rainy days

atc-ed-ed and above

well, its the time of the year, yet again. there are those who are determined and certain of their direction and goal, while some got stranded within the dark clouds overhead. some are questioning their own capabilities, while others are putting judgements on other parties. some will only join when their friends come along onboard, while some awaits to be asked to come join. some are happy as they see their effort over the past year being well appreciated, while some face disappointment when they are not selected.

for those who drop by my blog, old man phua has got something to say, to remind everyone, the true purpose of the transition, before everyone dwells into all the 'who say what' & 'what he did'.

firstly, lets all be glad that, today, the Club has a vast of capable youngsters, interested to lead the Club to greater height. but sadly, there's only so many positions for leaders. its too difficult to judge who is better, who did more, who is more suitable. let's not dwell in the past, but the future, yep, how much more can he or she, and even yourselve, can contribute more.

secondly, its a dark period, as somehow everyone seems to be judged. its a happy thing to know that you are being chosen, preferred and looked up upon, but there are those who got burned when they realise that they are seen less as compared to their peers. do be reminded, the Club can never be at this state, without everyone's effort, be it big or small. for the chosen ones, be glad, that you can contribute as a leader, steering the Club's direction, but for the rest, you all are NOT lousy, and are just as important. the general can't fight a war, without his captains leading the army.

thirdly, the rainy days is just a passing phase, don't let emotions overcome your true self. everyone gets affected as we all feel for the Club, the different committees, and most of all, our friends. be confident of yourselve and your judgement. be open and don't hesitate to interact with others. there will be a lot of hearsays, face-off, confrontation, disappointments, bitching, backstabbing and broken relationships. often, we got lost and burned in all these negativities, just remember, stay true to yourselves, think positive and look forward, the rain will come to an end in no time.

lastly, start thinking of the future! prepare yourselves for the year ahead. what you want to achieve, what you want to amend, where shall the Club heads upon, how we can do things better. yes! start finding the out-going leaders to get them to share their experience. interact with people to know your own strengths and weaknesses. plan the work year for your team, share it with others to make it better.

remember:

1. knowledge is power
   
2. we grow through interactions
   
3. you fail to plan, you plan to fail

do your whatever it takes that you don't regret. best wishes.

atc-ed



graduate-ed

i love meeting old mates for meals! finally gotten my shift schedule, shall plan to meet up with more friends!

ending with a new beginning

upon graduation, marks the full retirement of the old dino phua from NTU ODAC, a place that he will always be proud of, where his good 4 years of memories are. emotions tend to flood in during such periods, where we start to part from school life, spliting paths with old mates.

sadly, due to commitment of my first full-time career, i can't attend FOOT (freshmen orientation overseas trip) but only the overseas and local seniors camp. old dino me has long lost his scorching breathes of fire, nothing much left that i can contribute, but just to sit aside to watch the youngsters grow through their projects.

eyes got a little teary, on the very night that kimjoo uploaded the ODAC video for year 2008/2009. though we had all watched it for umpteenth times, but all the fond memories that it brought along, got the cold blooded me emotional again. it may sound stupid, but i'm really envious of those laojiaos who can get to attend FOOT 2010 before the start of their career. its not about reliving the moment, i never believe in that, but just another occasion that we can once again, put in our heart, soul, sweat and blood, to do whatever we can for the Club.



with good blessing, hope the next batch , and many batches down the years, will once again be lead with good leadership, bringing the Club to greater heights. all the best for the 15th management committee. i may have left, but may my never-dying spirit fight on.

moving on with life, world cup 2010 marks the beginning of my working adult world. yep, working at PSA, one of the best container terminal in the world, an industry that the nation was so proud of, and kuku me, is gonna handle like 5 of its berth out of the existing 73. sounds exciting? yep, i hope it is. everyone claims that its a tough job, placed in a tough environment, and we gotta work through tough time when the economy had just went through a major recession. through hearsay, bosses are crazily demanding, setting expectations way mountain high, grinding subordinates with abusive and insulting languages. sounds like me hor? still in the midst of training phase, can't comment how bad it can be, but till date, i'm still confident of myself, to be able to cope.

new operations executives, july 2010 batch. they claim that half will be gone by the end of the year.

