well it kept me out of trouble.

Its been a heck of a christmas, havent had dinner at home since the 22nd of Dec, and still got a week of activities to go! Lots to write but not tonight. For now just a repost of pics i messed with.

edited.ubin

How all great trapeze artist get their start.

Past and Present.

Above, maybe 15years ago? Below the same place last month.

:)

Upon picking up the Scythe, Leroy unwittingly became the Angel of Death.

Another day another rant.

Ok I am back again with another rant.

I extracted this from a Time.com article its written by Robin Wright.

""Grand Ayatullah Hossein Ali Montazeri was known as Iran's defiant cleric, first in challenging the autocratic rule of the Shah, and then later in confronting the very revolution he had helped foment. Now, the big question in Tehran is whether his sudden death of will catalyze a broader showdown between the regime and the opposition Green Movement.""

It seems pretty normal right? well its all good till you get to the part that says "his sudden death"

THE MAN WAS 87years old how sudden could it have been! In a country where the average life ends at 71yrs! he went on and surprised everyone by dying suddenly at 87.
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On the other hand Brittany Murphy has died at age 32, news reports are saying it was due to natural causes and police don't suspect any foul play. Who knows at this point her death is still so fresh...but wait the genius Josh Groban knows here is his latest tweet ""Hollywood loses another bright soul....how many more? A decade of decadence and devastation. Time to wake up."" Yes its because of a decade of decadence and devastation that she is dead. Well done Josh. you know it was because of decadence. It cant be an inherited deceases, it cant be heart failure it cant be cancer nono it must be decadence. my vote for idiot of the week Mr. Josh Gorban.
Late addition it now seems that the poor girl was taking pain killers, and was violently ill just before she died. Josh Groban- still and idiot.

So what

So will he or wont he? Mr. Chiam See Tong, defender of the people of Potong Pasir, Mp for 25 years the man responsible for the victories in the early 90's which lasted till his party imploded. I kinda like the guy, i think he is a legend. In terms of Singapore politics he is the most successful opposition politician we have, is he in the same heavy weight league as LKY i doubt it especially in terms of debate. In fact I don't think we have a politician in Singapore that can take on LKY in terms of debate, the sheer weight of his knowledge and experience is insurmountable. Back to the question will he or wont he? Rumors abound in the press that he is considering going into battle again but on another battlefield this time he wants the PAP heavyweight Wong Kan Seng who is has not been challenged in his GRC ward since its inception . unchallenged=untested? Maybe Mr. Chiam feels Mr. Wong Kan Seng is ripe for the picking in light of the Mas Selemat issue (should a minister resign for that kind of lapse? i don't think so but hey who am i). If Mr. Chiam goes for a grc and takes it, politics in Singapore will take on a totally unchanged view. Yes that is what I think, people will get excited, gossip will flourish there will be heady conversation in coffeshops and taxi's but in reality it will change nothing. The opposition will still be eunuch like in Parliament where they will have enough votes to do anything. Well one difference will be more debate ..,i hope. If he throws it all on this election knowing it is probably his last one and walks away from Potong Pasir, I would vote for him for his willingness to walk away from a sure thing and risk his undefeated legacy in an effort to push politics forward. Maybe there will be no change but it could be the beginnings of change.

Copenhagen, so in the end nothing happened..the leaders of the "free" world had great press in the run up to the event but in the end it was just a lot of people talking about something they all didn't agree about but lets get a statement out anyway. The great changes that the press lead us all to believe in terms of the environment have come to nought. Oh there is a statement, there is an agreement but its all smoke and mirrors yet again. Super President Obama flew in to save the day but alas he met his mini Waterloo in Copenhagen. Spin wise he will say we have reached an historic (he loves that word) agreement where the world has come together to fight climate change but we are a long way off from where we need to be. He will say that or something like that i am sure.

Al Gore says the Arctic or is it the Antarctic will melt within 7 years. I better get my scuba licence soon.

Tiger Woods has had 14 affairs, well to be honest 14 women have come forward about their alleged affairs, he has just said he buggered it up with his wife. So it could be 1 or 400 for all we know. The question people have been asking is How could a guy be so dumb, we thought he was a smart guy. Yeah he doesn't say much in interviews, he dresses nice, plays well decent looking and plays the sport of the elite and we expect him to be a genius instead of a lying cheating man who seems to like waitresses. SEE its all about the packaging isn't it? The people who created Brand Tiger should be proud, of course he is a great golfer in terms of play but to hear people talk about golf its also a mindset, a type of person that typifies great golfers and maybe he isn't that guy? Is he going to get the Bears record? Who knows. What about his wife and kids...how do you untangle this mess.

And on a a final note in my round up of things that wont make a difference in your daily lives this week but will make you stop and think. Someone stole the infamous sign from Auschwitz "Freedom Through Work" People have been speculating its neo nazi's or its extreme right wing nationalist (er neo nazis?). I think its just a bunch of hoodlums who should be sent to live in a nice little jail somewhere like Tel Aviv.

Puppy.

