Ouch… that hurts!!!

Terrible pain… my old spinal injury has been giving me pain lately, especially when I get coughs or flu. This time round, it got worst…

After 2 days of bad cough, I felt pain on my lower back… decided to ignore it as it happens every time I fall sick. So I went back to work. When I reach office, the pain grew worst and I find myself limping. Then my colleagues told me that my body was leaning to one side… Bad!!!

Went to both Chinese & Western Doc for medication and finally to Polyclinic for referral to NUH. Dislike the thought of having to go through the process of waiting for consultation and medical scans… and hopefully no surgery is required!

Thoughts of my past hospital stay resurface during my visit to NUH, Granddad has been hospitalized. Seeing him lying in the bed looking so frail and helpless brought me all my memories… 9 years back…

I’ve told Ling before that after my operation, I long for someone to visit me… not only because I feel lonely, more so because I feel so helpless… can’t do even the simple things I usually take for granted. I recall that I couldn’t really move my hands to bring the food up to my mouth. Every action results in tremendous reaction of pain… and more pain… Even peeing requires nurses help to bring the urinal (I can’t move hor…) and must plan in advance (after the 1st night, I ask for the urinal first… cos they might not response in time… heheheh)

I couldn’t sleep due to both pain and hot weather… there was no available air-con ward and I couldn’t turn much in bed… cause me to sweat and my back starts to itch… lucky my friend told me to ask the nurse to give me morphine if the normal painkillers doesn’t help. Morphine really helps to numb the pain and at least I get a few hours of sleep.

Looking at Granddad, I can feel his pain… fortunate that he has been put on morphine and oxygen, which helps in breathing and pain reduction. Going under the knife is never fun (I use to think that staying in hospital was fun and cool too). I personally feel that our body is like a vacuum pack…. Once open, no matter how tiny the gap is… it’s never the same again even you seal it up…

Even though Granddad is still weak and in a daze, he still ask how’s my back… and reminded me to be careful… when we leave, he still remind us to drive carefully…

I hope that we’ll learn to respect and love our body; you never really appreciate how wonderful it functions as a whole until we lose the ability to do so… even though it might be temporary… I never knew that standing up or walking requires so much co-ordination till my operation, where I have to re-learn this basic movement.

So much for my babbling, really hope that my medical checkup will go smoothly and all my worries are uncalled for. I also hope my granddad to have a smooth and fast recovery from the ops.

Look at me Sleep - Snowy

Before we got a dog, I always thought that they sleep by laying on their side. Little did I know that they too have various sleeping posture... this is Snowy's Fav!

smiling... sweet dreams

Top view

side view

Car Maintenance

We went for our first car servicing on Sat (15 Mar 08) at Kah Motor (Leng Kee). Reached at 9am and was surprised that others were much more early than us. Registered for servicing and was served by a sales rep for servicing. The first thing he did was to inspect the external body for any damage and proceed to cover the driver's seat with a cover (prevent any damage to the seat when they drive it for servicing).



The whole servicing took around 6 hours to complete, from 9 plus to 2 plus in the afternoon. How did we utilise the 6 hours... We went for breakfast (minced pork noodles and fishball soup) at Brickland Food Centre (behind Ikea) and later I suggested that we go to Ikea for a 2nd breakfast (french toast with sauage plus Earl Grey tea). Walk around IKea and bought a few items. As we were paying for our purchase at the cashier, I saw one of my Poly friends (one year my junior in my orientation group). She's now an Assistant Manager at Ikea and she's in-charged of the customer service at the cashier.



As we had a few more hours to spend, we went to Anchor Point for shopping. Times Bookstore was having a storewide sale and we bought 2 books, a small puppy softtoy (loks like coco) and sign up for a 2-year membership. With the membership, we were entitled for an extra 5% discount on top on the current 20% discount.



With 2 books in-hand, a photography book for me and a book on handling dog for Ling, we ordered tea and eggs (for ling)... enjoyed the air-con and music while we read... in between, went to the shops to browse around... Ling said there was a shop selling Hello Kitty car accessories... and after our drinks she brought me there for a look, bought a seat belt cushion for Ling so that the seat belt rests comfortably on her.



What do we do now... went to Quenesway Shopping Centre for a walk... usually we only shop in the 1st floor where all the shoe shops are, so we decided to window shop at the 2nd and 3rd floor. Was getting bored when i receievd a call from the sales rep that our Jazz is ready.



We hurried down to Kah Motor in the blistering afteroon sun to enter the cooling lobby of Kah Motor. Total damage was $400 plus... why so ex... 100 plus for servicing, 40 for hydrogen gas for the tires, and 300 for Kah Motor body protection. Was happy that the car was washed before returning to us. Later we realised (when completing the feedback form) that car cleaniness after servicing is a must at Kah Motor.



