Kuala Lumpur April 2005

Petronas by Night
Originally uploaded by ying22



Superstar or as CY says it resembles a food chain
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Before I go for my Phuket trip this weekend, I guess I should get my lazy ass together and blog about my KL trip 2 weekends ago. What to say...

* Its my 3rd time in my entire life to be in KL, though its only a 6hr drive from Singapore, yes yes trainees here mock me guess its the feeling that its so near to your cty so you will always have the chance to visit it or maybe the further away, the higher ranked on the exotic appeal.

Meet Joe Young :)
Originally uploaded by ying22.

CY is left out of the group photo
Originally uploaded by ying22.


* Got to see Joe Young and Wong Cheongwey :)
Other than IPM03 Estonia where i last met Joe, he did visit Singapore briefly for a day or 2 after that... but lets see thats close to 2 years back. And for Cheongwey, a year ago,when i was seeking his consultation on ecommerce back then. Was cool on bth counts, and i got to Watch Before Sunset at Cheongwey's place( then i watched Before Sunrise with Tee back in Sipo, and Devirm too when he invited himself). Busy joe had to work during the weekend so he gave us a ride to the bus terminal and said he was going to visit us in Singapore SOON :P

* Shopped, ate, walked, sight-"saw"- Went up to Petronas Towers... as joe said, i look like a tourist from Singapore(even though i had consciously dressed down, in t shirt and jeans) doesnt help that all 4 of us are armed with our cameras I guess




Cakes Galore
Originally uploaded by ying22.


Poor girls waiting by the road
Originally uploaded by ying22.


Other trivia:
* We passed our flu germs freely during the trip coz shah and I were kinda sick, and by the end of the trip, chingyong and june got our germs and we felt better harhar
* Realised Chingyong is a cake fanatic, he would order 3 cakes, and say its TO SHARE :P
* Arrived in KL at around 2am in the morning, checked in a hotel and came out at 4am for supper, am amazed to still see so many pple on the street and lots of supper places open
* Our coach back from KL to Sg broke down along the way, and after waiting for 2 hrs at the Rest and Relax Place,we decide to hitch a ride from other coaches, and we ended up paying twice.

realisations of the day...

When I asked my 19 year old cousin, "How old you think I look?"
She said, " Definately early 20s around 21-22, not Mid twenties"...
Shit.... i am classified under the mid twenties group already

My friend's conclusion: Losing weight can't be more difficult than finding a bf!"

Finances: Have been overspending from my daily budget, 20 out of 31 days of the month, how disciplined is that!

Have a new razor thin like IBM laptop from the office today, with a cd burner and dvd reader, SD card reader, with 3 USD port readers and its as light as a hardcover book,,,now i know why guys call cars their gfs, technie stuff can be so sexy and sleek :)

Simple pleasures in life

Was happy when the recycling guy came to pick up the box of paper to be recycled last friday, for the first time, since i initatied this recycling attempt in my company, when I was barely 2 mths old in here. Felt really bad and wasteful when i throw a piece of paper into the bin, think too that majority of pple will feel better, if they know that something good is done out of waste, again it relates back to pple seeking an attainment of higher self perhaps. Think so much more can be done especially for companies in Singapore to be a bit more eco- friendly in comparision with other developed ctys, where recycling has become a way of life.

Single in Singapore

I am 24 turning 25 in 3 mths, single, unattached, and my colleagues are trying to matchmake me coz they are all happily married with kids.ALL OF THEM!The only other UNMARRIED guy i know in my company is a swedish guy who is attached to his gf in brazil, thus the spotlight is on me. Thank you very much. :)

But its rather amusing to see how they go about it, its like "Oh I know a nice guy, tennis partner of my husband, single and looking for a gf, kinda rich, own car and apartment, want to meet for lunch together, no committement, if you dont like him, dont worry about it."Hahahaha....i think its a nice gesture from my colleague, she must like me to spend effort into this arrangement, and think that this guy is nice enough anyways. Find it cute actually, i do actually have cute 30 plus year old colleagues who are happily married with kids.:)))

Meet Randomness Ranked No. 1

Random No. 1
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Randomness Ranked No. 1- Paul Chambers. Had lunch with him and his new Sanyo camera yesterday. Heres wishing you all the best in kiwi-land and to more of your random encounters :)

We are featured on Egate again

We are featured on Egate again
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Our company's intranet that is, apparently ranked as one of the top 10 intranet sites in the world by Nielson Norman Group for information availability and relevancy for all 19,000 users.

