Wisdom no more

Had my wisdom tooth extraction today. Was a bit apprehensive because of the need to operate on it, as the tooth was growing horizontally towards my molar and getting near to a nerve. Part of its roots was entrenched behind some bone, so need to shave a bit of the bone...eee, sounds scary...

The dentist administered 4 injections around the tooth on the 4 different nerves near it so as to minimize any pain during the surgery. He had to saw my tooth into 4 parts in order to remove it completely, and also as I mentioned, the bone-sawing to get to the roots. Anyway, by sheer bad luck, the aircon in the clinic broke down, so he was sweating non-stop while having tug-of-war with my wisdom tooth. The whole procedure lasted slightly more than an hour, and all of us - dentist and nurse and myself - were exhausted by the time everything was over (I was exhausted trying to counter his tugging of my tooth, yet I didn't dare to move much either lest my movements cause accidental slips and..*shudders). I also had to have my upper tooth removed because it was part of "a pair" with the wisdom tooth. With the wisdom tooth's demise, this unlucky tooth will have nothing to bite on, so it had to be removed too, and this was done in under 5mins. Anyway, I had to bite on a gauze to apply pressure on the now-empty tooth socket to stop bleeding.

Now on a 5-day MC...before you start envying me, it's nothing to be happy about, because I can only take liquid diet/porridge on the first day (I could only have a Milo before taking the painkiller, and after that had to go hungry for some 8 hours after). I was listless and lethargic the whole day because of the loss of blood, though I just had to go get The New Paper just as to read reports on Liverpool's win - HOORAY! Liverpool's win gave me the courage to face my fears of the surgery...haha...

Alamak, I now feel a bit stupid without the wisdom tooth, how? *Snigger*

Liverpool - King of Europe !

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS !!! !!! Come on Reds, let's paint the town red today!!! Our 5th Champions League title, the best in England ever!

"Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone...YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!"

Disgraceful incidents spotted during the Big Walk

Went for the New Paper Big Walk today like I did in previous years, but decided to start around the main road around 10mins away from the starting point so could take some pictures of the walk from the overhead bridge. There were many others who apparently shared the same thoughts and waited at a nearby bus stop. When the leading competitive walkers came into view, we applauded and cheered them on. However, some mins later when some competitive walkers who had fallen behind and were doing the catching-up act, a group of young teens started off from the bus-stop and flooded the pavement as well as the road, effectively blocking the way of the competitive walkers. Can't they blurddy see that there are people who were competing here? Can't they just wait when the other fun walkers had appeared before starting?

Anyway, some huffing later, when we were on Nicoll Highway near the Concourse, some of the competitive walkers were already completing their race on the other side of the road. Then I spotted a passer-by who were walking on the pavement on that side of the road suddenly started to approach one of the competitive walkers and imitated his arms-swinging and walking actions mockingly. He even followed the walker for a distance before rejoining his friends back on the pavement as he laughed hilariously. Man, I bet that competitive walker would have punched him in the face if not for the fact that he was still in the race. Really can't imagine why some people can be so idiotic. I am also a little concerned about The New Paper's logistics issues wrt these few incidents. They should probably have had stationed more staff to better clear the way for the competitive walkers to ensure that they can race without distractions. Afterall, they had been doing this for 10 years, and should have more or less ironed out the chinks...shrugs.

We are expensive (?)

Many leading figures of our country always remind us the importance of keeping the labor costs down to maintain the competitiveness of the nation. What they forget to factor in are that why labor costs are much higher in Singapore than the rest of the region : the high cost of living. It's a catch 22 situation - high costs of living -> higher labor costs -> even higher costs of living -> even higher labor costs ->... ... ...

Don't keep lamenting why other countries are able to churn out cheaper labor than us, if you choose to "forget" to compare the differences between the costs of living. Perhaps try comparing the rises of labor compensation vs cost of living in Singapore for the past decade, and you tell me which is growing at a faster pace, then come tell us if we are really that "expensive" labor.

Mass public transport run by private companies

Whenever SMRT and SBS Transit want to raise fares, reasons given are always "rising operating costs" or "have not adjusted fares for 2 years".

I wonder the rationale of allowing private companies operating the public transport here. I recalled the reason given was that private companies "are more efficient", but having monopoly over the industry, they have no motivation for efficiencies, because instead of re-looking at the efficiencies of their own operations, they usually choose the easy way out of passing the costs to passengers. Why? Because they know we can't run away from them. No matter how much they raise the fares, we still need to take the transport.

