and the surround area bulldozed. Demoralized? that is not a strong enough word. It seemed the entire objective of my trip was blown apart. After munching for abit at burger king we decided to recce the area behind The Building, and there low an behold my mistake was made clear and all was good with the world! The building under repair wasn’t The Building we had come to see! nonono Our Building was still standing derelict and as always loved only by we few...we sentimental few. They don’t build them like this anymore. The history of this building seems to be shrouded in mystery, and if u look at some of my earlier post you will see a couple of pics of it somewhere. Was it a hospital? was it an officer’s barracks? was it just and Office building? no one seems to know and that is why i call it simply The Building. The Sentosa Dev Corp who run the island were very vague and unclear when I made my enquires. So as yet we have no information on the building. But we shall preserver.

The walk around the building was done in two parts first a recce with the whole troop to scout out locations to shoot, then after the bulk of the gang split to hit the beach, the Photo Group went round and started to take pics. Between Sherwin and I we took around 300-350 pics some duplicate of course. We DID not do a complete exercise for two reasons. Firstly by my sheer carelessness I stepped on a nail that speared my foot through my converse rubber soled sandal. Secondly...well we shall leave that out for the moment. In some of the areas such as the building within the grounds of The Building the standard of workmanship and materials were of a tremendously high quality. The wooden floor was in great shape along with wooden grips on the stairs. In most areas there where holes in the ceilings and in some parts complete sections of roof have disappeared completely, an example is the room that is overgrown with vegetation.
There are also a large number of bats that live within the rooms on the second floor, we could hear them from the ground floor and could smell them a long way off as well. Several of the rooms were covered in guano and the walls were stained with streaks of bat droppings. This really was the most unpleasant aspect of the day, the smell. aside from being stabbed in the foot of course.
After our little expedition we rendezvoused with the rest of the boys who were attempting to skim the waves with a skim board...there were not very successful. We spent some time wandering around the Silso and Palawan beaches and ended up with a couple of the boys getting tattoos...albeit fake ones. After a rather an interesting day, we sat down and had a beer at Sunset Bay. All in all I think everyone enjoyed themselves. So another day and another adventure....what’s next? Let’s see where the wind takes us eh.

All pictures are less then a third of their original size.(resized for posting reasons) Any typos, grammatical errors should be copied and sent to the straits times care of the editor, i am sure he will liek to see them.

I'm with you my love

This is prob one of my fav songs in the whole world....and i am talkign about the clapton version BUT when i heard Ella Fitzgerald bleting out this number i was sold. One of a handfull of remakes that i like. very sexy sultry, full bodied version. Everytime i hear it i get the urge to light up a cigar, fill a tumbler full of John, Jim Or Jack and chill...

sleep,goblins and the happy man

Ever get the feeling that although your sleeping enough, your just so tired when u wake up? thats how i feel today. I woke up feeling like i just lay my head down and it sucked. really sucked. 4 cups of coffee later and i am hyper but exhausted. My half day was cancelled today due to unforseen circumstances...we had to send our staff to back up another site so that their staff could take the day off.GO FIGURE. I was supposed to go home and tidy the place up a little and maybe roast a bird as my familia are coming over but it looks like it might have to be at alisons house..lets hope the temp girl pops up at lunch time..
The other night, the moo, doo, atun and i went down to geylang to wander the streets and soak in the atmosphere, of which there was plenty to soak up. The place was packed full of people, there wsa food all over the place with lots of stalls selling burgers and other snack items. I took 94 pictures while i was there and didnt like any of them. I mean that all 94 sucked. So i decided to put a pic of this guy, he was selling material and stuff and he had this big grin on his face like he just won toto or closed a massive deal to shroud the OUB building in pink fabric. The two things that stuck me were his smile and his hair! good on em.

I went to mothers house and found that it was infested with little goblins. Rather scry there were, i had to perform an exorcism to sort them out..Little devils

Woof.sniff.Woof

p.s dont worry i will change the music tonight....

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHILIP(BABA/BOYO)
HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!!

Music= Undertaker Theme WWE.(old) Baba's fav.

ELWOOD COMICS

BEFORE MOVING ON, PLEASE NOTE THAT WHEN I DID THIS IT WAS A VERY VERY VERY SLOW DAY AT WORK..AND I DO BELIVE I WAS ON SOME KIND OF PAINKILLER.

