People Watching (Srinagar, Kashmir)

Almost forget the login info for this blog..

Finally, i remembered it. Great to be back.

The World Needs You To Do What You Love

A cousin passed away early morning on last thursday, leaving behind 2 children who are in universitiy..not really close with her but every CNY, her family will visit my house and she loves my mum's cooking. She stands out among my other relatives coz she's the only one among them tat speaks English. Even my bro remembered her as "the speak english relative". The saddest thing was, my cousin's mum (my aunt) was not informed about her passed on until 2 days later as our relatives are worried she cannot take the blow. My aunt is recovering from a serious illness. They finally broke the news to her on Sat morning and she seems calm. I know she must be crying hard inside her heart.

Another friend told me on Friday that her primary school friend passed away recently coz she didnt update her Facebook for such a long time. Upon checking with her other friends, they told her "she passed away". Gosh..my friend had a rude shock! She is only 35.

It is better to do what we love instead of regretting if we were to pass away suddenly..*emo*

And i spotted this:
http://zenhabits.net/2009/09/the-world-needs-you-to-do-what-you-love/

Life is all about flow. The more we resist, the more pain we feel. Read a book before and it said that resistance is what a pebble experience in the stream. It is resisting the stream of water and the water hit hard on it.

If we go against what our heart's desires, everyday is a terrible day. It is like walking zombies..by then, time has already passed and cannot be turned back.

Last night, dreamt i was at hide live..i dunno why but i just appeared as a happy and excited fan at hide's concert.. upon waking up, was wondering wat the heck i went to japan again..coz i dont think i will go there anymore.

The M guy who was supposed to buy diru's goods for my fren seems half hearted to buy..smsed him on sun morning and sun nite, he replied "oh, i nearly forgotten,,will try to get it..u may pay me when i return to spore." Err, i think i will end up like maki..

Browsed the EOY site just now n saw that the booth application has opened. Had applied and is waiting for approval..look forward to receive the goods news soon.

Kawaii Meat buns or Pringles Night Club Potato Chips anyone?

So Kawaii
http://www.alafista.com/2009/09/06/kawaii-meat-buns/

Pringles Night Club Potato Chips
http://www.alafista.com/2009/06/27/pringles-night-club-potato-chips/

This site is sooo enjoyable.
http://www.alafista.com/

Glad that Vonnie enjoyed her boys live last night! ^^ Dear Vonnie, Thanks alot for the live updates via sms!!

Singapore is world's 2nd most densely populated country

Check this out..cant imagine what will happen if we hit 6million people. Think will have difficulty breathing while walking on the streets, due to air and environment pollution (eg, spitting and littering).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

2nd aunty's daughter will be moving into a new condo in Oct. My mum was kinda envious. 2nd aunt said "coz her condo now is near mrt, so her baby daughter (4mths) cant sleep well). Told my mum "strange lor, before she move in, she shld have checked the ammenities right? Why only now then realised it is noisy?". Anyway, told my mum now sporeans buying condo is like regular shopping. Queues everywhere,,like weekends at courts and major shopping malls. Same scenarios for the 2 LV stores along Orchard road. Told LP if i want to buy LV, i will buy it in Paris, London or Tokyo,,not queueing it in Spore!

Yday the armour ring customer replied again after mia for 1-2weeks. She said "if i order size 15 and if it cant fit me, can u help me resize or change another size?" STUPID QUESTION! If u buy a VW version, u cant even change, let alone a 35bucks replica version. Replied in a nice way and she paid to order "to take the risk" since i said no exchange or refund if it cant fit.

India seems to have serious H1N1 now,,im wonder if i still shld proceed with my trip,,zzz

lembek cashier and kuku customers

Was at bata (jurong pt branch) this evening coz my mum wanted to buy a pair of shoes. The aunty staff was kinda half hearted in serving us..she seached for the size and let my mum tried it,,after that,,she went MIA (perhaps went to serve other customers) and totally forgotten about us. My mum wanted to try another pair but there were no other staffs in sight. i went to the cashier and saw one uncle (presumely the boss..he was accepting payment from another customer). So, told the uncle i need size 6 for this pair (hand him the shoe). He took it and passed to another staff in the store room.

The Indian staff was quite fast n swift..she pass us the pair of shoes within 5mins. My mum decided to bought this pair. Saw the aunty sales staff walked pass and told her we dont want the 1st pair. She merely signalled leave it there. So, i went to the cashier to make payment while my mum sat on the seat.