Mass public transport is a necessity for most Singaporeans, and forms a very important part of the basket of goods for commoners like us who cannot afford our own private transport. Yet we are at the mercy of these 2 sole operators who have no competition and are very much in a very cushy comfort zone. We see their profits rise year after year, with a big chunk of it attributed to the fare increases which burn a deeper and deeper hole in our own pockets with every fare increase.

They justify fare increases (and thus fat profits) so as to answer to their shareholders, but who can we justify our increased costs to?

Orng-geh orng-geh~ (baby wail)

My colleague just gave birth this afternoon! =) But since I am backing her up, it also means that I will be very loaded...hope we get a temp soon...~

Drunk zzz

Never been drunk before, until the past weekend that is >_<

Went to friend's wedding which served really marvellous chardonnay. I am not a good drinker, but the chardonnay was so easy to down, almost like water (despite an alcohol content of 13.5%), so after after bottoming-up one too many, the group of us started to go mental and laughed at every single thing each other was saying, ie. basically making a nuisance of ourselves.

When we were staggering around, I just kept seeing bright lights and I felt asif the world was spinning around me. From that moment, I knewI was drunk, but I was still conscious enough to make my own way to the restroom, then...guess I shan't go into the details haha...all I can say is that the good food aka angpao money went to waste in the restroom of a certain hotel in Orchard... Anyway, I just collapsed the moment I reached home, but luckily I didn't suffer from any hangover the next morning. Notwithstanding that night's experience really jolted me into realizing my own "limits" and the dangers of bottoming up a seemingly harmless drink. All the more I can't understand why people can go "chiong" themselves drunk and throw up night after night without getting freaked out...the experience was so nightmarish!

Liverpool into Champions League final!

It happened - Liverpool beat Chelsea 1-0. Mourinho said the best team lost. Can't say I agree with him. But he can say whatever he wants, Chelsea is out. Way hey hey!

The irony is now that even if Liverpool does the near-impossible ie. beats AC Milan and wins the CL, they may still not be in the CL next season if they miss out on the 4th spot in Premier League...crazy manz...English FA is petitioning against that so we'll see...

Hooray Liverpool!

Singing along to our favorite Xinyao

Went to watch the "Wo Men De Xin Yao - Da Jia Chang" in Creative Amphitheatre last Sat evening. It was in support of the fund-raising for the 1st local puppetry stage group Finger Players. The entire amphitheatre was nearly full with approx. 2000 in the audience, which was a heartening attendance rate. The event lasted for nearly 4 hours, and buddy and I (and many others in the audience of course) sang ourselves hoarse with all the familiar local compositions which we grew up with.

The main grouse was the lyrics coordination. The lyrics of the songs being performed were shown on the big screen above the stage so everyone could sing along (that's the meaning of "da jia chang"), as well as on a smaller screen by the side. They were managed by 2 different personnel, so the speed coordination was understandably bad and that I can still live with. The problem is with lyrics sequence, missing verses and typos. A song usually comprises of verse, chorus, then repeat verse and chorus, sometimes bridge then ends with chorus (eg. V,C,V,C,B,C). In this case, they only typed out the verse, chorus and bridge ONCE, so when the singer repeated the verse, they had to scroll back to find where the verse was. The result was very messy coordination and the personnel who were scrolling the lyrics were as confused as the audience who were unable to follow the sequence. They used powerpoint so I don't understand how difficult it can be just to copy & paste the entire song verses in their proper sequence. Not to mention the numerous typos and failure to attribute some songs to their composers, which I see as a basic courtesy if you want to use their compositions. I understand that all the personnel worked on a voluntary basis, but that shouldn't excuse them from such shoddiness. Frankly, I could do a better job than that! >_<

Otherwise, the concert was a rather good trip down the memory lane. Would like to see more of such concerts, for people like us who support local compo, esp xinyao. It was a welcoming dose of fresh air amidst all the "noises" in the present music scene. Go Go, Local!

"Colorful" President

Read that our ex-Prez Dr Wee Kim Wee had just passed on at the age of 89.

I remembered that when I was in pr sch, in an effort to teach us to remember his name, our teacher used to refer to him as the "colorful" prez, because in Chinese "Huang Jin Hui" sounds like "Yellow Gold Grey". The name stuck throughout our school days...

I always remember him as a very smiling "uncle", always friendly and without temper. I even bought his autobiography last year, and the book revealed him as a very down-to-earth and caring "uncle-next-door" just like I always thought how he would be. Because of his affability, he will always be remembered as "people's prez"...

RIP, dear sir.