My Beautiful Wild Plant

I saw this wild plant sometime Sept last year, the flower was blossomed and was very beautiful and attractive. I couldn't resist, so i plugged it out from the soil and rushed back home immediately worried that it may die if i left it too long in open air. Luckily it survived. After that, it blossomed 2 more times in a period of almost every 30days. Then, it died. However, smaller plants grows.

This plant is very unique, it only blossom one day, after that the flower will go dead. About 30days later, a new flower will grow and blossom again. All in all, it will repeat about 3 to 4 times, before the plant completely die.

I have taken some pictures showing 2 days before it blossom till 2 days after it blossomed.

Photo taken by SEK810i

Sorry, till now i still do not know its name. If you know the name, do let me know.

Unlucky April 08

I have not been doing any blog posting in the past 1 month, exactly 1 month, last post was on 21st March 08. Today, my good friend message me and asked me, "Wa! u have not updated your blog for sometime leh?" I told him i was damn unlucky busy. ( By the way, he is a on-the-ball blogger focusing on food and travelling.... )

Haiz! Last few weeks were rather busy and lazy. Busy and lazy? Yes! I was damn busy till when i was free, i just lazed around and did nothing. End March 08, i was busy preparing a project commissioning and finally and luckily it went thru. This project required wholeday outdoor. Weather in March 08 was crazy, it would be half day sunshine and the other half heavy downpour. We would either got burnt first and later got all wet or the way round.

After the project, I thought i would be rather free in April 08, but i was wrong.... my another project got into unnecessary problems. First, hardware shipment problem and then followed by solution problem. The local freight forwarder did dirty trick to make me paid extra service charge for their service. I have had no choice but to pay them in order to get my goods. I have told my partner in China to stop using the forwarder forever. After i got my hardware, i thought i could deliver the solution and invoice my customer. It was then, i found out that my partner sent an uncomplete solution to me. My usual practise, i test everything before delivery. ( Luckily i did, if not i will be in deep-shit )

Hmmm... last 2 weeks plus i were busy testing and fault finding with them. They were in China, so it was a bit messy as i need to prepare everything for them to do remote access. I have burnt few weekends by either stayed at home or office to provide remote and morale support. In the end, we suspected that one of my partner's engineers who had just left sabotaged the solution. Many functions weren't working and many features went missing.

After 1 week plus of trying, we decided enough is enough, we need to set a deadline, if not, what's next and so on. So, we started all over again with the source code, and today finally something are working. Hopefully by end this week, everything is functioning and i can deliver the solution next week. Of course, i can invoice my customer. Hehehe... it is always feel sweet when it comes to invoicing...

I think my luck in April isn't good, just few days ago, to add to my existing headache, i found out my passport went missing. I was online trying to book an air ticket to meet my partner in China early next month, then i realised it. I have tried searching the whole house, bed room, living room storeroom etc..... for few days.

Haiz! I did lose it once sometime last year, but in the end i found it in my golf bag, hahaha..really! i left it in my golf bag after the game with my good friends and it was there for few months. Hahaha... i also couldn't imagine that. But this time, i have searched my golf bag and whatever bags and secret compartment etc... Guess, i need to report it and get fine. Damn! it will cost me total $100++ to get a replacement.

I wanted so much to write something about Malaysia post election development opinion, but.... Hope i have sometime to write about it, of course in Chinese, i express better in Chinese...

By the way, after my leg operation done in Feb 08, i have resumed my weekly jog. The scar is ugly, it looks like a big zip, an expensive zip in fact.. all in all total about $2K..... hmmmm..... :-(

I think i need the below luck to make my May 08 and after better...hehehehe

The Extra-ordinary woman - Benazir Bhutto - Sad day for Pakistan and the world

Few more days, it will be 2008!! It is so sad that 2007 has a sad ending.....

This morning got the news that Pakistan's politician got assassinated by suicide bomb attack in Islamabad. She was shot in the neck before her assailant blew himself up. She died later in the hospital. At least a dozen more people were also killed in the rally.

Just awhile ago, Al-Qaeda has claimed that they did the crime.



She escaped an assassination just in Oct, but she was undeterred and proceed to meet her supporters for the up and coming election in Jan 08. So sad, this time, she was unlucky.