Nobody at the cashier..then, came a guy who was on the phone. He wasnt on uniform,,so i tot perhaps he was checking stock or something.. then, he scanned my box and i realised he was serving me (still on the phone). Hand him the 50bucks and i turned my head to look at some stuffs at the side. When i turned back, the guy was gone! He left my change on the cashier table,,i was astonished! Is it so difficult to stop talking on the phone when serving customers? It is the most most basic manner. He should at least take 30sec off to inform customer to collect the change personally instead of just leaving it on the table.

Encountered some kuku questions today. yes, both are from Sporeans. Customer A wants to order a cd from an online shop. The shop ships overseas (a japanese site but all info is in english) and can accept payment in US$ (it is good,,coz now yen is more ex than US$). So, told him to order himself coz it is cheaper if he does it himself..

Customer B wants all the info abt the armour ring..sent her all the pics and dimension calculation website. she said her size is 5.5cm in circumference and told her according to the site, it is size 15. Size 17 also can if she dont want it to be soo tight as it is only 2.8mm difference. She replied "but i got a ring that is size 17,,circumference rite?" HUH? what qn is tat??

I get irritated by such customers because really encountered alot, 9 out of 10 such questions are from Spore. Self confession: I do no like to serve kuku Singaporeans!

A new and interesting customer from today's order. She is a Hong kong girl but her parents migrated to Ireland when she was very young. She speaks cantonese, english,irish and mandarin. She's not sure why her parents choose Ireland to migrate..these are brave people who have the courage to choose an almost unknown destination. Perhaps i will migrate to Sicily, Baracay or Timbuktu!

I was thinking if i should go backpack around asia or save more $ and travel around Europe..im not sure which is a better choice. My sis in law said it is better to go to the country i hope to visit most. Somehow, it is tempting to visit asia coz the air tickets are really cheap.. as for the locations,,it is mostly countrysides (eg,,.Vietnam,indonesia, cambodia). Im not sure if i like it or not coz it might reminds of malaysia coz of the similarities (if any). So far, im only interested in India. If i want to travel around the world,,surely, i must visit asia..it is a matter of sooner or later..

Last week, an Austria customer said she went to Germany for D'espairsRays lives. Prior to this trip, she was in Slovenia (her homeland but worked in Austria). She said there are cheap flights within Europe (something like our budget airlines) so she can even go to neighbouring countries over the weekends.

She introduced this:
http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

Shall try it out when i visit Europe.

X Japan, show me ur music, not goods! Yoshiki had a neck operation on Monday in the US. Hope he is fine and dandy.

X Japan's $$$ generating machine strikes again

Im soo disappointed with this band,,where is their good ole days music??

http://www.xjapan.ne.jp/members/store/

The prices for all the goods are eye popping,,esp dog accessories..well, it is not Tiffany, Cartier or Bvlgari,,zzzz

A Man who lived without money for the past 10years

Came accross an interesting article today..something for us to reflect on life.

http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_9817

Daniel Suelo's blog

http://www.zerocurrency.blogspot.com/

This article reminds me of a book (cant remember the title) which has a line "Nature takes care of all living things on earth". It meant the world is an abundance place for all living things, whether you have money or not. It is very difficult for our current society to understand.

Last few days discovered i have dark eye rings..urrgghhh...coz i have the habit to sleep after 2am daily... zzzz

Stupid mrt officer fines a communter for having sweets in her mouth

Stupid and no common sense mrt official..watch the video..
http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/07/no-eating-in-mrt.html#links

Pls do not eat sweets in the mrt..

i feel this mrt officier (mr "Fool") merely wants to show that he is doing his job instead of using his common sense..or we have became a society of trained robots?

My shoulders are aching now...

Speak Mandarin in Japan?!

Now there is more than half a million Chinese Nationals in Japan. Perhaps in the near future, schools in Japan will introduce Chinese and Korea language for their Junior High School.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/registered-foreign-population-in-japan-hits-record-high-221-million

Many tourist spots and shopping malls now have directories and voice overs in Chinese and Korea (besides the regular English). Some food eateries and fast food has English and Mandarin menus too. It is no longer difficult to travel in Japan if you do not understand Japanese.

Cool Japan McDonald's Tees

Click the button under the rose tee,,,50 lovely tees from McDonald Japan. Soo creative!~
http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/quarter-pounder/bara-t.html

Cool weather lately...finally...

