They weighed me in the clinic

and for the first time in my life, I've been called a jumbo jet. I've been called many names before, but a jumbo jet? That's an enormous insult. With the advent of the Superjumbo Airbus A380, this only counts as the 2nd-worst insult one can possibly have about his weight, but it's only a minor consolation.



The bright LED lights on the weighing machine screamed out "74.7". I know I'm actually a little lighter than that (my home scale says so), but gosh, the symbolism!

That's it. I'm going to add a correction factor of 2.2kg on the reading on my scale, so that I have a reference point to start from. From today onwards, apart from passing my impending exams, my main life goal would be to lose weight. And gain fitness. Mainly the weight part.

I've been eating rather uncontrollably lately due to emotional issues, and exercising less. I NEED to correct this root of the problem. And stop using food as a coping mechanism.

I'm already in the midst of understanding myself better and getting in control with my emotions, but food had always been a coping mechanism for me since I was little. I don't think its possible to completely avoid that, but I sure am going to mitigate the intensity of my emotional eating.

So, there. That's my 2nd life goal for now. And I hope that you, eager blog readers, will be supportive of it. Actively supportive.

I'm making the first step by putting my goal and plans on public, so that there's some accountability.

And I'll report back with pictures of Boeing 737s, 727s and 707s when I reach the corresponding weights.

Wish me luck.

I'd really love to post a photo of a Gulfstream G650 here.

The sun was envious of

the moon for having a lunar new year, so on the first day of the lunar new year, it pretended that it was a moon.

January 26 2009 Solar Eclipse



At about 5pm.



Obscured by clouds.

==

And if you were one of the 5 or so caucasian cyclists who had waved/said hi/smiled when I cycled past, I didn't mean to ignore you. I was pushing myself rather hard and didn't have any breath to save for friendly greetings.



Bishan, Mandai, Old Upper Thomson Road, hills@Upper Peirce, then Bishan again. Was pretty good training for my climbing technique.

Friction

I scraped my knees pretty badly.

Being a cyclist, I should be used to this, But ironically, I wasn't cycling. I wasn't even engaging in sport.

I was walking on a stone pavement when my Nike shoe's sole decided to delaminate and fold under my foot. I tripped over that folded bit.

Damn.

Feeling so tired lately

Is it the weather? It has not rained since the beginning of the year, which is VERY unusual for Singapore.

Singapore had moved out of the Intertropical Convergence Zone which is usually responsible for our wet and stormy equatorial weather.



The clear, colourful sunrises and sunsets these days look like those I had seen in Australia.



The flora has been drying out. The ground is littered with leaves that crackle when you step on them.

I'm just feeling too tired, and too physically lazy to ride on my new wheels.



Mavic Aksiums, bought from Chain Reaction Cycles online at a good discount. I'm making good use of the weak UK pound.



Hammer-hardened 'eyelets', which replace traditional eyelets. Still, way better than having neither to prevent spokes pulling out of the rim.



Sealed bearing hubs. Bladed spokes.



Warning: Made in China. Thanks for the heads-up, Mavic.



Matches my silver groupset and white/black frame better than my old wheels did.

I don't really know how well they perform, only having rode them just once in nasty cross- and headwinds. Not a good way to judge a wheelset's performance.

I can't wait for Chinese New Year break, to escape the tension and hustle of school just for a little while.

Lulz

Pretty amusing. The people involved in the previous post didn't take kindly to it. They claimed I had made false accusations (my word against theirs) which I still vehemently stand by. Previous groups have had similar experiences as me.

Looks like I'll have to retract the post, since they decided to threaten me with reporting it to the school. (Does the school have any say about what goes on in private? This is Singapore, shit happens, so I won't bet on the school respecting boundaries.)

I really feel bad for Okay Girl.

Was it worth it? If they realise the way others view them, then yes it is all worth it.

The irony is that the confrontation was the only time I got them to listen to me. Trust me, it was really refreshing to have been able to speak more than 2 sentences at a go, AND have them listen without interrupting.

Everyone's so caught up in their cocoons, there's no way to really talk about things until they blow up.

In other news, end of posting test went well. Had a good chat with an old friend. Getting sick of the windy rainless weather. And bad knee.

2009 - the boiling point

Singaporean society has officially reached its boiling point when a disgruntled citizen immolates a member of parliament in public and receives admiration - and not disgust - in return.

Seng Han Thong of the ruling People's Action Party was attending a community function when a disgruntled retiree threw thinner onto his face and back and promptly set him alight with a lighter. He had suffered 10-15% burns on his body and needs skin grafting.

The news had spread like wildfire, and the responses of Singaporeans have been even more shocking than the incident itself.