Her father, Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was Pakistan Prime Miniter from 1970 to 1977. He was striped of powers by military coup led by Gen Zia ul-Haq in 1997 and was hanged 2 years later. Her 2 brothers turned to terrorism and both were killed. She was released to London after few years imprisonment, where she re-build her father's party, Pakistan People's Party. She later became Prime Minister twice, 1988 to 1990 and 1993 to 1996.

What has happened to the world? There are so many hatred now? Religion against religion, race against race? Politicians use dirty tricks to get their vote so they can get the power. To me, i see it as some people were doing all these crimes to benefit themselves and using religion and race as cover up. It is the cheapest and effective weapon to achieve what they want.

With the current only super power in the world, namely USA, behaves selfishly, unfair handling international matters, creating more and more hatred. Plus this same super power refuses to work with the rest of the countries to solve the global warming problem, the world is getting worse!!!

I hope her dead will not create more death in Pakistan. I respect her for her courage and determination in wanting to make Pakistan a better place.

Ms Bhutto, I salute you ...

My Christmas 2007

Haiz!!!! Christmas day is my house cleaning day....... whole day cleaning here and there...... hmmmm.... what a Christmas !!!

I always enjoy the cool weather from Nov to Feb, it is always very cooling and windy...., this period is also a raining season in Singapore. I really hope to have this type of weather through out the year here, but not too much rain lah, just cool wind will do. Hahaha... dreaming only ...... Not really though, our global weather has changed drastically in the past years..... the weather pattern has changed. This year the "cool wind" came in late as compare to last year, it only came in late Nov, last year was late Oct. But this year, there are lots of rain even during our hot and dry season, that is between March to Sept.

Hahaha, who knows, one day Singapore may have temperature at 20degreeC through out the year? hahaha... dreaming again ... in actual fact, the earth is getting warmer, not cooler....

One day Singapore will become smaller due to global warming effect, sea level rise due to north and south poles melting ice. But our smart govt has already started to build dams blocking the sea water from our rivers, at the same time use them as reserviours. Smart leh!! One stone kills 2 birds. In fact, our HDB has long been prepared for this global warming effect, most of our HDB apartment blocks, 1st level is empty, residents stay from 2nd level onwards. 80% of Singaporeans stay in HDB, so we are safe!!!! :-)

No matter how, when the warming effect get worse, some parts of Singapore will be gone under water.... Well, not really need to worry. We are expert in reclaiming the sea, water level rise, we will claim them back.... So, an interesting scenario then, may be 50yrs or 100yrs from now, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries will shrink but Singapore not only remain same size, may be even bigger.....hahaha.... you can imagine that ?? then of course, a lot of quarrel with Malaysia and Indonesia over reclaimation lor....

Really, not sure how long the earth can last ?? It is a living thing. It is starting to get sick, but the most powerful country in the current world are not willing to help to make the earth back to normal. Well, what can the rest say when there is only one big super power?? LL lor!

So, how many more Christmas can the earth have? I am very sure, I still can enjoy many Christmas with the earth still in "proper" health. But, for sure i am not going to do house cleaning anymore on Christmas day liao.... hahahaha.....


Photo by SE K810i

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

This greeting card is self-made and the photo was taken locally, haha, a botak tree at a car park.

It is fast......, few more days 2007 will be gone..... not sure if the clock and earth team up to tick and rotate faster. Every sunday morning when i meet my good friends for regular jog and breakfast, we all knew that another week had just gone.

A close friend lately sent me an interesting self-made video on self-motivation topic, about life, contention, be positive, live life to fullest and see the glass as half fill, instead of half empty. Herewith, i would like to say i definitely will. Thanks for your message and appreciate your video a lot. Thanks again. :-)

2007 is not really a good year for me, too many things happened. I believe 2008 will be a better year. I ,too, wish you, who are now reading my blog, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008!!

Update : Disgrace act by 3 UK tourists in Singapore

Trio apologise !!!!

Finally they apologised, thought a bit late, but it is better late than never, right? Well, now i feel much better, though more can be done by these 3 guys.... at least they did not disappear in the air.

hmmm... lets move on ...

