Author andrewong2024

Just some visitations

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I was fortunate enough to have some time today in the afternoon after my interviews to visit some friends who needed some attention.

First was a trip to Alexandra Hospital…

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Please do not be mistaken! This is not our regular Ah Seng here but my dear fellow Hope blogger, Tiger. He looks like he had been stabbed after a gang fight. Ha ha…

Actually he quite poor thing as he spent his CNY hospitalised as his dunno-what was removed due to infection. Guess you can find out soon in his blog as he would be discharged tomorrow.

Get well soon bro! You are dearly missed by your fans, especially the ladies =p

Then the next was a trip to visit a bundle of joy….

Meet baby Gabriel. Newborn son of Nicodemus and Diane.

Awww….. So cute rite? And so tiny too =)

Looks like this boy could be Singapore’s answer for a David Beckham….

See the similarities??? =p

Serving the poor and needy

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“But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king!
      Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink.
But he was just and right in all his dealings.
      That is why God blessed him.

He gave justice and help to the poor and needy,
      and everything went well for him.
Isn’t that what it means to know me?”
      says the Lord.

But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty!
      You murder the innocent,
      oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.”

Jeremiah 22:15-17 (NLT)

Blessed to be a Singaporean

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Some time last week a friend of mine made this remark as we were admiring a horizontal view of Singapore from Sentosa Island:

“Ain’t we fortunate to be able to enjoy the fruits of our government efforts from over the years?”

Wow… to be frank I was rather taken a back by his remark/statement as I am somewhat used to mulling over the gahmen faults and imperfections from time to time =p

But to be fair, our government despite with its shortfalls such as being overly economic-driven has done a fabulous job in shaping our nation to where it is today and working hard in positioning us for the future.

The fruits we are able to enjoy are the quality living that most Singaporeans are able to indulge; able to get ‘top-class’ education and a global integrated network for social or business purposes.  

On my recent visit to one of our neighbouring countries, I was appalled of hearing the atrocious crime rates that were mounting in the city. Worse was that learning the police were mainly made up of a corrupted bunch who didn’t give a hoot about serving their community except for lining their pockets.

This is just one of the negative issues. This situation really dampens the people’s confidence in living in that particular country and building a life there.

However I had observed that though most have become ‘numb’ to any hope of a reformity within the country, somehow they have learnt to adapt and survive living there.

Therefore in my opinion, being a small nation like ours though with limitations, has its advantages like being able to better lead more effectively. But still credit has to be fully given to the relentless work from our visionary leaders.

Hmmm… indeed we are blessed being a Singaporean in one way or another, and it is up to an individual how we utilise our privileges as a citizen.

CNY 2007: My family & friends

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Though I had spent only two days of the Chinese Lunar New Year (CNY) in Singapore, it was still definitely a fruitful time of catching up and bonding with my family and friends.

Here are some of the pictures taken over last weekend…

MY FAMILY

MY FRIENDS

Woody, Amy and kid Wayne

Ah Boy and me with our lucky ang-pows (red packets) =p

Some preparation for the greatly anticipated IR with my neighbourhood soccer kakis from Clementi.

And here’s something nostalgic…

BEFORE

                                                                   AFTER

Looks like the 3 of us (Daniel, me and Ricky) have grown out of our uniforms and incidentally we posed in the same positions we did some 20 over years ago =)

Do you know…

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“There are approximately 6.5 billion people in the world speaking thousands of languages, but fewer than 20 languages facilitate most of the communication in the world. Being able to speak English or Mandarin allows communication with approximately a quarter of the world’s inhabitants, and the top 10 languages- including Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and French- allow conversations to flow among nearly 60% of the people in the world.

The flip side of this is the dramatic decrease of the number of languages spoken and the number of languages in danger of extinction. There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world (Papua New Guinea alone has 820 languages in use), with more than 90% having fewer than 100,000 speakers.

But even that statistic fails to capture the threat to linguistic diversity. Linguists estimate that more than half of all languages will disappear by the end of the 21st century. So take some time and learn Kawesqar before it is too late.” 

* Excerpt taken from Motley Fool Global Gains– Volume 2, Issue 1, January 2007

A recommended gift

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Still in the Valentine’s mood???

Here’s a recommended gift… See picture below:

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Ha ha ha… just kidding!

But can also consider it for Father’s Day =p

My true love

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Since this week has been mostly focused on love and romance due to Valentine’s day, I thought I share my love story…

Those who knew me from my past will all have this to say about me, that I changed girlfriends like I change underwear… that was just a way to describe how frequent I would had been seen with a different girlfriend each time with my group of friends.

True LoveI started had my first ‘steady’ (a term used to refer as girl/boyfriend among teens) when I was 14 years old. This was quite late oredi you know… =p

By my 21st birthday, I had oredi lost count… But the last count that I remembered was 50!

