An Early Christmas

Took me some time to finally drag myself to pen down whatever has happened in November. Told myself to have at least 1 post per month... but still let my laziness get the better of me. I guess it's gotta do with the lack of photos to post up...

This year's Christmas seemed to feel like a very early one for everyone in my company cos we had our Christmas celebration on the 23rd Nov. It was due to people taking long leave in Dec and we couldn't find a date where everyone would be available. We were told that the games would start at about 4.30pm in the office but everyone was already in a festive mood since morning..and that was when I realised that my company has girls who have very good dress sense..( for your info, 82% of the staff are ladies ) .

We started off the first game by putting 3 personal items in a black plastic bag. The person who picked your bag would have to guess who the items belong to.... I find it a meaningful game as we can get to know each other better in an entertaining way...we get all sorts of stuff in the bags...guava, shoe, bible, credit card brochure, egg, green tea satchet... Well, apparently those who put irrelevant stuffs got whacked at the end of the game no matter how they justified them..keke.. I managed to guess mine correctly and got a box of chocolates...some others got movie vouchers..

For our 2nd game, each of us were donned on a "crown" with tags indicating the action or the words that you are forbbiden to do/speak... One of my colleague lost the game even before the game starts...we were supposed to interact in the pantry as we play..and my colleague was happily sipping away his red wine while waiting for all of us to get "crowned".. and of course, that was his forbidden action. The other was laughing hilariously at him in her usual high-pitched voice and got disqualified as well.. While some were trying hard to tease the rest ( making them do what's forbidden ) a few were just trying to keep a low profile. Most of them thought mine was hard ( to talk about scuba diving ) but my scheming leader eventually got me out of the game as well...

The third game was Taboo followed by a lucky draw. All the prizes and gifts had been sitting below our Christmas tree for weeks and everyone was just looking forward to this moment. The last prize was a hamper and the first was $300 cash. Mine was the 11th: $60 Isetan gift voucher which was good enough for me on top of our $120 Takashimaya gift voucher door gift. All thanks to our Christmas Party Committee who had been pestering our suppliers to be our sponsors. There was a coffee maker, a hi-fi set and a ktv set as well... The rest were movie or shopping vouchers.

We proceeded on to dinner at The Line ( My 2nd visit. Pls refer to July's post regarding the place. ) at Shangri-La Hotel in a chartered mini bus. Thursdays tend to be more expensive than the rest of the days for buffet dinner as it's meant to have a greater variety of dishes. But I couldn't find any differences between that day's food and Saturday's one. Each person costs about $100 (inclu. all taxes ) and it was all-paid by our good-soul boss who always give treats for every Christmas. There were about 20 of us which means about $2k. I felt bad because I did not meet up to my own expectations of a glutton...seemed to have lost my power of eating. We had too many health-conscious ladies who took a bit of here and there from the feast of delicacy.

Traditionally, we exchanged gifts at the end of the day, and I got a nice starfish choker. All of us chipped in for boss' gift as well- a $300 over champagne.

It was a very memorable celebration with enjoyable games and attractive prizes. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

In Good Company

Figure 1 : Tanah Lot
And here I'm back from the amazing island of Bali. Though my quest for Mola Mola, also known as the sunfish has failed....the trip was nonetheless unforgettable. I was pretty glad how our group cliqued so well even though some of us started out as strangers...

Figure 2 : Lake and Volcano Mt. Batur

6 of us; Yu,Cal, TE and his 2 other friends, Bri and Ju together with myself departed on a Friday evening. While Ai n J would only be joining us for the dive trip 2 days later, we took a day trip out on Saturday. It was really awesome to see how the heritage was preserved throughout the whole island, the Balinese architecture and culture wasn't much affected by any modernisation occuring outside. The moment we reached the airport, we were greeted by friendly smiles. Balinese people are definitely much hospitable than any other Asians. We spent our first 2 nights in Legian, South Bali.








Figure 3 : Bedugul Temple (top)
Figure 4 & 5 : Flowers from the fruit farm

Our tour guide brought us to the lakes, mountains, waterfalls, temples and a fruit farm owned by his brother. There was a wide range of flowers and fruits ( orange, banana, passion fruit, chilli, coffee, etc ) in his farm and he generously plucked fruits from each species for us to bring back.

Figure 6: Tegallalang Rice Terrace
He brought us to the best Padi fields in Bali as well. There are padi fieds everywhere in Bali, but the ones we were shown seemed to be the greenest and healthiest. We were too busy taking pictures on each stop that we almost forgot about catching the sunset at 6pm at this temple called Tanah Lot (Figure 1). It is said to have the best sunset view in Bali. The places were far away from each other and even though our driver had tried to speed up, we missed the sun by a few minutes. The guide even apologised for that but we were happy to be able to travel with him.

