sun @ mac

Min, parents and myself bought the niece and nephew to west coast mac on Sun morning.

Noisy they are, adorable they are

:)

aliying

chillout with a coke...

Had dinner at new garo jap rest near chun tin road, bukit timah...Min, Shan, Mr Chua, Ah frey and peanututu.... Afterwhich we went over to Maple pub to have a drink. Because I am on standby, i did not touch a single drip of alcohol in a smoke free pub....Felt a bit funny though, but professionalism supersede personal enjoyment...However, I still enjoy the nice chat and the companionship offered to mi

Thought of the first time we were at Dragonfly for the first time....
Compare :
a glass of coke at Maple: $5.50
12 bottles of Heinkein at Dragonfly each betn Ah frey and myself: $150
Both experience : Priceless

:)
aliying

thoughts

when you win something, you lose something

when you lose something, you win something

"anonomyous captain"

:)
Chong Eng

feeling ...good

Feeling good cos...
1. met up with my NUS classmates..good to hear that everyone is fine.
2. met up with Ah Frey and peanututu @ Bakerzin to suan the management trainee...
3. cleared my line check exams. at least do not feel so uptight now...relaxeds
4. going back to Singapore from Incheon today...and to spend quality time with Min.
5. I am drinking alot of water...


:)
aliying
Incheon
1345hrs Local

The forever friend bear attack on earthlings

Behold, the powderful Bear monster!

easily contented...

Are u easily contented? I was looking at the sundaytimes and I came across an article abt a man who is easily contented. He is not urgent to find a new job n he can continue to live a simple life without spending too much.

Now looking at myself, I start to wonder if I am contented with my life. Enough money? Enough credit car, change a new notebook, upgrade to a dslr?climb big mountains? The possibilities are endless. I come across as a person who wants to seek new challenges, but it may seem that on the other extreme, i am a person who will never be contented with the achievements and keeps wanting more
.
Min is a v impt person in my life as she is a very easily contented person. She is able to keep mi down to earth and prevents mi from "falling over to the dark side"....

Going to catch the sneak of harry potter tonite! Need to find out who is luna lovegood cos i kind of forget who she is after reading the book in 2003

:)
aliying

my second blog entry using myb palm treo750v

got myself a pda phone and was really happy abt it. However, the nightmare began as it was not as idiot proof to use as it meant to be.. Missing out the original cable,trying to get the wireless sdio card working..damn shacked out.. I realised that when I am stuck with a prob, it tends to bother mi and I am pushed further and further in to solve the prob. Not too good not too good.. The solution(which is not easy)is to pull the plug and set the correct mindset - don't think abt it anymore! Put it aside and get a life! This is definitely the better aliying.

Now on the mrt train, it feels quite good to be able to look around, observe what other people are doing, reflect abt myself and need not worry abt the traffic ahead..somebody is drving the train, not mi driving the car... But the warm and outdated tibs bus ride is not fantastic,not fantastic.

Not sure why, but i am really feeling tired...yet another sign of getting old..sleep so much yet still feel tired... Buck on.aliying!

aliying

Holiday!

It had been a long long time since I updated my blog...I was away from sillypore for a good 18days.. hong kong,new york,KL and batu pahat...the makan is so good.... Definity the highlight of the year! Came back from leave, got myself settled down and it felt so good to write an entry..let my pic talk!


















Holiday in Hong Kong with my family - Dim Sum, shopping, ladies market, da yu shan






















Holiday with Min @ New York - Statue of Liberty














Our wedding bro and good friend - Stefen Chow, boat ride to Statue of Liberty














Our wedding bro and good friend - Colin Mark Holmes, Chinatown, NY















Bryant park, NY















Holiday 3 of 3 - KL














Got the waffles and root beer!, KL














Butter hey po, begger chicken, etc....













JB makan b4 we made our way back to Sillypore - sitting : Aliying and Ah Frey
standing : Alimin and peanututu



the nex two weeks is kind of critical to mi as I am undergoing a series of "exams" so to speak.. here are some things to look forward for his month..

NuS class outing,
spend time with Min,
attend lum & sizhen wedding,
meet up with vincent.

hope to clear the exams "soon soon smooth smooth steady steady"

:)
aliying

2am in New York

I am typing this using my trusty notebook and hooking up in the Efung's apartment's wifi.

The last few days in NY had been a great experience for min and myself. I had been to some cities, but nothing beats the New Yorker experience - passionate, fair and exciting...

