earthly view from Bukit Panjang

bulan Disember

2009-12-03T22:35:00.005+08:00

This evening's paper was my last paper for this semester! Hooray!

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A lot had happened over the past few months. Actually its just school stuffs. As I grew in seniority here in NUS, the added years means I really have to work my arse up just mere maintaining my CAP score. I have gotta to be lying to say that I am still fine after the semester is over. Schoolwork has taken its toll on me in more ways than one.
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I like blogging. I really do. But the heavy workload means I ended up having no time at all to blog. Often I would log on to blogspot and click on "new post" but ended up being too mentally exhausted to write anything at all. And omgd its been such a long time since I last went out. Apart from shuttling from home to nus, I pretty much never went anywhere else for the past few months.
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I always call those suaku foreigners in campus mountain tortoises but I think I can safely be called a Kent Ridge tortoise for having no life at all. =(
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But. . . my holiday schedule thus far is pretty much packed with loads of fun filled activities which Iam sooo looking forward to! Of course at the back of my mind I know that this one month holiday is going to just fleet past machiam a sea side breeze and I am dreading the prospect of possibly taking two level 4000 mods next sem. Urgh.
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But nothing is going to spoil my December. Absolutely nothing!
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On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

2009-11-20T12:11:00.003+08:00

While mugging hard for the exams, one of my friend posted a note from Haruki Murakami in his facebook profile which I found really thought provokingly sweet and sad at the same time.

Go on click here and enjoy it. =)

Bridget!!

2009-11-07T10:46:00.004+08:00

Wow,

This girl is good. While watching the MTV Europe Music Award, I chanced upon Jay Z's performance. He was supposed to do the act with Alicia Keys but Keys didnt managed to make it and this girl was her stand in. Her name is Bridget Kelly and I think she's way much better than Keys in my opinion.

red bull gives u wings

2009-10-23T19:36:00.003+08:00

Langgar a car at Malaysia's checkpoint. Got f**ked by the stupid Msian police. $150 poorer. Project not yet finished. 3 term papers still not yet done with, with the deadline looming over me like hantu tetek lidat. And lastly with the exams one month away.
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I really need a lift off away from this black hole.

~
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Dead-lines

2009-10-12T08:39:00.002+08:00

I got 4 term papers and 1 project due within the next three weeks. Lucky my weekend tuition is over already. Must chiong for this later half of the sem.

John Q

2009-10-07T08:14:00.003+08:00

I watched the flick John Q yesterday for my Biz module. The story is damned sad one about a father (played by Denzel Washington) whose son needs a heart operation or he will die within a matter of months or even days.

The problem is, the U.S healthcare system is pretty screwed up and for someone who can't even afford to keep abreast of his family's mortgage payment, the US$300k operation is just w-a-a-a-a-y beyond his budget. The hospital director then nonchalantly told him off asking him to bring his son back home because his insurance coverage could not even cover the initial 30% downpayment that he supposed to pay up front. She simply said, "There is a limit to our generosity".

The daddy being pushed into a corner and not wanting to live the day to bury his son, then takes a hospital full of patient hostage until his son gets the heart op he needed. To cut the story short, in the end it was revealed that the gun he used throughout the entire ordeal was not even loaded and he is even willing to shoot himself in the head committing suicide if it turns out that he's the only suitable donor for his son, who needed the op urgently.

With Denzel Washington inside, you can bet that it is one hell of a tearjerker of a story. But stories like this does makes you think about family ties and just how far you will go for them. In this case, if you are the daddy, would you go as far as what Denzel did in order to get the heart op for your son? Or in the case of Prison Break, would you be like Scofield and go to jail with a scheming plan to get your big bro out of jail just because you believe that he was innocent??

MCYS probably should take cue from these scriptwriters the next time they are embarking on their "Family Values" campaigns.

Ouch!!!

2009-09-28T08:18:00.002+08:00

Beyonce was here in Sg for the f1 music fiesta. During one of the interviews, she was quoted at saying, "I simply love the Sg fans. Even though they don't speak proper English, they still sung along to my songs".