Below is the apology "letter" appears in Youtube....

Apologies from Bo and his friends.
Read this first.
===============================

I have already sent 2 apologies out on you tube. But I'll apologise again. As I don't think many people have seen it.

When I look back at the video it does look very bad. I offer my sincerest apologies to Mr Lee, his son & everyone that has been offended. It was very disrespectful and insensitive to make fun of an old man. If you knew us you'd realise that we are actually nice guys.

On that night we'd had a few beers (slightly drunk), and needed to get back to our hostel. So we began walking up the street looking for a taxi. The trishaw driver was waiting at the side of the road and suggested we take his taxi. At first we declined as we wanted an actual car, but he insisted we got in. I thought ok, I'd never been on one before and told him our destination. He said $10 which was fine.

After setting off I did start laughing, I was a little drunk and thought it was funny how slow we were going. I did actually ask the driver if I could peddle before we got the camera out.So after travelling hardly any of the distance agreed, I could see that it was stupid for us to continue and said we should get out. We'd only travelled around a quarter of the agreed distance so I at the time I thought $5 was reasonable. Bearing in mind that we'd just come from Thailand where drivers initially charge way over the odds and it's customary to haggle the price.

I don't know why Mr Lee is saying we didn't pay, when in the end we gave him the $10. I know I was laughing but I wouldn't dream of not paying for the ride! That would be unforgivable. The camera cuts out before we actually leave the trishaw but I can guarantee everyone that we paid the $10 before we left.

My upmost apologies again go out to Mr Lee and his son. If it were my dad with 3 young guys laughing at him, I'd want to find out who they were and speak my mind. But can I just confirm again that we did pay!

Best Regards
Bo
===================

News Coverage:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/11/todays-video-si.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=490946&in_page_id=1770
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/11/brits_behaving_badly_set_off_s_1.html
http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20071031-33370.html

Go to the page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_GoQ-h9Zg

SAF Video - Knock it down

This video is interesting, i can't recall if i have ever watched it in TV before. Someone posted it onto Youtube.

Title : Knock it down ( means Pushup ) ....



Note: Refresh your browser if video is unable to play

Disgrace act by 3 UK tourists in Singapore

Regardless of your race or nationality, after you've watched this video clip, I believe you will feel how sickening these 3 guys have had behaved.

These guys were from UK...., Well, regardless of where these guys were from... their behaviours were no different from those hooligans and coward for bullying an old man at his 70s...


Note: Refresh your browser if video is unable to play

Shame on you, guys!!!

Update : 2007-11-01 1000hrs

Below is the news and video interview by OMY....



**********************
This news also appear in Daily Mail ( UK )


***********************
Update : 2007-11-02 0045hrs

These guys' look ....

Shame on you, guys !!!

I urge you guys to come back to Singapore, apologise to the uncle personally and pay the money back to him and close the case. We will all look forward then...

He deserves some basic respects!

Don't be a coward..... be a brave British!

The power of nature - lightning strike a tree along Ang Mo Kio Ave 1

Wow! 2 days ago ( 17th Oct 07 ) afternoon i was at home and it was raining cats and dogs..., then around 4pm+, a loud explosion deafened the whole housing area. It sounded really near, but i never care.

In the evening, i went to visit my parents, who stayed about 3km away, for dinner. To my surprise, when my car approaching AMK Ave 1 and Ave 6 traffic junction, i saw a tree right next to the main road , part of its skin was ripped off and the inner skin looks very "fresh". When i told my parents about it, my dad told me that when the lightning strike, it was deafening and the TV reception was interrupted for a few seconds.

As the tree was right beside the main road, it was fortunate that nobody was hurt. Guess during that time, nobody was standing nearby waiting for taxi or cars stopping waiting for traffic to go green.... If not, looking the damage done to the tree, i don't think anyone can survive such a strike....

Today, after my work, after a heavy downpour and was still drizzling, i took my camera and went there to take some pictures. A strange thing appeared in front of me, as it was still drizzling, there were foam flowing down from the plants that were resided on top of the tree. It created a small foam pool right beside the tree.

Frankly speaking, i don't know how to explain, but it is strange to me.....

Take a look at the pictures below...