had a nice get to know session with my colleagues from pasir panjang terminal at The King Louis (vivo city level 3). we have a nice mixture of characters, i'm well enjoying the companionship at work, and hope the synergy will last us well at work.




heacy meat looks nice right? trust me, the food SUCKS, dun ever dine there, you have been warned. above are my 2 new friends who shared the Knights Meat Waigon with me!

somehow i'm missing my dearest secretary at work, shall put up a nice picture of her. sianz... no more pretty assistant by my side, nobody for me to boss around with, help buy tea, send sms & emails, talk stupid rubbish & highly animated jokes, and etc (thanks jas, you had been such a nice friend!)... roar... need to get use to being a ka kia!

5 cents worth of thoughts

for the good old kukubird friend of mine, hope that you are not that kuku that you don't even know i'm writing about you, but just wanna share this line that i yet to say that night.

its ok to have some scars in our lives, as they not only remind us about our failures, but more importantly, it marks our growth as we climb back from the fall.

to be frank, you are one of the smartest that i had known & you always know what you want, so you don't need advises, but if you need ears, at least i've got 2.

world cup 2010 - round of 16

sadly, some prediction of mine didn't come true for the group stages. especially so for the african teams like cameroon & ivory coast. nonetheless, as usual, i'll start betting right after the group stages, and here it goes:

Uruguay vs South Korea - Uruguay wins, i still deeeply believes in forlan. ($100)

United States vs Ghana - United States wins, i like donovan's performance. ($50)

Netherlands vs Slovakia - i'll buy -1.5 for Netherlands, robben is my favorite winger for the world cup. ($50)

Brazil vs Chile - i'll never bet on Brazil's game.

Germany vs England - Draw, England wins at ET/penalty shoot out. ($100)

Argentina vs Mexico - i bought Argentina to win the cup, how can i anticipate that they will be out so fast, but the odds are way to low for placing of bets.

Paraguay vs Japan - Japan, for asia's pride, honda literally got the best engine, but i wun bet this game, guess that it will be a draw game at full-time.

Spain vs Portugal - i'll take Portugal, still waiting for the odds to be out.

so exciting!

world cup 2010 - group stage

started writing this post before the 1st match kicked off, but could only finish it now... anw, here's my take to who's gonna go through the group stage.

just some rules that i based my predictions on:

1. countries with players well playing in european leagues will have a greater chance of holding the gold plated cup.
2. at least 2 african team will get through the group stage due to climate advantage.
3. a team with good finisher will be my choice compared to a generally strong team. this is world cup, not a league, the winning team will at most play only 7 games.
   

Group A

Uruguay - sadly for South Africa who play host for the world cup, i dun really think the host will get through even with home ground advantage. south africa shall concentrate to play good host instead of football in a week to come. uruguay, striking from diego forlan seems like a better take, probably bringing his team to the next stage with just 1 win and 2 draws.

France - without zidane or henry, if nothing really goes wrong, France should be able to go through the stage if complaceny doesn't comes to play. with strong and experienced backliners, evra, gallas and rodriguez, pushing the midfield with ribery and marquez, striking with govou, anelka and on-formed malouda, how could france miss its seat in the later stage?

Group B
South Korea - personal bias of south korea over nigeria, who strikes with martins and old time kanu, but i prefer to watch the world cup with the koreans airing the stadium with their chants, 'dae han min go! （大韩民国）'. its really nice to watch how the asian boy of manchester, park ji-sung give his all to his nation, despite the nuclear threats coming from the north, and not forgeting the last-last world cup hero, ahn jung-hwan!

Argentina - yep, rubbish manager you will say, maradona for such a world class squad, spoiling the good soup with long expired pepper. with strong line-ups from heinze, samuel, burdisso, veron, rodriguez, masherano, milto, tevez and messi, doubt anyone will question them in qualifying for the next stage. in fact, this is my pick for the winner of this world cup. seasoned defenders, all-rounded midfields, strong striking ability, with capable finishers. betted $50 on them for 1:6.5 at pools.

Group C
England - probably the most watched team in the world cup, where every player's ability is known through the many seasons of EPL that we had watched. somehow, they always seems strong, but never capable of holding the cup. to me, they are a confirm seater in the top 8, but never gonna make it to the next round. many placed their faith in rooney, but i never see him as a top class finisher, would prefer to have darren bent instead, but sadly, his not in the squad list.