Speak singlish some more la. . .

boomz girl got boomed!!

2009-09-25T21:16:00.004+08:00

I stumbled upon a friend's fb page and guess what? The red bigginie girl was actually guilty of credit card fraud. According to the report, she was earlier charged of misappropriation of credit card and bought anklets, mobile phone and wined & dined at a swanky restaurant.
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This girl is really machiam Sg's version of a real dumb blond. How the hell did she won the beauty pageant neway? She is not pretty, her face flat like those peanut cakes sold at Mr Bean outlets. I think when she's young her face kanna run over by a garbage truck. The Ah Beng at Holiday Plaza J.B who peddle pirated DVDs can speak more phropher Engrish than her. Hell, I rather kiss the Tiger Beer aunty at the kopitiam near my block than kiss her.
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Only the Japanese can come up with this!

2009-09-24T20:53:00.000+08:00

Hariee Rayaaa is 2mr !!

2009-09-19T13:41:00.004+08:00

It's been a long while since I last blogged. I am really really extremely busy these days. My history lecturers this semester are quite a merciless lot who piled on me stacks of readings to do every week. Then there's lotsa other non-academic stuffs I need to worry about.
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On a happy note, I am glad to be involved in at least 3 children-related volunteerism this semster. One is my regular one at the Bt Panjang Family Service Centre and another is doing a nutition-related workshop for a yet-to-be-decided children's organization for my Biz project. The last is for Darul Ma'awa orphanage come this Dec. These are stuffs that I don't mind getting my hands full with!!
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On a separate note, Hari Raya is here again and I am going to wish all of you Selamat Hari Raya and hope you will enjoy yourself thoroughly this festive season. While scanning through my past entires, I realized that everytime around Hari Raya, I would blog and whine about the same old issues again. Instead of rehashing the same old arguments, feel free to view my 2006's entry, 2007's entry and 2008's entry on Hari Raya.
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I still stand by those views I held onto all these years. But as I grow older, I grew to accept and respect the views of those who would want to go for jalan raya this festive season. Surprisingly, I also encountered a few like-minded Melayus who don't go out for jalan raya and stuffs. So looks like I am not the only oddity then =)
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moobs

2009-09-09T22:29:00.002+08:00

What a name!

2009-09-02T21:13:00.005+08:00

NUS has many many different interest groups. Some are those groups which I personally don't even know existed even after more than 2 years breathing the air here in Kent Ridge. Take for example this play production by the NUS Indonesian kids to be held in the University Cultural Centre. Their PR guys really went all out with posters plastered everywhere in campus and even an ad on the IVLE sidebar.

But what I find really really funny is the name of the society. They called themselves Perhimpunan Indonesia NUS and use the acronym PINUS. Wth?!?! Ok ok I try not to make fun of them but seriously with a name like PINUS, how can you not make fun of them. Imagine in the future when being interviewed by their prospective employer with them proudly saying, "During my time in NUS, I am an active member of the NUS PINUS!". Good job la guys!!

more games next class!!!

2009-09-01T08:10:00.003+08:00

What a way to begin my Tue morning. Early morning only I received the following sms from one of my sec 1 student;

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Hello, mr fairus.
thank you for teaching us english, yeah? But, increase the number of games, pls! Heheh. :-P anw, happy teachers' day! Sorry no present. ): sorry luh. HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY!
~sabrina
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so cute right?!?!

bad dream

2009-08-28T20:35:00.001+08:00

Sometimes life works in a rather quirky way. With a touch of divinity and all goes haywire.

???

2009-08-23T18:30:00.003+08:00

I always love checking the journal entries of my kids. Yesterday in class as usual before I start lesson proper, I asked them to write up their reflection for the week. At times I'll be surprised at what these 13 year olds wrote on their journal. Some can get really damned emo and pore out their hearts contents on the journal and I will then have to play counsellor to them. Don't laugh ooookay, Mr Fairus in class is not the corkanathan chee ko peh everyday Fairus. I can dish out advise on life one.