On our 3rd day, we met Ai and J at the dive site and began to gear up. It was a shore dive and none of us has experience that before. There was no sandy shore, but stony beach. It was a long walk to the site and all of us were already a little exhausted with walking on the rough shore with our heavy weight belts.



So putting on fins in the water wasn't as easy as it seemed. I arranged the buddy system to ensure that the novice goes with the advanced. The Tulemben wreck was pretty "wrecked" and I couldn't recognise the parts of the ship other than the bow. The reef life there wasn't fantastic and visibility was not too good. But the wreck do looked nice underwater.

The 2nd dive was the Tulemben drop-off. It was a much better site than the first and we saw some school of jacks. Not the usual ones, but with yellow stripes.

The whole dive package includes 2 dives/day, so we headed towards our resort after the 2nd dive. The resort was cosy and well-quipped. It was near the beach and pretty quiet. We took some pictures around the beach and enjoyed the seabreeze. Meanwhile, Bri plucked a leaf from the coconut tree and folded it into a grasshopper. All of us were amazed and he began his origami lesson by the beach. Each of us had a leaf in our hands and we all managed to transformed it into a grasshopper under Bri's guidance...To me, it was a memorable scene...

We were all looking forward to our 3rd and 4th dive. It was meant to be a "Special Mola Mola Trip". But we were told beforehand that if the currents were too strong, we might change the site. Heaven was on our side. We proceeded to seek thrill in the chill: Crystal bay. Crystal Bay is known to have Mola Mola sightings as these elusive creatures thrive in cold waters ( 20-22 degrees celcius ). I've arranged for extra wetsuits for the ladies while I'd want to feel how cold it could be.



The water was indeed cold, but bearable, about 23 degrees. I guess I was too focused in looking out for the sunfish that I overlooked the small marine life among the beautiful corals. I surfaced in disappointment. Sensing my despair, the divemaster suggest the same site again after lunch. As the water was choppy, a few of them got seasick. Though the lunch box provided looked really delicious ( Nasi goreng with egg, peanuts and veg ),the rough water prevented me from whetting my appetite. 2 of the gals were turned off by the icy waters and their seasickness thus decided to abort the 2nd dive. I donned on a 2nd wetsuit to keep myself warmer.

And again, there were no molas... Most of us were demoralised and wondered why we went all the way there, spending so much money, bearing the cold just to see the stupid "sun". I was a bit dejected as the ladies do not really enjoy the dives as well. We did see the reef cuttle fish (left), an octopus, spotted-rays and shrimps...but that wasn't spectacular enough...

However, our day got brighter as all 8 of us squeezed into a 6-seater van for a tour around Candidasa, East Bali. The driver brought us to the local village, the Water Palace and Floating Palace, a temple and a supermarket. We settled our dinner in a Balinese restaurant and headed back.

We checked out of our resort early in the morning before going for our next dive in Nusa Penida. This time, we had a larger boat which is more stable in rough waters. Everyone hailed when we were told that the water temperature was higher : 26 degrees celcius. But that means there's no chance of catching the molas.


As we went down to about 26m, the cold currents swept by... Everyone was shivering on the boat. As we were splitted into 2 groups; the photographers and the novice.. the novice group were lucky enough to see some sharks and lobsters.They eventually grew more confident in the water and was looking forward to jump back in. Although my team missed the sharks, we were happy to see them getting back their enthusiasm after the previous days' dive.

I started swearing to myself on my last dive...The water was freezing 20 degrees. We weren't prepared for the cold and it was actually the first time I urged to surface. Time seemed to crawl below and when we finally surfaced, my whole body was numbed. The gals in the other team were very happy to be able to spot sharks again.

We headed back to Legian and realised that we had time to catch the sunset this time at Ulu Watu (left) , a temple sitting on the edge of a cliff. It was beautiful..but it'd have been a better view in Tanah lot, where the sun sets beside the temple.
The monkeys there were notorious, snatching people's glasses and Cal's rubberband.. As we've all been warned of this scenario in advance, we held on to our valuables tightly.

To wrap up the whole trip..we had our grand finale at a Chinese Seafood restaurant. We had been trying Balinese cuisine for the past few days and felt that it wasn't our cup of tea. The chicken meat were pretty tough and most of the stuff are grilled, which makes it very dry. So on the last night. we had a great feasting of prawns, fish, vegetables and the best of all - Chilli crab. That was the best chilli crab we've ever tasted. It was tasty and spicy with lots of chilli padi in the sauce, something that you rarely find in Sg. We've never felt so satisfied... A chilling out session followed at a nearby cafe before we hit the sack.


On our last day, we enjoyed shopping and haggling in the morning, afterwhich took a quick look at the Legian beach, 10 min away from our hotel, before departing. The strong waves attracted many surfers and the sea breeze gave me a calling....