Most feel that Seng Han Thong had it coming - he had been physically attacked by a angry citizen 2 years ago. Others feel secretly proud of the attacker, for doing what many have fantasied about but did not dare to do.

There are many who feel the urge to lash out at the government, its representatives and its icons, and I can see where they're coming from.

People are angry about the apparent inaction of the government regarding inflation and the rising cost of living.

People are angry that our government-controlled media is looking more and more ridiculous as compared to the internationally-reputed news sources we find on the Internet.

People are angry that our government had 'privatised' most of our public services while maintaining majority ownership, so that it could charge 'private' market-rates for energy, transport and healthcare.

People are angry that our government had been largely apathetic about the DBS High Notes fiasco, despite repeated calls for the government to investigate if there had been mis-selling of the product.

People are angry that our government had been largely apathetic about the clandestine investments that the town councils had made using its sinking funds. It was only when losses had happened that citizens were informed of such investments. Until now, the magnitudes of profits and losses are still a mystery. People want to know how it links to their ever-increasing town council fees.

People are angry that our government has forsaken our local talents to fund generous scholarships for foreign academics and sportsmen in the hope that they will generate better returns for the country than the locals.

People are angry that our government was rude and callous about the death of one of our political heroes, just because he rallied for the opposition.

One of our national heroes of 2008 is Tan Kin Lian, former supporter of the PAP who is brave enough to disagree with the government's actions regarding its recent actions.

One of our national heroes of 2008 is well-respected criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan who is brave enough to express his doubts if the law applies equally to both the rich and poor.

People of prominent social standing are finally getting their voices heard. And for the first time, this is the voice that resonates with the people of Singapore, rather than the government of Singapore.

Singapore is gradually understanding the true meaning of the phrase in our pledge: 'democratic society'.

It means having a government that represents the people. Not one that represents itself.

Before 2009

The Shimano Wheel Incident
I was desperate enough to send my experience to STOMP, but alas, nothing. No news, but a cryptic email pushing the buck to the local middleman of the distribution chain. I replied to that email, but alas, no reply again.

This is getting nowhere, and I think I might have no choice but to cut my losses and send a snail-mail to the American office, detailing the bad experience I had had with the Shimano wheel and worse of all, their customer service.

And no, I still have not gotten the wheel back after 2 weeks.

Bicycle ride to Seletar Airport
A lazy afternoon, watching the birds and the planes.







Youth Flying Club students landing the planes, some doing very decently, others looking like they had almost crashed the plane. That was because of the stiff crosswind that was blowing almost directly perpendicular to the runway, with a component of tailwind (bad also).

What they do in the landing seems to be pointing the nose at an angle to counter the wind, then using the rudder to straighten the plane near the runway, a process called sideslipping.



Weather was crazy hot. The YFC guys finished their training and all was silent - for a long while.

Except for mynahs, eagles, sparrows, egrets, butterflies and dragonflies, there were nothing flying in the area. Zilch. I was looking forward to looking at passenger turboprops land and take off.

It was only after a long long while before i saw landing lights from the other direction. The wind direction changed and they reversed the active runway! I cycled to the other end, via a very muddy and pothole-ridden road. Ouch.







USA registered jet in the background. Also saw a Hansung Airlines ATR72. Then saw a couple of planes take off, including a 737!



Military C130 from Oman on tow.



Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules from South Africa leased to East Asia Response Limited, a company that handles oil spills in this region.




Meeting up with Fadz and Kun
made me realise that the people I hang around with in school have made me all but oblivious to humanity and entertainment. People in my faculty are so bitchy, so self-centred and so achievement-driven that I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing in it.Every day I'm around them, a part of me dies.

Thank goodness for friends outside school.

The EDMW Super Lonely Hearts Supper Club New Year Eve Outing



A bunch of us online forumers went to Changi Airport for dinner (to avoid the crowds).











Lots of food for 7 people. The chicken tastes better than when I had eaten it in the middle of 2008, though the chicken pieces were still very variable in size.



We headed on to City Hall area for the fireworks.





Human traffic jams abound, mainly due to the pushy (literally) foreigner population in Singapore. The police had almost lost control of the situation when the crowd had repeatedly refused to move. They opened up a barricade just as we were in that area, so we had managed to get a good spot for the fireworks.

We were so close we could feel the blasts of hot air from the fireworks. Without further ado, the pictures:









































We hung around for a while, waiting for the crowd to disperse before we took the late night Nightrider bus home.

The sweet thing about online outings is that everything's so relaxed. There's no expectations, no jostling for attention, no haughty arrogant braggarts that I was previously so used to.













Whew. That was a lot of pictures.