Since Sun nite, momotaro was having problem with his breathing,,,he huffs loudly for a few mins while sleeping. I woke him up, pat him and he is ok. Then, the huffing strike again..pat him again and gave him some water,,he just gubbled all and went back to sleep.. the next morning,,he huffs a few times when he woke up.. i wonder what is wrong with him...seems like asthma attack ...i dun dare to feed him red meat anymore..only steamed fish or chicken with veggies.

This Sat and sun is cosfest at downtown east but im not going to travel from west to east.

Michael Jackson's ghost? In 3hrs time, MJ's Memorial will begin in LA. Long Live the King of Pop!

Father Host --> Happy Father's Day

Yesterday Father host received my Father's Day present. It is 6 bottles of Tiger beer, and 1 kg each of chilli sausages and skinned potatoes. Just received his pic. He said he has a long lunch coz he's enjoying the food today.

Just came back from a meet up. On the train home, saw a group of Indian tourists (their skin was quite fair though), mostly aunties and a few uncles. There were 2 empty seats opp me. The aunties rushed in and 2 of them quickly took up the 2 seats. Many of their friend have no seats. So,, they made space in between them so one of their friend can sit. 2 seats for 3 persons.

One of them even pointed at my direction, asking an uncle (from their group) to squeeze and seat in any space along my row. Phew, the uncle didnt do it..

Their builts were semi-obease type and immediately after the 3rd auntie took the seat, the passengers on both side quickly made space for them. A young man on the right stand up after he felt uneasy coz it was really squeezy. After the young men emptied his seat, the ladies quickly asked another friend (an uncle) to occupy the young man's seat. Wah lau,,,3 seats with 4 passengers!! Heng, it was my time to alight without seeing other passenger's expressions.. Cant imagine if their were our "Foreign Talents".

I think their mentality is perhaps, in India, they are used to Not seeing any empty space whether on the seats or standing area since ive watched on tv that Indians even stand along the staircase/doors or even on the top of their trains. They felt such a waste to see empty spots on our trains...so die die must occupy.

worsen local job market

Last sat went out with a customer, K. She had graduated from poly , IT course this year. She said her lecturer is helping graduates to find jobs in related area but all salaries starts from S$12oo. It was really shocking to hear this. I thought such range is for O level holders in admin or sales job. Now, even IT field also offers such low wages. Since K does not like IT jobs, she found a job with NEA (National Environmental Agency) as admin staff, same starting salary too and it is a 6months contract. After that, she dont know what is her fate.

Had durian this evening after dinner...it is the 2nd time i had durians within a week. The first time was last Sat. Sis in law said "the durian seller told me D-24 series will debut this week! I am eagerly waiting". She is a big fan of D-24 durians. Last year, my mum, my bro, my sis in law and me went to Outram park to eat D-24 durians. It was ex but was really worth it. It is king among all the durian range.

Received a surprised sms for a customer today. J send her greetings saying weather is hot and do take care of myself. So sweet of her. Her sis is Alice 88th's regular but not sure if her sis still buys from Alice.

Last night, our "recession proof" customer smsed me from UAE. She was testing if i could receive sms from her coz sometimes she might not be online but have urgent things to inform. She will go to Japan on this Sat for the next 3 weeks, chionging teppei and A9. The hotels she stayed are 5 stars ones..my supplier cant help but asked "her father is an oil baron?" hahaha. I said "perhaps or she has a $ printer at home". This customer said she takes taxis in Japan coz she dont know hw to take train. Train is too slow..she wants to go to the places fast. Not sure if she takes cab from Osaka to Tokyo and then back to Osaka coz she has not heard of JR pass...

Lembek cpf system

See the last chart for a clearer picture.

http://wayangparty.com/?p=10028

Last year, a friend of mine was out of job. She does not want to take up part time jobs and insists on getting a full time job with $ xxxx salary so with combination of her contribution and her employer's contribution, she can use the total sum in her cpf account to pay for her flat (co-own with her brother). I told her isnt it better to find 2 part time jobs, then contribute the full amount yourself rather than waiting for a full time job? She said no, she dont want to lose out on the free $ by employers. Last heard, she got one part time job...

2 days ago met my neighbour on the lift. She is an auntie and she knows i work for my fren and does the online biz. The first thing she asked 'ur fren got give u cpf anot?". I said no. She was soo shocked. I continued by saying 'i save the $ elsewhere that gives me better returns." Aunties loves our cpf system coz must use it to buy hdb flat. Was asking my mum hw much our flat cost when they first bought. it was about 30k. Now can sell for 200k. Appreciation?? If sell the old flat, must pay alot for the next flat..