The centre told the tutors that the main reason why English teachers are highly encouraged to go thru their student's journal is to spot suicidal tendencies amongst them which I personally am supportive of. Some of my troubled students talk about finding it extremely hard coping with family problems, relationship problems, friendship problems and other sort of problems. Then there's the candid entries such as this boy who wrote down saying that he joined NCC because he wanted to slim down and increase his chances of hooking up with girls. Or this one Sec 1 girl who feels uncomfortable getting presents from this Sec 3 guy who she thinks is ugly but do not have the heart to tell him to buzz off.

Then yesterday there's this girl who wrote in her journal something which sets me pondering. So we are now in the Fasting Month which also happens to be the Hungry Ghost Month as well. All the spirits are believed to be chained up during the Fasting Month but it is also believed that all the spirits are released to roam the earthly world during the Hungry Ghost Month. So how??

euwwww!!

2009-08-20T20:08:00.003+08:00

After watching my earlier post on the farny Thai ad, my friend recomended me another Thai ad which is just so downright insanely F-ing hilarious!! If only Sg-reans are this creative.
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Cartoon Heroes

2009-08-19T08:21:00.002+08:00

On my way to school yesterday, I was listening to The Morning Express Show when Glen was remisnicing on his childhood memories and talking about the different comic characters that existed back then. Here are some of those notable cartoon characters which personally I grew up with also!

The Archies : The classic. No cartoon ever survived this long. Back during my Primary School days when I was reading it, I remembered my aunty telling me that she used to read the Archies back during her childhood days. Fast forward now, a few years back I spotted a few of my Pri-school tutees reading the Archies as well and I remarked to them that when I was their age, I used to read the Archies as well. Talk about being longlastingly evergreen!!

Lao Fu Zhi : Remember this skinny guy Chinese guy with the songkok with his two sidekicks? The tall one and the short fatty Ah Fei? Apparently, this cartoon was inspired by real life actors who acted in one of the Chinese Variety show.The show was so immensely popular they created a cartoon version. And the real Lao Fu Zhi is an exact replica of the cartoon character. Some scary weird shit I would say!
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Roy of the Rovers : Those footie-mad guys would definitely remember this footie comic book. On telly, there’s another footie cartoon called “The Hurricanes”. I remembered watching The Hurricanes on Prime 12 the day before my inter-class soccer tournament when I was in Pri 4 to get myself psyched up before the match. Pretty darn pathetic right? Lol!
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Beano : How can I forget this. I used to have rows of Beano yearbooks decked out on my bookshelf. This is the comic that featured iconic characters such as Dennis the Menace. I seriously have no idea what had happened to my Beano collections. Probably my mom must have given them away to my younger cousins or something. X(
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Asterix and Tintin : I used to have many copies of these two comics as well and I have no idea where they are anymore!! Back then when I was a kid, whenever I wanna go and poo poo in the loo, I would grab one copy to occupy myself during my moment of solitude in the loo. Now it’s just my History readings accompanying me to the loo. The thing about Asterix & Tintin is that even if I had read the same comic book multiple times before, I will still read the same thing over and over again!
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Bananaman : I am not sure whether many of you remember Bananaman but whenever there’s a bookfair at the school canteen by an outside vendor, I would always buy Bananaman books!
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Lat : If The Archies is a classic, Lat is definitely an Asian comic literary classic. A listener commented on Class 95 that after reading Lat, he always drew his cartoon character with a “w” as the nose. Hehehe, so cute right!!
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Doraemon : This has got to be my all-time favourite. I probably like have bought close to a hundred of the Bahasa Malaysia-version Tora Aman comic. Nobita was my idol back then as the perpetual underdog who always manage to be the hero in the end. I am such an addict that I would exchange doraemon comics with my classmates, friends, relatives or just simply anyone. Back then, I used to regularly sleepover at my grandparent’s place and my late grandmother even set aside a shelf tucked away in one corner of her bedroom for me to put my doraemon comics. Sigh, those were the days. . . . .

pray they are a buncha slackers!!