See how powerful is nature...

My fish that swims up and down..

Taiwan female pop group S.H.E's Ella has a pet dog, name QiangQiang ( 蔷蔷 ), me too! I also have a funny pet, a fish in fact.... hehehe...called Helicopter ( 直升机 ）. Why Helicopter? Hahaha... because it does not swim like normal fishes do, but up and down instead....

Don't believe? Look at the video clip below, there also some fresh water prawns inside my aquarium. Enjoy .....

( using Kodak V603 )

Unfortunately, it passed away few weeks ago. :-(

Anyway, i believe it has a good time in my aquarium as it survived swimming this way for more than 6 months. Frankly speaking, I don't know how it happened and what caused it to become that way. Definitely, its fin could be injured or damaged. I don't recall i bought a fish that swim this way, until one fine day this joker swim this way.

Initially i thought it tried to gain attention. Hehehe...funny hor?

My plants

Yesterday after work, went to Thomson Road Flora bought a pot of chili padi plant. Hee..hee... chili price has gone up lately ( in fact, almost everything go up ), so now need to do own farming ..., too bad not enough space to breed cow, sheep or piggy.... hmmm.... sorry, i am talking about in HDB housing! This is a sad fact about Singapore, it is too small! For those who can't visualise how small Singapore is, hmmm.... OK! New Zealand North Island Lake Taupo ( Web Site, Web Cam ) is about the same size as Singapore.

Note : Lake Taupo size : 616sq-km, Singapore size : 699sq-km.

Anyway, this is what i have gotten for $8.00.... already have chili in the plant liao..., so lets see how many can i get from this $8.00....



There is also Broyphyllum given by my niece about 3 months ago and Aroid ( i think so, a friend said looks like ), which i plugged from wild 1 month ago.


Bryophyllum is an interesting plant, according to this web site Bryophyllum.com, in Greek, Bryo means Sprout and Phyllon means leafs. You may go this site find out more and see the difference spices with pictures.

Ha... i also have Succulent ( hehe... took from NZ in Dec 2005 )... surprisingly it is still alive!

But i suspect its growing pattern has changed due to the local weather and may be soil are different from its home land.

Singapore jokes

Who say Singaporean is boring and not humour?
Try listen to these jokes produced by Mr Brown, not bad quite fun.
Anyway, just for laugh, don't take it serious..

Click on the below links to listen to the jokes
Enjoy!!

* You can't touch this - your CPF la

* CPF News

* Asean Response to Myanmar

* Medisave Lucky Draw

Singapore 2008 Public Holidays

Just saw this info in MOM ( Ministry Of Manpower ) web site. If you are planning for next year vacations now, this info may be useful.....

Not bad, as there are a few long weekend holidays, except National Day, which falls on Sat :-(

Lunar Chinese New Year is the best as 1st and 2nd day fall on Thur and Fri.... wow! imagine eve is half day, then another 4 days hmmmm..... good leh?

Shoot ém Up

Warning ! Don't watch this movie

hmm.... if you plan to watch "Shoot ém Up".... My advice to u is: "Oh my god! Please think twice ! ".

You can slot your $9.50 into your piggy bank, have a nice meal, buy 4D, ToTo or donate to charity...., but for sure don't use it on this movie...., really !

This is the worse show i have ever watched this year, or may be in the past few years..... it is like the old stupid gun fighting show, whereby the hero can shoot anyone and got them all hit but nobody can hit him.... huh! you know what i mean? Guess the director thought the audiences are all stupid idiots! I am surprised that some reviews still rate this show 3 stars!!! I think negative 3 stars may be ! I doubt those guys have watched this show, they just copied from overseas reviews.... what a shame!

I am also surprised that a local distributor would bring this movie into Singapore. Haiz !!

I have already kicked my good friend's butt for asking me out for a movie and we ended up watching this.... hehehe.... sorry, it is easy to put the blame on him mah since this is my blog...., right?

So, spend wisely..... if not, this show will spoil your day!

