An old letter which I wrote, that did not make it into the Straits Times Forum page:

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I find it incredulous that so much public ire has arose over local blogger Wendy Cheng for declaring that loos for the handicapped are not just for the use of disabled people (‘All flushed over toilet blog’; ST, Oct 30). Does she really deserve it?

I wonder how many of those who have raised such a hue and cry are the same people I see everyday using those lifts meant for the disabled at MRT stations.

I had witnessed an unfortunate instance of a wheelchair-bound person having to wait for his turn to use the lift at Bedok MRT station, as the lift was full of able-bodied people. Those people should have checked to see if there were any disabled people around before making use of facilities meant for them, which is what Miss Cheng would have done obviously.

So long as priority is given to the disabled, I see nothing wrong with using their loos and ramps. Only certain facilities like carpark spaces and hawker centre tables should be reserved exclusively for them.

We should channel our furore more appropriately towards blatant smokers, drunk-drivers, bond-breakers, racist bloggers and extravagant charity organisation CEOs, rather than at bloggers who meant no harm with their remarks.

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Maybe talking about facilities for the disabled is a touchy topic? On the other hand, I see space in the Forum page given to inane letters querying about prices of McDonald's Extra Value Meals and Carl's Junior combos.

Saturday was Timothy (son of Auntie Ai Ling) and Darlene's church wedding and wedding dinner. The bride performed a singing solo of 'To God Be The Glory' on stage; a praiseworthy effort.

Auntie Ai Ling spared no effort in decorating the church sanctuary with flora. This surely must be the mother of all flora decorations in Bethesda Frankel Estate Church.





Natvianne, Debbie, Sylvianne, Vylvianne & Roxann at church wedding:


Wedding dinner was at the Ritz Carlton, which surely is the mother of all wedding dinners I have attended. Dress code was stated as 'formal'. The groom and bride performed singing items for the guests on stage (more than once, and it is NOT your typical LC karaoke standard either), which made it a truly memorable dinner out of countless bland wedding dinners I have attended. Of course, it ended extremely late, but didn't feel like it. The Senior Sunday School teens looked like they enjoyed themselves.

The table decor was in a slightly dark style:


Me with Russell (sec 2):


Me with the cutest sec 2 of all, Cheri!


A rare sight of Cherlyn in a dress! It was hard coaxing her to be in front of the digicam:


Senior Sunday School teens of varying ages:


Me with the most petite sec 2 of all (and cute to boot), Elizabeth! Don't I look like a dad?


What was on my wrist that night:

Watched the morning cartoons on KidsCentral. They were running vintage Warner Bros Looney Tunes. In one cartoon, Bugs Bunny spots a tattoo on a crook's shoulder, and it has some name with the word 'SINGAPORE' below it!
That's bizarre for you. Singapore was probably well-known as a port of call during that time, where many a sailor would descend upon our shores and get a tattoo or two.

Ulysse Nardin dinner

Flashback to 11 November, Friday night: After ICT was done (mercifully, we were released early), I went home first, and made my way to Oriental Hotel for the Ulysse Nardin dinner by The Hour Glass, cos was lucky enough to get an invite for this event with U.N CEO Rolf Schnyder.

It was difficult finding Oriental Hotel from Marina Square. The renovation works there seem to take forever. Arrived at Dolce Vita restaurant at 8pm, a nice place that looks out to the hotel pool. They used models who were dressed a tad scantily to model the watches. I think it's to fit into the idea of a pool party. I'm sure the men had trouble concentrating on the watches that night, amidst all the nubile-ness. Still, it's an event to remember (I didn't bring my digicam that night; the pics below were taken by friends):






Me with Elgin and Colin:


With April (I blame the long hours of ICT for looking sleepy):


The models (the youngest there was Seraphina, a 17 year-old who was in the middle of her O levels; she told me she would appear in next month's issue of Maxim):

Left staff dinner early to proceed to the Gerald Genta party by the Hour Glass. Luckily, venue was the S'pore Tyler Print Institute at Robertson Quay, which is within a pleasant walking distance by the river from Furama Hotel:



They hired models to dance, with Gerald Genta watches on their wrists. Cool costumes!




The place was like an art musuem. Thank goodness smoking wasn't allowed inside:





Everyone was happy to help themselves to the free-flow bar. The milky-looking drink in the small glasses was nice, something called Amarelleto I think.



Some of the watches on display. They feature jumping hours and retrograde hands, very cool. I like Mickey Mouse!





The crowd this time wasn't entirely made up of watch-lovers. Spotted Chinese author and composer Wu Jin Kang, Bernard Lim (Mediacorp radio), and the highlight-- Denise Keller, who was also the emcee.





Pic with Elgin, Xianyang, and the usual suspect for my digicam, April:

Last day of ICT is TODAY, hurrah. No more taking cover from the Pasir Laba RSM. No more of enduring pathetic food from the cookhouse (may you lose your contracts, Singapore Food Industries!!)

Went to Furama Hotel for staff dinner. Theme was 'western'. Some staff were sporting and dressed accordingly, as you can see below:





I won a $10 Metro voucher from the lucky draw (35th prize out of 40 prizes). Good enough, cos I had to leave early.

Back from the Breguet reception at The Hour Glass, Ngee Ann City.
Twas an opportunity to view their new pieces for 2005.
It was a stand-up reception, with waiters walking around bearing finger-food, wine and champagne on platters. Area outside the shop was a bit cramped. They used frighteningly tall angmoh models to showcase the watches. I'd prefer to see asian ones anytime, like those at the Ulysse Nardin dinner last friday (photos coming soon). Goodie-bag for the evening contained a genuine leather handphone pouch (inside the pouch was a lens-cleaner) with Breguet logo on it-- classy!

Items in my nasi lemak

Breakfast at the hawker centre at Bedok Central this morning (near the post-office one). Hungry, so piled my nasi lemak high with: ikan bilis, omelette, fried chicken wing X 2, hash brown, luncheon meat. All these, for only $3.70!

*** It's a blue! ***

ICT = In-Camp Training

Last Sunday, Beach Road, Golden Mile market upstairs: With my no.4 uniform in hand, I tried explaining to the old auntie at the sewing machine that I want her to remove the three-striped rank from the sleeves and replace it with the rank that has one rooftop on top... she cut me short by saying in Mandarin, 'ni yao wo fang second sar-ren'. Of course, she SEWS RANKS, she would be familiar with 'em as any NSF soldier.

2 weeks worth of Reservist ICT for me, and I'm fast counting down to the end of the first week. Venue is Pasir Laba Camp, and we are all on course. Our training is classified. But I think it is all right to say that we have to undergo 24 hours of intensive Malay language class. Last year, it was lower primary level Malay for us, and we barely scraped through the oral test, now it's upper primary level Malay, and they are REALLY throwing us into the deep end.
The class keeps pleading with the unrelenting Cikgu for canteen breaks and early lunch break ("Cikgu, it's only 5 mins to 1pm, if you let us off now, by the time we walk to the cookhouse, it will be 1pm already")... bugger, this is the same reasoning given to me by my Sec 3 students in school!

Thanks to Fazleen who helped me with my Malay homework!

A watch-forumer has spotted a Cartier Roadster displayed prominently on Uma Thurman's wrist in the movie 'Prime'. That's good, Uma Thurman is cool in my books, all because she acted in the Kill Bill movies. I wonder if this is the model: