ICT training

A bit lazy to post day 3 and 4 for the hk trip... I 'll do that after i come back from In-camp training. Serving my nation from the 23rd to the 28th..

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Hong Kong Trip (Day 2)

We had a city tour on our 2nd day as part of the Free & Easy package. We started the day at 7am with a good breakfast at a Dim Sum restaurant. The food was fantastic but the portion was a bit small.

Our 1st stop was at Repulse Bay, a beach situated in a rich man's land. The top 10 richest Hong kong people live in some of the houses behind us. Jackie Chan lives in one of those too. The property prices here are as crazy as Singapore's car prices. There's also a famous temple beside the beach.
Everyone was queuing up to touch the God of Wealth so we took our S$50 to rub some wealth into our pockets too. We wanted to use the HK$ at 1st but realised that having a windfall in HK$ isn't quite as useful as in S$. Hopefully, the God of Wealth recognise our currency. LOL!






Our next stop was Aberdeen. We took a ride around the harbour on fisherman's boat and tour the harbour for 25 mins. It was starting to drizzle a bit and our tour guide informed us of an approaching typhoon now blowing in the Philippines. Hong Kong is a typhoon prone region. As a result, Aberdeen Harbour was set as a designated cover for the 7000 odd fishing community that lived on the seas in the event of a typhoon.The Famous Jumbo seafood restaurant is also anchored here. Some of the rich's private boats are also anchored and maintained here. Apparently, the rich's life creates so much interest here that they are mentioned so very often on our tour.

This type of free tour of course comes at the expense of many side shopping trips to jewellery and herbs shop. If not, where do they earn the commission? We had lunch at some restaurant near a shopping district. Due to the bad weather, we were informed that the cable car at Ngong Ping halted operation and the fire service was there to free someone stuck on the ride. Lucky the cable car was in business by 3pm when we reached. The fog though was quite a spoiler though.

It would have been a beautiful sight if it was a clear day. We saw the Hong Kong airport from the cable car before entering into the fog. Maybe it was just the wrong season to visit. Ended the tour on Lantau island and shop at the Citygate Outlets. Dear got a few bargains for office wear at Esprit Outlets. Dear and I parted with Marcus and Sarah as they continued their spending spree. LOL! Would had stay longer but need to meet Dong on Hong Kong Island and we were running late.

Met Dong at Central MTR and he bought to his place for a look. Took the World's longest Escalator. Pretty cool! It's downward moving in the morning and upward moving for the rest of the day. Saves a lot of climbing. It also by passes a lot of the "happening" areas which Dong was living at. Pretty much like Clarke Quay with lots of pubs. We saw his apartment and it was hardly bigger than my bedroom.

Dong brought us to a roadside stall to try the authentic way of eating Wanton mee. We also order some black sesame dessert and another dessert which we couldn't pronounce. Dong tried his cantonese on the stall lady and he was pretty good. Was able to converse with the lady other than the part where we couldn't understand the lady asking if we want oyster sauce. After that, we meet with Dong's other group of friends who were there to visit as well. Surprisingly, someone in the group knows dear and i know another guy formerly from my secondary school as well. Talk about small world... We took a tram (Yes! authentic shanghai style, pictures in the next post) to Causeway Bay where Dong said it's where the Hong Kong youths hang out. Aijia spotted the legendary mango dessert and it was damn good! We thanked Dong for the meals and had to leave early because we need to catch the public transport back to the hotel which took us a freaking 1 hour. More to follow...