USA - i'll definitely prefer the old squad led by pele than the current manager, bradley, but somehow the americans seems to play better football since beckham joined their league. with donovan and dempsey, with howard between the post, they should be able to get through.

Group D
Germany - without the old names like kahn and ballack, i'm still confident on the germans making their way to the top 8, just like england. holding the box with friedrich and lahm (my fav. pick in FM), schweinsteiger who winged through manchester united in champions league, and klose bringing goals from headers, group stages should be a ease.

Group E
Netherlands - somehow, i have a hunch for this team to land a place in the semi-finals. led by bert van marwijk, who just led feyenoord to win the dutch cup in 2007-2008, he got a strong line-up in his disposal. big names like bronckhorst, van bommel, van der vaart, sneijder, de jong to hold the midfield line, but what awaits us is with the strong forwards like kuyt, robin van persie and robben. a definite hot pick for this world cup.

Cameroon - the african team that i'll place my faith on. biased as eto'o is one of my favourite finisher, someone who scores just as long he gets a good pass. with bassong and m'bia taking the midfield, getting a few nice passes to eto'o should not be much of a problem. probably with the climate, they should be able to edge out japan and denmark in the group stages.

Group F
Italy - the old man team others may say, but seasoned i'll say. experienced in playing football at world class level, with most players played world cup once, having good understanding the skills and tempo of every other teams, such knowledge will are key advantages for such a seasoned team. big players like buffon, cannavaro, zambrotta, pepe, de rossi, gattuso, pirlo, gilardino and laquinta will be capable to bring the squad to breeze pass the group stage.

Slovakia - my pick instead of paraguay, with both strikers valdez and barrios from dortmund, and back up of santa cruz (only 4 goals for the whole season at man. city), i don't think they will deliver much goals to the back of the net. slovakia in the other hand seems to have more to offer with a young squad. father-and son tag-team for vladimir weiss, where father manage the squad, and son leading on the pitch, probably some sparks could come out from this young team.

Group G
Brazil - the king of football, think there's nothing much need to be said about the classic champions of football. doing it in salsa style that we had all seen through nike commercial advertisements, doubt they fail to impress the crowds this time round. many questioned dunga's management ability, but have we ever see the brazilians win the games with any known tactics? old time partnership of lucio and juan in the box, silva and kaka running into opponent's box, top class finishing from fabiano and robinho who each claimed 21 and 16 league goals, who gives a damn that names such as roberto carlos, ronaldo, ronaldino and adriano are no longer part of the squad.

Ivory Coast - i will much prefer to put the stake on another african team other than the well-liked portugal. with home ground advantage and strong physique, i believe toure, kalou and the man-of-steel drogba will lead the team to the next stage even they had landed in a bad draw to begin with. portugal seems strong with carvalho, ferreira, deco, mendes and ronaldo, but they just don't seems to have a winning factor.

Group H
Switzerland - not only for the well favorite spain, switzerland too is gonna have an easy time through the group stages, where chile and hondurus seems too weak to have any form of threat in offense. with barnetta sitting right in the middle of the pitch playmaking the game, and inler getting the possesions through infamous hard tackling, the only problem left will be getting the old forwards, aged well above 30, like frei and yakin to bring the goals.

Spain - hot favorite for the world cup. yep, combining the top clubs in the europe football scene, where star players of world class teams of barcelona, real madrid and valencia are put together to form the dream squad, and not to forget, the star striker, torres, from liverpool. somehow, favorites always seems to be cursed in world cup, like france in 2006 and italy in 2002, to never to perform well. despite the strong team with casillas, pique, puyol, ramos, xavi, alonso, iniesta, fabregas, top-scoring of spain, villa, and highly profiled torres, top 4, maybe, but not the champion for me.

just my 5 cents worth of thought. let's see how accurate i am!

another cycling trip at desaru 27th - 29th may

yet another trip to desaru on the bike, and this time round, with some real old friends from NYOAC! its real hard for a group of friends to meet up and go for trips once we all start working. really enjoyed myself spending the time with them.

