Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The song remains the same...

I used to have a band. It was one that was formed during secondary school. It was more than just an ordinary band. It was more like our very own elusive club. We spent more time hanging out than creating music. I must admit it was fun and enjoyable cause we seemed to forget the world and our personal problems whenever we were together as a "Band". When we did set down to play music, it was more like an outlet for us to vent our frustrations and "Let it all out".

However, the normal singaporean issues like NS,Career,family etc took control of our lives. We slowly had no time for each other and started to break away. I guess it does not have to be that way. It's really up to us to set aside time for the things we like to do. We just can't sit down doing nothing and complain that we don't have time. Time is always waiting for us.

Recently, a chance meeting on a taxi reunited my dad with his childhood buddy. The moment they met, they embraced each other like long lost brothers. It was very touching and i never seen my dad being so much happier.I knew they missed each other's friendship and all the lost time between them. They are now organising a reunion wih all their other childhood friends...I'm sure they would have alot to talk about.

We often take things for granted in life....friendships just happen to be one of those things.However I realised that no matter how much we achieved in life, how expanded our family had grown, it can never replace the feelings built by friendships. It's something so natural that happens in almost everyone's life. I reckon this was also a sign to tell me how much i missed my own buddies and get things going by reuniting the band and start....ROCKING ALL OVER AGAIN.

Friday, November 17, 2006

American Idiot

If you want to know how i felt about the reception that was given to the most hated and worst US President of all time who visited singapore a few days ago...I shall simply put it as "tasteless".

Yet again, It seems a significant number of singaporeans have publicly shown how much they idolize George Bush and all his ideals. The crowd present at his address at NUS hall even gave him a standing ovation. I was wondering whether all of them had forgotten the fact that he's responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people in iraq ? Or were they applauding for the blatant fact that he had achieved all that ? Utterly disappointing yet expected.

I reckon alot of people here expected his speech to be about terrorism and how to suppress islamic insurgency. However as I expected, he rarely mentioned anything about terrorism due to his apparent failure in the middle east. Iraq is in a disastrous state of collapse and anyone who does not acknowledge that is definately in a state of denial.This must have come as a disappointment to many here including the local media which keeps on fuelling the fear and anger by harping constantly about terrorism and it's threats. George Bush has probably learnt his lesson and moved on, i suggest singapore follow suit. Let's talk about something else for a change.

Friday, November 10, 2006

A Shopper's Paradise ?...Not just yet.

Singapore had always famed itself as being the ultimate shopper's paradise destination in asia. This has been one of the tourism board's main strategy to lure tourists into the country. However this is a claim that can be easily disputed. I think most savvy travellers would realise that the real shopper's paradise are located all over Thailand and Malaysia where you can really get your money's worth on virtually any item found under the sun. I guess singapore is more suited for it's convenience because of the fact it is a small island, with a good infrastructure and transport system which is seriously lacking in other asian countries.

Recently i bought a new pair of POLICE sunglasses from Mustafa Center for a reasonable price of $160. It was one of the latest models on sale. A few weeks later, I happened to visit the newly opened VIVOCITY Shopping mall and i was shocked to find that the same sunglasses i bought was on sale at a shop there for $200. This was a $40 dollar difference for the same original model. This was outrageous and can be called "daylight robbery". I think the lesson here is that we must learn to be more careful when spending our hard earned money especially in all these so called upmarket shopping malls.