Hong Kong Trip Day 1

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Hong Kong Trip (Day 1)

Went for a 4D3N Hong Kong holiday for my graduation trip last week with Dear, Marcus and Sarah. Took some time to process the photos and now I'm ready to blog about it. Our United Airlines flight was 6.40am on the Tuesday morning, so we were at terminal 3 in the wee hours to check in. Marcus and Sarah booked the tour earlier and was flying by the cheaper Jetstar instead. We paid 40plus bucks more but got meals on board so overall it's worth the money. Plus we didn't have to take a shuttle bus to the meeting point at Hong Kong Airport. =)

We arrive in Hong Kong at 10.30 am after a 3+ hr flight. Aijia did the staring girl look on me on the minibus which brought us to our hotel from Hong Kong Airport. Our hotel was somewhere in New Territories, both 40mins away from the airport and the Tsim Sha Tsui downtown. So we spend quite a bit of time travelling between places. Other than the location, the hotel is very good in terms of facilities and highly recommended.

After a short rest, we had a KFC lunch (!!! why KFC?!? cause we in a bit of a rush and couldn't find a better alternative) at a shopping centre nearby. Caught the hotel shuttle service downtown and our 1st stop was to be Mong Kok for some shopping. The transportation system in Hong Kong is very efficient and finding our own way around is pretty simple.

Saw some minibuses (a distinctive form of transport in Hong Kong) lining up to pick up passengers. Apparently, there are 2 kinds of minibuses, one type with red rooftop and another in green rooftop. If I recalled correctly from Dong (He's in Hong Kong for an internship, more on him in a later post), the green rooftops stop at designated bus stops while the red ones allow passenger to get off anywhere they want along the minibus route. We covered a lot of shopping places like Temple Street and I got a pair of Adidas soccer boots for HK$319. My tummy was feeling too well and we went back early to catch the 10pm hotel shuttle. This marks the end of 1st day. More to follow....

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Vesak Day

Today is Vesak day. A day celebrated by Buddhists to remember the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha. A few days back, Marcus and I happened to passed by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum in Chinatown and decided to pop in for a look. Apparently, they are in a midst of preparation for Vesak Day. Quite a grand place. Some photos to share...

Got $12k to spare, you can adopt one of these exhibits. There is a whole range of Buddhist-related artifacts up for adoption. Apparently, I don't have that type of money to spare but i did donate a significant sum.

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DART Rescue update

"OPERATION LION HEART" SCDF Rescue Contingent Recovers 5 Bodies at Hongbai Town [adapted from www.scdf.gov.sg]

The SCDF Lion Heart Contingent to China, deployed after the 12 May 2008 Sichuan quake, has been assigned to conduct search and rescue operations at Hongbai town, 50 km northwest of Shifang. Working with information provided by the local authorities, the 55-member contingent carried out search operations at 10 sites throughout yesterday and today. The contingent’s first day of operations after arrival on 16 May 08 saw the extrication of 3 female casualties from a site on the east side of the town. Operations today have seen the contingent uncovering another 2 victims in the same town, making the total number of victims extricated by the team to 5 so far. Operations on 17 May 2008 Operations on 17 May 2008 began at 0745 hrs. The first body was recovered at 2015hrs by the DART specialists using hydraulic spreaders, with the help of local heavy plant operators. The extrication of the body which was found at a partially collapsed 4-storey school building took 40 minutes. The search was supported by the rescue dog team. At an area opposite the first find, separated by a railway track, the body of another woman was recovered from a collapsed structure at 2330 hrs. She was extricated from piles of concrete slabs and debris within 20 minutes. At 2100hrs, the Chinese military personnel also discovered a half buried body of a Chinese woman and requested for assistance from SCDF to recover the body. The victim was extricated after 20 minutes with the use of hydraulic spreaders. Operations on 18 May 2008 Operations conducted this morning at the same town also resulted in the SCDF rescue contingent finding 2 other casualties from amongst ruins of the earthquake. The first body of a female Chinese was found at 1100 hrs at the 2nd storey of a partially collapsed 5-storey building. She was extricated at 1120 hrs. The second body of a male Chinese was found at 4pm and extricated within 30 minutes. He was found at the 2nd storey of a 4-storey building. The search and rescue operations by the contingent is still on-going. Besides search and rescue operations, the SCDF medics have also been approached by the local residents for medical aids and treatment.