Was at Ground Zero, which is just at the door step from Efung's apartment. Minds start to recollect what happened during Sept 11. Tragedy or conspiracy - you decide

Efung is a living example of a modern new yorker, as well as newly found friends of Min, Sailing and Aloyious in Cafe Wha. (Yes, I am out there drinking in moderation again). Listening to a six piece band, singing "I will survive" and a bride-to-be having a hen's nite doing the butt shake. I had been to St James live performance, but that cames hardly close to what I experienced in cafe Wha! www.cafewha.com

NY is so full of "life"...so full of "passion". Everyone is proud to be a piece of NY and the city never sleeps. Subway wriggle through the underground 24/7, hip hop dancer doing extraordinary street dancing, a saw violinist who uses a saw to play music, visit the Museum of Modern Art and listening to a 3 piece band playing bossa nova music while relaxing with my coffee and New York Cheesecake,

Had such a great time catching up with Efung. I obesrved that although NY is a fast paced society, it had several "slow yourelf down" installations. An example is the cheesecake cafe that we had been to earlier. Sitting there makes mi start to think - about the family who are based in Singapore. I also ponder about the major decisions that I made till now.

I also reflect on my character. Fair vs Nice. Which one do I want to be? Everbody wants to be the Mr Nice guy, but do such a person ever exist in the first place? Do nice guy always finish last? Sometimes, it is nice of you to be tactful, but does it provide you with additional problems? How abt the Fair guy? He is assertive, dare to speak up, able to communicate effectively and provides a win win situation for both parties? This is what I learn today and I am going to experiment with this for a while - be a FAIR guy.

So much things to do in New York, yet so little time!

:)
aliying

life in NY...great so far!

Dear all,

life in NY had been great to mi so far....here are some of the things that had happened till now...

5 jUN 07
Did my personal best of a continuous flight to NY direct... a total of 18.5hours of flight time. Min and I were very lucky to be able to get on board the flight as the flight was really full. The airbus 340-500 ULR flight was really impressive, in terms of the aircraft type and the service rendered to us... So many people are snacking away with bread, tibits and eating instant noodles...tough job tough job for the cabin crew.

Finally arrived at Newark, then took a while to figure out the way to Penn station and took a cab to Stefen's place. My first impression of NY are - fast pace, modern, artistic...
fast pace because all the New Yorkers seems to be rushing around all the time...I hardly see anyone standing around or chatting with people...they just move!

Modern because there are so so many high rise buildings - gothic yet modern

Artistic - hip hop dancing in the subway, yang qin + trumpet + guiter performance, rapper, art pieces, library(the NY central library ie NYCL is such a cool place to be in to create a fashion statement)

Efung just came back from his photography lessons and it was such a great feeling to be able to meet up with a good friend overseas...Hugs and kisses

06 Jun 07
We made our way to the statue of liberty. I am actually expecting it to be bigger...but nevertheless, "been there done that" is our mission for that.. The statue was a gift from the people of France to the people of America. Temperature wise, although it is summer, it is still rather cold with the wind chill factor, say 14-22 deg. we walked to Times square and had a coffee at Bryant park. It FEELS so good to be able to relax our legs in the middle to the city, have a coffee and spend quality time catching up. Had yakitori near NY University to round up the nite.

07 Jun 07
Factory outlet shopping the whole day - Man, 220 shops to choose from - the list of boutiques, you do not want to know...shop shop shop...never shop the whole day in my life b4. Start at 10am, end at 830pm.

08 Jun 07
Fri is "visit the museum free"day. Will be making our way to Museum of Modern Art, Gul museum, check out the music scene at Cafe Wha tonite, with finger food, good live music and beer. Supper may come at the Corner Bistro - serve cheap burgers, fries and drinks at approx 10USD.

Things to come
Central Park
Union square
Empire state building
Brooklyn Bridge
Chinatown

:)
aliying

My holidays had finally arrived!!!

This is my time of the year! After tomo flight, I will be off for my journey to rest and relax

01 -04 Jun : Project Hong Kong 2007 with my parents and ys
Will be visiting the peak and lantau island' catch some dim sum and some shopping

05 - 14 Jun : Project NY with Min
Will get a chance to take the SQ airbus 345 direct to New York with Min. will Visit Efung who is based in New York as a photographer. Statue of liberty, shopping, fifth ave, Times Square, Manhattan, drinking bud, etc

15-17 Jun : Project KL with Ah Frey, my, Min and myself
Had not been there for a while. Will be catching up on some food, and I hope to establish contact with my sec school friend, Big Bear Xionglim over there.