This week we find our HERO, HERO and his sidekick Pancho trapped in the lair of the EVIL Von Smallhausen. Hero’s Side kick pancho will be played by DANNY DEVITO
Pancho: Gad Zooks Hero, how will we get out of here this time? (looks afraid)
The part of the HERO (me) will be played by DENZEL WASHINGTON
Hero: Fret not my little pancho, I have been in tighter spots before(arms akimbo) Von Smallhausen will not be able to hold me down much longer!(point to the sky, and thrust square joy out)
The part of von smallhausen will be played by the guy that acted as him in ALLO! ALLO!
Von Smallhausen: Zieg! Heil! I have you in my evil clutches now, Hero…(cue dramatic music..) You are your little pancho will not leave this place ALIVE(in a suitably inaccurate yet menacing accent)
Pancho: oh…oh…I will never see Daisy, my pet buffalo again…oh..Daisy whatever will you do without me….(sobbing)
Hero: Well Von Smallhausen, you may think you have me but I would advise you to think again
Von Smallhausen: MUAHAHAHAH MUAHAHAHHA MUAHAHHAHA burp!! Excuse me. No it is you who should think again! You and your little friend will die a slow and painful death! Did you watch that Hannibal Lector scene where the pigs ate the people!!
Pancho: GASP!
Von Smallhausen: yes Pancho I can see by your eyes you have seen it! Well you know what happened to them don’t we!
Pancho: Oh Hero! It was horrible! The horror the horror!
Hero: Do not worry, Pancho I have dealt with man-eating pigs before!
Von Smallhausen: erm um hmm ahem..well I was not able to obtain man eating pigs…..(look sheepish) but I did get… 50 very hungry guinea pigs! Muahahah muahahah muahahaha burp..
Hero: NO NOT GUINEA PIGS!!!!!!!
WILL OUR HERO AND HIS FAITHFUL SIDEKICK ESCAPE THE EVIL CLUTCHES OF VON SMALLHAUSEN, TUNE IN NEXT TIME!(CUE CREDITS)

Hangman not just a game..............

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
common/story_page/0,5744,17060728%255E601,00.html
That’s an article on the hang man at changi prison. He happens to be a former classmates father. At present there is a guy, an Australian man who is on death row for drug smuggling. His age, his prior history his entire record to me is irrelevant, under the law he has arrested, charged and convicted under Singapore law, and he will be hung. My stand on hanging is (as i have stated in earlier blogs), its wrong, its legalized murder. It’s just wrong. The pro capital punishment people have their own reasons for supporting it but I am afraid I don’t agree with them I don’t begrudge them their support but I don’t agree.
The hangman has hung 850people in the last 46 years, read the article and pay close attention to the chivas regal remark.

At the moment the Australian government is attempting to obtain a stay of execution, it doesn’t look good. President Nathan has rejected a plea for clemency and it looks like this guy will hang within a couple of weeks.

I look at it this way our government has no choice but to carry out the sentence, it would be grossly unfair to the 850 Singaporeans who were hung before and those that will be hung soon that this criminal escapes the gallows just because he is an Australian. Politics would not allow such a compromise, in the region we would be looked upon as weak for bending to pressure from “white Australia”.

But maybe just maybe we should make just such an effort; maybe we should lock this boy up and damn the consequences, to hell with the past, to hell with politics. Maybe the Government should use this as an opportunity to effect change to the system and banish the death penalty from our shores forever… alas this is wishful thinking on my part as I assume that most of the people in government are pro capital punishment.

Would locking people up be as good a deterrent as hanging? I don’t know, Singapore together with “the nation that leads the free world” the USA are two nations that practice capital punishment (there are a lot more). How is it that the very “enlightened” “freedom loving” Americans (albeit not all states) allow this I am not sure, but they do. In this very strange group is also China, Burma and Malaysia to name a few, most of ‘enlightened” Europe have done away with what they term the “barbarian’s punishment”.

IF when you read this post and find I am in two minds its because I am, I am torn by this issue as with no other. The law is the law, it must apply to all who fall within our nations sovereignty, bar none. The law must treat each and every individual the same, come what may. However I abhor the death penalty, I find it both repugnant and pointless.

At the moment it’s a 90-10 split with me leaning towards the hope that they give the guy clemency and lock him up instead, and that number is going up daily. To hell with the law, life surely must win out over any law. Even if its just one life.



refer to http://doomedtroll.blogspot.com/
2005_07_01_doomedtroll_archive.html
Post heading Every Second Friday Someone is Killed

30000 people have read this blog

"I have heard that 30000 people have read this blog, but this can neither be confirmed or deined as such i felt like telling you anyway" (read the rant and you will understand this)