Trip to GuangZhou, China - Aug 07

I was in GuangZhou, China from 1st Aug to 7th Aug, on biz and also to catch-up with my close buddy there. A friend joined me in this trip for 1st 5 day, I brought him there to look-see look-see and to meet my buddy's work team in ZhongShan University ( 中山大学 ). We stayed in a hotel inside the University, you may be wondering "wow! hotel in university?". Yes! in fact, there are 3 hotels in this university, one cinema and 1 disco hall....hmmm... surprise ? It has 4 gates, North, South, East and West. The North gate ( shown in below graphic top-left ) is right beside the Pearl River ( 珠江 ), the hotel we stayed is right next to East gate.


( Click the graphic to enlarge )

This trip i was unlucky, i had a swollen left eye for 1st 3 day. This swollen eye affected my travel itinerary, i supposed to travel to HK on the 2nd day ( 2nd Aug ), I've no choice but to postpone twice to Friday ( 3rd Aug ) and finally to following Mon ( 6th Aug ). Unfortunately, i still didn't make the trip to HK as the arrangement on 6th Aug went wrong. Haiz ....

In the last 7 to 8 years, I've visited GuangZhou about 10times. It has never stop changing and progressing. The living standard now comparing to few years ago is a lot difference and i could see the middle class is getting thicker, which is a good sign. There are more trees and plants along the roads. I've also observed a great improvement in the toilet, both public and private. Hehehe... Shopping malls, university and even those places of attraction, there are cleaners taking good care of them. No joke, they are serious in transforming the city into a better place.

If you like food, Guangzhou is a place you must not miss. You can find foods from all provinces there. Of course, one thing you need to be careful is the hygiene of the place you are eating. There are a lot of good food ranging from Sichuan ( 四川 )，Hunan ( 湖南 ),HuBei ( 湖北 ) and Canton cuisine ( 粤菜 ) etc. And best, eating in the restaurant is much cheaper than in Singapore, plus the food is more authentic. Some cities in China, unlike GuangZhou and ShenZhen ( 深圳 ), serves mostly local dishes. However, GuangZhou is much cheaper than ShenZhen. ShenZhen is like JB to HK, place for HK Peoples to dine and shop...


( Click the graphic to enlarge )

This trip, I took some times off to visit places of interest. They are ZhongShan Memorial Hall ( 中山纪念堂 ), Chan's Clan Academy ( 陈家祠 - 陈家书院 ), BaiYun Shan ( 白云山 ) and 2nd world war Occupied Territory ( 二次世界大战租界 ) etc....

Below are some pictures

( Click the graphic to enlarge )

Some more here...

( Click the graphic to enlarge )

There are also some big shopping malls, the most popular one is TianHe City ( 天河城 ). But just be careful if you are looking for branded goods. Generally, the city is safe, but just like any other places, don't walk back lane and alone in the night. Taxi is considerably safe here, but traffic jam is getting worse as rich men are growing...hmmm...

If you are looking for good food, shopping and some Chinese history and culture, i think you can try GuangZhou. Probably 2N/3D or 3N/4D should be enough, or alternatively can make a day trip to HK. GuangZhou hotel is much cheaper, there is a direct 2 hours train service between these 2 cities. Language is not a problem, so long you can speak mandarin or cantonese. Also, the MRT network can bring you to most shopping malls and places of interest, even train stations.

Errr......I sound like working for GuangZhou Trouist Promotion Board hor? Hahahaha...

Note: All pictures displayed here were taken by my mobile phone SE-K810i

Singapore 42th National Day Parade Preview online live........

hmmm... lately spotting these familiar Singapore flags flying ?
Yes, Singapore 42th National Day is around the corner..... 9th Aug 2007 to be exact....



NDP Preview -Backstage Scenes - Marina Bay

Date : 28th July 2007 , Saturday
Time : 1600hrs to 2000hrs ( Singapore Time )

If you are interested in watching the backstage live online, then go to this link
http://www.ndp.org.sg/infocomm/

then click on the Live Celebration

Singapore Joke - Singlish way

Hee..Hee.. here is the possible inside story after 2LT Li sent out the email...


Click on the graphic, it will be enlarged.

Sorry, you need to know Singlish to understand this joke...

Hmmm..... just for a laugh.... don't take it serious ok?

Update 1: Amendment 21st July 2007 2359hrs ( Singapore time )

Received some comments, can't read the dialogue clearly. Hmmm... here, i amend it and hope this is better.....