19 Jun : Back on flight to Zurich

:)
aliying

Beer, Wine and Spirit (BWS)

There is really such shop in AUS and US, called BWS- beer, wine and spirit

Had been on a good run drinking with Jeffrey lately .... You can call it lucky that my wife gave mi full green light when it comes to drinking...not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing.

As far as I am concerned, it is a good thing...I like to drink in moderation - she also like to drink in moderation - Jeffrey also like to drink in moderation

But there is always the dark side of drinking - you tend to find listening a bit harder, voice getting a bit louder, situation awareness dropping exponentially, etc....

Control , my friend, control...

:)
aliying

Our next adventure

This year is definitely the year of travel...Huimin and I are looking forward to our next adventure - to the eastern coast of USA, New York....

Got the heads up from Efung....come come come come come come....

Yet to check out the aircraft loading....keeping the fingers crossed...

If the above is settled, I will declare Project NY 2007 open!

:)
aliying

Osaka 2007

Min and myself

Whale shark
















Turtle
















Dolphins

















Jellyfish


Took some time off to go for a short holiday with Huimin.

This time round, we went up to Osaka for some good food and shopping. A very short trip with just two nite's stay. Min could had spent more time there, but because of mi working, we can only stay for two nites,.

It had been really great - lots of eating and shopping! Here is a typical makan schedule. Osaka may be city like, but there is absolutely no lacking of food!

1030hrs - coffee and cheese cake
1200hrs - Soba / Udon / Ramen
1400hrs - chicken wings and cream puff
1600hrs - okonomiyaki
1800hrs - Sushi!
2100hrs - Kirin draft beer

Managed to get two Gundam units at a good price.. This will keep mi accompanyed for a while... As for Min, she got herself some ear rings, clothings and compulsive buying at 100yen shop....

Not wanting to make it a pure shopping trip, we took a while to understand the railway system and made our way for a half day trip to Osaka aquarium. From the above pic, it contained a decent collection of the underwater world. What stands proud is the whale shark kept in a nine storey tall aquarium. A very impressive feat. It feels a bit cruel to keep it under capitivity, in my opinion, but the aquarium does serve as a good place for eco - conservation and educating the general public abt the underwater effort.

Arigato!
:)
aliying

I am not stopping....haffing and puffing

I am everywhere except Singapore...Had been haffing and puffing around....

Looking forward to my off days 18-22 May...

Then will I have time to settle down and type a decent blog...

Stay tuned....

:)
aliying

My wedding photos 02 Dec 06

:)
aliying

Class gathering at Foster

Yet another good drink mustered by the class last sat!!

Here is the front part :

Kind of lucky, cos when I first came to Foster's at Holland V, I was really trying my luck that I will be able to reserve a table of 15 just for drinking. I always had the habit of checking out the place personally to make sure that everything is all right, the drinks are okie, the crowd is not too bad, the service is good, etc...

Came up to the waiter and he called my name instantly"Hi, are you Mr Chong?"...waah! I was thinking - he must be damn good to know the customer name....It turned out that he was a former student of Min and he had met up with mi previously! Min was around also, and hence with a little bit of pull string, I managed to secure a table of 15 just for drinking on sat...good stuff!

Here is the middle:

Very good turnout from my NUS class! It was definitely nice to have the "give the Tiger the man" aka yong yuan to be back with us in the contigent. Gone are the days that he will fall under the influence of 2 bottles of beer...He was drinking a total of 7 bottles of beer in total + half flaming... He mentioned that he felt back missing out all our weddings while he was at work back at Liverpool....

It was nice catching up with Efung too as he made this tremendous effort to squeeze time for this gathering. He was back for 3 weeks and managed to secure a photo session with MM Lee.

When I am typing the journal, he was alreadi on his way back to New York (Round 2) on flight UA804 (Singapore - Narita - Washington DC - NY) He should still be up in the air....

Here is the end:

Yes, 55 bottles of beer spanned, lots of fun, not drunk, just chilled, lots of catching up,

Service by Foster was good and prompt, servers were smily and nice, manager Johnny was personal to the touch and 1+1 beer all nite long is too good to be true. Apple pie as dessert was nice and good music(alt between rock pop to live guitarist)to chill..

All in all, I am very happy with Foster...Good stuff!

:)

aliying

I want beer!

Heineken - Best! The obvious choice for aliying and Min

:)

aliying

Busy busy busy....

I knoe this is the usual mi going hot and cold at times when it comes to writing journals...Should be writing more..

Came back from the mountains after the previous entry on stress...just want to learn the art of steady and here I am, came back from the top of the mountain doing secret training on how not to be stressed....

Ahh....disregard the above mentioned...