I'll be back with the rest to catch the sunset at Tanah Lot, the chilli crab in the Chinese restaurant and the Mola Mola that I've missed. Dive till I find a Mola. Will be back the next season....

Up-close with Nature

LOVE and I went ahead with our Kusu trip but since none of the ladies joined us, I did not register with the reefwalk guide. I smartly assume that we can find our own way there. Upon reaching Sentosa ferry terminal, we realised that the departure time from Kusu Island is pretty early, which only allow us to stay there for about an hour. But we still went ahead with it.

Apparently, it was not as desolated as we thought. There were already a few groups of people playing games, fishing and "picnicing" . They must have taken the earlier ferry ride. The temple is still there, and the island is quiet and peaceful. We took a quick checkout around Kusu, only to hear the rustling of the leaves which were falling from the trees. It was a wonderful feeling to get a leaf-shower. I took some pictures but they didn't turn out great.

We finally came to a pond where we found hundred over tortoises of a few different species. It was a good chance to get a close shot of them. Someone saw a monitor lizard..I suppose (correct me if I'm wrong) and I tooks some snaps as well. We found a place to settle down and did a bit of picnic. It started to drizzle and we depart not long after.




Decided to walk around Sentosa and took more pictures in the Orchird Garden. Caught the sight of another monitor lizard there...There are many different species of orchirds. LOVE really appreciates flowers... Seldom see a guy who likes flowers. He took loads of pictures of almost every species of Orchirds...Maybe I should be the one sending him flowers..*grins* ...

Life's Simple Pleasure

It's been more than a month ever since I start work. It has been nice and pretty relaxing working here. Things are at a slow pace still but I'm enjoying it while it last. Boss is nice and colleagues are quite helpful as well. Though my ex-colleagues still do see me quite often, I guess they are more or less used to my absence already.
Other than getting a little busy with Love's birthday..buying gifts and planning surprises ( though most of them didn't work very well..)..I'd acquired 2 little terrapins 2 weeks ago as my informal pet ( they are housed in Love's house ). I actually preferred tortoises but they are no longer out for sale since most of the species are considered endangered.. But before I could take pictures of them and post it here...they kicked the bucket.
We don't really know the cause of it but I guess it was because Love has not been changing the water till the 5th day..( Err..no lah..I'm not blaming him..) That's how he found out. But I thought terrapins shouldn't be that vulnerable. We fed them but they don't seemed to be eating much. One of them was more active than the other yet there's still very little activity observed. I guess they had been depressed ever since I bought them..so sad.. Love wanted to buy another 2 to replace them but I refused..I don't wish to kill another 2 lives.
Did some catching up with a few close ex-colleagues and some poly friends.. One of them is getting married in Oct and I'm invited to be her "sister". It's really amazing how ladies can go all the way out to slim down for the sake of looking good on her big day... Ling really shed quite a few pounds by jogging almost everyday. I heard a few colleagues telling me that they started their healthy salad-like-carbo-free diet a year before marraige... That's really incredible...I could never imagine preventing myself from lavishing good food before my eyes. Neither would I have the determination to jog everyday.. We shall wait and see.
Lately, Love sent flowers to my office..2 days in a row..It was roses on the first, followed by sunflower.. Some guys may think its old-fashion or a waste of money..even I feel that way at times..but whenever a lady sees a bouquet of flowers for her....it never fails to brighten her up....Never..no matter from who... In fact most of my colleagues got excited upon seeing them. Flowers are life's simple pleasure....
My work desk, iMac, flowers and the prison in the background outside

bored

Ok, I've started my new job...learning some stuff which I already had some experience back in my old job..now just waiting to get the real thing to get started..Meanwhile, I'm just doing nothing much other than reading up and surfing net...I'm bored...perhaps that's because I'm not used to being free...As I'll have to use up every minute I'm given in my previous job, and it wasn't even enough..Now I'm practically waiting for the clock to tick..and knock off...It's not that I'm complaining that I'm free..just that I wish that I'm a bit more occupied to past time.. But I guess this job allows me to be more focus and enables me to do more things. Well, weekend is coming and I'll be looking forward to tomoro's Dinner and Dance.