This time we are featured as AIESEC trainees who have found permanent jobs within the Group. And of course I am 25 yrs old while Rajat is 24 when both of us are born in 1980. :P

With or Without you

Reminds you of the song doesnt it, yesterday Gokce sent me the photo album link to his trip to Sigtuna ( the oldest town in Stockholm) last weekend, with Hanna, Nisarg, Cagri and our new elux trainee whom I havent met Lana from Brazil. I organised a trip to Sigtuna last year around this time too with the rest of the trainees, out of which Gokce and Hanna are the repeat tourists now i guess. :)

Looking through the photos, its funny and both nostalgic to see them going to the same EXACT places, doing the same EXACT things, like Gokce climbing on that damn tree again ( though all the girls were yelling at him to come down else he break his neck), Hanna with the car, going to the same outdoor quaint cafe with the funny old lady statue, someone posing next to the little boy statue. ( Ok Sigtuna is a very small town too, maybe thats why) Fond memories indeed. Makes me think of this chinese proverb (hope i do justic to this translation) " Tao Hua Yi Zai, Ren Mu Yi Fei" translated to "The peach blossoms are still around as remembered, but the faces of pple are no longer the same", meaning the scenery and landscape are the the same, but pple you knew in the past have left.

Anyways received happy news that friends from stlm are coming! Ana from Venezuela will be visiting me end June, Rajat too within these few mths if he can get a new passport in time. Yipee!!!!!

Expectations ( grumblings from a fully reintegrated change product- batteries not included)

Being in the same cty would naturally give you some expectations on relationships. For starters, a long distance friendship means that u are OK when u call up your friend say once a week or twice even to chat for say 15-30mins ( coz your international phonecard is running out u say). Unlike in the same cty, you would expect to hang out with your close friends, more than once a week. Imagine my surprise when my one of my closest friend says, lets just meet up 1-2 times a month,when I am finally back ,after 1 year of telling me that she misses me on the phone almost every phonecall....fine... Probably thats why its easier to have long distance friendships, less committement, less expectations, less communication to know what a terrible person you truely are.:PPPP

Guess the same goes for long distance bg relationships, its a bad word, "long distance" gives u the impression that certain things that you naturally want out of a relationship, are easily compromised because of that dirty word "ld". It is thus not a REAL relationship.
The end.

I Miss

Being in a group, and working for something that is greater than
yourself and something that you believe in.

Ballet under the Stars at Fort Canning

Will let the photographs do the talking.
An escape from the concrete jungle,to enjoy art under the stars.

Shivers :)

Mum at The Sound of Music

You know the kind of good feeling shivers that you get, its like goosebumps, when you hear something so good that you can literally melt away....:)Had that feeling when i went for the musical "The Sound of Music" last thur, with mum, cecilia, elvin and Grace Au ( all the way from hk, ex trainee 0001, 0102) :)

The Sound of Music Poster

The cast was from US, and the whole musical was magical. The lead singer for Marie has a very good voice and the children from the Von trappe family of course was so lovable especially Gretta, the smallest of them all, think she is around 5 years and soooooooo cute, especially when she did her solo part, on " The sun has gone to bed and so must I"...awwwww think all that raised the maternal instinct of all women in the concert theatre. Guess the songs from the musical has been so long imprinted into our minds when we were growing up, so when the singers started the songs, we could all sing along, and its like a dream come true to see the songs made popular by Julie Andrews come alive on stage just right in front of you....Kudos to Ceci for asking me along this wonderful musical! :D

Spookily Good :)

Random events, random opportunities, random meetings.... that are..........spookily good :)

Have met pple from the past ( still living yes) within this few months at the weirdest kind of setting and timing that i feel i just have to blog about this:

Lets start from No. 6:

Randomness ranked No. 6: Met Lianhe and his gf after the Cibelle concert in Feb at the Esplanade , have not seen or kept in touch with this dude since 6 yrs ago. He is my junior college friend.