2009-08-17T19:49:00.004+08:00

I had my first lect just now for two of my modules. The one on Asian Biz History was a shocker. I knew that being a level 3000 history mod, there's very few kids taking it up. But I didn't expect less than 20 kids. And..... I totally didn't expect that 3/4 of the class are made up of exchange kids!! Wth?!?!

I know that some of these exchange kids are really damned smart. But let's just hope that most of those from my Asian Biz lect are here for holidays and are just slacking away. You know right, those type of ang mohs who would typically spend only 45 mins doing their papers and would just casually walked off from the exam hall after that (for a 2 hour essay exam).

On a brighter note, Man Utd won and Rooney was such a sizzler. Chelsea & Arsenal won their respective match and Liverpool flopped at White Hart Lane. Man City won their's though. Wow, at this rate, I can be quite a good EPL punter. TNP can try calling me up.

Disappointingly for the last Golf Grand Slam of 2009, Tiger Woods faltered after 3 days in pole position. Worst of all, he lost to a Korean who is ranked 109 places below him. -_-

Cheers !!

2009-08-16T21:32:00.002+08:00

The Thais are really damned farny in a weird way!!
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Of devils and tiger

2009-08-15T19:12:00.008+08:00

I had trouble adjusting back to school life. After months of spending my daytime napping away and leading a readings-free life, making the transistion back to being a student is kinda a pain in the arse. But after the totally disasterous and horrible previous semester, I really am looking forward to face this semester head on and switch to mugger-mode from day one onwards. Chiong ah!!!!!!

But on a much brighter note, EPL starting today! Yay!! After months of being starved off my weekly dosage of footie action, finally the epl is back. I do believe that Chelsea are going to be one of the serious contenders for the title. Arsenal is going to be the dark horse in this title chase. Liverpool amidst all the hype surrounding them, is not going to be even in the running for the runners-up spot. Man City, lagi worst, going to be a massive flop.

Man Utd is going to surprise everyone by not only defending their epl title but sweeping all the cups in the diff tournaments as well. They may have lost the Charity Shield but the way Man Utd played that night reassured me and all the Utd faithfuls that we have got nothing to fear this season! Even if Owen turns out to be a flop (which I am sure as hell he will not), Rooney will come of age and makan all the defenders in his way!

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Then this weekend also see the last Golf Major of 2009. Its day 2 and Tiger is leading the pack at the PGA Championship. Lets hope he can mantain the momentum and win this one by Sunday. Tiger jia yoh!!!

Report highlights golden future of history graduates

2009-08-10T21:27:00.002+08:00

Wow! Look at this article below. Looks like I got hope after all!!
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In an age when "so last week" is a withering insult, what are the prospects for graduates who, like Euan Blair, have just spent three or four years stuck in previous centuries?
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Very good, according to two reports on the employability of history graduates, published by the Higher Education Academy. A string of successful careers in the media, business, politics and even spying have been built on a history degree, found the reports' author David Nicholls.
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"A remarkable number have gone on to become the movers and shakers of modern-day Britain," he notes. Highflying historians range from the chancellor, Gordon Brown, and four other members of the cabinet to the head of MI6, John Scarlett; from radio presenters Nicky Campbell and Simon Mayo, TV presenters Jonathan Ross and Timmy Mallett to the general secretary of the TUC, John Monks, the chairman of Woolworths, Gerald Corbett, and the outgoing chairman of Manchester United, Sir Roy Gardner. History graduates are found in disproportionate numbers on the boards of the UK's top 100 companies.
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In a survey of 84 famous historians carried out by Prof Nicholls, Princess Diana's biographer, Andrew Morton, said a history education "helps with judgment and at the top level judgment counts more than knowledge (Prince Charles is also a history graduate, although his views are not recorded in the report).
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The most frequently mentioned advantage the famous history graduates mentioned was the ability to read quickly and effectively and process large amounts of information, think deeply about a subject, develop cogent arguments and communicate clearly. All this young Mr Blair will be able to put on his CV from Bristol, from where he graduated yesterday.
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Turning to present day history degree courses in his report for the academy's subject centre for history, Prof Nicholls concludes they are preparing students well for employment, with particularly good writing skills, although they could do more on numeracy and oral communication. He suggests university history courses could make more use of spreadsheets and databases to improve this, but he says it would be a mistake to try to impose transferable skills at the expense of enjoyment of the subject for its own sake.
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"Students were not choosing history at school or university because of its skills content or because they saw it as a passport to a job. Rather they saw it as an opportunity to study something that interested them," he writes. Killing enjoyment with an obsession with employability skills would be counterproductive, but skills could be improved with minor adjustments to the curriculum.
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Prof Nicholls also discusses whether history attracts a certain type of personality. As a historian, he is a bit sceptical of this theory, although he feels there is some substance to it. Historians are more likely to see themselves as sceptical, iconoclastic, ideas-oriented, warm and socially pushy, as opposed to trusting, conservative, solution-oriented, emotionally distant or shy (you recognise the engineers).
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He concludes: "With a history degree you can aspire to be prime minister, press baron and media mogul, overlord of the BBC, 'the most famous lawyer in the land', archbishop of Canterbury, top spook, leading diplomat, police chief, Oxbridge chancellor and vice-chancellor, England footballer and football manager, or chairman of the richest football club in the world, famous comedian or celebrated pop musician, bestselling novelist, trade union boss, business millionaire and perhaps even one day monarch of the realm."
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Donald MacLeod guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Hairpee Bdae Sg!!!