Quit Idling

My life as an idler has come to an end...these precious 2 weeks..everything's over. I spent the first few days of my vacation-to-nowhere resting and sleeping..enjoying the time spent at home..doing nothing except for being a couch potato and meeting my love for dinner. Followed by nights..or rather mornings of World Cup and spending the following days in bed to make up for what I've lost watching the matches...Then came birthday celebrations.. Love brought me to an international buffet dinner at the Shangri-La. The Line, as it was called, has an impressive theme and a great variety of food, ranging from Chinese to Western, Indian to Japanese... Dim Sun and Thai, and had wide range of delectable desserts and fresh seafood. Apart from great food and good atmosphere..the service was excellent. There was enough manpower to meet every customers' needs. However, I personally find it a little pricey for a buffet. I had another big feast again the following day;high-tea at Hilton. I'm entitled to have it for free this time.
WJ gave me a lunch treat at Cartel after going for the blood donation. I was a bit low on my blood pressure but was given the go ahead. Felt a bit giddy even after lunch but I knew what to do ever since my first passing-out experience.
ASHLEY gave me a dinner treat by preparing a sumptous meal of pasta, burgers and rosti at Ally's place. Though not many managed to turn up, Ally, Dia and I had a great time. They did not consider it as a birthday treat eventually as the attendance wasn't good. So I earned a 2nd lunch treat, at Ally's house again..with the same number of people..and a similar mouth-watering gourmet..pasta salad, herb bread and lemon brocolli.. What could have taste better than something that's prepared especially for you? Love and I was planning to go kite-flying in the evening but the weather was wet. We ended up catching 2 movies.."Thank you for Smoking" and " Ask the Dust"..
Other than being and idler and a glutton... I did some packing of my room.. to be specific..only 1 drawer and a tray of letters..but it generated about 4 bags of trash...hmm...I'll probably need a few weeks to trash out my entire room...
I paid a visit to my granny and put up for a night...i usually do this once every 2 to 3 months to make sure that granny's fit and healthy...My cousins stayed over during the June hols and left this (left figure) on the walls during the WC fever. He was given permission to carry out the graffiti since the ink can be removed...
And today is my first day of work..doing nothing yet other than getting acclimatised to the new environment, getting used to this Mac pc and enjoying the view of the lush greenery in the drizzle and the prison right before my eyes...I was being deprived from the view outside ever since my first day of work in my first job. And having a window at my workplace gives me real pleasure. I'm looking forward to get busy tomorrow...

Trip to Paradise

Yes, this is paradise.. heaven..a place to relax..a place that breaks communication from all parts of the world..a place with no tv in the rooms and no significant handphone signal...a place where you would no longer remember where you come from... This is Sipadan.

I've been here a year ago and I told myself that I'd definitely make a comeback with a camera and a stay on one of these luxurious water village resorts. I was staying on what was used to be an oil-rig (left) because I was kinda on a tight budget then. The water village is considered a high-class kelong with a spacious rooms, a big balcony and excellent services. It's actually located somewhere opposite this oil-rig. When I was staying at the oil-rig, I kept eyeing on this resort almost everyday. But of course, the oil-rig itself is an excellent dive site. It harbours excellent marine life and it was included in the itinery even on this trip. But sad to say, the marine life has significantly depleted over this one year. And I could no longer find the giant moray, Elvis, that has been staying there for almost 7 years.

This picture on the right shows how a room looks like from atop. It's taken from a viewing tower at dawn while I was waiting for the sunrise. It was a cloudy day and therefore I did not manage to catch a glimpse on the sun rising from the horizon. The picture below it is taken from my room, showing the view from my balcony. It was a superb view and every room would have a similar view as the whole resort is built on stilts.


Sipadan is one of asia's best and renown dive paradise.
The island itself is closed to preserve the marine park and it's shores are only open as rest areas to divers. To enjoy diving there, you need to be experienced and it would be better to have an advance diving license as there are many wall dives and drop-off; from a 6 m coral bed which falls off to a drastic 600m bottomless site.

One would never miss turtles, white-tips and schools of jacks or barracudas in a trip there. However, the numbers have general declined and I regret not being able to spot a barracuda tornedo..( almost managed to wait for them to form..but some stupid diver broke the chain while he was taking picture so close to them....moron) Needless to say, I simply went crazy underwater with my new camera and snapped on any marine life spotted by my lens. A picture tells a thousand words.. I shall just let my photos show you how enjoyable one can be beneath the land...








Alrightly..enough feasting for your eyes...this photo on the left shows a pigmy seahorse that is only about 1 cm big, hooking itself onto a sea fan. This is the best shot I can get though it's really not really that spectacular. The thing about this camera is that it doesn't have very good macro function. I'd probably get a macro lens to compensate for this.

Frustrating events....The most ever frustrating event that can ever happen to a diver is to miss a whale shark...twice in 2 days!
It was so close yet so far.We went to South Point on our first and third day, yet it was spotted on the 2nd and 4th day! Do you have any idea.. how rare it is to sight a whale shark? It's the largest fish on Earth! To sight a whale shark is akin to striking first prize in lottery! Even some of the dive masters there has never spotted one before.. Benthony, in my group, who has logged 500 dives has never ever seen one either... When we broke the news to him about the 2nd sighting, he was really demoralised...he lost some appetite but eventually submitted himself to fate...
We took this chance to label him as a jinx...and claimed that we should never dive with him again... Ungrateful souls are we..... Ironically, he was the one who planned for the whole trip and brought us here...hehe..

Let me end here with some nice land shots....