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Natural Disasters

A week of disasters.

First is Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, then the Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan, China. 2 very different responses from governments. Slow, secretive, stubborn in contrast with rapid, unprecedented openness to external aid.

China's leaders are anxious to repair the public-relations damage they have suffered internationally as a result of the Tibet crisis. Obviously the protest on the international route had been a PR nightmare for the Beijing Olympics and they are keen to avoid the kind of criticism directed at Myanmar.



Rescuers carry an injured from the debris.
By THE HUFFINGTON POST
Published: May 13, 2008

A young boy sits by the wreckage of a home near Kyauktan in Myanmar.

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: May 12, 2008

The first 24 hours after an earthquake or a building collapse are the most crucial when frantic clawing by neighbors, friends and relatives can pull survivors from the rubble. But once those precious hours pass, rescuing survivors becomes more technical and is best handled by specialists. After some 100 hours since the earthquake, the Chinese government had at last agreed to the let in foreign rescue teams into the epicenter. Hopefully, that would be of some help. The team from Singapore had already landed in Chengdu and are heading for Shifang city to begin rescue operation.

A bit of background about the team. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Operation Lion Heart Contingent is a 55 men team which comprises of the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) members on a 24hours standby to respond to major emergency. Recently (January 2008), they had been certified by the UN INSARAG as the 1st in Asia and only 7th in the world to earn the classification of a Heavy Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) team (the highest certification for an USAR team). DART members specialise in complex rescue operations and had been deployed in many regional disasters since their formation in 1990.

All the best for a successful operation!

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The Digital Photography Book Volume I and II

Haven't been updating for quite a while. In fact, I haven't been out shooting for a very long time. First it was FYP and now exams. I looking forward to the end of exams next month so that I can finally have time of my own and bring that cobwebs-covered camera out for a run. Anyway, I got some great books to recommend, The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. His explanations are straight forward. No fanciful jargons or tech talk. Just simple advice on how to nail the shots like a pro. Learnt a lot from the 1st book so I didn't think twice about getting the volume 2 when it's here in Singapore (ok, fine. I hesitate a bit when i see the price but Marcus lend me his Popular discount card... Helps to convince myself) These 2 books are just great for beginners like me!

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Who wants to fight in Canteen A?

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Difference between men and women...

Men:

1. All men are extremely busy.
2. Although they are so busy, they still have time for women.
3. Although they have time for women, they don't really care for them.
4. Although they don't really care for them,
they always have one around.
5. Although they always have one around them,
they always try their luck with others.
6. Although they try their luck with others,
they get really pissed off if the woman leaves them.
7. Although the woman leaves them they still don't learn
from their mistakes and still try their luck with others!


Women:

1. The most important thing for a woman is financial security.
2. Although this is so important, they still go out
and buy expensive clothes and stuff.
3. Although they always buy expensive clothes,
they will still say that they never have something to wear!
4. Although they never have something to wear,
they always dress beautifully.
5. Although they always dress beautifully, you hardly care .
6. Although you hardly care, they still expect you to compliment them.
7. Although they expect you to compliment them, when you do,
they don't believe you!

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Coincidence?

Exam Date Exam Time Course Venue Seat No.
15-APR-2008 0900-1100 EE4040 HALL D-Sports Hall 2, Sports Recreation Centre 281
18-APR-2008 1430-1630 EE4718 HALL C-Block N2, B2c-12, North Spine 425
23-APR-2008 0900-1100 EE4455 HALL A-Foyer, B1, Nanyang Auditorium 249
29-APR-2008 0900-1100 EE4756 HALL A-Foyer, B1, Nanyang Auditorium 312
02-MAY-2008 0900-1100 EE4758 HALL D-Sports Hall 2, Sports Recreation Centre 281

2 Exams at the same venue, same seat, what are the odds of that happening?

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