2009-08-08T18:50:00.005+08:00

I watched G.I Joe and man it was sooo cool!! Its been a while since 300 that I was actually salivating at the edge of my seat for the entire movie length! Firstly I am such a sucker for fantasy-action flick which is why I orgast myself silly watching flicks machiam Lord of The Ring, Star Wars, Star Trek and 300. Secondly I just love Ray Parks! This is the guy who played Toad in X-Men and Darth Maul in Star Wars. In G.I Joe he's the silent-ted Snake Eyes. Man, this guy is the worthy successor to Bruce Lee!

But of course, the best part about G.I Joe is definitely The Baroness. Ho sei liao la!!! Sienna Miller just should stick with dark hair. I mean come on, what more can I say about The Baroness uh?

dominating kick ass attitude + trigger happy gun trotting villain + tight leathery outfit + squarish glasses + cleavages galore = sweet holy pumpkin!!!

. . . . . drools . . . .

Anyway before heading home, I decided to stop by at Bt Panjang Plaza for a bite. Skali I was taken aback by the number of red-shirted crowd at the Garden Plaza, many even spilling out of the Plaza itself. At first I thought its like some RC-initiated National Day Event or something. But upon closer inspection, I realized that most of those in the crowds are actually makciks wearing tudungs, portbellied pakciks, trucker-capped mats & minahs with "eyebrows" which will be botak clean-ed after a routine facial wash.

I wondered to myself. That is strange. I have never seen so many Melayus congregating at Bukit Panjang before. More strangely, I have never seen so many patriotic Melayus decked out in Red on National Day eve before!! So I decided to inch my way and checked out what the hell are these Melayus there for. Aiya, apparently its the finalists from the Suria talentshow Anugerah. Wah kao, of all places Suria organized it at my beloved Bt Pjg. Make the place jam packed with people only. Was also put off to shop and queue for food.

Charity Shield is also on tommorow! I am rooting for Man Utd to sweep this and the other cups along the way in the new season!! Yay!!

And also, in trying to imitate machiam the National Day emcees like Gurmit Singh and Mark Lee, I would like to wish Hairpee Birthday Siiiiiiiiiigaaaaaaaapoooooooreeeee!!!!

swooosh!!!

2009-08-03T20:57:00.003+08:00

Congrats to Tiger on winning the Buick Open 2009! Hopefully within two more weeks he can replicate the same success with the Grandslam PGA Championship at Hazeltine.

