Pictures tell a thousand words, or in this case, a lifetime promise. The guy you see in the photos is not just a friend or best friend; he is long wei, a brother to me. He belongs to this group of 5-6 people whom I will never hide anything from, whom I will share everything with (girlfriend included). I have tried my best (despite a tight schedule) to plan a nice proposal for him. Hope Jean and him will be happy always.

The unveiling of the ring box

The acceptance

And finally, the kiss.. Awww…

Today I had a hearty all-American breakfast: sausages, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, the works; all prepared by my lovely Stelly who woke up early to buy the ingredients, travel to my place and cook up a storm in my little kitchen. Why you ask? Well, we’ve gone through 2 eventful years together, that’s why.

We then went out for a present shopping spree for each other. During the walk we saw the Mint Museum of Toys and decided to pay it a visit. $10 per person; I would say it’s definitely worth it if you are a fanatic in ancient toys. Otherwise, it could be a very quick visit due to its small size. There were a few interesting exhibits but I couldn’t find anything I played before in my youth. Guess I’m not that old after all.

It may be Batman to you but its Bapokman to me. Look at those boobs and the pouty red lips!

And here’s Betty Boop having a hard on…

Anyway, I shall say what I bought for her first as it’s easier to describe; a 4gb iPod nano. We fussed over it, compared it to the Samsung but finally fell victim to the power of the Apple brand. She has been wanting to have a nice mp3 player for a while so I guess this is a practical yet fun gadget for her.

What stella bought for me was crazier though. Not sure if you are familiar with the brand FREITAG (http://www.freitag.ch), but it’s been my dream to own one of these amazing bags! I would probably never have bought it for myself due to its price but it’s so so great to get this as a present. Thanks dearie..

This bag is made from used tarpaulin from trucks and old seat belts 

Adding the FREITAG brand to those recycled materials? A price tag of almost 400 dollars

Thrilled with the purchase, happy with my bag and using it immediately, I then surprised Stella with a dinner at Sho-U, a Japanese fusion restaurant at Central, Clarke Quay. Food rocks but servings were so so tiny… Satisfied her perpetual cravings of salmon sashimi though.

And finally… Happy Anniversary to us!

Friday. I went to the Asian Civilization Museum with a friend from my internship days to check out an exhibition of Chinese snuff bottles. Admission was free and the bottles were amazing. These bottles were from the Qing dynasty; a time when it was hip to carry beautiful minature bottles filled with snuff around. Whenever someone needs a quick fix , all he or she needs to do is to swirl their pigtails to the back, take out the snuff bottle, uncap it and breathe a mini-spoonful of it in through their nose. Sounds illegal? Not in China! Who says the Chinese are boring?

Carvings look intricate? This bottle is smaller than my palm

But the interesting part was meeting this native North Canadian named Varlan. Native as in red indians, dance and campfire native. Although I’ve seen native Americans looking very much like latins or (no offense) pocahontas, Varlan look just like a typical caucasian. And the really really interesting part is he’s an artist; a honors graduate in fine arts in fact. So the three of us had a nice chat about the bottles, Singapore (but of couse) and North America. Varlan had made Montreal sounds so good, it made Singapore seemed like a backward place to live in! Incredible but true.

And the conversation with Varlan went into why he was in Singapore and what will he do here and it made me think about the rat races that we are signing up for right after graduation. Varlan is working 3-5 hours a day teaching English, and spending the rest of his time doing things he wants to do, like visiting places and painting. And us? We will probably spend 10 hours a day every weekday and a few more hours in the weekends so we can buy things that we want to own. Singaporeans like us probably never have a chance to walk around and really see what the country possesses. We have wonderful museums and exhibitions here but we only marvel at the grandoise of the Louve. We have exotic shopping places like Haji Lane but we just yearn for the street markets of Hong Kong and Bangkok. We have musical events from Good Vibrations to Phantom of the Opera but we only take out our wallets for our weekly dose of Hollywood cinemas. Is Singapore boring because of its activities (or lack of) or is Singapore boring because of us?

I’m not saying that I want to earn less and do more. But is it possible to strive for our ambitions yet at the same time, open our eyes to the potential sights and experiences around us? I believe so. Maybe by the end of the year when I’m back from Barcelona, I’ll be better able to indulge myself into the charms of this little island country. For now, I better book those movie tickets before it gets sold out.

They did it again. In August last year, SBS and SMRT has applied to the Public Transport Council for a fare hike and now, they are going to say "oops" because they have "did it again".

I remembered the Government praising the entry of SBS into the mass rapid transit market with their North East Line, stating the benefits of a competitive industry with falling prices, innovations and greater service.

Let’s not talk about perfect competition; let’s not even mention monopolistic competition, it’s a cartel, for god’s sake! And what is the PTC for when the transport giants can even arrange to do this fare hike thing on the same month every year! Sooner or later, the private bus and taxi companies will hop on the price-fixing bandwagon and what a happy and crowded one it will be.

I can just imagine fat chairmans with their tummies full of truffles and caviar, boasting about the bonuses that’ll be served to them on their cash-laden desks at the end of this year. Well, I say let them sit comfortably and even laze a little, for the day I become a MP is the day they will shiver in their thick Hugo suits.

Hmph!