Click on the graphic, it will be enlarged.

enjoy.... anymore problem, please feedback....

cheers

Singapore Prime Minister’s son reprimanded in the military

Yesterday ( 13th July 07 ) morning, kind of shock to learn this news. Wow! What had happened? Why he got it? And who is so daring to reprimand him?

Read the story, found out that 2LT Li HongYi, our PM’s 2nd son, who has just commissioned as an officer last Dec has breached the military's code of conduct.

What had happened then? Oh, he has actually reported a superior, who went Absent Without Official Leave ( AWOL ) twice to higher authority within the unit but nothing was done. Realizing no action was taken and lousy explanation given by the senior officers, he then broadcasted an email to even higher authority, Defence Minister, Chief of Denfence Force and Chief Of Army and many others. The matter got out of hand when the email went to the cyberspace.

In the end, that officer was court-martialled and the 2 senior officers were served warning letters. 2LT Li himself was also charged for not following the proper channel to make complain, but not sure what punishment he got.

While I cheer his behavior to expose the military black sheep, but at the same time, it makes me wander what he was thinking when he decided to compose that email…. If he is a son of an ordinary citizen, I would say this boy has gut! But, he is our PM’s son. What was in his mind? Could it be he was thinking, “Well, my dad is the PM, nobody can touch me…, so I am going to expose all these black sheep”. I hope he didn’t have this thought, but just wanted to expose them. I think he has done the first approach right, by reporting to the unit senior officers. Unfortunately, those officers could be in the same boat, no actions were taken. Yet, they were helping that officer to give excuses.

To me, the military reprimanded all 4 soldiers is a fair action. The most encouraging is that it has shown that nobody is above the organization, not even PM’s son.

Well, every organization has black sheep; SAF of course can’t run away from it. Commercial corporate when mismanage will ended up in closing shop, but if SAF also has the same problem, then the whole nation will be gone within minutes when crisis strikes. We can’t afford that. Generally, SAF is a healthy organization, this is a just a small group of black sheep in there. Hopefully they can be eliminated soon.

When I was still in the unit, many years back. I remember there was an officer, who openly hand carried rose in the unit during valentine day to pass it to the lady soldier in the same unit he admired. Coincidentally, he was the same and only soldier in the unit got fainted during a parade. Hmmm….

Red Ladyfingers

Saw these RED Ladyfingers plants in front of a coffee shop in Cactus Rd, off Yio Chu Kang ( junction of YCK and AMK St 66, road to 2SIR, behind ST Elect HQ ).

The common ones see in the market are usually green.

Not sure, what is the actual name for this Red Ladyfingers.

2 more pictures below





UPDATE 1 11July07 20:00hrs ( Singapore Time )

It was fast, i spoke to my good friend Randy about this weird Red Ladyfinger. Well, he said those are known as Okra and did a quick check on the web. Yupe! within minute he came back and passed me a web site ( http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/vegetable/okra/okra.html ).

Huh ! We call it Ladyfinger, because it looks like one. It is known as "Okra" or "Gumbo" in US and other part of the world and it is edible. Go to this web site, it gives you a bit of history and story about Okra. But one thing i find its difference from our local ladyfinger is that its leaf is also red, while local one is green.

Hmmmm.... why leh? Looks like one answer leads to another question....

UPDATE 2 13July07 1320hrs ( Singapore time )

*sigh* haiz....hmmmm..., this morning had an early morning coffee at the same shop. Went over to the small garden to take a look at the Red Ladyfinger, thinking of taking more pictures to post. To my surprise, they were gone!!! Yes !! They were gone.... very sad...

Well, at least i have taken few pictures of them earlier.

Illegal Parking

Wow!... see this?

Know where this car got caught?

Ha, it was caught in New Zealand's 90miles beach situated in North Island. You may drive along the beach, but watch out! you may ended like this car owner in the picture shown above. According to the local tour guide, even the professional coach driver sometimes also get caught. The beach is so long that it may take up to an hour to drive non-stop ( provided it is not high tide ). But it is still not the longest beach in the world. The longest beach is in Bangladesh.

Hmmm... here are 2 more pictures....