The following rant, as with my whole blog IS my point of view. You may agree or disagree that is your choice. It is not intended to be used a staement of fact, its an opinion gleamed from reading and watching news brodcast, unless less stated figures are from my rather poor memory of events that may have unfolded some years ago. As i say again none of this is to be taken as fact, in a rant nothing is reliable. lol. If you notice any typos, good for you you passed the test. now try and pass the second test..keep it to yourself ;)

Twin Towers
Tsunami
Katrina

These are some of the major stories that had ramifications around the world, and yet as with all big stories the one thing I note is that the first information should be disregarded. It is normally wrong, or off the mark by a large margin. Sometimes they create a flawed sense of scale, in fact most of the time. When the tsunami hit over the Christmas season and the toll hit 3000 the world looked at it and said ok 3000, its bad but not that bad. Initial press reports in the US stated that the toll "could top 10000" and major governments who utilize the press for information just like we do were slow to act, The US and the E.U took their time, Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia moved with speed that surprised many. Money, troops and other Aid were sent even before the "great powers" realized the full scale of the disaster. Ultimately from the press estimating a death toll of 3000 they swung the other way and said 600k or 700k in the end the death toll was around 150 000(a frightening enough number) people dead as reported by Manchester online.

When those planes crashed into those twin towers and the world released a collective "oh my god" we all assumed the worst..30000 people dead, at least. The press speculated widely as to the numbers of dead, the press wildly stated (from one news room to almost all the broadcast) that more then 5 planes had crashed around the states, that the white house had been hit.
Actual death toll 2752 as at 31 October 2003 more then a year later. Almost 3000 people dead for nothing. still although very high its about 10% of the figure that was thrown about during the week following the disaster.

Katrina- This is my favorite example of how poor leadership, a “sell” orientated press can affect people in ways that surprised everyone.
No one knew the exact path of the hurricane, no one knew if it was really going to be a great big storm or a little on, the city was evacuated. People refused to leave; some because they did not have a way out, a place to go while others because they felt secure in their own homes. That first day when the levees broke and the city was flooding, when people were trapped on roofs and up trees, when thousands we squeezed in the stadium, we saw a failure to lead, from the ground up. The mayor broke down and wept , he said that thousands would die before the next morning, that the federal government was not doing anything to help. That people were on their own. Over the next few days, claims that hundreds had died in the stadium, that many people were raped, that children were raped. That police were being attacked by armed gangs numbering the hundreds caused even more widespread panic. almost 1/3 of the police force abandoned its post. Police were seen looting, the mayor was on the air ranting at the government both federal and state. even Oprah was told about children being raped, about people being slaughtered by gangs. People who heard about these things from other people went into a state of panic, a state of siege if you will. IF gangs are coming my way, I could do one of two things fight or run. Those that chose to stay entered an abnormal state of paranoia. Imagine if you will that all law is gone, that your entire environment has been destroyed, your home half submerged under water, your family friends scattered most probably one of the tens of thousands supposedly dead. Then you are told that gangs are heading your way to kill you rape your children. What would you do? You would crawl down into your flooded house get your gun and shoot anything that comes near your house even people trying to help you, post traumatic stress plus a healthy amount of paranoia induced by a press feeding of a panicked leader is a great recipe for disaster. The mayors original estimate 30000-40000 dead, the state had feared and projected 10000 the ultimate death toll in New Orleans was 1193 according to Cnn.


My point is this, first reports should never be believed. In times of crisis strong leaders who reassure people make a difference, TLOML said it well "You don’t see Musharraf Crying" and that’s true maybe he is an insensitive SOB, I don’t think so I like to believe that he knows there is a time for crying and a time for strength.

My other point is that the media, all around the world need to sell newspapers, they need to sell ad time for the TV stations, they need the scoop the angle that no one else has. So you potential could get a front page of a black bag trash bag that had a body in it, or you get a banner headline 30000 feared dead in New Orleans, and when you read the articles you get even less information that is fact then if you read my blog. On the news you may have heared (or may one day hear) things like this "I haven’t seen any yet but I am told by police that there are hundreds of bodies floating in the city" "we understand from people who were inside at the time that there are gangs raping children as yet we are unable to confirm or refute this rumor " "We have had reports that the white house has been hit" " uh bob I am outside the white house now and I can confirm that it has not I repeat has not been hit although we have been evacuated" "thanks peter for that, well folks we have it confirmed that 2 planes have crashed into the twin towers, one into the pentagon, one in Pennsylvania and unconfirmed reports of a strike on the white house"
Panic, disaster, death, all these things sell. That’s why we don’t have a good news only report, cause no one would watch it or so they believe. Ultimately we must decide what to believe, just like governments who use the press for information we need to sift through reports and gleam the truth, unlike us however governments feed the beast. The press as a holy truthful institution is gone (did it ever exist?), its job is to SELL the news, not as they claim PROVIDE it. Governments and people like us should start to realize this. All news ventures be they papers, tv or even online are affected by parameters outside or view, be they government regulations and controls, a liberal publishing policy or a conservative one, and of course a financial one. Looking at the evloution of THE NEW PAPER will show how a solid news driven afternoon paper has turned around to become a sensationalist tabloid, which is in the black financially.

