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ORANGE, ORanje( in dutch)!! is the theme color for my new year clothes. In fact, I had bought the Netherlands National Football Team’s jacket as my new year clothes.!! (Ha! I been longing to buy the jacket, and since it was on sale and Chinese new year is here, NO need wait anymore, just buy man, hahaha!!)

Guess, I begin to like the color, ORANGE  more and more in recent times. Especially, things around me had been linked with orange. For example, my working Polo T-shirt is orange,  my Salomon shoes are orange, my fav. national soccer team’s team colour is orange and even my ANG BAOS from my parents are Orange!!!Ha, well, I think orange is quite a good color, it is bright and eye-catching and I think it brings up a person mood when people see this color. So I think Orange is really good!!

Ha, even thought I might looking like  big walking “mandarin” when I’m wearing the jacket, I still fell good! I don’t know why, but the color just brighten up my day. Beside, if you know how to mix & match well, I think Orange can be a great fashion color, don’t you agree?  HaHaHa!

Whoo HO!! Another Year had passed and is Chinese New Year (CNY) again!! That will also means my Dad is once again back in Singapore to celebrate the CNY with us! Yeah!

For those who are not aware, my Dad actually works as a Chinese cook in Netherlands. He had been working there for the past 21 years and normally he will work for the whole year and will only come back to Singapore when it is CNY time!!

So here he is, back in Singapore. In fact, he had just arrived to Singapore today! He touched down at Changi airport T3 at  about 6.30am!!

So for us, every year, CNY is an important festive season for my family, this is where the real reunion happened. Dad is back, everyone is around, my aunties and uncles and cousins will all come together as one big family to spend the CNY together. It is always a season I look forward to.

So at the airport we were, preparing to welcome Daddy’s home-coming. At 7.00am, from the far end of the luggage belt no. 42, he was there, looking smart in his coat. Our Dad is Back! 

Normally upon seeing him, our family will be pretty excited, however this time round, the mood did not start up right unlike the past few years. The reason for that was because just 1 day before he was leaving for Singapore, something not so good had happened to my DAD. The incident happened when he was on his way to the Amsterdam Airport. HE WAS PICKED-POCKET!!!!

Gone with the criminals were my dad’s wallet with his credit card, identity card and most importantly were the 2500 euros!!! That’s about S$4000 all gone!! There goes his hard-earned money and the money for New years goods, the hongbaos for the singles and young ones and of course plus the funding for our family Hong Kong trip.

You guessed it, upon receiving him at the arrival hall, we could see our Dad was extremely disappointed. Devastated was the other word to describe his face, but not long after, the disappointment soon turned to a state of relief as he said “Well, at least my passport and air tickets were still with meand I’m still in one piece and i’m able to be back here celebrating CNY with my family.” 

“Wow, that’s my Dad.” I thought to myself, and I totally agreed and impressed with his response about the mishap that had happened to him and soon, I added “Agreed with you Dad, glad you are back safely, lets hope the money can give and bring some joy and food for the pick-pockets over CNY. Now, Let’s go home.”  

With that, and a big family hug with Dad,Mum, my two sisters and my brother. Off we went, looking forward to receive the Annual Lunar New Year!!

Oh Yes! Once again, is the time of the month to reduce my debt. Another few hundreds had been return to my loaner a few days back. I’m really glad that I made the effort to return the money, if not I couldn’t image what I will do with the money.

As we all know, Chinese New Year is just round the corner and it is time to buy new clothes, new shoes, new wallet and even new underwear and for me,  I do have a lot of things that I want to buy. So, for sure, if i delay the payment to my loaner, the few hundreds will come in handy, don’t you agreed?? (OF COURSE, YOU CAN”T AGREED!!)

Ha, guess what, that was what I told myself too, the angel and the devil were fighting in my head and of course, the angel won, for sure, I can’t agreed to that kind of thinking mentioned above. The reason is simple, I had made a commitment to pay my debt every month, returning minimum of S$500 every month. No way, I going to break that agreement, another reason is clearing my debt is one thing that I really want to do. 

So despite the temptations of keeping the money, I managed to stay focus and do the RIGHT thing for myself which is to clear my debt. I’m so glad that I’m able to exhibit my self-control and forgone the things that I want to buy and because of that I’m now once again a happy man and once again I’m able to reduce my debt. Cheers!  

(Total Amount Left to Clear: S$7400)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! HAPPY 2009! Ha, I know it abit late now, given that it is already the 20th of January of 2009, furthermore Chinese New Year is just round the corner!! Yikes! but hey it’s better be late then never right?

So, Happy New Year again. so people how’s your New Year Eve spent, man? Did you went to a countdown party? or stay at home with your loved one? or went to someone’s place and created some havoc?

Ha, no matter how you spend your last day of 2008, I would just assumed it must be damned fun and happening!! As for mine, it was really great!! The day was spent with my group of closed friends from my secondary schools, and thanks to YX &KT for offering their home, my friend and I had a place to count down and spend the meaningful night away from the crowd and noise.

It was really a simple gathering and party that we had food and drinks, played some WII and Mahjong and had a chit-chat session of the great old days. What made it special was that, the way we created the countdown party. It was the first time in our 15 years of friendships that we gathered together and cooked a dinner for ourselves!! And what a feast it was!

As most of us were still working on the New Year Eve, we could only start the marketing for the ingredients around 5-6pm. Knowing that by the time we were done with the market, it would be pretty late, our spirit was not really dampen and even though we could only managed to lit the fire at about 8pm. We were still pretty much excited about it,  Ha!