Last night watched some X Japan live 5/30 in taiwan clips and Yoshiki went to Sichuan's clips. From some videos, can see some Taiwanese fans were openly fliming and taking photos of the live.

A few days ago in our chinese newspaper, there was a report tat our local singer, Liu Yida went to the X Japan live in taiwan and he snapped many photos. He had a brawl with the bouncers. He said he wanted to capture this memory as he is a big X Japan fan. So disgraceful, esp he is an artiste ( a small one) himself. A-Mei and Luo Zhixiang also went to X Japan live. A-Mei wept when the screen show's X Japan's happier time during the song, Without You. Luo Zhixiang said he is a X Japan fan coz he played X Japan songs with his band when he was younger But he does not know the vocalist name,,he only said "hide". Thus, there was a comment saying he came to "cou re nao".

X Japan 5/2 live

Some clear clips of X Japan 5/2 live. Just realised today that i havent been searching for these clips at youtube.

Just realised the announcer announced " Guitarist - Sugizo". I dont remember hearing it though..maybe im too tired after 6hrs under the sun. All i knew was, once i found my seat and put down all my stuffs, the lights went off,,omg,,im soo thankful im in time to catch the opening. However, was surprised it started almost on time (only 30mins late).

Only knew Sugizo became an Official X Japan's member after the live coz Kaori told me. We met outside tokyo dome coz i was soo late by the time i went in the dome. Our original plan was either she came to my seat or i went to her seat.

No photos taken by myself from this live,,my biggest regret (and blunder).

Nontheless, it was an exhilarating live, esp when Toshi first opened his mouth/sang. I am very happy his voice came back. I feel that only Yoshiki, Toshi and Sugizo is enjoying this live.

I dont think i will go to any of X Japan's live anymore coz somehow, even for this live, it is no longer the X Japan that i use to like. This "new" X Japan, is too commercialise for my taste.

Very "scared" of this song, Without You coz the big screen will play X Japan's happier times and make fans think of hide. Many fans cried during this song. I ren..

Taromomo?

This evening my mum yelled from the kitchen "Taromomo! U want some guava?" I cant believe my ears,,Taromomo?!! hahaha. Actually Taromomo sounds nice too,,hahaha. He ate 2 slices of seedless guava.

Last night met with M. She said her friend's Dashchund (hotdogt dogs) gave birth to 4 mini hotdog dogs 8mths ago and gave one of them to our another friend. Mini Dashchunds must be very cute..it is black in colour too. Told Momotaro last night if he needs a new friend,,his younger relative..hahaha

So long didnt blog coz im lazy...cant sleep well since i came back from my trip. I dont know why,,perhaps weather too hot? My eye bags and dark circle ring are popping out...

Read an sms last night around 12.3oam..it's from a customer. She bought a set of diru's guitar pick set 2years ago and haggled for discount. This time round, she wanted some discounts for 2 x japan's goods. Said cant coz tat time is use expensive yen to buy de,,so cant give discount. Well, didnt even give her discount for diru's pick set 2 years ago,,wat makes her think this time round, she will get the discount? She's kinda persistent,,pester till 1.15am..of coz, didnt give her discount. She gave up and said "ok, when can u meet?" She asked about buying from Taobao site,,said i dun have a lobang, she can google coz there are some sites tat does Taobao sprees. She said she dun trust these sites. Finally,,i can sleep at 1.45am..

Mt. Hua Shan 華山

I want to go to Mt. Hua shan but i dont want to climb this. Not sure if it is possible...

A PRC friend told me that Hua Shan is x4 times higher than Mt. Huangshan.. He had climbed it before and thus Mt. Huangshan is an easy task for him. Im vice versa,,Mt. Huangshan already taken "half my life" to climb...

Saw a similar picture of this climbing on the internet. At the end of this trail, there is a small restaurant or temple. If you lose your balance, then Sayonara..








Not sure which mountain is this. It sure looks scary..

Who says the economy is bad?

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=270392720080

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=270392494290

At Mountain Top

Beautiful Mt. Huangshan

Filthiest dorm at Mt.Huangshan

Finally can upload this clip. Check out the floor in the last few seconds

This place was so filthy that i had to sleep with my hood-jacket, to cover my head from the "3mths didnt wash* bedsheets. I wore jeans to sleep too and covered my feet with socks. In summary, im all wrapped up.