i just like the 'slow' way of living in m'sia, which many of them don't seem to understand at the start. haha, i called it 'rubber-time', things are just so slow up north that these impatient singaporeans simply can't take it!

food at 四湾岛 never fails to make me fat! haha, everything there is all about food! hehez, gulping down my favorite 肉骨茶!

running buddy and me! miss those nights running up and down the slopes of NTU with stoopid ling.

out of so many times i'm at desaru, this was my first sunrise shot, ya, i could never get up for such lomantico moments... got dragged out of bed by these 2 terrors...

and yep, this was also the first night shot with mr. lobster of 四湾岛.

hehez, pre-trip brief was done over ling's birthday dinner! phin's steakhouse was seriously way better than that of hog's breathe at CHIJMES!

for the employed-to-be

happened to browse through the internet and saw this article, since most of us are graduating, and will all be working heavily on emails, shall post it up!

as quoted, 10 Rules of E-Mail Etiquette...

1. Do not use E-mail for sensitive subjects or topics that may be especially susceptible to misinterpretation.

2. Do not use E-mail if you are having a difference of opinion with the other person. It is very easy to come across as curt or uncaring in an E-mail message. Schedule a meeting with the person or pick up the phone.

3. Scrutinize the tone of your E-mails. Recognize that the receiver cannot hear your tone of voice and may not spot irony or humor.

4. Don't put anything in an E-mail that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of the newspaper or while sitting on the witness stand.

5. Be wary of forwarding E-mails unless you are certain that the sender would not mind if the message were forwarded. I've received forwarded E-mails that contained some rather personal comments in addition to the business content. I doubt if the author of the original message wanted me to know about her family situation.

6. If you want an E-mail to be regarded as urgent, then label it as such. Regard non-urgent messages the same way you'd regard regular mail and don't expect a reply within hours.

7. Beware of using text messaging abbreviations with people who might find it to be unprofessional, confusing or abrupt. I recently received an E-mail from a customer service department that was written in "textese." I thought it was funny but not everyone would have that reaction.

8. Unless the person is on the other side of the world, the fewer messages, the better. If you need to communicate so much with someone who is just down the hall, go see the person.

9. Beware of rushed messages. Those are the ones you are most likely to regret.

10. Forgive notes that seem unpleasant or out of character. We all have days in which we need people to cut us some slack. Unless it is extreme, don't let one note ruin a relationship.

all the best at work!

1st marathon

yep, after passing many years from the age where my fitness was at prime, old man phua decided to take on his first marathon, coming this 5th dec 2010. many of my frens had long completed their marathon at their early 20s while i only took it up at mid-20s. back problem is one of the main issue holding me back all these while. but since i had already trained up to 20km for x-physique, might as well push a little more. don't think i can wait any longer, as i can feel my body aging, with fitness level dropping real fast. think it will be even harder once i step into the late 20s to train for a 42km run.

anw, thanz lauren for that little push that got me to sign up, else once past the early-bird phase, i'll find the easy excuse, of 'too expensive' to register, and happily miss the chance.

since its my first marathon, shall just aim to copmplete under 4hr 30mins. time for a new shoe!

x-physique 2010 - Odee Acee Again!!!

wahahaha, after all these years, i finally have some time to join and train for X-Physique, the urban adventure race, arch rival of ATC, organised by NTU Sports Club. formed the 3-men team in intervarsity category with yonghan and lauren, all out to win 1st, hence naming ourselves, 'Odee Acee Again!!!', forcing the emcee to announce, 'and the 1st prize goes to Odee Acee Again!!!'. wat an arrogant name to begin with, if win, of cos huat, if lose, wah, our faces dunno go where hide!

the team had been discipline in training for the past 6 weeks for the race. had at 3 runs in school each week, even through the examination period, and conditioning runs at mac ritchie park.

apart from training up our physique, there's many more rubbish that we did to ensure that we secure the victory, bo bian, pride at stake, anything can happen as long we win..