I guess it is due to my dysfunctional family background (divorced in my teens), influence from peers and my discovery of manhood that led to this rampage with the opposite sex. These factors were the springboard for growth of wrong attitudes, understanding and behaviour in BGR.

(1) Fear of being alone

I was one that was afraid of being alone and when a girl couldn’t be there, I would just get another almost right away. So that was a vicious cycle that destroyed many of my relationships.

In retrospect, the fear of being alone was due to the fear of facing my issues or problems that needed to be confronted. Hence having someone around occupied my thoughts and distracted me from those stuff that needed to be confronted.

But of cos, at that time I didn’t know.

(2) Masking my insecurities

Due to my sub-conscious inferior complexity, I also ‘leverage’ on the girlfriends I had to gain security with my peers. It is the same as how we would place confidence on our job position or edcuation qualification.

So the more beautiful or the more girlfriends I had, equated to my high capability and my peers would look up to me.

(3) Heightening my low self-esteem

I again sub-consciously, relied heavily on people’s approval on me to gain some sort of esteem that I was okay by their acceptance. Therefore I had developed an unhealthy way of measuring my esteem by getting as many girls to like me.

So the more girls I liked me or the more girls I had, it equated to me being accepted and that felt great.

MY TRUE LOVE:

However one night in 2000 all these started to CHANGE. I re-dedicated my love to Jesus!

It was there and then that I truly tasted LOVE which I had never felt before in my whole life. I was ambushed my His love when experienced His forgiveness over my sins and that captured my heart; how good He really was.

Since then and till now I am truly able to embrace, enjoy and experience singlehood like I never did before. Though of cos there has been its up’s and down’s, but with Him, I was able to focus on my personal growth and my pursuit in His destiny for me as His love is never-ending, never-enough and never-failing.

And of cos, I have learnt to relate with the opposite sex with geniune love, care and respect =p

God did a miracle in me and His love is so sweet and real cos if it were not, I would not be able to pledge and enjoy my singlehood with Him these passed 5-7 years.

Jesus is my true love and may He be truly yours too =)

My V-Day with Friends

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Spent V-Day with a great bunch of people that makes up part of our globe.

There’s a sweet couple from Sweden, a birthday girl from Germany and a cool guy from China. And how can I forget a babe from Malaysia =p

Well that’s what love is all about… treasuring all those that God places around us! =)

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down his life for his friends”

John 15:12-13 (NIV)

And in case you are wondering who’s the handsome ang-mo who is even more good-looking than David Beckham, his name is Christer and he is married.

Sorry ladies, this lad is taken. Ho ho ho… =p

Did you know…

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“The most correct answer for how many countries there are in the world is 193– 192 members of the United Nations, plus non-member Vatican City. There are, of course, some controversies: Guantemala claims Belize doesn’t exist, Taiwan and China have their arguments, as do the Greek and Turkish sections of Cyprus.

Of these countries, 118 have some form of stock market. Few are threats to supplant the NYSE anytime soon. Many are quite small: The Royal Security of Bhutan lists 15 companies, and the International Brunei Exchange lists none at the moment.

But all combined, all these international stock exchanges are larger than the three major exchanges in the United States, having 5 times the number of companies, and a total market cap at $23 billion, which exceeds that of the American-listed companies. That excludes ADRs, of course. That would be double counting.

In case you’re wondering, Peru has the best-performing stock market since 2001, gaining an average of 42% per year.”

* Excerpt taken from Motley Fool Global Gains– Volume 1, Issue 1, December 2006

I am back!

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Yes! I am back from my ‘hiatus’ with the Singapore Acting (wayang) Force (SAF)… Ho ho ho…

 

Overall, reservist was a good therapy away from urban living and getting detached from technology especially blogging. Ha ha…

And it allowed me to have a good rest and served many opportunities to know my camp mates better.

Now in my 10th year since I ORD-ed (operational release date) from my active NS days, I did a quick observation on some of the things that remained unchanged like…

They are things like:

  • The poor communication from top-down
  • The free-flowing usage of vulgarities
  • The ‘chao keng’ (malingering) antics by soldiers
  • The wayang-ness of every training and programme
  • The waste of human resources, talents, time and food

However, I also had observed the things that has changed:

  1. My body-aches after a 6-day outfield exercise
  2. I look forward to eating at the camp cookhouse (now food is outsourced)
  3. The commanders do not ask me to ‘down 20’ (push ups)
  4. In camp, we sleep on spring mattresses and not on a slab of sponge
  5. AND I can no longer fully button up my army slacks* 

* Picture for reference below, but not for the weak stomach =p

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Hope you never vomit… Ha ha ha…