Watching the way Tiger played today, it got me itching to hit some golf balls at Bt Batok Driving Range. Its been quite a hell of a time since I last tee-ed off at the range and the golf clubs seemed funny when I swung them. The balls also doesn't seemed to hit as far as I had hit them 6 months ago. During those time when going to the golf range was a weekly ritual for me. Nevertheless I did just fine with a Pitching Wedge, 9 & 8 Iron as well as a 5 Wood. The shots using the 5 Wood came as a surprise as I was never that good with Woods.

So far bidding for my modules went quite smoothly as planned. I am just left with one more Breadth module, and I hope I can get the Biz mod that I am targeting for. Hopefully with careful Lectures & Tutorial planning, I can get a 4 day school-week with Fri my off day.

That'll be damned great because I will get to enjoy a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g weekend and on top of that can get to resume my weekly golfing ritual at Bt Batok Driving Range!! Last sem was such a killer as my free day is on Wed which just so happens to be the day the Range closes for its weekly maintainance.

Now lets just hope I can finally get that Biz mod. If my bid is unsuccessful, I will confirm die cause I don't really have a Plan B in mind.

signs

2009-07-27T20:46:00.004+08:00

While YouTubing I stumbled upon this short 12 mins movie which won a Cannes Movie Award for short movies. I am not really one into sappy love flicks but this is by far one of the best romance flick I have ever seen (even though its a grand total of 12 mins!). There's even a facebook fanpage dedicated to it. The sheer simplicity of the movie with almost zero dialogue involved really make this a rare gem of a movie, especially when compared with the tons of those horrible romance flicks dished out by Hollywood.

The movie slogan best sums up the flick;

Where do you find love? If we knew, we would all know where to look. Sometimes all you need is a sign.

mentel

2009-07-25T22:16:00.003+08:00

Wah I really cannot believe my eyes when I saw the front page headline on today's Berita Harian. Its about this retired teacher aged 60+ who lived in abject poverty because he was swindled off his pension money worth nearly half a million dollars on failed investments in Tanjong Pinang. Apparently his Indonesian business partner sapu all his money. Apart from that, he divorced his first wife and marry a younger wife there.

This is not something new and I did recall a few months back BH carried out a similar report. The thing is, it never fail to amaze me how these old buggers let their smaller head dictate their bigger head in carrying out decisions in life which would adversely affect their future.

When I first read the report, I can't believe just how stupid this old bugger was. He practically handed out hundreds of thousands of Sing Dollars to his Indonesian Biz partner and let his partner bought stuffs (lands, properties, cows, chickens) under that Indon guy's name.

I dunno about him but when I buy anything, I make sure as hell its under my name and not some other guy's name because common sense would tell you that the law would regard the owner of the property as the one whose name is legally entitled upon it, no matter who actually paid for it. In the end of course the Indon guy got lucky and treat almost everything spent using that old bugger's hard earned pension money as his own.

This Indon guy must be a professional swindler. The typical con man who "all fart and no shit" one. Make big empty promises which people will fall for one. Actually that is quite a remarkable skill don't you think so?

But its the second part that makes my cork hair stand in disgust. Its about wasting away all your pension money on a younger wife in Indon. These type of lao chee koh peks should know what better things to do in their sunset years in life rather than humping on girls young enough to be their daughter or even grandaughter. While they feel shiok every night bonging these girls, these girls also feel shiok bathed with copious amount of Sing Dollars showered onto them by their dentured-wearing sugardaddies. Give them 2 years or so when their CPF or pension money runs dry, the girls will be scrambling back to their kampong leaving these old chee kos with sweet horny memories and mere cents left in their bank account.

But what makes this guy in today's Berita Harian different is that he's willing to be interviewed, photographed AND featured on the front page. So what his real motive then? If you read the report you got the feeling as if machiam people should feel sad for him cause it seems like he's a nice naive guy who got conned. So what are the readers supposed to do then?

Gee, mebbe probably I should contact Berita Harian and ask them how I can donate to this old chee ko so that he can afford to go back to Tanjong Pinang and bong his young wife again.

So stupid right? I got a feeling that BH purposely is making fun of this corkanathan w/o him knowing.