1. deploying e 5 other odac teams to mislead other participants in the directions.
2. get munir to feed marcus with more supper during exams period (they are the best among the 5 odac teams).
3. cycling recce around the southern end of the island to guess their checkpoints.
4. study the southern map like machiam some 10-years series for 'a' levels.
5. planting spies within sports club to feed us with infomation.

yep, its race day, damn stress as we received the good wishes from supportive members of odac, hoping we will bring back the glory, in fact, i'm not exactly confident of winning 1st, as we lack speed, top 3 should be probable. but, pride at stake, must act cool in front of the young odacians, inside scared like dog..

as the race started, we tried hard to be in the lead for the category, and yes, by the 3rd station, we are the 1st varsity team to arrive, i still can't forget the amazed face of the station master when i reported our team number! getting the lead is easy, maintaining it is real hard...

and yes, we tried all we could to maintain the lead, and thank goodnees to all the trainings that we had, we really ran non-stop, and didn't burn out till the finishing line. and here comes the greatest stress point, cos we were flagged off by waves, hence, coming in 1st does not gurantee the shortest race time. my heartbeat gets faster than in the race while waiting for the results. after 40 mins, no varsity teams reutrned yet. definitely, e hopes was high, i like to quote the word lauren used, 'surreal', yep, we can't believe we may be winning it.

lauren was like saying that we were too confident, as last year, she also joined with some donkeys, and they came in the earliest in the category too, but ended up getting 4th place only! come on man! dun compare yonghan and me with some donkey out there, they no brain de, got mouth only! we got brain, got mouth, got everything!

hehez! 众望所归, we really won 1st! whahahaha!! ok, win liao can kaopei! of cos win la! how can the boss of ATC not win some rivalry race, of cos must win their race to show that we are better right? ITS ALL ABOUT PRIDE! that was my intention when i initiate to participate right from the start! but scare later never win, malu, so never say only!

of cos, without the good teamwork from fabulous team mates we wouldn't have made it. without yonghan the mobile GPS and the lauren the duracell rabbit encourager, we wouldn't have that medal on our neck! good job team! we shall join ATC step-up race 2011! and of cos, thank you guys who gave us the good support for the race, lucky we didn't disappoint your hopes. yep!

post graduation - living the HIGH life of unemployment

i'm so gonna miss the daily morning breakfast with jas, darryl, jean & zhang meh, either at Palette or Can 2. yep. spend almost every morning with the 4 of them for the last semester of uni life. no more cheap cheap breakfast in school le! dun miss me k!

and yes, i'll miss supper at ah fang with eugene too! doubt in any time soon, we can have our favourite mee goreng chicken jumbo again!

here comes the many waves of post exam celebration! first was kushinbo seafood buffet with ling! been waiting to eat it all these while! sadly, this time round, the snow crabs ain't that fresh, quite a big disappointment.

next we had a tower defense + outpost steamboat dinner at bugis! woah, i din know that so many of the odac members study together!

on the very saturday, the odac laojiaos joined the xinjiaos at adsports paintball in m'sia! OMFG! the arena is so damn big la! hahaha, so much more fun than those in singapore! bang! bang! bang! was a great gathering for the old folks! i gotta sa, i'm really old le, can only feel comfortable with the presence of the old birds.

the laojiao squad



the ATC 07 team

the following friday was yet another huat adsports programme, where the xinjiaos from different comms mixed around. haha, that's not for old man like me, so gathered some old folks in the evening instead, to have a nice dinner at chomp chomp follow by durian mosse for dessert!

this dessert place at serangoon gardens is really not bad, down the street of macdonalds, on the 2nd storey, the durian moose is a MUST TRY!

following monday was western food at CHIJMES, i'm so gonna grow so fat, a day right after X-physique, nothing seems to fill the endless pit of big tummy, i can eat a bull! haha, no la, but i did ate 2 set meals alone, and still yearning for more, not that the steak was good, in fact, quite bad, but i was just god damn hungry.

yep, the place is 'hog's breath cafe', selling steak meals at $30++, for good ambience, yes, for good food, NO.

last night, the ATC 09 team met for dinner at geylang for 田鸡粥, haha, was really nice, i had like 6 bowl of porridge, yep, still suffering from post race syndrome, i just can't get enough of food. when hui hui, junhua & issey is back, we shall have a nice bbq k!

fatty jas who claimed to have lost 5kg of weight after a 10 km of walk.

ended the night with durian, but no money, can only eat cheap cheap lousy ones. anw, eugene, stand firm k.