So hit the stove we did, ha, with me being the main “Cook” of the day and together with my assistant DT, RY, YX, we managed to whip out quite a few dishes.

We had,Cream of Mixed Wild Mushroom Soup, Beef Loin-Steak with Black Pepper Sauce, Pork-chop with butter-Onions Sauce, BBQ Whole Chicken, Meat Balls, Steamed Potatoes, Stirred-Fry Broccoliwith carrots, Spaghetti with Veg-tomato sauce, salads and of cos Heineken beers!!!

Yeah! Yeah! It was really fun and enjoyable that night, we had lots of food and everyone really enjoyed the dinner. Beside the dinner and the great company, what made me happy and pleased was that, my friends enjoyed my cooking too. Although, the taste weren’t like world class, but hey it was still nice enough for them to sing some praise for me.

So my dear friends, I really glad-ed that all of you have enjoyed the food and thank you for trusting me in my ability to cook. For those who are not aware, it been at least 6 years since I cooked a meal for someone else, so for me to cook again, I was actually a little fearful.

Therefore, really from the bottom of my heart, Thank you for trusting me and for the past 15 years as well, thanks you all for being there for each other and I hoped my cooking will be just a small token to say thank you and good luck to all of us and of course, let all of us have a great 2009, ok!!

And in the future, if the chance and opportunities are there again, I will cook again for you all. (As long as all chip in money to buy the ingredients lah, hahaha)

Last Night of the year 2008 

Ha I love going to movies, in fact watching movies is one of my favourite past time. Still remember that there was once, My friends and I went to watch 4 movies at one go, but that’s was many years back.  In recent time, the max I go is 2 movies in one day. Oh, and I didn’t mean watching DVD, I’m actually talking about going to the cinema and catch the show.

Watching movies for me is great form of relaxation for me, as it allows me to sit back and listen and just let the stories unfold in front of me. Movies is also a form of exercise for me to practise appreciation too, you know is that kind of like appreciation of the plot, the music, the acting, the direction, the special effect etc.

Another reason why I love to watch movies is that, there are learning about values and life that I can pick up from the movies. Ever heard of “learning from someone else’s mistake”? and yes, I do know that most of the time movies are fiction but still, there are still learning for me to pick up. 

Almost all the movies that I saw allow me to pick up some learning and recently, there’s one movie that let me pick up and learn a few things too. That movie is JIM CARREY’s YES MAN.

The movie is about a man called Carl(Jim Carey), whose life was sort of becoming stagnant, bored and a bit meaningless after his girlfriend left him, however things changes when he sign up for a life-changing course that’s required him to say yes to almost everything and that was when his life started to change once again.

Needless to say, in the movie Carl, found a new love, new life and new perspective of life. The idea of saying “YES”, opens up many possibilities in his life and that the main learning I get from the movie.

When was the last time that you can remember that, by making a decision to say “YES”, that decision actually impacted your life? For me, I could remember many, especially in the year 2008, my willingness to ”YES” to end my baby Business, had resulted a few new opportunities for me, my willingness to say ”YES” to a personal development course, has allowed me to re-ignite my passion in life and meeting great people from all woks of life. My willingness to say “YES” to a new job had allowed me to work in an environment that is inline with the things I enjoyed doing and it  feed my passion for growth and of course they were many more “YES” decision that I made in 2008 that had made me grow as a person.

And what JIM CARREY did with his movie is that, he reminded me that how am I today and what am I today is really based on what decision I had made in my life. The “YES” and “NO” that I made in my life had lead me to where I am today. I can never blame anyone and I must be 100% responsible for what I am today.

So thinking back, there will be regrets about some decision that I made, but that’s already history, what is more important now is that it is time to make new decision, especial it is the start of the new year.

2009 is already here, and Yes I want to see new possibilities and that will only come by saying “YES” many things, but of course, you don’t need to say ”YES” all the time, as Carl( Jim Carrey) said in the movie, you only say ”YES” when you only want to and only your heart want you to say “YES”. Don’t you think so?

So, if you do agreed….just simply say “YES” 

Oh oh,…. Last entry was at 28th^th December 2008 and today date is 9^th January 2008, and that’s about 11 days ago. And before the 28^th December 2008, the entry date was 16^th December 2008, Oh oh.. I miss the 2 post per week target big time man!!! Hahaha, gesh….

So what’s the excuse now, Mr Jones??..  ha I guessed I got no excuse this time round. It is just plain lazy and lack of commitment…. Although, there is another voice inside me telling me that “hey, you didn’t write the post is because you do not have any interesting stuff that is going on in your life, remember that  you don’t want to just write for the sake of writing”

Well, I guess this time is really true that I was engrossed with parting and going out during the festive season and I’m a little busy with work too and that made me feeling so tired and lazy to sit down, and reflect and type it down, ha. I know sounds like excuses, but that’s what actually went through my mind. HA! Actually, during that period 16^th December 2008 till now, there have been certain interesting events that had happened and a few was really worth recording it down. But on the other hand, for some of the events, I felt that there isn’t much to talk about, so I decided to give it a miss.   

However, been rest assured, after this post, I will be starting to write again and straight after this post there will be a few coming out. Just be patient with me, ok?

Well, I can’t promised that I will not miss the quota again, but what I can promise is that, you can be rest assured that my future post in 2009, will definitely contained my interesting thoughts and learning plus my own special perspective to life!! So stay tuned ok?!! Cheers!