Okie, had been busy for the past three weeks actually....fly from wed to sat, rest for two days, again away from wed to sat, then off again on monday to tuesday....Johannasburg, Karachi, Lahore(tried to find some terrorist there but to no avail) and finally Amsterdam!....Amsterdam is the most interesting place of the three that I had been too, so I might cover that in the next entry....

Things covered so far...
1. Managed to convince Ah Frey to buy something unbelievible and he was telling mi the next day that the more that he looked at it, the more he learns to like it...Now i realise the value in branding.......

2. Watched 300 before it goes down from the movie theatre....read some of the blog reviews abt it and finally after three arrangement, I managed to watch it together with Min, Ah Frey and Dave...totally awesome to watch it on the big screen!! Spartans, are you ready to fight, as if the next moment you are going to die?

3. Fu han wedding
Yes, attended yet another wedding of a good friend of mine....came back from Lahore in the morning, caught some sleep and off I go to catch up with some sharks fin and abalone....Felt very happy for him and Shirleen to tie the knot together...the next one, Asher Lum wedding on 070707....Cool!

P.S. Btw, we had a good drink with him, and even his dad came in to intervene and drink with us...He totally gains my respect instanteneously...

4. Rock climbing
Did rock climb at Yishun safra.. Man, it was hard work, hard work...

5. Things to cover in the coming 3 weeks
A. "Give the Tiger a man" aka Yong Yuan is back! Efung aka Everest summitter and photographer is also back in town. The class gathering will rock and chill coming sat.
B. Quarterly getaway with Min
C. Reservist(Yes, I need to dig out my outdated uniform again)
D. Ex colleague gathering(Kudos to Meiting for organising that)
E. Back to the mountains for more stress control management training

:)
aliying

Am I stressed or can I take stress?

Recently I did a personality test given to mi by a friend of mine... Did the test and found some interesting results.

1. I am confused
2. I am stressed
3. I am less stressed in my actual self

Okie...very much I do not want to believe it, but I always believe that there is always a reason behind it... YOu don't just throw a genius a task to set up this whole personality test overnite, am I right? The genius (so called genius) must had spent thousands and zillions of hours gathering data, speak to people, compile info and come out with this DISC test....

Once again, I believe in myself. At the very same time, I believe that this tool, or indicator, or test, or quiz or personality test is there for a reason. So the moral of the story - I am stressed.

Stress, stresses, stressed!

Hu.....I can take a different approach by using my usual technique. When the situation is stressful - I like to take a deep breath and pull myself out so that I can see the whole pic. When the left hand man is stressed, the right hand man takes a step back and look at the whole pic. When I do not know what is happening, I take a step back; when I feel that everything is too much, I take one step back....

Okie, it seems that on the inside, I am not stressed. Now how to show other people that I am not stressed?

3 types of people exists;
A. You are totally COOL.
Even when the world falls under you, you still can treat it like a blanket and cover yourself, keeping yourself warm to your advantage. You are "there", armed with your life experience and natural skills, you are always there to save the day.

B. "You are totally wayang" Man
These are the type of people who are totally amazing in turning "black into white". Look good, inside cannot make it never mind, live to tell another day. The ability to distort the face so gilak gilak(so good) that you are always there to save the day....Impressive

C. "Got a bit of stuff on the inside, but not showing it on the outside" MAN
Inside can take the amount of tumbling, but the facial, vocal and body language depicts otherwise. You may have the ability, but you do not know how to utilise it effectively...."Save the cheerleader, save the world, but how?" I know the solution is somewhere inside my heart, but I do not know how to use this special power of mine....

Eer...think I am starting to write rubbish, better take one step back and look at the big pic.

Let us recall the earlier observation of mine.
1. I am confused - Tink this is mainly because of the fact that sometimes, I can be so Mr Nice guy to my friends. But sometimes, I can be so Mr Nasty guy to Min, my mum, my bro etc...Given a choice, I will still work towards the personality of the former. Even though the fact that Mr Nice guy may be the loser at times, I am sure that with his preservenance, he will make it and make the world a better place...

2. I am stressed - I am not as good as Jaslin Husband Dave in clinching the Golden Horse best actor award. But in terms of stress, I will continue to build up the mental capacity to do so...like where to eat, who to eat, what to do in off days...hahahaha!

3. I am less stressed in my actual self - Which I feel is good as if I am stressed when I am facing my inner self, I cannot imagine myself working in the outside world.

To conveniently summarise and the perfect solution,


I need to go for my quarterly getaway soon and most importantly, I am what I am....

:)
Aliying