Randomness ranked No. 5: Was in the same elevator as Koh Yueh Siang in my office building, as I was going to work one morning. We knew each other from our AIESEC days, last met was 3 years plus. Turns out he is working on the 36th floor while i was on the 31st floor :). Happened last month

Randomness ranked No. 4: At the canteen of my building, was going to grab a lunchbox of soup noodles as i was kinda sick with flu last fri and saw my uni classmate, Liping in the other stall. Turns out she is working in the other Gateway West building and the last i met her was 4 yrs ago in school. So both of us had lunch together in the canteen instead.

Randomness ranked No. 3:
Went for my salsa beginner class 2, was chatting to this korean gal who has spent a long time in spain before class then i saw someone who resembled someone i know from a long time back, then she sat down next to me, and it turns out to be Zhou Xiao Wei, my primary school classmate gosh, it has to be donkeys since we last met, close to 8 years ago, since she has been studying overseas most of the time..and now she is my salsa classmate :)

Randomness ranked No. 2: Was at the temple in Bedok for the Qing Ming Festival ( where chinese pple either go to temples or cementaries to offer their respects to their dead ancestors), and boy was there a CROWD of pple jostling in the temple with incense sticks and in the cloud of thick smoke, i met my other junior college classmate, Mok. For a moment we just stared at each other....are you xxxx? coz i guess we do look a little different...but i mean, of all places, at a temple while we are paying respects to the dead?:P

Randomness ranked No. 1: Has to be today when i was going to go out for lunch, and as i was opening the door of my company , i see this guy with a familiar face, but in a much rounder form.. he was looking into the door of the opposite company, looking obviously lost, while i just stood there and stared at him. haha i know its rude...in the end, he turned and said " are u ying ying?" turns out to be Paul Chambers, who used to be an ex trainee in Singapore 99/00 and he is now working in Pfizer in NZ and was looking for the Pfizer Singapore company on the 33rd flr, but ended up on the wrong floor of the 31st instead. Its like WOW, if i havent decided to go out lunch then, and if he didnt come to the wrong floor by mistake, we wouldnt have met and arranged for a lunch meeting...I knew he was coming for Vern's wedding and i meant to email him, but it just happened to slip my mind at that time. What a coincidence eh..

Sometimes I think meetings and partings are fated, call me a romantic but its always cooler to think that someone up there is waving his magic wand for things to happen as it is... Now, don't take things for granted. :)

Watcha think?

Apparently my friend who works for LTA, says that it will be interesting to see if LTA will "chase" to SBS regarding this feedback, but so it seems it worked.

Dear Ms Wu,

TO HAVE BUS SCHEDULES IN SINGAPORE
FEEDBACK NUMBER: 233484

Thank you for your feedback of 08-APR-2005.

We have noted the usefulness of your suggestion and have conveyed it to SBS Transit Ltd for consideration as part of their service improvements to their customers.

Once again, we thank you for your feedback.


Yours sincerely,



XXXX
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
BUS & TAXI REGULATION
PUBLIC TRANSPORT & ROAD PRICING

Embrace the work world of SMS

Just found it funny that my boss is sneaking smses to me during his high profile leadership training ( where top managers around the region are involved in), asking me to do some reports. And while i was replying to him on smses as well on the problems i face, its a 2 way communication...ha :)...reminds me of class anyways.

Working world of sms eh? Suddenly rememebered this random case on the newspaper where the husband divorced his wife on a sms, and there was a big woo haa about it whether its legally binding or not..dont rem the verdict though.