Don’t believe everything you read...in the papers.

Another week older.....

So another busy weekened has come and gone, friday night met up with brad, richard and gang for drinks at ice cold..i havent been there in ages actually i havent been anywhere in ages. From ice cold we proceeded to " the bar that shall not be named" where brad decided to do a runner and disapeared! I have been instructed by TLOML that i am not to visit this place again, i suppose this is because of a certain kissing incident that occured, dont worry its not as bad as it seems! lol. The place was not bad lah but not really my scene, i am an ice cold/ crazy elephant sorta guy so i reckon i will stick to what i know. So that was friday, sat i had to work..bleh. which meant i missed the wedding of geri and sebas..bummer. I may have missed the mass but i wasnt going to miss the dinner! i had a great time, had a couple of drinks WHILE OTHERS who shall not be named had 1 beer and were sloshed. saw many old firends and some old foes as well...peace was made with some while with others the cold war continues.The bride looked beautiful esp when she changed her gown, her dad was super proud cant say i blame him. The groom who is a great guy was seen enjoying himself dancing with a certain aussie boy. anyway that was saturday. Sunday met the doo and the doo's bro at bedok res for the wakeboarding comeptition..due to some unforseen circumstances i was rather late..but i did catch the semi and the finals. very exciting to watch this wake boarding and i am sure if i could swim i would be great at it..maybe even world champion...who knows. lots of cameras on show as well many many L lenses as well..what i enjoyed was seeing people with their dogs and kids spending a nice day out in the sun. they should think about putting up misting machines for the girls in bikinis to cool off since swimming in the pool is a nono. so that was sunday. and now i am back at work and i feel myself aging as i sit in this office.....i cant wait till friday.....or even thursday..anyday but monday and tuesday....

The bloody FIA is at it again, messing with the rules of that greatest of sports F1 i have no idea what theya re trying to prove, this year was one of the most exciting seasons they have had for a couple of years and once again they want to change things. MAX MOSELY you suck.

Hospital......boots....

The patient, smiling as always. went down to visit him again today, once again Mark and Frodo went with me but this time we had another guest, brad from oz, yes folks the fletcher is back in town for the wedding this saturday. Anyway back to the patient, looks in good shape he will be undergoing some test tom but he hopes to be out tom evening. From what we all thought was a little bruise to almost 4 months of recovery and back to the hospital, tough run this fella is having.
Frodo, and Mark another two hard working boys who always seem to have bad luck.


And here he is my ex altar boy gone reggae ozzie boy, good to have this one back for abit even if its just 7days.... the new boots are here....a bitter sweet day. I guess its time to retire the old buggers, they have served me well as i have saidbefore..30months of total abuse if you compare the soles of the old and the new you will see the difference.
Brad got two pairs for me, a black and a brown..get those tom..whoo hoo/boo hoo.

missing in action ...the poor sole

The Buck Protege..

While trying to cut some nylon cord i found myself struggling, the knife just doesnt cut as well as it used too...mostly my fault. After three years of use and abuse, cutting rope, cable and wire..slashing bush and branch..even the odd birthday cake, i find the blade that has served me so well..buggered. I have never sharpened it, and although i doubt that it will help i shall give it a try...The Buck Protege..soon to rest in peace







Have a look at the damaged blade, pits like craters on the moon
I reckon its time to retire the old fella and find myself a new one..

0ne hour in the park, and The Indian Patient

In a one hour period i must have seen over 10 of these lizards up some pretty low trees, thats a record for me.
This also shows how fast and well an introduced species can adapt and multiply in a new environment, these lizards were introduced in the 80's and now they are all over the place
Changeable Lizard






The Collared Kingfisher----this pic isnt very good but as i am a fan of kingfishers .......











Went to visit young Sherwin(the indian patient as opposed to the english patient) in the hospital, after visiting hours u need to obtain a visitor pass from the security counter, they didnt really check anything and i think it was more for show then anything else. Anyhooo the patient was in ward 26 bed 17 (for those of you who are 4d fans..) and when i strolled into his room our friend was eating a RAMLI burger!! smuggled in by his other partners in crime, so far no updates on his condition other then they did a bit of an op and he has to lay up for abit.