16 Mar 2008, we also did our part in keeping the interior clean... we had dog fur to clear after Snowy's joy ride. Didn't wash the car as Kah Motor took care of that yesterday. We vacuum the interior and wipe the car seats. Almost forgot, Kah Motor charged $1plus to top up the wiper reservoir... Took 2 photos with my Nokia N82 to share.

looking good even with all doors open...

another shoot...

New "Jazz" of Our Life

How it started... while looking thru the ST "Classified" section on cars, we decided that it's a good time to pursue one of our dream asset (should be a liability lar...), a car. We've thought of this for few times, but usually ended up with just browsing thru the web without taking further action.


For some reason, we went beyond the web search... A few cars in mind for our purchase, Honda City, Mitsubishi Lancer and Mazda 2. As we explored the various car showrooms, 2 more were added... Honda Jazz and Nissan Latio. Fuel efficiency and customer service became the top 2 deciding factors.



My 2nd Bro was driving a Jazz and I was also satisfied with his sales agent at Kah Motor, so naturally we went back to the same agent. He was very professional and friendly throughout the sales. In addition, he was very prompt in replying my numerous sms queries on the car package. As for fuel efficiency, the Jazz with a 1.4l DSI engine is considered an efficient car. Feedback from my Bro was also good.


After much deliberation and financial calculation, we decided to purchase our first car... Honda Jazz in a fresh coat of shining "Vivid Blue Pearl". We waited for more than a month for it to arrive and I didn't take many photos of it when we went to collect it ...

Parked at Changi Beach Car Park during our first outing

We soon found out that there were plenty of Jazz in the same carpark, colourful lot too; blue, red, black, missing white and yellow though... Got a new Honda Fit too, with the new curves. This morning was a surprise find... 3 blue Jazz in a row, took a picture to proof it. My secondary school friend who's staying in the same block and floor was the owner of the middle Jazz.

3 of a kind... cool

Hussien's Wedding Day 08 Dec 2007

On 8 Dec 2007, a few of us (Lester, Wei Liat, Sam, Geok Ang, Ling Ling & me) attended our SIM friend's (Hussien) wedding at Ghim Mo CC. It was my first time attending a Muslim wedding and was grateful for the experience. Just manage to capture 2 photos for sharing.

The Happy Wedding Couple

Group photo for Memories

Graduation Day at SIM (1st Jul 2005)

Dedicated to all my friends at SIM who endured the 5 years of sleepless days and nights for our part-time degree at SIM. It was definitely not an easy journey to obtaining our BSc degree in Technology with Electronics (such a long title hor...). I was fortunate to meet you folks along the course of study and made this tough journey more enjoyable.

Our Graduation

Me looking proud... happy mah

Ling happy for me too

Lester with his eldest daughter (Thanks bro!)

Thanks folks for your friendship!
(Charlie, Lester, Ron, Sam, Ben (me) & Aloysius)

Heads up to our Future!

Memories of time spend studing on the benches

ORD lor... Ops should be Graduate liao lor!!!

I would like to extend a personal thanks to Lester for his help throughout the 5 years we studied together. (a little recap... I met Lester on my first day of tutorial lesson at the Computer Lab. Was there with 3 of my Poly mates, and he was seated beside me. One of my Poly mate left after the fist year and the other is still completing his course ) He motivated me to do my assignments so that we could discuss out solutions, more often than not he was always the one who came out with the initial answers. Lester, thanks again for all your help!

I am also very grateful to my family and wife for their support throughout my studies.

To my parents, thank you for not stressing me during my studies and believing in my abilities to complete my studies.

To my dear wife, thank you for helping me cope with my studies with your encouragement and support. Thank you for vetting my FYP report and being there for my FYP presentation!

Asaph & Angela Wedding (11112007)

First post for the Blog, I was the "brother", buddy photographer cum driver for my Temasek Polytechnic buddy's wedding, Charles & Angela Wedding. We had fun on that day and memories were captured too (by the official photographer & me). Below are some photos to share. Finally, best wishes for the newly weds. Cheers!

Brothers & Sisters & Botanic Garden

Hmmm, wat's Edmund so excited abt??!!

Note the guy on the right of Asaph

(he's a guest at the hotel who stopped to take photos with his wife, so he's invited to join in the photo)


Make way, Bride's coming through...



Sisters guarding the Bride

Kumfei ecstatic over his role as a "Flower Boy"

The Guys who Missed the "Missing Shoe"

Wenshi (Big Sis) with the Groom

Angela: Looks so nice & refreshing
Charles: Yup, I can't wait to drink it

Charles dedicating a song to Angela

Cheers to Brotherhood

Happy Couple!!!