And an even funnier example is my sister's boss actually smses her jokes ( architects, pple with no life, work hell hours, creative maybe and sends jokes :P) and she writes back ( ok they are funny too) , have forwarded it around actually:

" Heard that the Vatican chose a new pope,the first chinese ever,his name is Pope Piah" ( for non singaporeans its a yummy buritoes kind of thing that u eat here in Singapore)

Sis replies." Oh really, how about the contender from london Pope Eye and contender from US Pope Corn"

:)

Interesting news idag

No men

Amid a boom in reported cases of groping, Tokyo's rail operators will add more female-only carriages in April. East Japan Railway Company first introduced women-only carriages on the Saikyo and Rinkai commuter lines in Tokyo early in the month. Several other rail and subway operators, including Tokyo Metro Company, plan to follow suit soon. Previously, only two Tokyo-area rail lines offered female-only carriages, and only late at night. Such cars existed in other parts of Japan, but Tokyo officials had feared that implementing them would increase congestion in other cars.
Reports of molestation on Tokyo subways have risen in recent years: last year there were about 2,200 cases, a three-fold increase from 1996. Many cite overcrowding as a contributing factor; during rush hour, Tokyo's trains are filled to around 1.7 times above official capacity.

Today ,11th of April

Today is just not my day today, realised a pair of my diamond earrings is gone, my friend from sri lanka called about some issue of his wife-to-be being stranded at the Singapore airport ( and i was supposed to help him, but luckily all is good now ), then of course,left my keys to the cupboard storing my laptop at home, and i had to take a cab back to my hse again to retrieve them, and now my irritating pair of Charles and Keith shoes are still giving my blisters though i have bought the special scholl plasters for the back of the shoes ALREADY.... how much worse can this day get? * shhh cross my fingers*

Like me think:
- Someone stepping on my poor tortured feet at Salsa class today?
- Getting food posioning from dinner

Nah cant think anymore, knocking off and getting a pair of new shoes at bugis before i torture myself even more.....

Tommorrow will be a better day!

Picked up a new quote of the day: We are going for the forest, not the trees

Thanks but no thanks

n other words, thanks but no thanks, undaunted i have submitted a feedback form to Singapore Land Transport Authority :P, thats the farthest that I am going to bring it then.

From: STForum
To: Ying Ying
Date: Apr 8, 2005 1:45 PM
Subject: Re: Feedback to ST Forum:To have Bus Schedules in Singapore

Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive 70 letters on average each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday.This means having to make often difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable this time to publish your letter, and hope you will appreciate the constraints on space we face every day.

We hope you will continue taking an interest in the Forum Page.

Yours sincerely

Ms Noor Aiza
for Forum Editor
The Straits Times

A load off my mind

Closed my eyes and sent it out after months of procrastination, finally frustration and irritation took the better of me, lets see whether the The Straits Time Forum will publish it and whether my whole family is "blacklisted" from now on and my brother doesnt get his gov scholarship, :P

Name: Miss Wu Ying Ying
IC No: S8021598C
Mobile: 97871535
Add: 238 Carpmael Road Singapore 429956

Feedback to ST Forum: To have Bus Schedules in Singapore

I am writing to the Forum for I believe I received an unsatisfactory reply from SBS in terms of the following feedback I have given earlier on:

Hi I have been living in Stockholm for a year and experienced the benefits of travelling, with reference to having bus schedules published to commuters.This not only enables commuters to plan their journeys better,reducing unnecessary waiting time, especially in an increasingly time driven country as Singapore and improves the satisfaction level of your customers.

For referance, the bus schedules in Sweden are both published on the website as well as displayed at the bus stops in simple A4 sized panels, nothing fancy or technologically challenging. I understand that your company is having a pilot project with the *655 sms ( where one can sms to know when is the next bus is arriving around the vicinity) service, but I guess sometimes solutions can be simple as well, if they manage to close the need gap.