Sherwin, Mark and I stumbled on this little puppy sometime back and well I just never took the time to post the pictures. There were actually 2 of them, a sibling that was a lovely black and tan colour with more tan then black. There were living in a caretakers shack so i suppose they will be turned out into the world someday...:(

clouds illusions i recall

My post on tradition, and i guess the fact that its Christmas have sort of put me in a hmm I'd say melancholic mood but that would just be overly dramatic, its not a black dog day either so maybe i will just say a shadow has passed over me just for the time being. We have been cleaning up the study for our new desks (yes we bought 2) and Caitlin found some old pictures. Some from my time in school, my parents wedding my family my days as an altar boy of pets long gone and family now departed. That would put anyone in under a cloud i reckon (Carly Simon belting away with coming around again is NOT helping)

Most days i miss them, my father, my Bil, my godfather and Uncle Mark. Today its Uncle Mark. I was thinking about how little i knew of him his past his life his loves his family. All i knew was the man, a good man who did so much for others to the point of giving all of himself. Why did he do it? was he just a nice guy, was he seeking redemption for some sin in the past I don't know i never thought to ask. When he died, we his family his boys rallied around and gave him a send off fitting a great guy. I collected his body, i told his children i sat by his coffin. I know we were all there, his boys but I had to do these things and these are the things that stick by me he was my first friend to die. I remember how when we travelled we would talk for hours on anything under the sun. His answer to every problem was the same whats for lunch, and it always ended the same with him saying "standard dropped" with regards to a shop where the food has tasted the same for 30yrs or so!

I know he would have spoilt Caitlin rotten, he would have been sad for the friendships that have died, happy for those that have formed and he would tell me when the worst happens, there is nothing to do but have lunch.

I almost lost a friend today or rather almost lost a friendship that is important to me so I want to say a word on friendship. Sometimes you fight you disagree and things come to pass and its easier to be silent with your anger or pain. Nothing good comes from this, cause one day you will write an email to tell your friend what a rotten person he is and how horrid he has been to you, and its hard to walk back from that. Sometimes you just loose sight of each other in the medley that is daily life and you find you are both singing different songs after time apart. Its not the end, friendships endure, love is stronger then we think. So if this Christmas, you find yourself out on a ledge somewhere and you think you have no one to pull you back in, think again somewhere in your past is someone who will come find you, all you have to do is call.

We don't have to be friends we should want to be.

well maybe that pesky cloud is shifting, have a nice night. :)

Traditions

As Christmas comes closer, I have started to think about the traditions that have become part and parcel of of my life. ALL THINGS CHANGE. I don't like it but they do, when I was a kid Christmas was a whirlwind of peoples houses, playing and parties. Laughter, dancing, drinking all common place in my house. When my siblings got married and started to leave Singapore things changed I guess as they had to. My folks stopped going for mid night mass, people got older the parties more sedate. When my father died it seemed most of the traditions went with him, so we started our own.
(for years I would meet Iggy for dinner on Christmas eve but alas that too has changed) Midnight in Church with friends who come back to my home for something warm to eat and something cold to drink. I have a friend who I see only on Christmas Eve after mass at my house, this year he wont be there and he took the effort to tell me and i have to say it surprised me how it affected me.

On the family front it was brunch at my sisters place and even when my bil left us we carried on with that. This year will be different my nephew and mum will be with my Australian family so brunch will be in my house. At first i was annoyed, you know its tradition we have to go there and we have to eat the special omelet and the bacon and stuff, then it dawned on me what I really didn't like was having my nephew and mum away for Christmas and as it turns out that's not traditional that's LIFE.

These events, they stand like markers through our lives. Christmas, Birthdays and everything else but we begin to tie ourselves so tightly to the traditions that the reason for having these markers is quickly forgotten. While we may not be religious and tend to forget the reason for Christmas, lets not forget the reason for us gathering together. Its so that family and friends can BE together to BE with each other, it matters not if I don't have lights on the tree or my open house is in Jan instead of Dec, what matters is that we are open to the idea that there will be change and it doesn't matter as long as we are together. This year I who am tied to more traditions than most have decided that the my New Years resolution shall be, Cut the strings of traditions and just enjoy each other. (at least i will try)

Random

Buloh-from the files.

Ama Keng-from pictures not posted.

Ama Keng on Lim Chu Kang Road, a place I stopped off many years ago as a young soldier desperate for a cold drink after 4 days in the field I remember thinking even then what a far out ulu place this was. Years later I came back with some friends and we stopped off for a another drink and a potter around the hardware shop that was filled with equipment that no Singaporean would ever need use on our very much non agricultural land. The people have gone, the shops, the homes, the laughter, the problems, the neighbours everything gone except the shell that is ama keng.

You would almost expect to see the mushroom cloud behind the buildings eh. I found this image to be rather poignant .

Like silent artillery guns abandoned in the field of conflict once the battle has ceased and combatants on both sides retire to lick their wounds.

The market.

What is it about man that compels him to make his mark.

I found the empty houses devoid of any semblance of family life or individuality. At least that's what I thought at first, but each empty unit was different from the next. From the colour of the paint on the walls, to the type of flooring, you can just feel some of the flats still have that sense of house "proudness" their previous occupiers had.

Someday when the world is void of mankind and our skyscrapers stand testament to the folly that was human kind, nature and its many arms would have reconquered her world. Life always finds a way doesn't it.

Signs of life, Military life.

Empty houses, windows with no glass and doors with no locks and no reason for them. A shell of a once thriving little community. A shell of a once warm home. I wonder about the people who lived here, who grew up here and from here launched into life, school, work, marriage,parenthood and the whole gamut of human experience a person growing up in Ama Keng could expect.

A very basic design as far as public housing goes, a couple of low rise slab blocks wrapped around a market area, with some of the ground floor units being shop houses.

There will never be another place like this. I wonder if the people who lived here before come back just to look around and feel intouch with the past.

Sidebar-typos spelling areas are good for you. god bless.
All pictures have been reduced in size. None of them are for artistic purposes.

:)

:)

Just 1 pic.

Its abit grainy ..

med fashion.

Is this not the prettiest pill you have ever seen? Its called INAC-TR and its a pain killer.

Edited.

When i post my pictures on the blog i will normally resize them and sometimes adjust the contrast. But for this one i did abt more editing. still needs work but its my desktop wallpaper for now.