I believe that this would be beneficial to SBS Transit in the long run and in boosting Singapore's public transportation system to a world class level.

Below is an excerpt of the reply I received from SBS:
"Our buses operate in an urban environment and share the same roads as other vehicles.Unpredictable factors such as adverse traffic conditions, bus breakdowns, inclement weather and varying passenger activities can sometimes disrupt our schedules. As such, we find that the schedule may not work."

In the 21st century, many developed and developing countries already have bus schedules and its considered a part of their daily lives. I have done an imprompto survey among my network of international friends, and so far in countries such as Slovakia, Kenya, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hungary, USA, Sweden even countries with cities with high population density like Tokyo and London all have bus schedules.

Being a country with none of the four seasons, ice, snow, hail, one would hardly find Singapore's weather condition "inclement". Furthermore, bus drivers have a certain schedule that they follow through, its a matter of sharing this information with the general public, with the understanding there may be exceptions on timing. At least there can be a certain gauge on bus timing and commuters have the confidence that bus companies do strive for being
on time as well.

Lastly, the pilot *655 service is a charged service, with a cost of 31.5cents per every successful request, only applicable for Singtel mobile customers. With the increase of bus fare hikes over the recent years, it is an unnecessary act for increasing the travel expenses of an average commuter who just wants to be informed of the bus timings when it can be done in a more simple and cost efficient way.

I hope that the Singapore Land Transport can look into this matter and lead the way in setting a standard for the Singapore's public transportation system.

Someone from Stockholm commented after i said i have no idea where XXX is going next:

"thought that you are always the source of all information uncle. now you retired finally!"

:P..dude it has been close to 4 mths since i left sweden

More protests over Japan textbook

To learn one's own history from another's mouth could be "shocking"
Rememebered reading news articles of crying japanese students , on visiting Singapore's WW2 memmorial, The Cenotaph where names of war heros are engraved on the monument, upon learning its meaning of exisitence, on the anniversary of the occupation.

Click for full story: More protests over Japan textbook

I can only act like that when u are around :)

caroline
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Could this be your greatest gift or greatest curse? :))))
You know some friends that you have known ever since you were 12 and they have witnessed your whole "transformation" from an awkard teenager, to still an awkard adult :P and then moving to awkard mid twenties.. .Probably its because they have known u since forever, have seen the "childish" ," inconceivably annoying" part of you, and still they managed to stick around ( amazing isnt it !!!), that i have launched this new concept that i could almost return to the age when i first met you and still be that annoying or have the mental capacity of a 12 year old basically. :D Watcha think? ( actually feedback is not positive so far)

Its such a exclusive priviledge really and i love my friends for taking all the stupid jokes that i throw at u, tolerating me for so long ( i hate myself sometimes too) and "moves" that i make on you ;). Of course the longer u know me, you have to put up so much more , sometimes i pity you.....only sometimes....:) Mucks!

Me and My Badminton Game

Played badminton for the 1st time ever since i came back to Singapore, and it was so fun :) Though i only played against my girl friend, and we basically just swing our rackets, instead of getting all competitive in matches, it still brought back memmories of playing badminton back in Stockholm with James, Rajat and Gokce. We played mostly in the Electrolux gym where there isnt much heating, hence you could feel natural air con as opposed to the warm humidity in the courts at the Marine Parade Community Centre badminton court, where the whole room is sealed without air con. But nothing has changed in me really on a badminton court, still venting my frustration and screaming in the courts, a public menance i know hehehe.... Missed u guys....Come visit me soon and bring along your racket! :)

Google your twin

Enough with just "googling" your name and see where your name appears and the no. of hits.Go to Images under the Google search engine, and google on your name and check out out how many "twins" with the same name you have all over the world. Contrary to popular belief, pple with the same name as you may not look as good :P

Newsflash- Life in pt form from a lazy person

- Change agent wana- be
- "Stardom" and interviews
- Practising saying "No"
- Sianz ah today...staring too much at the screen can be tiring :(

Stay tuned....